A Yugoslavian Radio Archive (Part 1)

Yugoslavia [LINK] is no more. Yugoslavia  only existed from existed from 1918 to 1992 and in many ways it was Josip Broz Tito though force of will, (and every other kind of force) which allowed it to survive that long. Slobodan Milosevic was able to wrest sovereignty for Serbia and without that majority, the states separated. But let's move on from the big political story to our side quest. 

As an unexpected side-effect, this break up led ICANN to retire the .yu top level domain in March of 2010. [SOURCE] (This is well explained by Jacob Filipp.) [SOURCE]  So in 2010, the majority of Yugoslavian websites dissapeared, or migrated to other TLDs, including every radio station website. That would be the end of it, nothing but human memory and magnetic decay, except that the Wayback Machine exists... 

 

With thanks to the miracle of the Wayback Machine have cached copies of many of these radio stations just as they were prior to 2010, though many ceased updates prior to 2002. There were lots of animated gifs. This is not a complete list of course, Yugoslvia was  almost 99k square miles in size. That's about the size of Wyoming in American terms. Consider this a highlight reel.

RADIO 106 [LINK] - Radio 016 began operating on March 29, 1993. It was the first radio station in southern Serbia and the third in Serbia after Radio "PINGVIN from Belgrade and Radio 34 from Kragujevac). It operated on the frequency 101.60 MHz and with a 250 watt transmitter.

RADIO 021 [LINK] The earliest capture is from 1999 and mysteriously reports  "On Thursday, March 25, the Federal Ministry of Telecommunications temporarily confiscated the transmitter of Radio 021, which has not yet been returned." They appear to have returned to broadcasting and the website continued to be updated through early 2007  referring to a new domain outside of Yugoslavia [LINK] perhaps not feeling very confident about the future of the new TLD.

 

RADIO 101 [LINK]  MUSIC RADIO 101, claimed to be the first and oldest music radio in the country, but only began broadcasting on May 3, 1989. It broadcast on 101.4 and 98.5 MHz. Though the resume of EIC Zarko Obradović I found the station came from the Radio Belgrade "EKO Program" in the 1980s. This source confirms Radio 101 stopped broadcasting in 2006. [SOURCE]

RADIO 103 [LINK] Radio 103 is a radio station located in Subotica, and covers the area of ​​North Bačka and part of the area of ​​West Banat in Serbia near the Hungarian border. It first signed on in 1989 and had been on air for 17 years when the website ceased updates. 

 

Radio 31 [LINK] Radio 31 broadcast from Užice in what is now Western Serbia. It began operating on April 1, 1993. It was block formatted in that era, playing pop and rock but with robust new programming. It seems to be primarily folk  music now. They exist today as Radio 31+ an internet-only station on a Russian TLD. [LINK]

RADIO 5 [LINK]  Radio 5 had a fun anthropomorphic bio. It described itself as a Leo born on August 10, 2001 in Novi Sad. It first broadcast on 107.5 MHz and signed on formally on 20 at 11.55 AM. 

RADIO 90 [LINK] Radio 90 is still using the same yunord email they had on their site in 2005. They are still on air and have been broadcasting since August 11, 2000. 

RADIO ADA [LINK] Their 2009 site was just a .pls file an an animated gif. Earlier versions had a little more information. The station was based on Vojvodina on 107.7. They are still on air but have no website that I can fine. 

RADIO ANTENA [LINK]  In Novi Sad on 106.0 Mhz this station described it self as "folk radio." Older versions have little info aside from broadcast schedules. The images show kids which made me think it was a college station.

RADIO AS [LINK]  This station broadcast on 101.2 starting on October 26th 2000 in Novi Sad. It mised music and talk radio programming. Their coverage map confirms they also broadcast on 101.6 in Subotica with some signal clearly receivable in Hungary.

RADIO BARAJEVO [LINK] Broadcasting from 105.9 this station broadcast from Barajevo in Belgrade, Serbia. It appears to be some kind of municipal service. The site was taken down before 2003 and had not been updated since 1999.

