For decades, Hal Stein was associated with WHWH-AM and WPST-FM, stations serving not only the Princeton, N.J. area but also the Trenton, N.J. market and much of greater Philadelphia. He was the marketing whiz behind the stations and, as it turns out, a cousin to famed Laugh In novelty act Tiny Tim.
Now, media professionals across New Jersey, Delaware and eastern Pennsylvania are pausing to recall Stein’s legacy in the region, as he has died at the age of 87.
Complications from the novel coronavirus were to blame.
“He was a very intelligent man, very low-key,” his wife, Sherry Stein, told the Philadelphia Inquirer. “He was very good at marketing and doing the special promotions. He had the best sense of humor of anybody I’ve ever known in my life, a very dry sense of humor, which I loved. Without even knowing it, he could make people laugh.”
Stein died May 16 at Delaware Valley Veterans Home in Philadelphia.
In a Facebook tribute, Tom Cunningham of WWZY-FM 107.1 “The Boss” in Monmouth-Ocean, N.J., called Stein “essential to all who were a part of the WPST and WHWH orbits, and the many communities that those stations served.”
While Stein is largely remembered for his longtime role with WHWH and WPST under Nassau Broadcasting ownership, he departed as Advertising and Promotion Director for a position at famed Disco station WKTU-FM 92.3 in New York. He was Promotion Manager at the FM as Disco died, and in March 1982 returned to Nassau Broadcasting Co., first as as Director/Special Projects overseeing cable TV/satellite programming ventures. But, he “consulted” WHWH & WPST before taking the marketing role.
