Friday, September 28, 2012

God's Radio


First we have the dictionary definition of radio as a noun, the one that everyone knows.  It can usually be summarized as "wireless telegraphy or telephony."  But we're also familiar with the noun meaning the device which receives radio broadcasts.  In a less common sense it can also refer to the message transmitted by radio. Grammarians will further recognize it as a noun a way to describe a message or signal. But it can also be a verb and here it has a dictionary definition just meaning to transmit a message.

But there is a whole different sense it is used in within evangelism. It is less common now than it was half a century ago but the concept has never made it to the dictionary. In this use, evangelicals are described as "transmitters" and "broadcasters" and the unconverted are "receivers." As radio's star fell in favor of Television, this usage fell out of favor.


These images below are from a children's work book  from some kind of Christian vacation Summer camp using this less common, possibly now deprecated definition.







Thursday, September 27, 2012

WJR Bans Jive


First things first. When anyone writes that a radio station "banned" a song, they're usually referring to an era when DJs had some sway over programming and an owner intervened to prohibit the play of one song. Today no such freedom exists to be abridged in the first place. This was earlier than the numerous rock n' roll bans of the 1950s. This ban started with the 1937 Maxine Sullivan & The Claude Thornhill Orchestra released a swing version of “Loch Lomond” on Vocalion records (Matrix 2147 / 3654) the B-side was "I'm Coming Virginia."




750 WJR-AM in Detroit banned Maxine Sullivan's swinging of classics back in the mid-1930s. The station owner, G.A. Richards hated jive and hot jazz. Richards was the owner of Goodwill Stations" and was also president of Pontiac Automobiles for southern Michigan. (He also owned the Detroit Lions from 1934 to 1939.)  He said "In our opinion, hot jive music which usually emphasizes suggestive lyrics, arouses degenerate instincts and emotions."  GM Leo Fitzpatrick called her song blasphemy and said "they'll be swinging Nearer My God To Thee next." Time Magazine covered the story as well
"Last week Leo Fitzpatrick, doughty Celtic manager of Detroit's WJR and radio adviser to Father Coughlin switched off Tommy Dorsey's band right in the middle of their swing. The trouble was they were swinging Loch Lomond. Said Manager Fitzpatrick: "It is a sacrilege to make a swing version of a tune sacred to a lot of Scotsmen." Cleveland's WGAR and Beverly Hill's KMPC nodded their heads, pursed their lips and proclaimed a ban on swing versions of eleven old songs, including Comin' Thro' the Rye."
This was a big deal. Life magazine gave Maxine a full page picture and teeny tiny text at the bottom below the title "Negro Girl Swings A Scottish Tune And Blows Up A Radio Storm."  She had taken the song "Loch Lommond" and made it into a vocal jazz number. It caught on with the college crowd and sold over 50,000 records. She re-recorded it in 1955 as a "modern" jazz number and it sold all over again. Her music continues to be classic. G.A. Richards died in 1951, and in 1964, Goodwill Stations was sold to Capital Cities Communications. That company was later bought by ABC and  in turn merged with Walt Disney. They still haven't played anything interesting in over 70 years.

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

The Thinking Man's Hillbillies

 They were called the Thinking Man's Hillbillie. I'm not making that up. That's their actual marketing lingo from the 1950s.  Does a thinking man needed a different  kind of hillbilly than anyone else? Henry D. Haynes and Kenneth C. Burns performed as Homer and Jethro just to keep up appearances. In reality they had more in common with Weird Al than Bill Monroe. Their career was largely built on twangy parodies and original silly tunes. My personal favorite is "She Was Bitten On The Udder By An Adder."  You don't get tunes like that any more. Chet Atkins produced many of their recordings.

They were the same age, both born in 1920 with Haynes being a mere month older. They first met at WNOX-AM during a 1936 audition. (Yes, they were both only 16.) They were paired up with the house band, the String Dusters, and earned their nicknames when Program Director Lowell Blanchard forgot their names. By 1939 they were regulars on the Renfro Valley Barn Dance which was broadcast from the Memorial Auditorium in Dayton, Ohio. It was carried locally on WLW-AM. It was a good year to make the leap. Late that year the show relocated to a venue in Kentucky and was picked up by  NBC. Homer & Jethro missed out on some good years there as they were both drafted. They returned to the US afterward and found work at WLW, but were mercilessly purged by new management at WLW in 1948.

 They went on tour for a year and then relocated to Missouri for a year performing regularly on "Corns a Crackin" with Chet Atkins on KWTO-AM. That show eventually evolved into the ABC TV show "The Ozark Jubilee" but they left before it made the leap. They jointed the cast of "The National Barn Dance" on WLS-AM  in 1950 and stuck around  playing silly songs dressed in night gowns for 2 years. They later toured with Spike Jones, which if anything made them even zanier. They had a string of parody hits in the 1950s mostly on RCA.


Haynes died of a heart attack in 1971.  Burns tried to carry on with a new partner but the magic was gone. He started a solo career embracing his longtime love of jazz mandolin. He died in 1989 of prostate cancer. Homer & Jethro were inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2001. With some irony I must point out that the man who forgot their names Lowell Blanchard was inducted in 1977, over 20 years before them.

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Transcription Mystery Disc # 140

This is an 8-inch Wilcox-gay Recordio, it has an outer-edge start and spins at 78 RPM. It is unlabeled. It is in decent shape, but has wear from being stacked below a number of other acetate discs. The weight doesn't do much on it's own but weight plus humidity and the opposing lacquer sides can stick to each other producing a tell-tale "orange-peel" texture reminiscent of cheap polystyrene 45s. I ripped the better-looking side first and got a pretty decent rip. The opposing side had a clear center area so I ripped that section as well and it turned out I was completely wrong. The EQ of the "Side A" recording is very flat and it's sound immediately reminded me of AM radio. Then at the very end you can year 1.5 syllables of a DJ breaking in before an adept home taper intervenes by lifting up the tone arm.

It's Time For Music!


The other side starts out with a needle drop, then a bluesy number with clarinet lead then that ZANG! sound that only comes from a reel-to-reel and it jumps to some hot swing jazz. This disc actually has been used at least twice and that sound was where the new recording started. The recording is great and rolls into a second song with a fade that can only be off the radio again. At 1:56 the announcer cuts in and says "The United States Army and United States Air Force... in association with the American Broadcasting Company bring you It's Time For Music, the sounds of _______ and the music of ________."  I really expected it to be Bing Crosby and Ken Carpenter but it's not. Then there's another break in and a much clearer voice says "The preceding program was transcribed."  So it's a dub of a reel-to-reel transcription used in a radio broadcast.  Then another nice jazz number.

"It's Time For Music" was an ABC program that ran around 1949, they played some older tunes, so it's possible that they aired the transcription and this was a tape of their broadcast. Phonozoic lists this as a Wilcox-Gay Recordio Type 3C, with a date of 1947 which fits the time frame well enough.

Monday, September 24, 2012

The Philosophy of PCM

In short, PCM (pulse code modulation) is a digital schema for transmitting analog data. It and it's derivations are how most electrical communications work today. According to the National Inventors Hall of Fame three different men invented PCM (pulse code modulation.) A similar patent was filed by John R. Pierce in 1945 under U.S. Patent # 2,437,707. The three of them had worked at Bell Labs, and jointly published a unifying document "The Philosophy of PCM" in 1948, a victory for geek inventors everywhere. So how did we get here?

It starts with the telegraph. TDM (time-division multiplexing) was patented in 1853 by Moses G. Farmer, [pictured] a telegraph operator who was employed as a technician to maintain a network of telegraph lines north of Massachusetts. Farmer was trying to interlace samples from multiple telegraphy sources, and convey them over a single telegraph cable. He at least proved the viability of future duplex and quadruplex systems. This was borne out by the work of W. M. Miner in 1903. He successfully multiplexed multiple telegraph signals. He managed to achieve a sample rate of 3500–4300 Hz.