RADIO BEOGRAD [LINK] This was also known as Radio Yugoslavia. Versions of the page exist from 2007 which reveal a third draft of the site. Another cache exists on a .com domain here. No cache of Beograde 2 survives. The station still exists today operating 8 channels: Radio Belgrade 1, Radio Belgrade 2, Radio Belgrade 3, Radio Belgrade 202, Radio (RTS) Vrteshka, Radio (RTS) Rockenroller, Radio (RTS) Jukebox, and Radio (RTS) Pletenica. Vrteška, Rokenroler, Jukebox and Pletenica only signed on in 2019. 

RADIO BISER [LINK] Radio Biser was a folk station operating on 105.8 first signing on 05-08-1995 in Orovnik in what is now Macedonia.  In 1998 they added Biser Plus on 87.9 Mhz and starting in 2002 UHF channel 53 as Television Biser. The site stopped updating around 2002.

RADIO BIS [LINK] Radio Bis was another folk music station. In 2005 boat that it aired original national music "devoid of kitsch and Islamization." Oh my. Their motto was "Sumadija radio for generations from two to one hundred and two years old" Sumadija was presumably it's city of license, probably near it's capital, Kragujevac in Serbia.

RADIO BUBA MARA [LINK]  This cache is mostly a history of broken gifs. There is one bright yellow incarnation from 2004 which mysteriously says to click on the Ladybug. All links beyond are broken. The station still exists on 105.2. They are self-described as Macedonia's favorite online radio station.[LINK]  The new site has a history page which traces the station back to April 1994 as the most listened to station in Skopje.

 

RADIO BRAVO [LINK]  Very little of this site was cached. It broadcast on 103.5 from Pokrivamo Croatia. The motto "good music lovers club" implies it was a music station. 

RADIO BUM [LINK] The page was constructed entirely of gifs carefully positioned. One cache from 2002 yielded the below logo. A 2007 cache yielded a station history. It signed on April 26th 2001. broadcasting music and news from Boljevac, Timocka Krajina, Serbia.

RADIO BUCA [LINK] Radio Buca was founded on November 20, 2000 as a folk music station. It was on 89.0 Mhz broadcasting out of Novi Sad.  

RADIO BUS [LINK] Bus appears to be a community station of some kind.  The history gives no start date but reports "The main mission of BUS radio is to inform, entertain and educate the target group of citizens in the wide area where BUS can be heard."  They broadcast on 94.1 in Novi Sad.

RADIO B92 [LINK] This station was the leading independent pro-democracy station in Yugoslavia. It was shut down by the Serbian government in April 1999.  The site moved freeb92.net by 2000. That year their about section became mostly about their survival. " Information and contributions from a number of associates will also be published on the Free B92 site. These will throw more light on the bombing of Yugoslavia and the consequences of this. The common aim of these projects is to preserve the spirit of professionalism which has been stripped from everyday communication in Yugoslavia through the Belgrade regime’s banning and takeover of Radio B92."

RADIO CITY [LINK] This site was built in flash so most of the content was lost. From the one surviving line of text I gather is was a news station. There are multiple stations with that brand today in the region.

RADIO DAK [LINK] Another folk station. This one was 9 years old in 2006 meaning it was founded around 1997.  The station broadcast on 106.3 from Ćuprija. Their logo includes what is surely an unlicensed image of Daffy duck so I'm not going to post it. This may be a pun.  Dak does not mean duck, it means station. These are english letters in a nation which mostly uses Cyrillic letter. So Radio Dak means radio station. (радио дак is Duck Radio)

RADIO DELFIN [LINK] According to the website Radio Delfin is the most listened to radio station in Uzice. It plays all commercial music except folk, which might be a relief by now. It also has no news. Their signal covered an area which included Ovčar Banja and Zlatibor in Serbia.

