Five little words prompted Wendy Caldwell to send an e-mail.

"Radio used to be fun."

Today Caldwell, a former radio news journalist and morning co-host at two local stations, believes radio and fun are opposites.

"There was a lot of radio energy ... in the 1980s and early '90s, and then the advertisers took over," said Caldwell, a Warwick High School and Millersville University graduate who now works as a tutor for an online college tutorial service and writes the "Teen of the Week" article as a correspondent for Lancaster Newspapers.

She started in radio right after high-school graduation, interning at WLAN-FM 96.9, "FM97," and picking up a Sunday air shift. In 1983 she worked at Lebanon's WAHT-AM 1510 (the station has since burned down). Then she returned to FM97 in 1985 as morning co-host.

She also worked at WLAN-AM 1390 doing news. In 1986 she was paired in the morning with Brian Williams, better known on the airwaves as Brother Weems. Besides providing news and weather to listeners, Caldwell and Weems formed a funny, and sometimes controversial, morning team, one that did skits and pranks.

"He pulled out my personality," she said during a phone interview last week.

"I think my first reaction to him was, 'Who does this guy think he is?' But he was really funny and cared about the people that lived here," said Caldwell, who lives near Denver. "He did his homework and knew the area."

They were such a good pair that they wed in 1987, but never talked about the marriage on air. "It wasn't about us," she said. The two were on air together until 1991. (They've since divorced, and both have remarried.)

She worked in the news department at WSBA-AM 910 from 1993-96. At FM97 and WSBA, she said, they did research for news stories.

Later in her career she was told just to take things from the newspapers and not worry about giving credit.

"By the time I left WLAN, personalities were beginning to make more paid appearances," she said in her e-mail. "Gone were the days when DJs only made public appearances on behalf of nonprofit organizations. .... They were starting to become puppets for the advertisers."

In 2001, she left WROZ-FM 101.3, "The Rose," where she had worked since 1999 as a morning co-host with Tom Shannon, because of too much interference.

"Not only had radio become more about the sponsor than the music, but I was actually told what news stories I could or could not broadcast based on how a certain sponsor might react," she said in her e-mail.

An official at WROZ who did not want to be identified said Bill Baldwin, senior vice president of Hall Communications, owner of WROZ, was out of town and unable to comment about how news stories are handled.

Caldwell said stations are not taking the time to deliver local news anymore. She misses a time when DJs informed listeners about what really mattered, not just Hollywood gossip.

She did enjoy her 20-plus years in radio, a career that helped form her personality.

"I look back at that little 18-year-old girl and wonder where did I get the nerve," she said. "I thought I was shy and radio would bring me out of that. Radio helped me to be assertive."

Schedule change: Wimbledon Tennis will air on WGAL-TV 8 at 9 a.m. Saturday-Sunday, July 3-4. WGAL will broadcast the first hour of "Today" from 7-8 a.m. and then "News 8 Today Weekend" from 8-9 a.m.