Joe Gould was not a DJ

I was reading the book Here Is New York by E.B. White. This was published in 1949, he had already written Stewart Little, but it's that's before Charlotte's Web (1952), and The Trumpet of the Swan (1970). On page 11 is a single sentence that is all too interesting.  

"I am.. thirty-six blocks from the spot where historian Joe Gould kicked a radio to pieces in full view of the public..."

Most outlandish stories are only true if you squint a little. But an article in Art Forum about Alice Neel seemed to corroborate it. [SOURCE]  It adds a little context but we still don't know where, when or why it happened. Gould lived from 1889 to 1957. Other than that it happened before 1949 we know very little at this point.

"His mother died and left him some money and he bought a radio and smashed it on the curb. He bought a typewriter and smashed that too."

Gould's own history provides very little by way of a timeline. His arrival in New York is prior to the existence of commercial radio. By 1952 Gould was mostly infirm and unable to break apart a radio with a bat sledgehammer or any other contrivance. In between he was a feral bohemian, living on ketchup and beer to paraphrase one account. The periodical Our Time described the incident as well, but in similar terms, only adding motive.

Some of it he used in a personal protest against the trend of social progress in the United States —he went into a radio shop, bought a big shiny new wireless set, dragged it into Sixth Avenue and there kicked it into pieces. This gesture has so far had little effect on the trend of "progress" in any country ...Joe Gould contentedly kicking his radio to bits in the middle of the street might move us, stirring a little sympathy and some surprise . For that matter any glimpse of another's private world is strange.

It's well documented that Gould was a denizen of Washington Square. It's worth mentioning that Sixth Avenue is a block West of Washington Square Park.  Joe Gould first set foot in Greenwich Village, in 1916 or 1917. Radio was still an experimental pursuit of hobbyists. He was a a very eccentric bohemian, probably was autistic, and possibly insane. On his rare uptown excursions from Greenwich Village, you could sometimes find Gould in the main Reading Room of the New York Public Library. Here, Gould took prolific notes in what he described as an Oral History of the World. The problem was as Joseph Mitchell would reveal in 1965 in his book Joe Gould's Secret, that the Oral History book didn't exist. 

The Bridgewater Review (Vol 25, Issue #2)  also described the radio smashing incident. [SOURCE] This version invokes a different motive and changes the venue again. Now it's not the curb, it's Washington Square, and this time he has a bat. 

"Another antic, considered performance art by some later 20th century scholars, involved his smashing radios with a baseball bat in Washington Square as a protest against capitalism during the Depression."

If we go back to the E.B. White account, White is situated in midtown, at an unnamed hotel. The date is uncertain but clearly prior to it's publication in 1949. By his own telling he was then 36 blocks away. He could have meant from Washington Square. The boundaries of Midtown are not very defined. The northern border is always central park, 58th street. But the southern boundary is anywhere from 14th to 34th street. So that's unhelpful. The brilliant Diana Rosenthal Roberson identified the venue as the Algonquin Hotel, 59 West 44th Street. It's still there today. [SOURCE] With that confirmed, I count 37 blocks, 36 gets him to 8th Street and Waverly Pl. Maybe he counted Bryant Park as one block. 

Roberson herself politely rates the incident slightly better than apocryphal. Who knows? Looking for some chronology I reexamined E.B. White's tale where he lists off a series prior events in Manhattan. Some of the events were in the distance past like the hanging of Nathan Hale but also one from 1937; Hemingway slapping Max Eastman. Note that White exaggerated that account, the slap becomes a punch. He also exaggerated Gould's role as a historian but he may not have known that in 1949. 

Back to Joseph Mitchell. In 1965 he also repeats he story. But here Mitchell repeats it alongside a parable from Max Gordon, the proprietor of the Village Vanguard Club. Gordon explains that Gould was a bohemian, and basically felt "miserable" having money, he just spent it. Then came another version of the story.

"While Gould was spending his inheritance, he did one things that satisfied him deeply. He bought a big, shiny radio and took it out on Sixth Avenue and kicked it to pieces." 

If you believe the inheritance version of the story I'm sorry to report, Gould's genealogy is unhelpful. His mother was Amanda Evelyn Gould (née Vroom) and his father Dr. Clarke Storer Gould. His father died in 1919. His father's obituary clearly states that he leaves behind "...a wife, a son, Joseph F. Gould, a daughter, Miss Hilda P Gould and a brother, Junius B. Gould of Boston." [SOURCE] It is not known when his mother was born or died. Historians claim his mother was born about 1862 and was married in 1888 at the age of 25. She would have been about 57 when her husband died. The actuarial tables tell us she probably died in the next 10-15 years which roughly lines up with a data from another, very different version of the tale. The Village Voice Reader, published in 1962 tells the most detailed version of the tale. 

 "Someone told a story about how Joe Gould had once won a television set in a jingle contest he had entered. He had given the Minetta Tavern, on MacDougal Street, as his address. Joe was in the tavern when the contest people called to confirm the address, and he asked them to deliver it there that afternoon. When the set arrived, Joe asked that it be set down on the sidewalk in front of Minetta's. Then he went to a garage across the street to borrow a sledgehammer. The presentation was made with a little ceremony, and Joe went Wham!, smashing the set to smithereens." 