But this was not PCM. It was PAM (pulse-amplitude modulation) In PAM the data is encoded in the amplitude of a series of signal pulses. PCM reuires an A-to-D conversion (analog to digital) First the analog signal amplitude is sampled at a known time interval. The amplitude of the signal at each sample is rounded off to a power of 2 (2,4,8,16 etc) a process is called quantization. This is represented by binary digits three, four, five, or six binary digits (aka bits) respectively. So the output is now just a string of binary numbers. See the chart below:

Decimal Binary number
0 0000
1 0001
2 0010
3 0011
4 0100
5 0101
6 0110

In 1926 Paul M. Rainey at Western Electric patented a facsimile machine which transmitted its signal via PCM. It was using a 5-bit encoded PCM. It was never sold commercially but the idea was taking hold. This was it's first use transmitting an image. Though telegraph and fax are both both used to transmit text, the fax sends an image with text on it. The telegraph sends dots and dashes directly correlating to alphanumeric characters. A fax can send non text data. You can fax a xerox image of your middle finger which I have done on occasion. Alec Reeves invented PCM on his own in 1937 unaware of any prior work. He was a British expat working at the International Telephone and Telegraph in France. He patented the concept in 1938 but no working model. His U.S. patent # 2,272,070 was granted in 1943. More here. He lived long enough to see it used in WWII by the allies, though it was so top secret he probably didn't know until after the war. SIGSALY went into service in 1943 and was in military-only use until 1946.

Friday, September 21, 2012

Hank The Night Watchman


Here's another nice obscure character from the bowels of night radio. Hank the Night Watchman aired on both KFVD and KGFJ in the 1940s doing overnights. Lorenzo Wilson Milam described him as a story teller and his program as skirting "...the border between lurid and gross and hilarious. But always with a wit that made it impossible for those of us listening to complain." Even in 1941 it was being billed as the "longest request radio show on Earth." An 1943 issue of Billboard named Joseph Blazak as the "current"  Hank the Night-Watchman indicating that there may have been a previous one. (I believe that to be George Skinner.) Historian Ron Sayles puts Blazak's birth date at 04-12-1911 and his death at 12-04-1993.

A 1941 issue of the Catalina Islander Newspaper lists Hank the Night-Watchman as airing 10:00 PM to 6:00 AM on KFVD-AM. That's 8 straight hours, and it took 160 records to span that shift in between the chatter. According to Billboard, starting in 1943 Hank also had a 1-hour Sunday slot on 1020 KFVD-AM. It ran 3:30 PM to 4:30 PM. But the program was sponsored by the Victor Clothing Company and he was named at the bottom of many of their newspaper ads in the California Eagle Newspaper as early as 1941. But radio logs put him on starting at Midnight on 1230 KGFJ-AM, up to 8 hours a night, 7 days a week at least as early as 1942. 

The July 1944 issue [LINK] of Radio Life interviewed the Michigan-born Blazak, who then stated the show had been on air 3 year But again that he had only been "Anthony" for a third of that time. He had only been in radio for two years, and was only on KGFJ for nine months when Victor Clothing asked him to be its new host. In 1944 he bragged that every night he received between 300 and 400 telephone calls and his fan mail averaged 750 letters a week, except when he has a contest on, when it doubles.


The book Swingin' On The Ether Waves by Henry T. Sampson mentions the program in the same breath as Al Jarvis. It's an important benchmark. Jarvis was on KFWB from 1932 to 1960. He owned the night.  The book Long Tall Dexter by Stan Britt claims that Hank was preceded by Jack the Bellboy. There wasn't exactly a baton pass.

Jack the Bellboy was running 11:00 PM to 4:00 AM on KFVD prior to 1940. He may or may not have any connection to the "Jack the Bellboy" name being used on WJBK in Detroit starting in the late 1950s. (At WJBK several DJs used the name including the legendary Tom Clay.  In terms of there being a big overnight rhythm & blues show in LA, Hank succeeded Jack, but their tenures overlapped from about 1937 to 1940 and Al Jarvis lapped them both. They were all flipping hot jazz records.

In 1941 KFVD moved from 1000 to 1020 kHz. After 1943 Hank gets scarce.  The popularity of the program led to copycats. Sweet Dick Whittington as playing the part of the Night Watchman on 960 KROW-AM overnights. In 1943 Billboard reports that Bob Anderson at RKO signed Blazak for a multi-year deal, and the press on him dries up right after that.

**2022 Update added some details from Radio Life 1944

Thursday, September 20, 2012

Allen Revival Hour

Evangelists like Pat Roberson, Jimmy Stewart, and Billy graham have all produced a lot of radio programming. But on the bench behind them have always been a slew of lesser known radio men preaching away in relative obscurity on the AM dial. we usually learn their names only because of disgrace and scandal rather than their accomplishments. He's a tale that's as sad as it is true.

Asa Alonzo Allan was a pentecostal who did healings and tent revivals. But he was also a severe alcoholic suffering from depression. He was sometimes ticketed for drunk driving on the way to his own revival meetings. He'd been drinking since he was a child and he never shook it. He ran away from home when he was 14.  He spent the next 7 years carousing and drinking but found the faith in 1932 at a Methodist church. He later attended a attended a Pentecostal camp meeting and that set his path for life. He officially became a preacher in Holly, Colorado in the late 1930s. He became increasingly popular and was doing tent tours by 1951. More here and here.

In 1952  the "Allen Revival Hour" began broadcasting, by November of 1953 it was being carried on 9 stations. It was a very strong and promising beginning.  By1955 was broadcasting on seventeen Latin American radio stations as well as eighteen American ones. I have a list from one of his own publications, The Voice of Healing, August 1955 issue, but it unfortunately contains some clearly wrong information, like Mexican callsigns attributed to metros well inside the U.S. The call signs are as follows:  XEG-AM, XELO-AM, KGER-AM, WASL-AM, WJJL-AM, WVCH-AM, WPIT-AM, WPIK-AM, KCVR-AM, WNJR-AM, KBYE-AM, KGA-AM, KMAC-AM, WKXV-AM, and WMSN-AM

The Allen Revival Hour program  was so popular that it was being aired on the British pirate radio ship "Radio City" in the mid 1960s to generate ad income. I even have come apocryphal claims that it was briefly aired as a TV show. He had books, he had LPs, he had a magazine, and a radio show. He was at the peak of his career.

In 1967, Allen was sued by the IRS for $300,000 in unpaid taxes. It was a crushing blow. His health began to deteriorate, years of drinking caught up with him. The faith healer had arthritis so bad he had to delegate his crusading to his staff. He had knee surgery in 1969. But in 1970 it came to an end. He had a "distressing" phone call with a friend and was subsequently found dead at the Jack Tar Hotel in San Francisco seated in front of his  TV.  He died of  what we now call FLD (fatty liver disease) which is commonly caused by alcohol abuse. At the time his radio program was carried on 186 stations.He was only 59.

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

NYSPTC to NYMVPTC

This is the story of the New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company, heretofore known as NYMVPTC, which is ungainly even for an acronym. Our tale starts with a smaller acronym, and Mr. Hiram Sibley in Rochester, NY.  He was elected Sheriff and through that office met Judge Samuel L. Selden. Wait, let's back up a little. I think we need some back story here.  More here.

In 1844 Morse has just run his test line from Baltimore to DC.  Ezra Cornell was involved because he'd invented a trench digger and they both thought telegraph wires could be run under ground. They were 20 years too early for plastic insulation so that went pretty poorly. The first commercial telegraph line was run from Washington, DC, to New York City in 1846 by the Magnetic Telegraph Company

 In 1849, Sibley joined with Selden and to start the  New York State Printing Telegraph Company (NYSPTC) armed with Selden's Morse patents. There were competing systems, so if Selden had a license from Alexander Bain this could be a very different tale. Regardless, telegraph companies didn't have exclusive licenses, or they were poorly executed. NYMVPTC  was competing with telegraph companies in New York, Albany, and Buffalo. Selden and Sibley handled this by buying up several of them and consolidated them into The New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company (NYMVPTC.) This was good for business so they went on to purchase all the companies west of Buffalo.  This didn't just increase their market share, it also eliminated competing telegraph standards.

But there were still rival systems in the West. There were at least a dozen separate companies using at least 2 different non-Morse systems. NYMVPTC ultimately purchased and converted them too. In 1854 Sibley bought the Morse licenses for the whole Midwest for $50,000 from Jeptha H. Wade, who became a board member. His properties includes lines to Michigan, Chicago St. Louis, and Nashville. He also bought the St. Louis and Salt lake City telegraph company from John J. Speed.  Sibley manage to do all of this without the knowledge of his competitor Ezra Cornell. Cornell owned the Erie and Michigan Telegraph Company (EMTC).  His lines stretched out to Detroit, Indiana and Illinois.  More here and here.

