Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2005 | 8:08 a.m.
If the public's interest in Frank Sinatra and his style of music is waning, don't tell Sid Mark.
For the past 50 years Mark, from his home base in Philadelphia, has hosted "Sounds of Sinatra," a two-hour, nationally syndicated program that could be heard locally on KJUL 104.3-FM -- until Beasley Broadcast Group changed the format from adult standards to country on Oct. 3.
"The people I know, they can't understand it," Mark said in a recent telephone interview. "Steve (Lawrence) and Eydie (Gorme) live there. I just interviewed them, and they are upset. This (format changes) seems to be happening all over the country. KLAC in Los Angeles just switched to all sports."
KLAC operated as the Fabulous 570, an adult standards format that played Sinatra, Jack Jones, Bing Crosby, Perry Como, the McGuire Sisters and many others in the adult standards genre.
The format changed Feb. 4.
But if ticket sales to Mark's 50th anniversary celebration of his Sinatra show is any indication, there are still lots of fans.
The festivities take place on Nov. 12 in Harrah's Atlantic City's 1,205-seat showroom, featuring Frank Sinatra Jr. and a 40-piece orchestra.
"The tickets were sold out in one hour," Mark said. "They sold quicker than Bruce Springsteen -- it is now the hottest ticket here in Philadelphia."
Mark began his show, one of the longest-running in the nation with the original host, on a whim in 1955 when he was a late-night announcer at a Philadelphia radio station.
"I was doing a program at 11 p.m. and the guy who followed me didn't come in," Mark recalled. "I wasn't prepared to stay on so I said to the audience, 'What would you like to hear?' "
Someone suggested playing an hour of Sinatra. The idea hit a home run.
"The phones lit up, and the show was born," Mark said.
In 1979 he took "The Sounds of Sinatra" to the national level with affiliates in New York and Los Angeles. Soon the show was syndicated weekly in more than 100 stations nationwide, a number that has remained relatively constant for about 26 years.
Aside from the popular "The Sounds of Sinatra," Mark hosts three other shows on WPHT --"Friday with Frank," "Saturday with Sinatra" and "Sunday with Sinatra."
He may be the nation's leading authority on the music of Sinatra. He has in excess of 1,800 individual song titles on vinyl records and over 200 compact discs.
Now that KJUL has ridden off into the sunset to make way for the country mania that is apparently sweeping the nation, the closest station to Vegas that still plays "Sounds of Sinatra" is (in a homonymic coincidence) K-Jewel 99.3-FM (KJWL) in Fresno, Calif.
Las Vegans can hear the show online at kjwl.com Sundays from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. and 9 p.m. to 11 p.m.
The concert, in addition to Frank Sinatra Jr., will include Bill Miller, Sinatra's longtime piano player. Sinatra Jr. has performed in Vegas several times in the past few years.
But, Mark notes, "Vegas isn't Vegas anymore.
"We used to go twice a year, but I haven't been back since Sinatra passed away. There's nothing for me to see there anymore. I don't want to fly halfway across the country to to see Celine, and Elton John comes here all the time."
He laments the changes in Vegas.
"When Sinatra was in town, he didn't just fill Caesars Palace, he filled the city," Mark said. "There was an excitement in the air, an electricity, when he was there. The only thing the marquee had to say was, 'He's here' and then when he would leave the marquee would say, 'He's gone.' "
Mark's son, Brian, helps produce the show.
"I enjoy Frank as well," Brian Mark, 39, said. "All ages are listening to the programs -- they cross over the generations. Children listen with their parents."
Although the show sometimes loses out to format changes, he says generally another station in the market will pick up the program.
The father and son have looked at options in Las Vegas, but haven't found a station to carry "The Sounds of Sinatra."
Jerry Fink can be reached at 259-4058 or at [email protected].
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