RADIO DOINA [LINK]  Radio D 96 actually had an English version. This station was based hear the Romanian border in Grabovica, Serbia.They had little information posted but a small pology for their home brew HTML page " We have not abandoned the updating of the presentation, but at the moment the connection to the Internet is quite bad, so a lot of effort is put into updating it." There are three station with that brand now in the region but none on 96. 

RADIO DUGA [LINK] This station operated on 100.2 in Pozarevac in the Braničevo District in eastern Serbia. They were the third private station in Serbia and broadcast live in the style of Radio Luxembourg. It began broadcasting April 28th 1992. This site was last updated in 2006.

RADIO DUNAV [LINK] Dunav broadcast on 98.8 in Novi sad and 99.5 in Belgrade. The website had no info beyond that and the heart-like logo. A station with that brand operated today on 101.5 [LINK]  It purports to have been using the brand since May 18th, 1998 from Vukovar in Croatia. It also reports that over the years they have broadcast locla programs in the languages of "Hungarian, Ukrainian and Ruthenian national minorities."  That's only the second time I've ever read the word Ruthenian but we will get to Dorothy Thompson another time. It describes the music mix as  (50% folk-folk , 25% local pop-rock and 25% foreign music). That's how Canada does it right? 

RADIO DZENARIKA [LINK] This station broadcast on 103.8. Dzenzarika just means plum.  Modern streaming sites describe it as a Serbian folk station. It signed on in 1992 and is based in Cack Serbia. [SOURCE] 

RADIO GAGA [LINK]  Radio GAGA was the first private radio station in the Jablaničko Okrug, which started broadcasting in 1994. It operated on 105.0 Mhz broadcasting mostly news. 

RADIO GALEB [LINK]  Broadcasting on 104.6 this station covered the municipalities of Veliko Gradište, Golubac, Požarevac and parts of the municipalities of Smederevo, Majdanpek, Petrovac na Mlavi, Kucevo, Bela Crkva, Vršac, Kovin, Žagubic. They first began broadcasting on February 14th 1995. Their motto means "Fly On Wings of Radio - The Seagull"

RADIO HORREUM MARGI [LINK] Aka Radio Margi, this station broadcast from Ćuprija, on  95.1 MHz. It signed on in 1992 as the first local radio station in the city.  It apped a second signal on 100.3 as a simulcast. They advertised a 100 km coverage area. The Romans founded the town as a fort Horreum Margi, and the station is named for it.  (It means Marava River Granary) 

 

RADIO INDEX [LINK] This website cache is covered in news blurbs from 2001. There is an English version of the page with a history! [LINK]  It was founded in June of 1992 as a college radio station by Nenad Cekic and a group of enthusiastic Belgrade University students, over the years Radio Index grew into a major player on 99.8 FM in Serbia's media landscape. Their media coverage included protests against Milosevic. The station was banned by Milosevic in 1998, and it's EIC Nenad Cekic arrested. After NATO bombing ended in 1999, Radio Index returned after 9 months of silence. 

RADIO JAT [LINK] Radio Jat was established on March 21st, 1999 on 95.7 MHz in the Belgrade area. It aired a mix of popular music and news. Station manager Momcilo Kostic might be the same one who teaches engineering at U. of Sarajevo today.

RADIO KNEZ [LINK]  Every cache version of this site is all broken image links. A couple Top 10s survive. There is no information online. 

RADIO KULA [LINK] Radio Kula broadcast on UKT 89.2 Mhz for 6-24 hours and programs are in broadcast in three languages: Serbian, Hungarian and Ruthenian. They operated out of the Information and Propaganda Center KULA (IPC Kula) and printed a newspaper called the Kula Commune. It appears to have been liquidated in 2007. [SOURCE]

RADIO KRAJINA [LINK]  - no info, just links to other sites. The incomplete site was retired before it was finished. They are still around today on a new domain.[LINK] The new station about section has no history. But their new site dopes have a 24/7 folk music stream. 