Eventually Ezra Cornell was brought into the fold. NYMVPTC bought EMTC from Cornell in 1855. In 1856, the company name was changed to the "Western Union Telegraph Company." Ezra Cornell went on to found Cornell University in 1865—currently the home of 93.5 WVBR.  All's well that ends well.

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Transcription Mystery Disc #139


This is a 6.5" recording acetate of the Wilcox-gay Recordio brand. Phonozoic calls this a Wilcox-Gay Recordio Type 4B. His 1947 and 1948 dates seem correlative. This disc is labeled clearly in pencil, in big block letters "NORM" on one side and "JIM" on the other. I assume Norm and Jim are the singers here, but the song titles is not listed. Norm has quite a clear recording, though the piano accompaniment is very soft in the mix.

NORM


His style is very dated but that's non-specific.The song is quote old, "Waves of the Danube" was first published in 1880. This version is a take off of the version that Al Jolson and Saul Chaplin published in 1946 under the name of "The Anniversary Song" with their own lyrics. That date corresponds to the known 4B time frame so that stands to reason. I'd prefer that the singer be Norm Peterson but the surname is unknown.

Monday, September 17, 2012

Stock Image Fail

This is a lesson on why it's sometimes worth paying a license fee for a stock image to have exclusivity. Below are Scans of promotional cook book covers for 1450 WPAM-AM, 1240 WTAX-AM, 1380 WPHM-AM, 1060 WHFB-AM, 1280 WNPT-AM, 1400 WELK-AM, 810 WEDO-AM and I have others I didn't bother to crop and post. If there are this many you know there are more out there too.

These stations are spread out all over too: Eklins, WV; Pottsville, PA; Mckeesport, PA; Springfield, IL, Port Huron, MI; Tuscaloosa, AL; Roanoke, VA; Sacramento, CA and the sad, cursed town of Benton Harbor, MI.  What happened here is that a company bulk mailed a large number of radio stations their catalog of promo items. Some large subset of them chose this customizable cook book. There are probably a couple pages in the front unique to each station, but the art and the rest is the same, with convenient a big white space to print on the Black & White station logo.


 

Friday, September 14, 2012

Hollywood Walk of Fame: S - Z

At long last this research project has come to an end. I have asked the question repeatedly why these people are famous within radio and the answer appears to be that some of them were not. Though the walk even includes some misspelled names, cartoon characters and animals, there are no erroneous inclusions. There is always a reason, it's just not always apparent, though it is sometimes a parent. No doubt these oddities will spawn many future posts.(and corrections)

Julia Sanderson - Julia Sanderson and her husband Frank Crumit were a comedy and singing duo in 1928 on CBS as the "Singing Sweethearts" even though they were already divorced. In 1930 they started co-hosting a quiz show called "The Battle of the Sexes", which ran 13 years.

Vin Scully
- starting out at WFUV as a student DJ, he graduated and got a job filling in at WTOP. He did well enough there to get a better job doing college football coverage on the CBS Radio Network. He currently does Play-by-play for the Los Angeles Dodgers on KLAC.

Ryan Seacrest
- An internship at WSTR turned into an overnight shift which inexplicably parlayed into a Hollywood career hosting vapid reality TV programs. In 2004 he took over American Top 40 from a retiring Casey Casem, and later that year starting doing "On Air With Ryan Seacrest" mornings on KIIS.

Dinah Shore
- By all reports her radio debut was actually on the Grand Ole Opry on WSM-AM with a Vanderbilt singing troupe. She left for New York and began singing on WNEW. There she sang with Frank Sinatra and for Xavier Cugat which began her recording career.

Ginny Simms
- She was in the Kay Kyser band circa the Kollege of Musical Knowledge. The Ginny Simms show ran from 1941 to 1942 on CBS went thru a couple changes becoming the Purple Heart Show, and Talent Theater around 1945. She sang on many other programs including The Pause That Refreshes, The Bob Burns show, and others.

Penny Singleton
- He fame originate in one character, Blondie of the comic strip of the same name. She played opposite Arthur Lake (as Dagwood) starting in 1939 on their radio show until it ended in 1950. In 1967 she famously led the Rockettes in a strike against Radio City Music Hall.

Red Skelton - His first appearance on the Rudy Valee show was in 1937. the appearance went so well that in 1938 1938, Skelton replaced Red Foley as the host of "Avalon Time" on NBC. He started doing MGM films and did another radio show "The Raleigh Cigarettes Program" starting in 1941. It lasted until 1953. He moved on to a 3-year syndicate deal with Ziv radio. He was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 1994

Smilin' Jack Smith
- (Not to be confused with "Whispering" Jack Smith) He first appeared on KFRC with Anson Weeks and His Hotel Mark Hopkins Orchestra. More radio work followed and he guested on The Kate Smith Show, and The Prudential Hour. Jack got his own radio show in 1945 and it lasted until 1952. He moved into TV afterwards.

Kate Smith
- See previous post here.

Phil Spitalny
- See previous post here.

Hanley Stafford - His most popular role was as Lancelot Higgins on The Baby Snooks Show. He also played parts on several classic programs such as Popeye, Flash Gordon, Calling All Cars, Jungle Jim, and "The Shadow of Fu Manchu."
Jo Stafford

The Real Don Steele - As a Boss Jock he became nationally-known during his run on KHJ which lasted from 1965 to 1973. (He hosted a TV version from 1965 to 1975 on KHJ-TV.) He also spent time on KIQQ, KTNQ, KRLA, KODJ, KCBS-FM and KRTH.

Bill Stern - Known by me only for announcing the nation's "first" remote sports broadcast. He started out doing play-by-play in 1925 on WHAM-AM. Then was hired by NBC Blue in 1937 to host The Colgate Sports Newsreel as well as Friday night boxing on radio. It ran until 1956. He later did sports commentaries for Mutual. He was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame in 1988.

Cliffie Stone - See previous post here.

Ezra Stone - His biggest role was as Henry Aldrich in t"The Aldrich Family" which ran 1939-1953. The Aldrich family sketch started out in a stage show, then was reworked to a bit for both Rudy Vallée and Kate Smith's shows. NBC brought it in to develop into a 30 minute program. He went on to direct programs.

Gale Storm - She beat all the odds and won a 1939 "Gateway to Hollywood" radio contest and got a 2-year contract with CBS. She appeared on variety programs like The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom, Lux Radio Theater, Family Theatre, My Little Margie and a number of feature films.

Igor Stravinsky - (There are multiple alternate spellings) I can fine no records of live radio broadcast US performances. His inclusion appears to be dubious.

Alec Templeton - He played with several orchestras and played on piano on The Rudy Vallée Show, The Chase and Sanborn Hour, Kraft Music Hall and The Magic Key of RCA. His own program, Alec Templeton Time ran from 1939 to 1941.

Jay Thomas - Best known for a reoccurring role on Mork & Mindy he started in radio as a high school football announcer. He went on to KPWR, WXLO, WKTU and many others. Billboard magazine like to refer to him as semi-legendary. He now hosts the Jay Thomas Show on XM/Sirius.

Lowell Thomas - In 1930 he became a news commentator with the CBS radio. He switched to NBC and in late 1930 he hosted the first-ever television-news broadcast. He came back to CBS in 1947. He retired in 1976. He was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame in 1989.

Bill Thompson - Starting in 1934, he was a regular on Don McNeill's morning show "The Breakfast Club" He was also in the choir on "The Sinclair Weiner Minstrels" in 1937. He was also a regular in the cast of "Fibber McGee and Molly." In the 1950s he was in several episodes of CBS Radio Workshop. He went on to do voice over for Walt Disney cartoons.

Tommy & Betty Lou Riggs - In 1931 Riggs was running a poultry business and Tommy was a pianist-vocalist on WCAE-AM. Then they began doing the Tom and Betty bit together on WCAE's. Tommy voiced both himself and a 7-year old girl... which is creepy. the program moved to KDKA, then WTAM then WLW in 1937. They did a stretch on Rudy Vallée's Royal Gelatin Hour. they also did the Kate Smith Show and were a summer replacement for Burns and Allen in 1942. In 1950 Tommy Riggs and Betty Lou ran for one season on CBS.