Here we have a new venue and a somewhat more certain time frame. Prohibition ended in 1933. Minetta Tavern opened in 1937.  It was a popular stop for many writers of the day, Ernest Hemingway, John Dos Passos, Ezra Pound, Eugene O'Neill, Lucien Carr, E.E. Cummings, and Dylan Thomas. The bar re-opened in 2009 and is still located at 113 Macdougal Street. That's a block south of the park and a block east of Sixth Avenue. It's still the right neighborhood. If you are wondering, TV sets became much more common after WWII, though there were retail models even in the 1930s. 

This story was clearly well mythologized even in Gould's own lifetime. Normally I favor the the most contemporary account, but that's the E.B. White version and it's short on details. The Village Voice account has the most details but it came only after his death in 1957 and among those details, the 1937 date is iffy because it's the same year the tavern opened. Where was Gould drinking before 1937? We do not know. His name is so synonymous with Minetta Tavern it makes a likely venue for the incident.  In the Mythbusters sense of the word, I'll grant it's plausible. Believe what you like. 

DJ Dopey Duncan

 

Born in 1920, Luther W. Gehringer was better known as “Dopey Duncan.” His career spanned four decades as a Pennsylvania radio personality, musician, comedian and entertainer. I discovered him through a 90-minute cassette I found in a box of mixed used tapes. It was marked "WXKW Dopey Duncan with the date 5-27-1990" on the front. I quickly learned that this program aired only a few weeks after his death. [SOURCE] There isn't a single word online about this program. My copy may be the only one, or the only copy left. My theory is that it may have belonged to one of those folks in that studio 35 years ago, probably now deceased. 

I have digitized and uploaded that digital audio HERE. 

From the library of Jose Fritz

At the time of the recording, 1470 WXKW-AM was part of the HGF Media Group which included: WLSH-AM, Lansford; WMIM-AM, Mt. Carmel; WKHL-AM, Salladasburg; WSPI-AM, Shamokin;  WMGH-AM, Tamaqua; and WXKY-AM/WQXA-FM, York. The radio program was a special, but the host said that the Country Hall of Fame show was ongoing, weekly. The host introduced himself as "Old Cactus Ed" and in the studio with him were friends of Dopey Duncan: Les Baer, Paul Galgon, and Ken Happel. He goes on to include  station management like  Chris Collier, PD, Harold G. Fulmer III the station owner, Bob "Monk" Rabenold GM, and Rick Musselman GM of the HGF Media group who suggested they put the special together.  

The tape label further lists the names Ed Baumer and Sammy Anderson. Edwin G. Baumer did mid-days at WXKW through at least 2007 closing out a 35 year radio career. Ed was best known as “Cactus Ed” on WXKW. He also worked at WZZO, WKAP, WEEU, WRFY, WHUM, WGPA, WSAN, and WHOL. Likewise, Sammy Anderson was both staff and a guest, he was their station manager back in the 1970s. He knew Duncan personally and in 1992 the Morning Call newspaper stated that they were both "part of the golden era" of WKAP. Sammy started out as a newscaster in Erie and Lancaster, and then moved to radio starting at WNAR in Norristown. Over 5 decades he worked at WSAN, WAEB, WEZV, WKAP and WXKW. Sammy the station manager when WXKW changed to a country format in 1977 when the station was still owned by Rust Communications. Famously from 1998-2000, Sammy was host of “The Sinatra Hours” on WKAP. At one point Sammy also had an afternoon call-in show there called “What’s on Your Mind?”

A little disambiguation: The station we now call WSAN, and was WXKW in 1990 was WKAP from 1995–2006. This gets confusing in this story because the "original" WKAP we will discuss here was 1320 AM, also in Allentown, PA. Today it's 1320 WTKZ-AM, but the station signed on in 1947 a 1,000 watt daytimer on 1580. It held the WKAP calls from 1947–1994 and is the station these people mean when they speak of WKAP. When Les Baer talks about doing mornings with Duncan for 18 years, he's describing 1954 - 1972 at that station. A 1958 issue of Broadcast cites their program as Hooper Rating as #1 in the market. In the mid fifties Paul Galgon did an afternoon show together called the Cross Roads store. That lasted 3-4 years. Gehringer ultimately spent about 24 years on WKAP. It may feel incongruous but in the 1950s WKAP was an MOR station which in 1972, flipped to Adult Contemporary.

Gehringer was born and raised in Allentown, PA and according to his obituary, Duncan's singing career began in 1941. One blog claimed that he performed on WSAN Barn Dance in 1939. I can't corroborate that claim, or even the existence of that show, but he would have been 19 years old. In character he wore a recognizable costume: a checkered suit, big goofy hat, string bow tie and trademark oversized yellow shoes. His obituary describes his live weekly broadcasts from a ranch mock up in Dorney Park's Castle Gardens in South Whitehall Township. He took stage dunking an oversized doughnut in an oversized cup; a vaudevillian trope. It's not said in most bios but Duncan served in WWII in the U.S. Army's 124th Horse Cavalry in Burma. That was probably 1942 - 1945. Merrill's Marauders started their activity in 1943. They were so effective that all the soldiers of Merrill's Marauders were each awarded the Bronze Star. There is something important here to be said about his psychology but I'm not qualified to say it.

Despite the 1941 start date, the earliest print references to Dopey Duncan appear in 1945 after his return from WWII.  In May of that year The Chronicle newspaper describes him as a "Show Clown" performing alongside the Ozark Mountaineers. Another account has him as the stage comic for Willis Meyers, that's probably Willis's his Bar X Ranch Boys 1947-ish. Meyers also performed with "His Swing Band" in the 1940s. (That'd be Western Swing of course.)

