(radio frequency screeching) - Ladies and gentlemen, it truly is polka time.

50 years, would you believe that?

1974, I was kind of asked to work the weekend shift here at the radio station.

I used to sign it on.

In those days we would sign off and sign on in the morning at 7:00 AM.

And my new polka family listened to polkas, you know, all my life.

And at that time I was 18 years old and I thought, "Nah, I think I can handle the polkas."

Back in the early day when the Magic Polka Machine, at that time, it actually was called It's Polka Time back in the day.

We started out playing, you know, 45s and 33s and that was a lot more cumbersome to, you know, as we called it in the radio cue up the records 'cause you gotta find the album, put it onto the turntable, back cue it, and then hit the start button to get it to play.

Now the age of computers, you know, everything is in a little box and you could type in the name of the song and the song comes up and you drag it into the player and you hit a button into play.

So it makes things a lot easier.

When I started in the radio, we only had the phone to communicate to the DJ at the studio what their request and all.

But over the years, they've learned if you want to get a shout out on the radio with Polka Joe, you have to do it through the email.

And I get 65, 75 emails in three hours.

They are all over.

Like I said, I get emails from California, from Florida, from New York, from Maine, Connecticut, and New Hampshire, you know, down in Delaware.

(chuckles) But it's amazing where these people are listening to the Magic Poker Machine.

The Scoot Crew down in Tennessee, we give them a shout out there today on the Magic Polka Machine.

Polkas do remain in our area.

I guess it's because it's the core regions of, as we say, northeastern Pennsylvania here.

And it came many, many years ago.

And of course back in the day when they had the weddings and polish weddings, they used to start up on a Friday and go through a Sunday.

Kind of that goes on with your fire companies and the bazaars here in the area, they always have polka music 'cause it's a happy music.

It makes people wanna get up and dance.

(upbeat music) Well, hi everyone, and we welcome you once again to Pennsylvania Polka.

Pennsylvania Polka's something I guess I took about eight, nine years ago.

I always said to the guys at WBIA, "I'm not a TV personality, I'm a radio guy.

I'm behind the microphone."

Nobody knows what Polka Joe looks like.

Well, Pennsylvania Polka has brought that out.

And what it means, it makes a lot of people happy, especially the shut-ins on a Saturday evening.

You know, there's so many people that are shut in, whether it be in a nursing home, in a hospital or at home, and it brings back memories for them.

And as I always said, it's a happy music so they can, they maybe can't dance, but they could sort, as I say, toe tap along.

I enjoy talking to the many people that, and most of the people on Pennsylvania Polka or the older population, but I love when the young ones come.

And I always make it a point when we do those shows that if there are young people there, I mean, they could be, you know, 12, 14, 15 years old.

I always make it a point to get them on camera because, I mean, that's the future generation.

They're the ones that carry the polka music on.

So I'm always excited to see the young people getting involved on Pennsylvania Polka.

And the same thing with the radio program.

I expected maybe 200 people.

There may be 250.

But when we got over 600 people there, I was amazed the amount of people that came out to well wishes for me for 50 years.

And a lot of them, there was people I knew because I have their emails each and every week.

But then there was a lot of people that I did not know that said, "Oh, we've been listening for 40 years.

We've been listening for 50 years."

You know, and these were people from the area and some from out of the area because they came from New York, they came up from Florida, they came from Delaware.

So I was amazed at the amount of people that were there.

Over 600 for the lakeside in 50 years of Polka Joe.

Yeah, there's many places I'll go.

One of them places, you know, people will say, "Hey, that's that polka guy," you know?

Or sometimes you just get the feeling that maybe from the TV people will say, "You look familiar."

And then when they say I look familiar, I say, "Well, what do you do on a Saturday night," you know?

And if they hear my voice and they say, "You sound familiar," I'll say, "Well, what are you doing on a Sunday morning?

You know?

But a lot of times people do recognize the face or the voice.

But for 50 years people have been enjoying this.

And I'm, like I said, I don't do anything special.

You know, I sit here, I push the buttons, I play their, give their shout outs to them and they're happy.

So it's really hard to believe it, 50 years have gone by.

♪ Drop another quarter in the Jukebox, Joe ♪ ♪ And play that Magic Polka Machine ♪ ♪ He's the man of the hour.

♪ ♪ He's got polka power ♪ ♪ He plays the new polka ♪ ♪ The oldies and everything in between ♪ ♪ Our favorite PoLka DJ, he plays our request ♪ - We will do the pokers again next Sunday.

Remember, God loves you and all polka people.

Bye-Bye.

♪ And all around the globe ♪ ♪ He's our one and only Polka Joe ♪