 

XE2MH

I found this (above) nicely designed QSL card on eBay. [SOURCE]  The image was very eye catching so I wanted to look into it. It confirms a radio reception window between February 12th, 1947 to the following March 12th. It gives the frequency as 3.5 megacycles and noted 569 CW. CW is continuous Wave. But that "569 "is RST signal reporting code for Readability, Signal Strength and Tone. Suffice it to say reception was quite good. [SOURCE]  The writer closes with 73 which is “Best Regards." But cursive being cursive, I can't read the signature very well. More here.

Enrique Lobo y Lobo Jr.

Thankfully there are many resources for identifying old ham radio calls. The Summer 1946 Radio Amateur Callbook links the calls on the back to Enrique Lobo y Lobo, 8816 Morelos Ave in Monterrey, N.L Mexico. That Nuevo León address appears to be a clothing store now.  That's when I noticed the address in the Callbook doesn't match the QSL card. It gives the address as 870 Abasolo in Monterrey NL which is now a restaurant called Trece Lunas. [LINK] That turns out not to be important but the restaurant looks like my kind of joint. 

 

Samuel Pang Barajas

In 1947 Enrique Lobo y Lobo appears in the 1947 816 Morelos. I found a obituary that reports his daughter, Josefina Lobo Quiroga died in 2020 at the age of 94. She founded the Girl Guides of Mexico. It looks something like the girl scouts. [SOURCE]. Enrique compiled a family history in 1972. (The blog as it stands, seems to be incomplete.) [LINK] My first good source is when Enrique won a DX contest in 1952 from which we finally see an image. [SOURCE] I suspect he is Enrique Jr. because there is no way this is a picture of a man who had a daughter 25 years earlier. Josefina has to be his mother, an Aunt or a much older sibling. 

Enrique also appears in the book Breve Historia de La Radioafición Mexicana or A Brief History of Mexican Amateur Radio by Pablo A. Mooser XE1SR.  [SOURCE] That book confirms there was a Jr. and Sr. It has an image of Sr. at XE2W in 1937. Mr. Mooser was the president of the Liga Mexicao de Radio Experimentores. [SOURCE] That was not his only book on radio. He also wrote Apuntes Sobre La Historia De La Radio Aficion En Mexico or  Notes on the History of Amateur Radio in Mexico. in 2021.  I would love to find copies of either of these, physical or virtual.

Ralph Held (L), Mooser at center and Leland Smith (R) from World Radio 1987

But then in 1949 the XE2MH calls are assigned to someone else, Samuel Pang Barajas. He's at 301 Linares Pte, in Monterey NL. The current Google maps image (2022) is from a less than glamorous moment. The building is being renovated and a toilet sits on the sidewalk.  There is also no obvious connection between Lobo y Lobo and Barajas. But working in the same area, with the same hobby they probably at least knew of each other. 

Anyway, Pang holds onto those calls until 1953 and then they stop appearing... until 1989. I did find his obituary [LINK] and from that we know he died in 2004 at the age of 87. Mr. Barajas was a real true radio man, not just a hobbyist. He was a radio engineer at XEW and founder of XER. He was also an engineering professor at the University of Nuevo Leon. [SOURCE] I translated his obituary below.

Born in Linares on April 29, 1917, he was the son of Samuel Pang Lim—of Chinese descent—and Ines Barajas, a native of Galeana. He pursued his university studies at the IPN (National Polytechnic Institute) in Mexico City, earning a degree in Electrical Communications Engineering. He worked at station XEW, and later at *Radio Programas de México*, a broadcasting enterprise owned by Clemente Serna Martínez. In Linares, he established station XER—among other stations located throughout the Mexican Republic. On April 28, 1954, he married Alma Gallardo Cázarez, with whom he raised a family; their children were Alma, Leticia, Cristina, and Samuel. He was a member of the founding faculty at Preparatoria 4 (High School No. 4) in Linares, where he taught Physics. It is worth noting that during the high school's early years, none of the teachers received any remuneration for their services. He was the proprietor of the *La Estrella* bakery. In Linares, he also installed the city's first Christmas lighting display, its first ice factory, and its first electric power plant; furthermore, he was the individual responsible for installing the first electric power plant for the Villaseca Fair. Samuel Pang and his family resided in Linares until 1965, when they relocated to Monterrey, where he passed away on November 31, 2004.