By 1947 Gehringer was his own headliner performing with a band as Dopey Duncan and the Top Hands. Thought one ad in 1947 instead refers to Dopey Duncan and "His Gang." These may not have been very formal groups as later that month he performed with "his Melody Rangers." In those ads he played dinner events, Outdoor markets and carnivals every month. By 1948 the group name seems to have settled on Top Hands. His first known appearance in a trade magazine was in Cash Box in February of 1952. In a March of Dimes Radio event Dopey Duncan is listed from WKAP. [SOURCE]

"From 9:00 P.M. to the early hours of the morning, deejays alternated on stage with their turntables, spinning disks to the joy of over 2,000 dancers. In sequence, the following jockeys appeared: Paul Galgon, WKAP; Syd Paul, WHOL; Clem Walters, WAEB; Dopey Duncan, WKAP; Marshall Cleaver, WKAP; Ted Weider, WHOL; Art Getz, WSAN; Betty Lou George and Vern Craig,- WKAP; and Tom Early and Joe Prentiss, WAEB. For a two-hour period, three of the. Allentown stations carried the d.j. proceedings direct from the ballroom."

The tape opens with some oldies. The first song on the tape is "Riding Down to Santa Fe" and dates to 1946, sourced from a transcription. Les Baer gives the band members as Dick Layton, Kenny Happel, Norm Arlen, Art Martin, Ralph "Spoony" Spohn. I think Spoony is the same fellow who played fiddle for Uncle Jack & Mary Lou back in 1939, and sometimes performed with the Sleepy Hollow Ranch Gang. He may or may not have played with them on the Hayloft Hoedown at WFIL. The second song on the tape is from 1947, "Will You Be My Darling." The line up was Dick Layton, Kenny Happel, Art Martin, Spooney Spawn on fiddle and Bill Foscht (sp) on accordion. (Pardon any errors on these names, some of these folks are obscure and there's no way to confirm spelling.) Later on the tape were modern solo acoustic recordings, mostly gospel tunes. 

But back to that tribute broadcast for a bit. WXKW started out as WSAN-AM today but had the WXKW calls from 1985 to 1995. It claims to be the oldest station in the Lehigh Valley; which at the very least means it's one Dopey would have known, if not performed on.  The station has it's roots in two predecessors. The first signed on as WCBA on May 24th, 1923 initially broadcasting out of Heimbach's Kaumagraph Repair Shop. At the time they broadcast at just 5 watts on 1070 kHz. Two years later they relocated to 1180 kHz. WSAN received its first license on June 30, 1923, issued to the Allentown Radio Club for 10 watts on 1310 kHz

In 1927 WCBA and WSAN had to share time on 1350 KHz. Together they moved to 1500 kHz and then 1440 kHz and eventually 1470 in 1941. They were hopelessly twinned.  In early 1937, an application was filed to formally consolidate the two stations under the WSAN call sign with the two stations sharing stock in the owning company WSAN, Inc. Dopey may have been on FM in the 1940s. In 1947, WSAN-FM was added, originally on 95.9, then moved to 99.9 but it was deleted in 1956. I believe that station was a simulcast in most of that era. It became WKAP in 1995.

Gehringer appears in the Morning call News paper in 1955 singing, and telling jokes but in an article written in Pennsylvania Dutch, which I can tell you... is very confusing for Google Translate. It thinks it's in Luxembourgian, but it's sort of readable. His morning show with Les Baer was called “Two on the Sunny Side.” The Morning call newspaper claims that ran for 18 years. By the mid 1960s Dopey was doing live broadcasts on Sunday mornings of a brunch radio show from the locally renowned Walp's Restaurant on Route 22, it later moved to  911 Union Blvd in Allentown, PA.  The restaurant closed in 1998.

Who's Who in Television and Radio #5 (1955)

Malvern records released a few 45s with Dopey in the 1960s. His one self-produced LP was recorded live from Walps Restaurant. [SIDE A] and [SIDE B] That record definitely went through multiple pressings. More here. He also had an undated 8-Track released, it has 3 tracks of comedy and 3 songs on the 4th track. It was also probably self released. The American Heart Association released a 90-minute Dopey Duncan tape as a fundraiser in 1991. A description of that tape reports that it was recordings of his old 1950s WKAP program. Apparently that's quite rare now. [SOURCE].

Gehringer semi-retired to Eustis, FL in 1977, at the age of 57 and began playing locally. He survived a stroke in 1986 and was partially paralyzed, which he mostly recovered from. In 1988 Dopey gave a speech at a roast. His closing statement from that event closes out the tape. You can see that video here, and the associated blog post here. He didn't revisit his material from the fifties. Instead he performed new material and had a whole stand up routine about being elderly and living the retired life in Florida. He even talked about his stroke, and recovery. 

Despite those serious moments the recording is utterly hilarious. He even does some Pennsylvania Dutch. But he says nothing about WKAP. So while it's not rich with radio history, it's a real taste of why Duncan was so popular in his day.  He died in 1990 at the age of 77, of a self-inflicted gunshot wound seated in his backyard. I almost skipped that part but you can hear in the voices of his friends something that remained otherwise unsaid. All his peers passed on over the next 20 years. Ralph "Spoony" Spohn died in 2001 [SOURCE]. Sammy Anderson died in 2002 [SOURCE]. Les Baer died in 2015 [SOURCE], Paul Galgon Sr. in 2001, and Ken Happel in 2019. Ed Baumer died in 2021 [SOURCE].

