Les Waas

Les Waas has been President of Waas, Inc., an advertising agency for 45 years and is owner of New Sounds, a creative service specializing in jingles and humorous commercials, and winner of most major creative awards. He has performed voices in hundreds of commercials for radio and television.

Les has written and produced 973 jingles for such advertisers as "Mr. Softee" (heard on thousands of ice cream trucks), Holiday Inn, U.S. Coast Guard, Kiddie City, Acme Markets, Genuardi Super Markets, Breyer's, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Department of Virginia Tourism and the longest-continuously-running jingle in advertising, the Melrose Diner. He has also written 22 published/recorded songs and two of them became the official themes of the Philadelphia Phillies baseball team.

As an artist, he has created ad layouts and cartoons, and has designed logos for such firms as Colonial Village Meat Markets., The Simco Co., Diet III, Super Value Beverage Stores, Action Duplication, plus many restaurants, auto dealers, etc. As a writer, he has produced articles for The Philadelphia Inquirer, Bulletin and Daily News, and for several national publications.

Waas has appeared on scores of national and local TV programs including Prime Time Live and David Letterman.

Les Waas has served as president of the regional chapter of the Muscular Dystrophy Association, Independence Toastmasters, the Procrastinators Club of America and the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia.

He was a World War II B-17 pilot. He lives in Huntingdon Valley, PA and has been married to Sylvia for 50 years. They have two children, Sherri Shunfenthal, a poet, and Murray Waas, the investigative journalist. and three grandchildren.

Broadcast Pioneers member Les Waas was inducted into the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia "Hall of Fame" on Friday, November 18, 2005.