Arturo Toscanini - He conducted Operas and led the NBC Symphony Orchestra. In 1963, NBC Radio broadcast a weekly series of programs entitled Toscanini: The Man Behind The Legend, commemorating Toscanini's career. Like Stravinski this is a dubious inclusion. The series was rebroadcast by PBS radio in the late 1970s.

Charlie Tuna - See previous post here.

Lurene Tuttle - Another claimant to the title of "The First Lady of Radio," she was reputed to be appearing in 15 programs a week at her peak. She did play virtually every female character "The Adventures of Sam Spade" in addition to appearing on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, and the Great Gildersleeve. She was in a slew of soap operas, The Red Skelton Show, Hollywood Hotel, The Restless Gun, Dragnet, Lux Radio Theater, The Screen Guild Theater, Suspense... the list seems to go on forever.

Vera Vague - Barbara Jo Allen got her star in the name of a fictional spinster-type character she created and portrayed on radio and in film. After Vera was introduced in 1939 on "NBC Matinee," she became a regular on Bob Hope's show around 1941. In 1937, she had debuted in network radio as Beth Holly on NBC's "One Man's Family." She also did roles in "Death Valley Days," "I Love a Mystery" and others. In 1952, still in the role of Vera, she hosted her own television series "Follow the Leader" on CBS.

Rudy Vallée - See previous post here.

Harry von Zell
- His first radio gig was as an announcer for the Paul Whiteman Orchestra program, then he relocated to New York There he got a job as a CBS staff announcer and announced for Fred Allen, Phil Baker, Eddie Cantor, Eddy Duchin, Ed Wynn and others. He later headlined his own show "The Smiths of Hollywood" which lasted 1946 - 1947.

Mark Wallengren & Kim Amidon
- In 1986, Mark Wallengren and Kim Amidon debuted their new eponymous morning show on KOST. Following a 2007 purchase by Clear Channel Amidon left the show and was replaced. Amidon was last known to be doing fill-ins on KTWV.

Jimmy Wallington
- He was the announcer for several popular NBC radio shows including Carnation Contented Hour, Eddie Cantor, Fred Allen, the Screen Directors Playhouse, Jimmy Durante, The Big Show, and many others. He also announced for Voice of America for years.

Fred Waring
- See previous post here.

Willard Waterman - His biggest role was in replacing Harold Peary as the title character of The Great Gildersleeve from 1950 to 1957. At the same time he had a recurring role as Mr. Merriweather in "The Halls of Ivy." Prior to all that he was on soap operas and a variety show called Chicago Theater of the Air .

Jack Webb - See previous post here.

Orson Welles
- See previous post here.

Paul Whiteman
- He started on the Old Gold Hour in 1930 but Whiteman had several radio shows, including The Philco Hour, Kraft Music Hall, the Chesterfield hour and Paul Whiteman's Musical Varieties on WJZ. He semi-retired in the late 1940s but He continued to perform on air and was also the music director for the ABC Radio Network.

Dick Whittinghill - He spent 30 years as a DJ at KMPC-AM starting in 1950. He also later did a the afternoon drive slot at KPRZ. He had previously DJ'd at AFRN, KPFA in Helena, MT, KIEV and KGFJ.

Tex Williams - His last appearance on radio was by phone from his hospital bed on Bill Aken's radio program "The Country Call Line" two days before he died. He was a western swing musician who had appeared on WSM at the"Grand Ole Opry," "The National Barn Dance" and Gene Autry's Melody Ranch. Williams also hosted his own radio program, "Riverside Rancho" in 1949.

Meredith Willson - A conductor and songwriter who in 1929 became the concert director for radio station KFRC then became the musical director for the NBC radio. He also appeared on on Good News, Maxwell House Coffee Time, Burns and Allen, and The Big Show. He later hosted his own variety show, the Musical revue which ran 1935-1953.

Don Wilson - Probably best remembered as the fat guy who announced on The Jack Benny show. But his career went back further than Benny's. Don started out singing on KFEL-AM in Denver in 1923. He had also been a sportscaster doing the Olympics in 1932. He also announced for Alan Young, Bing Crosby, Ginny Simms, Music by Gershwin and Baby Snooks.

Marie Wilson - Starting on Broadway she gained national prominence playing the lead role of a dumb blonde in My Friend Irma on film, TV and radio. The TV show and the radio show ran concurrently. The radio series ran from 1947 to 1954.

Paul Winchell - A ventriloquist, singer and comedian, whose he had many guest appearances on various radio programs starting in 1936, on Major Bowes' Original Amateur Hour. He had a season as WOR-AM in 1943, then again as 1948 Summer fill-in. He later did voice over on numerous cartoons and had a TV program where the ventriloquist thing makes more sense.

Walter Winchell - See previous post here.

Charles Winninger - A vaudeville actor who got typecast as a a riverboat captain and eventually ended up playing it on the NBC Maxwell House Show Boat program. He also made appearances on Lux Radio Theater.

Ed Wynn - He was the host of The Fire Chief on NBC from 1938 to 1949. In 1933 he founded his own radio network the Amalgamated Broadcasting System, which lasted only five weeks. He moved onto television. Also notable that He was once knocked unconscious by W.C. Fields with a pool stick.

Alan Young - His biggest roles were in television playing Wilbur Post in the television series Mister Ed, and as was the voice of Scrooge McDuck. He actually started out on the CBC in Canada, then in 1944 did a summer fill-in show, The Alan Young Show on NBC which was a hit. It ran for nine years 1944-1949 and then crossed over to television.

Carleton G. Young - He played many roles on may different soap operas such as "The Heinz Magazine of the air." He also played parts in some classic mystery and suspense programs. He played the character Phillip Galt on the suspense series "The Whisperer" in 1951, and "Jim Laughton" in Hollywood Mystery Time.

Robert Young - He always seemed to be playing doctors. He acted in "The Doctor Fights" in 1944, and played ones on TV as well. His biggest roles was as Jim Anderson, in "Father Knows Best" which ran on NBC radio1949 - 1953. Prior to that he acted on the CBS Studio One program, which ran 1947 - 1948 and "Passport for Adams which started back in 1944.

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Hollywood Walk of Fame: M - R

You may have noticed that at least a dozen names on this list have had no business being on the list: side kicks, spouses, extended family, former landlords... etc. There seems to have been a gravitational pull to some popular shows where a large number of the regulars got Stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Although fame is distinctly relative, and not always enduring... some of these are not like the others.


Gordon MacRae - Coming from Broadway he made an odd pick for host of  The Railroad Hour. It ran from from 1948 until 1954 starting on ABC and moving to NBC in 1949. In that some era, he guested on the Bell telephone hour. the rest of his career was in film.

Guy Madison - From 1951 to 1954 he played Wild Bill Hickok on the Mutual Network. He later played the same character on a television series.

Ted Malone - He began his radio work as an announcing and playing ukulele KMBC,  In 1929. His early work on air even included poetry readings, especially his program "Between the Bookends" and "Pilgrimage of Poetry." He later branched out into variety shows and quiz shows like Yankee Doodle Quiz in 1943.

Hal March - One half of the comedy duo Sweeny and March on the program of the same name on CBS 1946 to 1948, revived on NBC in 1951.  He is most famous for the quiz show scandal that took down The $64,000 Question which he hosted.

Mark & Brian -   Also known as Mark Thompson and Brian Phelps. They came to Los Angeles in 1987, and debuted a morning show at KLOS-FM. They started working together at WAPI in Birmingham. they retired the show just this year after a 25 year reign.

Mary Martin - She sang everywhere: The Bing Crosby Show, Good news in 1938, Stage Door Canteen, Theater USA, CBS Mystery Theater and others. She never had a starring role in radio, her recording career was huge however and you can't separate the two.

Tony Martin - He was a regularly featured vocalist on the Burns and Allen show 1936 - 1937. In 19398 and 1939 he showed up on "Tune Up Time" on CBS, then the "Carnation Contented Hour" 1948 - 1951. His recording career was much more significant however.