KDKA Group photo

 

1950s? group KDKA image

The prettier postcard style image below lacks a list of names but the Pittsburgh Press published every name. I've seen the original, it's an 8x10 glossy promotional photo they put in their press kit. There's one on Ebay right now actually. [LINK] and [LINK] Sources generally date it to the 1950s but lets see if we can improve that. But let's list off all the names first:

TOP ROW: Homer Martz, Al Azzaro, Kenny Newton, Slim Bryant, Loppy Bryant, Jerry Wallace and Neal Wallace.

CENTER ROW: Bill Newsbit, Johnny Boyer, Janet Ross,  John Stewart, and Ed Schaughency. 

BOTTOM ROW: Bernie Armstrong, Paul Shannon, Elaine Beverly, Aneurin Bodycombe, Evelyn Gardiner, and Jim Westover

 

The text clearly states that this is an enlarged photograph of 1020 KDKA-AM's staff of entertainers and that listeners who donate to the old newsboys fund will get one. It is sometimes labeled as their "TV Team" which is not accurate. That is probably based on one of two errors of assumption. Slim Bryant and the Wildcats did have a TV show (later) but also that staff were wholly separate between TV and radio, which they were not. 

What I'd like you to understand most is that this isn't even the entire staff. There were also engineers and transcription staff, librarians, and management. Today a whole station cluster in a major market has fewer staff than is pictured just here. 

TOP ROW

Homer Martz - Martz was the Farm Director and hosted the Home and Farm Hour. It's editor was E.S. Bayard as late as 1946. [SOURCE] KDKA was broadcasting farm market reports from Washington and the Chicago hog and feed markets as early as 1921. [SOURCE] He was still producing farm marketing programming as late as 1951. He appears a few time in the book Farm Broadcasting by John C. Baker.

Al Azzaro - Azzaro was a member of Slim Bryant and his Wild Cats. Don't let the accordion fool you. That was absolutely standard kit in a country band back then. He's credited on some Majestic 78s with Slim Bryant's group, and some Italian dance music LPs. In 1947 he copyrighted two songs, the PIttzburgh Polka and one named "Echo Polka" which tells us that Azzaro did pen some of the groups songs. A 1945 issue of the Warren Times Mirror reported that "...the wildcats Are heard daily on KDKA during the farm hour 6-7 AM."  His name disappears from the trades in the early 1950s, a mention that he was vacationing in Ocean City. 

Kenny Newton -  Newton was the fiddle player for the original Georgia Wildcats under Clayton "Pappy" McMichen in 1937.  Newton joined Slim Bryant and his Wild Cats in 1937 [SOURCE] A 1947 issue of Billboard described him as a "singing violinist from the hills of Pennsylvania." The last time I found his name in print was the Radio Television Daily of 1952 on a road trip through the Midewest while the band was taking time off.

Thomas Hoyt "Slim" Bryant - Slim Bryant was the vocalist and lead guitarist for the Wild cats. They performed on the Farm Hour weekdays 6:15 to 6:30 Monday Wednesday and Friday in the mid 1940s.  He died in 2010 at the age of 101. Slim really was from Georgia, and really was 6' 4". His band played regularly on KDKA for 19 years starting in 1941 running through about 1959.  He and his wire ran a gift shop starting in the 1960s, then later taught guitar lessons.

 

Raymond "Loppy" Bryant - Brother of Slim and founding member of the Wildcats. One of the last recordings for the Wild cats was a Square Dance mono LP on MGM/Lion  released in 1958. Loppy is credited as the dance caller. He retired to DormontPa and became a city councilman.

Jerry Wallace - Jerry played guitar backing up slim. In their more iconic photos he played an amplified Gibson L-5, where Slim usually played a Gibson L-5. He has virtually no press aside from the Wildcats. I should note he is not the same Jerry Wallace who recorded as "Jerry Wallace With The Jewels" in the late fifties, though with that guitar work you might think so.

Neal Wallace - A March 1946 issue of Broadcasting describes him  as the "Chief Announcer on KFBC.  Neal next appears in and Billboard 1946-1947 Encyclopedia of music as as announcing two shows: The Benny Goodman show and Musical Showcase both on KFBC, Cheyenne, WY.  A June, 1951 issue of Broadcasting, has him leaving KFBC in for KDKA to replace Bud Powell. A February, 1953 issue of Cashbox still lists Neal as a DJ at KDKA. It appears he left the station in 1955. Cash Box states "Neal Wallace, All Nite guy at KDKA-Pittsburegh, Pa.; taking a vacation from his 50,000 watts and platters." 

 

CENTER ROW

Bill Nesbitt - This name is more common than you might think. There was our Nesbitt at KDKA, the announcer for the DCSA Organ Melodies (Dairyman's Cooperative Sales Organization). Variety has him taking over the night time "Party Line program in June of 1956. Then Broadcasting magazine reports that he joined the WCAE staff in 1957 to host "Easy Listenin'".  In 1958 Variety records him still on staff at WCAE but on vacation, then in March of 1959 switching to nights.

