There are 14,000 licensed radio stations in America. about 16% of those are non-commercial. That 16% squeezes in more variety than life itself. I am obsessed. I can admit that now.
Nine Inch Nails - The Slip Bess Rogers - Decisions Based on Information Firewater - The Golden Hour Tokyo Police Club - Elephant Shell
May I also direct you to http://strudelandshotguns.blogspot.com/ This week our protagonist (and narrator) takes a bag of Phonograph parts and attempts to make a working device that will play records without electricity. It makes fine reading material.
I first saw the name Jessica Dragonette in a listing for an AFRN radio program from April 7, 1945. It starred her and Bill Perry. I was more interested at the time in their rendition of "Rum And Coca-Cola." But then I began to read her story.
She was born in 1900 in India to American parents was orphaned and came to New jersey. She was a soprano ,singing on Broadway by 1924. She became a vaudeville singer and crossed over to radio in 1926. She became famous almost overnight.
Her big break was in the 1920s when Coca-cola hired her to appear as their Coca-Cola girl in a serial. She performed on the Palmolive Beauty Box Theater, Lucky Strike Music hall, The Philco Hour, Saturday Night Serenade, Cities Service Concert Hour, and a great number of lesser known programs.
She released 78rpm albums on Victor, Columbia, Brunswick, then her career was stron enough in the 1960s to start putting out LPs as well. She quit broadcasting in the 1970s without much fanfare but returned for a single performance at NBC's 50th birthday marathon event. The year was 1976.
She appeared on a test television performance in 1928. She performed on the first program syndicated overseas "Hello Germany." She had several firsts in her 22-year career from vaudeville to her NBC syndicated programs. In 1927 she published her autobiography Faith is Song. She died in 1980, she had been lying about her age for so long most fans thought she was 70.
The program traces its origin to July 3, 1935 when the first Hawaii Calls radio program was broadcast on mediumwave at 7370 kHz under the callsign KEQ. The program was performed live at the Moana Hotel on the beach at Waikiki. The program was created and hosted by Island radio pioneer Webley Edwards. It focused almost entirely on local artists, playing Hawaiian music. At it's peak the program was carried on 600 radio stations across North America and the Pacific rim.Edwards learned his radio chops at KOAC, the campus station of Oregon Agricultural College. On the American mainland the program was probably hear d at 11-m or later. But in Hawaii that was 5pm, a prime-time program. This was via KIO on 25.6 metres. In 1938, station station 760 KGU-AM in Honolulu started carrying it locally. In 1943 KGMB picked up the production from Webley Edwards. But that didn't' last. They handed it off to KHON who in turn passed it to KPOA in the 1950s as it's popularity faded. More here.
The program ceased in 1975 with only 10 stations still running the program. For most of it's run the government of Hawaii had been subsidizing the production costs. Without that funding the ratings book mattered all the more. More here. For a shortwave program this enjoyed great popularity. Capitol Records released a slew of "Webley Edwards present Hawaii Calls albums." They contained a mix of wave noises, schlock, and authentic Hawaiian music. Many of the featured local artists on these albums went on to release solo albums and even short careers. I own a number of these. The releases dates all seem to fall between 1956 and 1966. Only a fraction of these are still in print.
Webley Edwards went on to be the first broadcaster to announce news of the attack on Pearl harbor and was also present for the surrender of japan aboard the USS Missouri. He went on to the state legislature of Hawaii. The Internet Radio Station Aloha Joe vintage Hawaii calls Programs every Sunday.
The AOR radio format was in it's strange ascendancy in the late 1960s. And there were dozens of free-form rock stations popping up around the country. KCAC-AM was an odd transitional station. It was bought by William Compton and it became both regionally important in the time that FM was on the rise. Unlike other stations, there's a decent historical record on KCAC. So we turn our attention there today to understand a broader movement.
Some radio historians write about the big taste-maker stations that made the Free-Form format what it was. They often forget to mention the number of the DJs on those stations that came from KCAC: Dwight Tindle, Hadley Murrell, Ron Wortham, Mike Kollassa, Scott Nicolson.. doznes of others. These guys went on to KSAN, WEBN, KCMD, KMPX etc. I think the station was underrated because Phoenix was a significantly smaller market in that era.
let's start with William Edward Compton. He was born in 1945 in Henderson, Texas and grew up in nearby Tyler. It was in Tyler that he got his first gig as a DJ in 1964. The station was 600 KTBB-AM. He stopped at some other stations in and around Dallas and evne Nashville before heading off to Phoenix where the magic started.
In 1969 in Phoenix he scored a job on a free-format radio program on KRUX-AM. He used the name "Little Willie Sunshine." But the short program just gave him a taste of the good life. He went out and bought a little 500 watt daytimer and well free-form full-time. Hippies ran the station. This was a first. So daring was the format that it's often referred to now as "an experiment"
1010 KCAC was instantly popular with the youth of that area. But within 2 years they fell on dire straits, like many idealistic ideas of the 60s they clashed with the capital requirements. another local station. Bill was working nights at KUPD for money and things wer getting bad. Rescue came in the form of Dwight Tindle. He formed Dwight Karma Broadcasting. The calls were changed to KDKB and history rolled on. Compton died in 1977 in a car wreck. Dwight only recently.
In 1949 RCA Victor introduced the 45 rpm record. They did not invent the 45 adapter. major oversight. I've covered this previously in the broader context of vinyl. But the adapter has an interesting lineage that really allowed it to carry forward form novelty to standard. More here. The Adapter didn't take long though. It's patent was filed September 1949; granted February 12th 1952. As you can see by the two above, they were in use long before the patent was granted. They were invented by Paul K. Bridenbaugh and Frank A Jansen for the Webster Chicago Corporation. I don't know another damn thing about them.
The design was simple, even elegant. It converted the 1.5" spindle hole to a 9/32nd spindle hole. It also added a small amount of weight, a tad more than 7 grams. This had the added benefit of increasing frictional contact between records in a stack. This allowed a stack of 45s so sit in an automatic record changer with the 9/32nd spindle. The patent refers to a few other patents, mostly phonograph related. But one single reference indicates a derivation. It's for a flexible bushing that is inserted into a worn spindle hole and bent outward to conform and adhere to the record allowing regular play. That is patent #1755743. Later revisions produced the more similar lightweight plastic adapters.
The FCC makes it all too convenient to file a complaint online. You select a complaint type then a method of filing then start complaining. 
Stumble It!