Groucho Marx - Famous now for his black and white film appearances he also spent time in radio. NBC Blue carried the series "Flywheel, Shyster, and Flywheel" in 1932 and Blue Ribbon town int eh 1940s.  But Groucho was best known on radio as host of "You Bet Your Life" which ran on ABC radio in 1947 and 1949 before moving to TV.

Mary Margaret McBride - See previous post here

Clem McCarthy - A sportscaster who called boxing, horse racing and whatever else came up. His best known  for the often re-run clip of his announcing on NBC the 1938 Joe Louis-Max Schmeling rematch.He did some bit parts too including the Eddie Bracken show in 1945.

Smilin' Ed McConnell - He started singing on CBS in 1932 as the Sunshine Melody Man doing gospel numbers.  His children's show, Smilin' Ed's Gang launched in 1944 ran through 1953 on NBC. After the show moved to TV he was replaced be a less fat host.

Joel McCrea - Famous for his movie roles, his biggest radio role was as Jayce Pearson on the radio Tales of the Texas Rangers. It ran 1950 to 1952. When it was revamped for TV he didn't get cast.

Hattie McDaniel - See previous post here.

Graham McNamee - Starting in radio in 1923 his first jobs of any note were in sports writing and announcing on WEAF. He did the play-by-play announcing for the 1926 World Series and went on to announce for the Rose Bowl and championship boxing. In the 1930s he was an announcer for an announcer on Rudy Vallee, Ed Wynn's and others. 

Don McNeill - See previous post here.

James Melton - In 1927 he began singing on radio with a cabaret group. Though he never had his own program , he was a regular performer. He was on The Firestone Hour in 1933, on Ward's Family Theater in 1935, The Sealtest Sunday Night Party (1936), The Palmolive Beauty Box Theater (1937), The Song Shop (1938), the Bell Telephone Hour (1940), Texaco Star Theater (1944) and Harvest of Stars in1945.

Bob Miller - He is a sports announcer doing  play-by-play for the Los Angeles Kings since 1972 on XTRA-AM later moving to KTLK.  Miller moved over to TV announcing for the games in 1990 when the Kings stopped simulcasting  games on TV and radio. He was inducted into the Hockey hall of fame in 2000.
*Corrections from KoHoSo

Ken Minyard & Robert Arthur  - This morning team started their run on KABC-AM in 19723 and continued until 1990 when Artur retired. Minyard tried other co-hosts but was cancelled in 1998. He tried father & song show on KRLA for a year-and-a-half then returned to KABC in 2001 and retired in 2005.

Everett Mitchell - See previous post here.

Vaughn Monroe - This big band leader hosted the Camel Caravan radio program starting in 1946 and running through 1953, seven straight years. He also guested on a number of other programs. His radio resume is a little thin actually.

Garry Moore - He started out in 1937, at WBAL-AM as an announcer. His first network gig was NBC Blue Network's Club Matinee, 1939-43. He got shared billing on the Jimmy Durante-Garry Moore Show, from 1943-48 then did  a year as the Garry Moore Show which crossed over to TV.

Frank Morgan - Coming from a family of radio performers, he is the 2nd most famous after his own niece. The Frank Morgan Show ran on NBC 1944-1945 followed by the Maxwell House Coffee Hour. But he also played Daddy Higgins, father to the Franny Brice character Baby Snooks.

Henry Morgan - He started as an errand boy at WMCA in 1932, after several odd jobs, in 1940, he was offered a daily 15-minute series "Meet Mr. Morgan" on Mutual which mixed ad lib comedy with zany records. Most famous for fighting with his sponsors he also erroneously made the communist black list in the 1950s. He recovered and later hosted TV quiz shows.

Robert W. Morgan - He started out on College station WWST in Wooster Ohio in 1955. He put in time at KACY, KTEE, KOMY, KMBY, KROY, KMAK, KEWB, KHJ.where he was a 'Boss Jock'. He was a Los Angeles institution who only retired in 1970.

Carlton E. Morse - He got a job script writing at KGO-AM  which went very well indeed. His work was mostly action and mystery but he also did some soap operas. his series "I Love a Mystery" ran from 1939 to 1942 on the NBC Blue Network and was revived by Mutual from 1949 through 1953.

Ken Murray - He was the first host  of "Queen for a Day", on the Mutual network from 1945 to 1957. It was a show that was part audience response and part reality programming. It crossed over to TV and only ended when Murray had a heart attack in 1964.

Edward R. Murrow - An extraordinarily famous and respected journalist, his radio career literally jumped directly from covering a children's chorus to covering Nazi aggression in 1938. He became a regular on the nascent "World News Roundup" where he remained thru 1947. Murrow later hosted "This I Believe" which was both erudite and esoteric.

Conrad Nagel - On CBS from 1937 to 1947 he hosted and directed the radio program Silver Theater. Overlapping that he also hosted the Radio Readers Digest from 1942 to 1945. He also was the announcer for Alec Templeton Time in 1939.

John Nesbitt - He wrote and announced for "Headlines of the Past" in 1937. Which grew into a new program " The Passing Parade" which ran until 1951 on NBC.  He also did bits under that title as segments on the Westinghouse Program.

Chuck Niles - Sometimes billed as the only jazz disc jockey on the walk of fame. Actually there are two counting him and Dave Garroway. He rose to fame on  KNOB-FM around 1957 and crossed the street to KBCA in 1965. Starting in 1990 he DJ'd on the infamous KLON-FM, (now KKJZ) he died in 2004.

Ken Niles - A radio announcer and producer at Don Lee Networks, even working on Louella Parsons' Hollywood Hotel show. He did a series of radio dramas called ''Theater of the Mind'' in 1928 and also announced for Camel Caravan, the "Bing Crosby Show'' and ''The Abbott and Costello Show.''

Wendell Niles - He was an announcer on several successful shows: The Bob Hope Show, The Burns & Allen Show, The Milton Berle Show and The Chase and Sanborn Hour. He was also in a couple bad films with a guy named Ronald Regan

Walter O'Keefe - He hosted The Walter O'Keefe Show from 1928 to1937, and then in 1938 with "Battle of the Sexes." Later quiz shows like "Double or Nothing," in the 1940s brought him to even greater national prominence.

Gary Owens - He became a big-time TV announcer but started out on a podunk station, KORN-AM. He moved to KMA in 1956, then KROY in 1959 and finally KEWB. He moved to sister station KFWB in 1951 and then KMPC in 1962 where he stayed for 20 years.

Ozzie Ozzie & Harriet Nelson - They started doing their routine on on Red Skelton's radio show, then in 1944 they got their own radio series, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet.It moved to TV in 1952 and continued to be a ratings winner.

Frank Parker - A golden era vocalist who sang on both the Jack Benny Show, and the Burns and Allen show. He later hosted Bride and Groom, and was a panelist on the quiz show “The Masquerade Party." Another dubious inclusion.

Parkyakarkus - Parkyakarkus is a character played by Harry Einstein. While there are many stage names on the walk.. there are few fictional characters. He is most famous for dying on stage at the Friar's Club Roast of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz in 1958. He also was on radio briefly pretending to be Greek on Eddie Cantor's radio show in the 1930s and played the same role on his own show "Meet Me At Parkys." 

Louella Parsons - A gossipy Hearst writer, her column parlayed into a radio show starting in 1928> she tried again in 1931 then in 1934 won out armed with better sponsorship on "Hollywood Hotel" via CBS. It ran until 1938.  Her feud with another gossip columnist, Hedda Hopper was legendary.

Al Pearce - His first time on air was with the San Francisco Real Estate Glee Club in 1928. he did a little sketch comedy on KFRC-AM, but the The Happy Go Lucky Hour is what hit big. Starting in 1928 it hit big in 1932 and moved to the NBC Blue network running thru 1935. He went on to try many single season shows for CBS into the late 1940s.

Jack Pearl - A vaudeville man who graduated to radio with the Ziegfeld Follies of the Air in 1932. He was also the host of The Lucky Strike Hour from 1932 to 1934 and his own Jack Pearl Show, which ran from  1936 through early 1937.

Drew Pearson - A known muck-raker of the D.C. beltway in his day, he had a 15-minute program twice a week on the Mutual from 1935 to 1936. It expanded to a 30 minute slot on NBC as "Listen America" running from 1939 to 1941 when it was revamped into "Drew Pearson Comments" running from 1941 to 1953.