Johnny Boyer -  A 1942 Movie and Radio Guide lists him on KDKA at 10:00 PM as "Jolly Johnny Boyer." In the 1946 KDKA Station Album Johnny Boyer appears on the news schedule at 11:15 PM after Bill Stern. Elsewhere in that same pamphlet he's described as a sportscaster. He had that slow at least a year earlier per Broadcasting magazine, [SOURCE] which they called a "Whirl Around the World of Sports." The same print ad was running with Boyer on it through at least 1950. I did find a Farm Hour glossy promo photo with Boyer and Homer Martz  as floating heads on the Wildcats. it implies that Boyer did some announcing on that program as well. A 1958 issue of Variety puts him on WCAE but still doing sports. 

Janet Ross - In 1946 Ross is listed in a KDKA album as the host of "Shopping Circle" Mon - Sat mornings. The program started before 1938 and ran until at last 1953. A 1943 issue of "The Beam" trade journal of the Association of Women Directors of NAB, (AWD) records that she spoke at one of their events with a bevy of other women directors working in radio.  [SOURCE] She was named Advertising Woman of the Year by the Pittsburgh Adclum for her 25th anniversary with KDKA in 1956. That puts her start around 1931. She remained with the station until at least 1957.

John Stewart -  He has his own show Program PM which ran from 8:00 to 10:00 PM and he was the announcer on Party Line. The hosts of that show were Ed and Windy King. The trio worked together through at least 1957. But a 1965 issue of Billboard lists Stewart on KDKA 9:00-10:00 M-Sat hosting "Program PM" doing interviews and reports. Sounds like a News Magazine program.

Ed Schaughency - The Uncle Ed Shaughency Show was launched in 1932 and continued until 1980. He also hosted the Starlets on Parade program in the 1940s. Uncle Ed was with KDKA radio for 48 years. He was survived by his widow Gertrude and his brother Paul. [LINK]  TV show 1957

BOTTOM ROW

Bernie Armstrong - Bernie was the bandmaster on the Musical Clock, a program hosted by Bill Hinds who's not pictured. He was also the conductor on The Duquene Show, a vocal ensemble with an orchestra and Singing Strings a 30 minute string ensemble program. Armstrong and Bodycombe chose the music and arrangements for programs. 

Paul Shannon - Host of Adventuress in Research, a program co-host with Dr. Phillips Thomas of Westinghouse. He also read poetry on a program called "The Dreamweaver." The show has been compared to Moon River on WLW. He also hosted the syndicated science-focused program Adventures in Research with Thomas Phillips. [SOURCE]  He went to WTAE-TV in 1958 to host a children's program "Adventuretime" which ran until 1979. He retired in 1975, and died in 1990.

Elaine Beverly - Born in Akron, OH she attended Duquesne University and began singing and dancing on a KDKA variety show named "Brunch." She and her husband Joe Mann married in 1946 and together why co-hosted a live daily half hour variety show "Meet Your Neighbor on KDKA-TV from 1951 to 1957. Her name change from Fierman to Mann helps date this image to before 1946. The couple moved on to performing on cruise ships. Joe died in 1971. Elaine got a straight job managing a retirement home in 1979. She died in 2004. 

Aneurin "Red" Bodycombe - A composer and organist at the First Presbyterian Church, Pittsburgh. He worked at Pittsburgh radio station KDKA starting in 1926. (some sources say 1929) He was born in 1899 in Wales and immigrated to the US after WWI. IN 1938 he directed the Stainless Steel Singers. KDKA gave up live programs in the late 1950s and he switched to sales. He retired from KDKA in 1964 and died in 1951. [SOURCE] He is known to have only recorded on one 78 rpm record with vocalist Bob carter. More here.

Radio Digest May 1930 

Evelyn Gardiner - Radio Digest puts Gardiner on KDKA as early as 1930. She was KDKA's resident Home Economist and host of The Home Forum and often made appearances with Janet Ross as she did with the AWD.  A 1937 issue of Motion Picture Daily Dorothy Allen was hired to assist her in her "Home Forum" broadcasts. A 1944 NAB report places her at KDKA running a Home Prize contest with Ross. A 1955 issue of Variety reports her resignation from KDKA after 25 years. She and her husband, composer Victor Saudek relocated to San Diego. A 1956 issue of Variety puts her at La Jolla High School teaching English and Journalism. Saudek directed the KDKA Little Symphony Orchestra beginning in 1922. 

Jim Westover - In 1947 he's mentioned among the staff of the comedy program "King for a Minute."  In 1949 he was selected as the announcer for the show "Americans, Speak Up! In 1951 he emceed Cinderella Weekend on KDKA. In 1962 he's mentioned in a US Steelworkers program on KDKA in passing. 1961 another passing reference narrating part of a special on Pearl Harbor. He was still with the station in 1958. In 1960 Radio TV Mirror describes him  "Noted for one of the finest voices in broadcasting, Jim Westover gathers and writes news as well."  There was also  Jim Westover on WGL in Ft. Wayne  IN. He was promoted to Chief announcer in 1945. They might be the same gentleman. (But the one on WEEI in the late sixties can't be him.) 

The Hebrew Christian Hour

This radio program is much more obscure than it probably should be.  The first information I found was in the form of a promotional postcard or flyer. The back is stamped "Gospel Crusaders, P.O. Box 845, Allentown, PA" Below that is a second stamp for the Bethlehem Revival Center on West Broad Street in Bethlehem, PA. The card is undated. That postcard, whatever it's vintage, lists only 6 radio stations. 

