Kit Kats - Lets Get Lost On A Country Road
2:41
Kit Kats - KIT STEWART INTERVIEW 1983 WAEB Pt 1 of 2
Rod Wolfe Oldies Radio DJ
16:11
Kit Kats – KIT STEWART INTERVIEW 1983 WAEB Pt 1 of 2. Kit Kats & New Hope – Interview with Kit Stewart, Drummer and namesake of the Kit Kats. As part of a special Sunday Night Hall of Fame, “Lehigh Valley Hits” broadcast July 24, 1983 on WAEB – AM 790, Allentown, PA. My interview with Stewart took place in the WAEB studios.
On July 24, 1983, a number of artists who had recorded Allentown, Pa (Lehigh Valley, Pa) “regional” hits during the 1950s and 1960s were special guests on my Hall of Fame Show. Kit Stewart of The Kits AKA: New Hope drove to Allentown from the Broomall, PA area, located ten miles west of Philadelphia..
Earlier 1983, I started mentioning on my Hall of Fame show that I was working on a special featuring Lehigh Valley Local and Regional hit records. I was pleasantly surprised when I started to receive phone calls asking me to try to have a member of The Kit Kats for the show. I considered The Kit Kats more of a “regional” group, that basically toured the night clubs of the Tri-State area of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware.
I had been a huge fan of the group since Summer 1966 and my first radio DJ job at WAEB. That was when WAEB started playing the group’s first release on the Jamie label, “That’s The Way”. My first impression was how the new record sounded like a Sonny and Cher release. The record also reminded me of Phil Spector’s “Wall Of Sound”. Prior to Jamie, the group had recorded and released a couple of singles on both Laurie and Lawn records, both of which sunk without a trace.
At least a month before July 24, I had been following a lead that Kit Kats member “Big” John Bradley was living in the Pocono mountains, or Hazelton, PA area. My efforts to contact Bradley failed, and I announced on the show that I had given up on having a member of The Kit Kats on the special. A few minutes later, another fan of the group from Reading, PA called to tell me that she had just read a story in the Reading newspaper that Kit Kat pianist Karl Housman, was working at Disney World in Orlando! The next day I was on the phone trying to contact Housman, and a few days later, he returned my call. Karl then gave me Kit Stewart’s phone number, and on Friday July 22, I contacted Stewart, and he agreed to drive to Allentown for the show.
Sunday, Kit arrived after most of the guests, and I was getting nervous he had changed his mind. However he made it just in time for me to get a brief interview with him, and play a few of my favorite Kit Kat records, all of which I had been playing on the radio since 1966.
On the interview tapes, I related to Kit that I was one of the many thousands of fans of the group that stood in line a couple of hours before show time at the Rip Tide Club in Wildwood, NJ. They appeared at the Rip Tide Spring and Summer, 7 days a week, for I believe 3 or 4 years. Along with Johnny Caswell & The Crystal Mansion, The Kit Kats remain as some of my fondest Jersey Shore music memories. Kit was much more reserved than I had expected, and when listening to the now nearly (40) year old tapes, I was reminded that I had kind of a tough time getting him to open up about both the records and the group.
This video has been created using my July 24, 1983 original reel to reel tapes. Music includes: The Kit Kats – That’s The Way (First Jamie single) Kit Kats – Let’s Get Lost On A Country Road (Huge Fall 1967 regional hit) Kit Kats – Breezy Kit Kats – Funny How Love Can Be (Version of The Ivy League single)