Harold Peary - A player of bit parts who got lucky playing Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve, on  Fibber McGee & Molly. It was spun off in 1941by NBC as "The Great Gildersleeve" with him in the leading role. it lasted another 16 years and 4 feature films.

Joe Penner - See previous post here.

Dick Powell - Most of his work was on film but he also was repeatedly featured on Lux Radio Theatre. In his dozen or so appearances he was in "Gold Diggers" in 1936, "Model Wife" in 1941, "Murder, My Sweet" in 1945 and "To the Ends of the Earth" in 1949.

Basil Rathbone - A Shakespearean actor best known for playing  Sherlock Holmes in 17 films made between and in a radio series "The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" running from 1939 to 1946 on NBC Blue.

Quentin Reynolds - He was war correspondent who rose to prominence for covering the Blitz in London in WWII. He also filled in one season for Walter Winchell in 1946.

Grantland Rice - He was a sports writer of some renown, having made his debut on WJZ in 1922 announcing the World Series.  His 1955 book The Tumult and The Shouting was broadcast, as The Grantland Rice Story in fifty-two episodes on NBC inexplicably narrated by Jimmy Powers instead of Mr. Rice.

Irene Rich - Beginning as a star in silent films she also hosted the drama "Dear John", aka The Irene Rich Show.  It ran from 1933 to 1944.

Robert Ripley - See Previous post here.

Roy Rogers - His show broadcast 100 episodes on NBC over six seasons between 1951 and 1957. He even proposed to his first wife on air, met his second wife at a radio station, and while he did license his stage name, he had nothing to do with those nasty restaurants.

Will Rogers - See previous post here.

Mickey Rooney - By far more famous as a film actor, he also starred in a 1948 CBS radio series, "Shorty Bell" as Andy Hardy revisiting the character form the films. He and the original cast also did a syndicated radio version of The Hardy Family in 1949 and 1950.

Lanny Ross - A singer and actor he famously worked on shows like ''Show Boat,'' ''Troubador of the Moon,'' ''The Swift Show'' and his own program ''The Lanny Ross Show." It ran 1941 thru 1949 on CBS with a set also on AFRS.

Charles Ruggles - He was a film actor, appearing in almost 100 different films. He did bit parts in Front Line Theatre, the Roma Wines Show and probably others. His inclusion is dubious.

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Hollywood Walk of Fame: H - L

This is part three of what will be a 5 part series wrapping this Friday. The Los Angeles Times has a series of biographies of every star on the walk and notes the categories, but even they have been unable to link some of these names to radioland itself. I've examined over 100 "stars" now: some obscure, some still ubiquitous. Very few were actually deejays. The list is mostly comics and singers than anything else. I think that says more about Hollywood than radio.

Jack Haley - This former  host of the Jack Haley Wonder Show later played the Tin Man in the The Wizard of Oz. the Wonder Show was famous for featuring the then not-so-famous Lucille Ball. Jack also hosted the Log Cabin Jamboree on the NBC Red Network.

Carl Stewart Hamblen - He was one of radios early singing cowboys. His first stretch on air started in 1936 on KFYO-AM in Abilene, TX. He later sang as Cowboy Joe on KFI-AM, and with the Beverly Hillbillies, on KMPC in 1930. He performed with several groups under different shows on KFWB into the late 1930s. He found god in 1949, quit drinking and started "The Cowboy Church of the Air" which ran until 1952.

Bill Handel - He won his star only in 2009. He hosts a morning show on KFI-AM  and a legal advice program on Premier Networks presently. He has been notable lately only for making racist remarks on air.

Arlene Harris - She made her name as a comic actress on the radio program "The Chatterbox."  But she also put in some time on CBS as Mummy Higgins, playing the mother of Baby Snooks with Fanny Brice.

Phil Harris - In 1946 he started doing wholesome family skits with his wife Alice Faye on The Fitch Bandwagon show. In 1949 the show was became The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show. Afterward he moved onto bit parts in TV and cartoon voice over gigs.

Bill Hay - Starting in 1926 he announced for the  Amos 'n' Andy show, moving with them from WGN to WMAQ. He actually got his start on KFKX in 1922.

George Hayes - He is known for his work in westerns acting alongside William Boyd,  Roy Rogers, Gene Autry or Wild Bill Elliott. He also hosted "Melody Ranch" a WWII-era country music program on AFRS. He also guested on the Andrews Sisters show in 1944 and in the supporting cast of the Roy Rogers Show 1946-1947 on Mutual in the role he was typecast for.

Helen Hayes - After a good showing on Lux Radio Theater she got her program the "Helen Hayes Theatre" which ran 1935 - 1936. After which she did a year on the O'Neill Cycle on NBC Blue. She was on the Electric Theater on CBS in 1948 and in 1949 she turned up again on "This Is Broadway" a radio talent show on CBS.

Johnny Hayes - A real deal DJ from KRTH-FM. He started at WAKE in 1961,and after a few stops,  KRLA in 1965 where he stayed for 25 years. (Some sources say 27.) Today he is alive, well and retired.

Dick Haymes - His recording career takes front and center but he was also a performer on Club Fifteen with the Andrews Sisters. His show "Here's To Romance"ran on the NBC Blue network in 1943. He followed that with The Dick Haymes Show running 1944 to 1948. Then "The Carnation Show" in 1950, NBC Bandstand 1956-1957... you get the drift.

Jim Healy - A sports announcer who was on KLAC from 1961 to 1965, then KFWB in 1969. He spent some time on TV but came back and was on KLAC from 1973 to 1982 and KMPC from 1984 to 1994. He also hosted Here's Healy on KBIG-FM back in the 1950s. .

Chick Hearn - He was  the play-by-play announcer for the Los Angeles Lakers  which have been carried on network radio via KLAC-AM since the beginning of time. Still, a sort of dubious inclusion.
*Corrections from  KoHoSo

Horace Heidt - He was a popular radio bandleader on both NBC and CBS. He did dozens of programs: Horace Heidt's Alemite Brigadeers, Pot O' Gold, Tums Treasure Chest, The American Way, Captain Dobbsie's Ship of Joy, The Horace Heidt Youth Opportunity Program the list goes on.

Jean Hersholt - He of the unpronounceable surname had two big roles in his career. He spent 7 years starring on "Dr. Christian" and playing the character Dr. John Luke. The rest of his career appears to have been in TV.

George Hicks - A war journalist who was first on NBC then NBC Blue. He actually recorded the D-Day Normandy Invasion. It was broadcast on NBC and the BBC. That's pretty damn amazing.

Hildegarde - Also known as Hildegarde Loretta Sell a slightly risque cabaret singer. She had two radio shows.  Her NBC radio program "Raleigh Room" ran in the 1940s and AFRS carried Hildegarde's Radio Room for at least a couple episodes in 1945.

John Hodiak - most of his career was on stage and screen but he also played the role of the comic strip character Li'l Abner on radio. It ran in 1939 and 1940 on NBC.

Portland Hoffa - Married to Fred Allen it's no surprise she performed as both comedian and vocalist on his programs.  her character was so unpopular that sales execs begged Allen to drop her but he stood firm. In 1949 he left the program. The performed together on The Big Show 1950–52, and she finally started working without Fred in 1954 usually as a mystery guest on TV quiz shows.

Bob Hope - Bob Hope was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 1990 while he was still alive. He  first appeared on the show "The Intimate Revue" in 1935, followed by the Woodbury Soap Hour in 1937, and the Pepsodent Show in 1938. His film career took off and then those USO shows... etc. Guinness Book rates him as the most awarded entertainer in history.

Warren Hull - He started out on Soap Operas like "The Gibson Family" which ran on NBC in 1934. Following a short film career he became a radio announcer on The Hit Parade and Vox Pop in the 1940s. He then hosted the game show "Strike It Rich" on NBC radio 1949 - 1957.

Frazier Hunt - This respected newscaster and war correspondent was on WLS-AM on every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday  at 6:45 PM. Frazier Hunt and the News was on NBC in the early 1940s. Probably best known for smuggling out a copy of  the Versailles Peace Treaty in order to scoop the story.