CALLS	FREQ	CITY	State
WVCH	740	Chester	PA
WIBG	990	Philadelphia	PA
WKAP	1320	Allentown	PA
WPIT	730	Pittsburgh	PA
WGCB	1440	Red Lion	PA
WWVA	1170	Wheeling	WV

There were many singing groups who were named Gospel Crusaders. Notably the Nyack Gospel Crusaders which were formed in 1944. There was one in Rhode Island founded by W. Robert Garlock around 1938. Yet another Gospel Crusaders played at 1550 WRHC-AM in Jacksonville, FL in 1957. In the late 1960s Brother John Phillips organized a Gospel Crusaders with a spot on 1580 KDAY-AM. 

None of those groups fit the time and place. I even found a Gospel Crusaders of Chester PA, but active in the 1990s. Right place, wrong time. The closest I found was a reference in the Gospel Herald [SOURCE] of 1950. It mentions The  Wayside Gospel Crusaders  of  Lancaster, PA. It's a possibility in a stack of wrong answers. In another section it puts them less specifically in Eastern, PA. This appears to have been a short-lived group, only peripherally related to Michelson. The Bethlehem Revival Center was also not much of a clue. It appears in newspapers into the 1970s. Google Maps images go back to 2008 and that year the signage read W.N. Serfass & Co, public accountants. It is no more. 

1948 Radio Annual

All of this is ancillary to the question of Dr. Arthur Urrah Michelson. At the bottom it gives his address at P.O. Box 707 Los Angeles, 53, CA. That "53" is a big hint. Five digit zip codes debuted in 1963. But starting in 1943 some cities began using two digit local zone numbers. This is our first bracket for dates. Also from that address I found a February 1952 issue [SOURCE] of The Jewish Hope linking the address to Dr. Arthur U. Michelson, editor of that very monthly publication. Michelson published an autobiography in 1943 which tells us he was born Kronach, Germany in 1886 and died in 1968. 

His autobiography is heavy on the theology and short on actual biographical facts but newspaper clippings put him at US revival events as early as 1932. His references to the 1922 German currency crisis give us a 10 year window for immigration. The book Studies in Contemporary Jewry: Volume XIV by Peter Y. Medding confirmed this general date but Jewish Social Studies Vol. 10 (1938) gave his arrival as 1931 in LA coming from Chicago, so late 1920s fits. His page on ancestry.com differs slightly, it cites Krone, Germany and his death in 1969... but it has other errors as well.  (Note, Krone was part of Prussia from 1772 to 1945, it's been part of Poland since 1945.) 

From My Life Story from 1943. A. Michelson (R)

That 1952 issue of the Jewish Hope does have references to radio. "I am grateful to the Lord that he has revealed himself to me and has given me the privilege of proclaiming the Gospel over the radio, which is the best method of reaching the Jews. Our radio broadcasts reach a potential audience of many millions every day." Most of it reads like that. It's all ministry and very little radio outside of his schedule.

Similarly, most print references to him are in sermons where he might be called "gallant soul" without telling us anything about the man's life. A newspaper will record that he spoke 3 churches in Sarasota FL in 1959, but not if he had a family. The one article I found that mentioned his wife did not even mention her name, only that she was Catholic. The Rocky Mountain News of August 31st, 1938 reported that he was formerly a judge in imperial German courts and attended the University of Berlin.  But back to that radio schedule in Jewish Hope. This one was from 1952. [SOURCE] A surprising number of affiliates are Canadian. A newspaper account reported that it was sold through a regular ad agency, apparently Tom Westwood. (see above) There was also a 1945 lawsuit corroborating that. [SOURCE].

CALLS	FREQ	CITY	State
CKPC	1380	Brantford	ON
CFCN	1060	Calgary	AB
WLXW	1380	Carlisle	PA
WVCH	740	Chester	PA
CHWK	1270	Chilliwack	BC
WDOK	1260	Cleveland	OH
KXXX	790	Colby	KS
KJSK	900	Columbus	NE
KROX	1260	Crookston	MN
KWDM	1150	Des Moines	IA
KGDE	1230	Fergus Falls	MN
WMRP	1510	Flint	MI
KWBC	970	Fort Worth	TX
KMMJ	750	Grand Island	NE
WFUR	1570	Grand Rapids	MI
CJCH	920	Halifax	NS
KGRI	1000	Henderson	TX
KLEE	610	Houston	TX
CFJC	910	Kamloops	BC
CKWS	960	Kingston	ON
CKCR	1490	Kitchener	ON
KCVR	1570	Lodi	CA
KGER	1390	Los Angeles	CA
WMBW	800	Miami Beach	FL
KEYD	1440	Minneapolis	MN
WKBZ	850	Muskegon	MI
CHVC	1600	Niagara Falls	ON
CJNB	1240	North Battleford	SK
WIBG	990	Philadelphia	PA
WPGH	1080	Pittsburgh	PA
KXL	750	Portland	OR
WSAY	1370	Rochester	NY
CKTB	620	St. Catherines	ON
KXA	770	Seattle	WA
KFNF	920	Shenandoa	IA
KSPO	1230	Spokane	WA
CKFH	1400	Toronto	ON
CKMO	1410	Vancouver	BC
CJVI	900	Victoria	BC
KBOK	1090	Waterloo	IA

I even eventually discovered that there are transcriptions of his sermons from radio broadcasts in the early 1950s, like this one recorded in December of 1952. (below) That card which gave his PO Box as in Los Angeles seems to predate his move to Minnesota. 

