Craig Warvel and Frank Martin celebrating WJET's 42nd anniversary of broadcasting (courtesy Chris Tarbell's JET website)

Messages of sympathy and support are streaming in from across the country at the news that the most well-known personality in eighty years of Erie radio history, Frank Martin died Monday of lung cancer at the age of 85.

Martin was such a fixture on AM drive radio in Erie that Mayor Lou Tullio gave him the title of “Morning Mayor” and it stuck for decades on end. He is best known as handing wake up duties on WJET 1400, where legend has it that at one point in the 1960′s, over 60% of all radios turned on in the morning were tuned to Frank Martin. He made the transition to FM in the mid-1980′s and eventually went back to playing hits from his hey day on oldies Froggy 94.7.

Frank Martin retired on July 4th, 2003 leaving his mark in the memories of countless Erie radio listeners and everyone in the broadcast community for the past 50 years. Recording of his broadcasts reside in The Paley Center for Media in New York City.

I had the privilege of working with him at WJET-AM in 1983-84, I don’t think I ever shook that star-struck composure as the legend I knew from childhood took over the “air chair” from my little occasional overnight shift. He was a total professional whose audience was top priority.

I’m sure many more folks will weigh in on condolences and memories. Meanwhile we exclaim gratitude for our friend on the other side of the radio, the Morning Mayor Frank Martin.