Marlin Hurt - He did the Hometown Incorporated show in 1940, Fred Brady Show in  1943 and subbed on the The Bob Burns Show on NBC. But the big fame came from his role on the Fibber McGee and Molly program in 1944. He played the role of Beulah, a black woman. In 1945, Beulah was spun off into it's own radio show "The Marlin Hurt and Beulah Show" which ran 1945 to 1954. Thankfully on TV ABC finally cast a black woman to play the part of  Beulah.

Ted Husing - Primarily known as a sportscaster in the 1930s, he was also a CBS announcer on "March of Time" and an for "George Burns and Gracie Allen.  In 1946, he moved from CBS to WHN-AM to try his hand at DJ-ing.   It was a hit and the Ted Husing Bandstand ran from 1946 to 1954. He moved on to TV after that.

Michael Jackson - Born in England he became a DJ in South Africa. He came to the US in 1958 and did a program on KYA. At KEWB he phased out the record flipping and phased in a talk format. He made stops at KNX,and KHJ, then put in 32 years at KABC starting in 1966.  He came back to KABC in 2009 and is still there.

Jaime Jarrin - The Dogers moved to LA in 1958 and KWKW-AM picked up the Spanish language broadcasting rights for the games. Jarrin was the news and sports director, and he became the  announcer from 1962 to 1984.

Al Jolson - A radio star from it's earliest days he was on NBC's The Dodge Victory Hour and his own shows included Presenting Al Jolson,  Kraft Music Hall, Jolson Sings Again, Shell Chateau and a litany of others.

Spike Jones - After a good performance on The Bob Burns Show, he got his own radio show,  The Chase and Sanborn program on NBC. Then he moved over to CBS 1947 to 1949 for his show The Spotlight Revue, which was renamed later The Spike Jones Show. But really, his recording career is where it's at.

Ellen K- Inexplicably Ryan Seacrest's sidekick has a star on the Hollywood walk of fame. She used to be a co-host with Rick Dees on KIIS at least as early as 1995. She also had a Top 30 Countdown show on Premier networks that was cancelled in 2002.

Casey Kasem - See previous post here.

Danny Kaye -  Most of his fame is from film and music but he also starred in a radio program "The Danny Kaye Show" which was carried on the CBS network from1945–1946. He also did a set of shows for AFRS in WWII and in 1963 he repeated the recipe with a TV version of the show.

Sammy Kaye - He started out on the Mutual network in 1937 doing short sets. Then starting in 1940 had a show called "Sensation and Swing" on NBC. He also was on the Old Gold program for two seasons starting in 1943 . Starting in 1944 he launched the Sunday Serenade, a program title he'd recycle often. He continued to do short run programs and short form music programs into the mid 1950s.

John B. Kennedy -  An American radio correspondent whose radio debut was in 1924 on WJZ-AM on the Collier Hour which ran until 1931. Afterward NBC had him host "The Magic Key" from 1934 to 1939 and "The People’s Rally" which ran 1938 - 1939.

John Reed King - Famous as a game show host on radio and television he ended up doing morning news at KDKA in the 1960s and KGO-TV in the 1970s. The peak of his popularity was probably the radio show "Missus Goes A-Shopping" on CBS.  He also announced on the soap opera "Our Gal Sunday" and the infamous Duffy's Tavern among others.

Wayne King - Nick named the "Waltz king" his longest stretch was 1931 to 1940 on NBC doing random gigs usually as the "Wayne King Program" sponsored by Lady Esther cosmetics. He later subbed for Jack Benny and Jimmy Durante.

Raymond Knight - Originally an ad writer for NBC, he was asked to write a comedy program in 1929 and came up with  "The Cuckoo Hour". He later did the children's program "Wheatenaville Sketches." He later wrote for Broadway productions.

Kay Kyser - You can't forget "Kay Kyser's Kollege of Musical Knowledge". It started in 1937 on WGN-AM in Chicago and then moved to NBC. It continued to air until 1949. He retired from broadcasting in the 1950s and was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 1990.

Art Laboe - See previous post here.

Jim Ladd - Possibly the last surviving DJ of note from the Freeform era, he started at KNAC in 1969, but earned his stripes doing a weeknight show on KLOS-FM starting in 1971. In 1974 he began 13 year stretch at KLOS that ended with in 1984. He was on KMET until 1987 when it flipped to KTWV, smooth jazz. In 1988 he moved to KMPC (later KEDG) staying until it flipped in 1989 to Español. He DJ'd at KLOS again in the 90s getting booted with  format flip staff purge in 2011.  He now does a shift on the Deep Tracks XM/Sirius channel. (Long Live Ladd)
*Corrections from  KoHoSo 

Arthur Lake - Mr. Lake played the part of Dagwood Bumstead in 28 different "Blondie" films, 1 TV show and the radio series on NBC Blue. It ran 1944 to 1950. He also portrayed the character in a couple guest appearances.

Dorothy Lamour - While most of her career was in film she also had her own fifteen-minute weekly musical program on NBC Radio in 1935. She also guested on the Rudy Vallee radio show, The Chase and Sanborn Hour and The Sealtest Variety Hour

Frances Langford - She got onto the Rudy Vallee by auditioning and became a regular starting in 1931.
From 1946 to 1951, she performed on The Bickersons and the Chase & Sandborn Show. She later replaced Judy Garland in Bob Hope's show.

Fulton Lewis II - See previous post here.

Art Linkletter - See previous post here.

Little Jack Little - He was a song plugger in Chicago who got lucky. He was a short man which a big orchestra on WABC-AM in the early 1930s. He did a lot of USO shows in WWII, and was a DJ on WEAM-AM starting in 1947.

Mary Livingston - She was a comedian in her own right, but also the wife and radio partner of comedy great Jack Benny.  In 1932 she turned a bit part into a full-time rule. her stage fright kept her from beginning a major character, and she was large absent from the last season 1954-1955.

Al Lohman & Roger Barkley - They share a star because they shared a show, a highly rated morning drive program "The Lohman and Barkley Show" on KFI. It ran through most of the 1970s into the 1980s. Barkley quit the duo in 1986. They both have notable radio careers before and after they were a team.

Guy Lombardo - He was Dick Clark before Dick Clark. From 1929 to 1959 he and his band hosted a New Years Eve show at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City live on NBC. From 1959 to 1976 the program continued with Lombardo at the Waldorf Astoria.Starting in the 1960s it was also aired on TV competing with that young upstart Mr. Clark.

Vincent Lopez - His first documented radio performance was in 1921 on WJZ-AM. He and his band continued to perform on air including a series called "Luncheon with Lopez"  but it was in 1952 that he and Gloria Parker hosted a radio program on ABC broadcast from the Taft Hotel called "Shake the Maracas."

Phillips Lord -  He started with a small singing show on WTIC-AM. Then became a successful as a radio script writer for NBC with "Sunday Evening at Seth Parker's" which actually ran 6 days a week from 1929-1939. He later created the show  Gang Busters a huge hit that lasted from 1935 to 1957.

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Hollywood Walk of Fame: C - G


This is part 2 of the Hollywood Radio Walk of Fame. Like I said this is going to take all week.There are already a surprising number of entrants that come from the Rudy Vallee Fleishman's Yeast Hour, and the Kraft Music Hall. There are more here, and more from the Sealtest Village Store as well. I sense patterns emerging. So on with the big list, we're not even halfway done yet.

Cass Daley - Her career began on stage and went straight into film. She moved into radio by  guesting somewhat regularly in 1944 on The Bob Burns Show on NBC. In 1945, she joined the "The Fitch Bandwagon" program also on NBC. In 1950, she got her own show: The Cass Daley Show. She also did some recordings for AFRS.

Joan Davis - She started in pictures, but became a regular on The Rudy Vallee Show after a successful 1941 appearance.She appeared in sitcoms and The Sealtest Village Store. Starting in 1945 she got to do her own show, Joanie's Tea Room on CBS. She got a second shot at the title in 1949-1950 with Leave It to Joan, filling in for the summer for Lux Radio Theatre. In 1952 she moved to TV with the I love Lucy rip-off, Leave it to Joan.

Dennis Day - His big break was an appearance on the Jack Benny's show in 1939. He was a great mimic and a good tenor vocalist.the two skills parlayed and his own program "A Day in the Life of Dennis Day" ran from 1946 to 1951 on NBC.

Vaughn De Leath - More famous as a vocalist, she also has a claim to the earliest radio music broadcast when she sang on 2XG in the World Tower Building for Lee DeForest. She later operated WDT-AM in New York City. More here.