It appears he started making 1440 KEYD-AM his primary home in radioland after 1945 and before 1952. Multiple weekly issues of Radio Life list him on different stations; sometimes as the Hebrew Christian Hour and sometimes just by his name Dr. A.U. Michelson. [SOURCE] But I also found him on a KEYD schedule in October of 1954 in the St. Paul Pioneer Press. Issues of Radio Life from 1941 into 1944 of Radio Life puts his program on 570 KMTR-AM and no other listed stations. I believe that L.A. station was his original home base starting before February of 1942. Some 1941 issues list him as splitting his 60 minute spot with music from 7-7:15 then Clifford E. Clinton until 7:30 and Michelson taking the balance of the hour. January and September 1945 issues puts him on KFOX. More here and here. I have not resolved a time gap between 1945 and 1952, but he remained on air until at least 1958. [SOURCE]

Eventually I discovered a possible reason that Michelson dissapeared from radioland. He was doing crime, though it's unclear if he went to prison. The book The Social History of Crime and Punishment in America by Wilber R. Miller spells out that he committed multiple felonies as the head of Jewish Hope. His crimes include false representations, mail fraud and embezzling. The book is a hefty five volume set so you'll have to settle for the cliff notes. He was investigated by the Federal Post office and the Better Business Bureau and his operation was found to be unsatisfactory. The language is academic and gentle but the charges were felonies.

Michelson was the executive head of Jewish Hope and received funds from his radio broadcasts, and through the mail with the Jewish Hope magazine, circulars and evangelistic trips. His salary was $17,418 per year which is $403k in today's dollars. Above that salary he and/or his family collected another $9,023, or another $209k in 2026 dollars which were all excluded from the books of Jewish Hope. Miller cites FBI Memorandum as his source and I corroborated this in the Jewish Social Studies journal where they describe the doings of Arthur Michelson as "nefarious" and "unethical." In 1949 the Indianapolis Jewish Post reported that Michelson took 2 out of every 3 dollars in donations and took home a million dollars a year. 

The Eastern Shore of Virginia

Delmarva is interesting enough on it's own geographically. but the Eastern Shore of Virginia has some real radio oddities. (It also has some colorful town names like central PA, but that's not a radio thing. )  But why is that shore part of Virginia anyway? It's only connected to Virginia by bridge, by land it's adjacent to Maryland.  Well per the original 1609 land grant Virginia consisted of the North American coast stretching 200 miles north and south of what we now call Hampton, VA. the real question is why does Maryland exist?  An English nobleman, By way of his father George, Cecil Calvert managed to lobby King Charles I to carve a land grant from Virginia in 1642. Anyway, that's all ancient history. It's less strange than what happened to East and West New Jersey. 

Because of the Chesapeake Bay many shoreline stations have unexpectedly large and asymmetrical coverage areas. The local big MSA is #37: Virginia Beach–Norfolk–Newport News, VA–NC, with an estimated 2023 population of 1,787,169. That part of the Delmarva peninsula is broken into two counties: Accomack and Northampton. They are both technically part of the Norfolk MSA, but many of these stations have little coverage in the metro center because of that geography.

But outside of that orbit, many stations serve their communities in the greater bay area. You might try the map in the dxtra.com website visualizing that geography. It you look up the lat/long of the antennas you will also see how rural this area is, with most towers surrounded by farm land. 

88.9 WMVA - The station has no relation to the former WMVA-AM in Martinsville, VA. That was cancelled in 2019.  This one is in Painter, VA and was only first licensed in June of 2023. The original 2021 CP was with Friendship Cathedral who still operate the station today. 

89.1 WHAR - These calls were previously on 105.1 in Havelock, NC from 2018 to 2024 and that station was also broadcasting Air-1 satcast christian music. WHAR signed on in 2005 in Cheriton, VA and in being in Cape Charles, it signal does cross the bay and reach into the metro center. Air-1 generally shuffles call letters often, which complicates the history. But I think it's always been a religious satcaster.   Print sources confirm that 89.1 Cheriton was formerly WWIP. Those calls go back to it's start in 1998. The original CP lists the Delmarva Educational Association which still owns the license today. In April of 2024 they flipped calls to WHAR. If you go looking please remember that from about 1993 - 1998 there was a CHR station with the WWIP calls on 105.9 in Wabash, IN.  Not them.

90.1 WHRX - This 46,000 watt stick is a simulcast of WHRV, out of Nassawadox, and it's coverage doesn't each much further south than Cape Charles. Oddly it's been through several call sign changes. The station was launched as WJCN in 2002, became WHRE in 2010, then WHRJ in 2011 and the WHRX later that same year. I'm not sure why all the shuffling.  But those calls intimate an acquisition, and the tower is Nandua High School intimating a connection, but that was not the case. Prior to 2010 the stick was owned by Positive alternative Radio inc and aired Spirit FM. The original 1998 CP lists only Nassawadox FM Inc. Only in the 2002 Assignment of Authorization does that change to CSN international. Both M Street and VARTV corroborate this [LINK] that CP so it's not an entry error. The corporation was real. It was incorporated in 1998 in Boca Raton, FL. [SOURCE] Radio Business magazine [SOURCE] reported that they sold the CP to CSN Int'l for 80k. It smells like a shell company.  Anyway also read that the WHRO format flip started with an all-Christmas format stunt which is more fun. 

