SHORE PERSPECTIVES: Allen Hamilton of WESR Radio, Mastermind of Matthews Market Messages since 1991

By Kelley Gaskill

In the past few decades of WESR history, only one commercial advertisement has received a phone-in request to be played. This same local commercial was intentionally included in recordings of local programming by a lady to send to her son overseas serving in the military. This commercial featured a new adventure every week and has one of the most-repeated lines in local conversations. And, after 32 years of writing and recording radio commercials on WESR and saying “99 cents-a-pound” at least 3,000 times, Allen Hamilton noted that the end of an era arrived in September with the final Matthews Market zany adventure ad.

This week, Kelley visited with Allen, the creator and voice of Matthews Market radio advertisements, as he reflected on how one of the most recognizable commercials on the Eastern Shore of Virginia came to be.