In 1989 the XE2MH calls reappear in the hands of Jose Simeon Ramirez Solis in Tamulipas and he held it until at least 1997.  The funny thing I never figured out about the post card is that there's a Mexico City PO box on the front of the card. It was preprinted with two different calls, and two different addresses. That's 900 miles away from Monterrey. At first the connection was unclear. So let's get back to that signature.

It looks like Juan Lobo y Lobo, not Enrique. I think it's safe to assume they are relatives. I did eventually find Juan Lobo y Lobo. He too turns out to be very accomplished radio man. In 1957 he's listed in CQ magazine as Juan Lobo y Lobo, Rodriguez Saro 308, Mexico but the call sign is XE1A. Eureka! I had misread the call sign on the front of the QST card because of the graphic; the A isn't just decorative. It's the last letter of the call sign. 

Juan Lobo y Lobo appears regularly in the Radio Amateur Callbook for decades usually with the PO Box, 339 Mexico D.F.  He's often in the same issues as Enrique. It may have been competitive. In Radio magazine of January 1940 Juan wrote in to let readers know that his 5-meter transmitter and HF100s were moving to Mexico City. It notes two call signs: XE1A and XE2N. Sure enough, when I found him in an earlier 1934 issue of Radio Amateur Callbook he was listed at 188 Bolivar in Monterrey NL. 

But it turns out that Juan Lobo y Lobo is an all-time  DX record holder. He appears in an Amperex Electronics ad like a celebrity endorsement in a 1937 issue of QST magazine.  [SOURCE]. I would guess Juan is a brother to Enrique and Uncle to Enrique Jr.  He also appears in the May 1937 issue [SOURCE] a member of a very accomplished radio family. 

In 1937 Juan got his WAC, a certificate which confirmed he had already Worked All Continents. He set a DX record as XE2N, with 566 QSOs and 39 multipliers on 1.7, 3.9, 14 and 28 MHz. He operated for 50 hours and 50 minutes. A November 1948 issue of QST notes Top CW score among contestants outside W/VE has been made each year since 1938 by Juan Lobo y Lobo of Mexico under the calls XE1A, XE2N or XF1A. 

"...And each year his total has grown greater. Juan’s 41-QSOs-per-hour record of last year seemed like all it was humanly possible for one operator to accomplish. Imagine our amazement when XFlA’s 1948 log showed 55.5 QSOs/hour — an even 3000 QSOs, multiplier of 85 and final score of 765,000 points in 54 hours of operation!! Juan’s most successful hour brought contacts with 70 stations and his best minute of operation resulted in 4 QSOs! His multiplier of 85 also set a new record, topping last year’s high figure by 10 points. Working on 3.5, 7, 14, 27 and 28 Me., XF1A missed only VE5 on 3.5 Me., VE8 on 3.5, 7, 27 and 28, to fall 5 points short of the perfect multiplier. We again salute you, Juan, on as commendable a demonstration of operating ability as it has ever been our pleasure to acknowledge!"

There were literally still Hams talking about his accomplishments in issues of World Radio in the 1980s. [SOURCE] To my knowledge his record QSO record still stands. In 1956 he came back and QST magazine reported that "Juan Lobo y Lobo has probably established more firsts in ARRL DX contests than anyone. He was an enthusiastic regular under the calls XElA, XFlA or XE2N from the thirties until 1950."