Rick Dees - He presently has two radio shows "Rick Dees in the Morning" at KHHT-FM, and a Westwood One radio show "The Daily Dees" that appropriately airs daily. Prior to this syndicate hubbub he worked at WXYC-FM, WSGN-FM and WKIX-FM.

Cecil B. DeMille - Famous mostly as a film director, he was also in radio albeit briefly. From 1936 to 1944, he hosted Lux Radio Theater on CBS. He also served on The National Committee for a Free Europe which oversaw the Radio Free Europe service. His inclusion is dubious.

Andy Devine - Andy was an all-purpose side-kick. He played "Jingles", Guy Madison's sidekick in The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok. He also played the role on TV later.  He guested more than 75 times on Jack Benny's radio show between 1936 and 1942. He moved on from there to TV drama roles.

Morton Downey - This Downey is the senior one not the junior one. He was famed as a singer in his own right. Then in 1930 he opened The Delmonico, a New York Night club where Bill Paley heard him. That's how he ended up singing on WJZ.  He moved from there to the Camel Quarter Hour program in 1932.

Carmen Dragon - He was a conductor and composer. Aside from his recording career he also conducted the Hollywood Bowl Symphony Orchestra on the Standard School Broadcast, a music appreciation program for students. It started in 1928 and ran into the 1970s.

Jessica Dragonette - See previous post here.

Jimmy Durante - See previous post here.

Nelson Eddy- They claim that this singer has appeared on radio over 600 times. The first of these was probably in 1924 at WOO-AM.  In 1936 he hosted The Voice of Firestone and then in 1937 the Vicks Open House. He hosted the Chase and Sanborn Hour from 1937 to 1939 and then the Kraft Music Hall program from 1947 to 1948. Overlapping he also hosted The Electric Hour from 1942 – 1943.

Ralph Edwards - He was a DJ at  KROW-AM while he was in high school then KTAB-AM and KFRC-AM before 1938. then he got a lucky break and became an announcer on CBS for several shows: Major Bowes Amateur Hour  and Fred Allen on Town Hall Tonight. He went into children's shows from there.

Dale Evans - She was the third wife of Roy Rogers who'd started as a Secretary at a small radio station. She sang and worker her way up to winging on the Charlie McCarthy show and the Chase and Sanborn Hour. She started doing cowboy movies after that.

Clifton Fadiman - He was best known for hosting the quiz show, "Information, Please!"  from 1938 to into1948. He did some TV as well but on radio he also hosted 'Keep 'em Rolling, 1941 - 1942" "Words at War" 1944-1945" 'This is Broadway" in 1949, "Monitor" in 1955,  and "Conversation" which fared better lasting 1954 - 1956. 

Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. - He was a regular on Lux Radio Theater, and Screen Director's Playhouse. He also made appearances on Sealtest Variety Theater, the Jack Benny Show, the Gulf Screen Guild show, and others. Honestly he doesn't really measure up to Douglas Fairbanks, Sr.

Frank Fay - His radio resume is very lean. He spent one year on the Jack Haley Show (1937 - 1938) on NBC and maybe one possible appearance on the Rudy Valee show. His inclusion seems bogus.

Fibber & Molly McGee - See Previous posts here.

Jimmy Fidler - He was a gossip columnist with a radio show. His 15-minute NBC radio show, "Hollywood on the Air" ran 1933 to 1950. It's started on NBC and moved to CBS in 1938, then Mutual in 1941. Around through that list again returning to Mutual again in 1947.

Gracie Fields - She is an unusual inclusion as she was not even US-based for most of her career. In 1940 she fled to the USA to avoid being interned as an enemy alien. Her husband was Italian. The BBC gave her her own radio show in 1947 called "Our Gracie's Working Party." It was her only radio gig. 

W. C. Fields - Famous for portraying a misanthropic drunk on film and stage he also portrayed a misanthropic drunk on radio. After an "illness" kept him out of the movies he started guesting on radio programs including The Chase and Sanborn show where he made many appearances. He also guested on Dick Powell's Tuesday Night Party, and was in the Big Broadcast of 1938.

George Fisher - A real radio man with over 30 years at the mic. His resume includes a dozen stations including KFI-AM, KFWB-AM, KNX-AM and KCMJ-FM.

Tennessee Ernie Ford - He began his career as a singer on and announcer at WOPI-AM in Bristol, TN. He hosted "Bar Nothin' Ranch Time" on KXFM-AM and took off, he moved to KXLA in Pasadena shortly thereafter. a guest appearance on Dinner Bell Round Up boosted his singing career so much that he didn't need to go back to radio.

Arlene Francis - Her first big gig was in 1943, hosting the network radio game show Blind Date. It took off and went to TV in 1945. She later had a successful a talk program, "The Arlene Francis Show," on WOR-AM that ran from 1960 to 1984.

Alan Freed - See previous post here.

Jane Froman - She joined Henry Thies' orchestra as a vocalist at WLW-AM in about 1930. She landed her own show afterward Jane Froman and Her Dance Orchestra which ran into the fall of 1932.  In 1933 she relocated to New York City and began appearing on Chesterfield's "Music that Satisfies" program with Bing Crosby. In 1935 she began appearing on the Intimate Revue hosted by Bob Hope. She spent 1937 on the California's Hour and the "The Magic Key of RCA" and The Texaco Star Theatre for another 10 years.

Ed Gardner - See previous post here.

Dave Garroway - He began DJ-ing in the military in 1941 on Honolulu. After WWII ended he became a DJ at WMAQ-AM in Chicago. He was a jazz man all the way hosting several programs: The 11:60 Club, The Dave Garroway Show, and Reserved for Garroway. Billboard polls rated him best DJ in 1948 and 1949. In the 1970s he still had a shift at KFI-AM.

Floyd Gibbons - He was a war correspondent for the Chicago Tribune in WWI and was injured several times and even lost an eye. His fame came as radio commentator and narrator of newsreels. He had his own half-hour new program heard Wednesday nights on the NBC Red Network.

Arthur Godfrey - In 1930 he became a radio announcer for the Baltimore station WFBR-AM, which later changed calls to WJZ. Late that year he relocated to D.C. and became an announcer on WRC-AM. In 1934 he started a morning music show complete with ukulele. He went on to run on his own CBS morning show "Arthur Godfrey Time."

Earl Godwin -  He covered Washington D.C. for NBC's Blue Network popular with politicos and listeners alike. Henry Ford liked him and made him the "Voice of Ford" on the NBC Blue Network into the mid 1940s.

Edwin F. Goldman - A popular bandleader as early as 1937 starting with the Cities Service Program. the program continued to air on the NBC Red Network, then NBC until 1956. He left sometime in the mid 1930s.

Bill Goodwin -  He was the announcer for the Burns and Allen radio program, and then TV program. He announced for the Charlie McCarthy program in 1943, hosted "What's New?" on WJZ-AM. In 19847 he got his own radio show, the Bill Goodwin show on CBS. It lasted 6 months. NBC tried again on television in 1951 with the "New Bill Goodwin show", with more music less comedy.

Gale Gordon - Best known for a reoccurring TV role on The Lucy Show, he also had a bit of radio tenure. He had a reoccurring role on  Fibber McGee and Molly and it's spin-off The Great Gildersleeve. But more notably he was the first actor to play the role of Flash Gordon, way back in 1935.

Freeman Gosden- A wireless operator in the US Navy in WWI, he teamed up with Charles Correll to form the duo that became Amos & Andy. See the Charles Correll post in the first segment here.

Billy Graham - The infamous evangelist operated a weekly radio program broadcast, The Hour of Decision. He hosted the incongruously named 30-minute program for 50 years. ABC carried it to 150 stations in the US. He taped the first episode at 830 WFGM-AM back in in 1950.

Jim Gray - He is a sports caster, I use the present tense because he's still alive. He's been on  ESPN, NBC Sports and CBS Sports and is syndicated by Westwood One. His fame is strongly stilted toward TV sports leaving it a mystery why he's in the category.

Charlotte Greenwood  - She was an actress who had surprise success on radio. The Charlotte Greenwood Show was just supposed to be a a summer fill-in replacement for the Bob Hope Show. It was popular enough to last five years more years.