90.7 WZLV - Being situated on the tip of the peninsula, this station penetrates into Norfolk and Virginia Beach. It's a shame the signal is wasted on K-love. The station signed on as WAZP in 1998 owned by Delmarva Educational Association. It changed calls to WZLV only in 2010. The Broadcasting yearbook of 2007 claims the station signed on in 2000 with K-love which confirms. Back then it was the only stick in Cape Charles too. What a waste.

91.5 W218CQ - This is a simulcast of WYFQ, a AM/FM station duo out of Charlotte, NC. That station has no earthly business operating a repeater in the Chesapeake, about 280 miles away... but it does. It's another example of religious satcaster obeying no earthly laws. It's operated by the Bible Broadcasting Network. The FCC lists it as silent today due to a fire on April 7th 2026. Hey, that was last week!

91.9 WHRE - This 4,400 watt stick is a simulcast of WHRV, who's coverage doesn't each much further north than Cape Charles. Per the FCC it signed on in December of 2010 with the call sign WHRJ, then changed to WHRE in January of 2011. This stick broadcasts from the grounds of Northampton High School in Eastville, VA. The original 2007 CP lists the applicant as Hampton Roads Educational Telecommunications so I think it's safe to say that this has always been a WHRO/WHRV public radio property.

96.1 WROX - Technically in Exmore, this is basically in Cape Charles. This station signed on in 1986  as WIAV, "Wave 96" with a CHR format. A lightning strike took them off air in 1987 and it was sold to Bishop L.E. Willis and co-owned 1550 WVAB-AM but spinning off the AM stick. By the end of 1988 the calls where changed to WKSV,and in 1989 WXRI with a Christian AC format.  In 1991 they tried an Urban Contemporary format and changed calls to WMYK.  Sinclair  bought the stick in 1993 and flipped the format to rock. then in 1998 it became WROX. In the 1990 Broadcasting yearbook they're listed under Virginia Beach instead of Cape Charles. They had a repeater on 106.1 downtown for years but lost is to the full service WUSH-FM in 2004. But back to WVAB-AM for a moment, they had a very interesting history. 1550 WVAB broadcast from 1954 to 2018, and after an FCC investigation Birach Broadcasting surrendered the license for it and 1450 WBVA-AM. WVAB had been off air since 2008 due to "vandalism" at that time. Birach only bought the station from the very politically connected Kellam family that same year. Hmmmm

96.9 WCCZ - The station signed on in 2005 as WFAJ, in Nassawadox owned by Hispanic Target Media, Inc. They are a well known operator, which currently owns 22 stations, though they've deleted at least another 5 in recent years. Even at at 13,500 watts, this station reaches Newport News but only the very shores of Norfolk; a glancing blow on the metro center. When it was airing the Radio Amigo format it was a huge Reg Mex station. In 2024 it was sold to GSB Media who flipped the format to Classic Hits. 

98.3 WHRF - This 6,000 watt stick is a simulcast of WHRO, who's coverage doesn't each much further South than Cape Charles. The original 2009 CP was filed by Hampton Roads Educational Telecommunications so very little has changed for this stick in the last 15+ years. 

99.3 WOWZ - Like WCCZ, this is a GSB Media property today. The station was founded in 1987, by Eastern Shore Broadcasting but DBA the Chincoteague Broadcasting Corporation.  That was a Stephen Marks company like The Marks Group. They entered radio in 1983 in a big way acquiring 51% of Thunder Bay Broadcasting. Then it owned only WKBKB-TV in Alpena, MI. But under Marks they went into acquisition mode. In 2022, Marks died and his window began selling off their radio properties. WOWZ signed on in 1990 as WVES, the WOWZ calls only began in 2017, six years before WOWZ was sold to GSB Media. The station has been playing country as far back as I can confirm, at least 20 years.

103.3 WESR - This station signed on in 1068, 10 years after their AM sister station. Initially a simulcast, as a Vernon Baker station it was acquired by Eastern Shore Radio in 1987 and the FM stick split off to broadcast MOR.  More here.

105.7 W289CE - This little translator broadcasts WESR-AM. Both W289CE and 103.3 WESR-FM we're knocked off air recently, April 7th by a transmitter fire. That's surely the same fire that took out W218CQ. In the daytime it's pretty redundant to that AM signal on 1330, but at night WESR-AM powers down from 5,000 watts to 51 so it doubles the coverage area with just 250 watts. I notice the tower is across the street from an Elks Lodge (BPOE 1766). ...A lot of lodges have a bar inside, I'll bet some of the staff are members.

1330 WESR-AM - This is the only AM stick in either Accomack or Northampton county; so that also makes it the only one in the Virginia section of the Delmarva Peninsula. This AM stick is the original local station for the Eastern Shore. They signed on in January of 1958, the product of a meeting between a hotel owner, Charles F. Russell and Vernon Baker, a Virginia tech professor who founded many radio stations. It is audible miles out to sea, and due to it's coverage pattern, it covers parts to both the Washington D.C. market and Norfolk, though more of the former. I listened to it this evening and Coastal Country was Darius Rucker while the FM stick was playing the Pointer Sisters "Neutron Dance."