The First Female DJ in Los Angeles

In the November 12th, 1977 issue of Billboard you will find the feature "Women Emerging as Format DJs." It's an important reference article in the history of radio, and one of those rare occasions where women DJs get multiple pages of ink in a trade magazine. Unfortunately it's author is unaccredited. 

"At one point in the history of modern radio a female air personality was almost unheard of, and this is quite an interesting psychological aspect of the medium since early radio featured some excellent female entertainers such as Jinx Falkenberg, Jane Ace, Jane Webb, Harriet Nelson, June Foray, Janet Waldo, Molly Jordan (of Fibber McGee & Molly fame) Lillian Randolph, and Alice Reinhart for example." 

This week I'm looking into just one of those DJs histories. Cherie Sannes worked as a registered nurse for six years before she went into broadcasting. None of these primary sources cite her original surname. Originally from Ohio, she got the surname Sannes from her first husband, a doctor at Carmel Community Hospital where she worked as a nurse. In 1975 she began hosting a weekend public-service interview show on 101.7 KLRB-FM. More here.

Monterey Peninsula Herald - August 1974

KLRB (FM102) was a progressive, free-form FM station in the same vein as 106.7 KPPC in Pasadena and 106.9 KMPX-FM in San Francisco. The station originally signed on in 1971. The Monterey Peninsula Herald reported that Cherie joined the staff in October 1973, as "a registered nurse with no broadcasting background."  In May 1983 it flipped to country and the call letters changed...to KWST but Cherie was already long gone. Several of the staffers went on to work at KMBY, like Cherie.

Cherie moved to the Top-40 station 1240 KMBY-AM in 1975 and there she became “Cherie the Midnight Lady” where she worked overnights. One of her listeners was Sonny Melendez of KMPC. He invited her up to Los Angeles to audition on his show. The Billboard article confuses this story a bit but she did not get an offer from 710 KMPC-AM. But perhaps it gave her higher aspirations. When she was told that KFMB in San Diego was looking for a new female voice she flew down to do a live audition for B-100 Program Director Bobby Rich. Cherie became their first female DJ. [SOURCE]

 

100.7 KFMB-FM had only dropped it's Easy Listening format in 1975. In the late 1960s their slogan was"Music Only For A Woman."  [I can't imagine actually saying that into a microphone.]  Suffice it to say that it's Rock format was a huge change. KFMB was competing directly with 1170 KCBQ-AM. In 1975 the B100 original line up was Rob Landree, Dave Conley, Rocketman (aka Scott Wright), Willie B Goode, Jimi Fox, Gary Kelley, Kevin Anderson, Phil Flowers and Billy Martin. Terri Lynn was the news person and the only woman on the air staff. A year later Fox departed taking some staff with him and the playlist was reformulated with more Top-40.  When Cherie was hired about then and the new line up was Gene Knight, Gary Kelley, Danny Wilde, Christopher Lance, Cherie Sannes, Jimmy Rogers, Glen McCartney and Uncle Fred Stemen. [SOURCE] 

In the Fall 1977 Arbitron ratings, KFMB became the first FM station to be number 1 in a major market. At the time of that "Women Emerging" Billboard article in 1977, Cherie was doing a 2:00 - 6:00 weekday shift and a 7-11 shift on Saturdays. The article also made a point to say she was the oldest DJ on the station at 30 years old. So we know she was born around 1977 and is around 79 today. [The authors need to reveal this detail is how I the piece was written by a man.] 

 

Less than a year later, in 1978 Cherie joined Brian Berne and Brother John Rydgren at 101.1 KRTH (K-Earth) in Los Angeles as their first female jock. R&R announced it in their December 8 issue [SOURCE] with one economical sentence: "Cherie Sannes has joined the staff at KRTH/Los Angeles from B100/San Diego."  Their she worked nights and hosted Spotlight, a celebrity interview program. Air staff at the time included Shotgun Tom Kelley who also tenured at KFMB. She stayed with K-Earth for five years, her longest run at any one station. (Alex Cosper lists Cherie at KHJ in 1979 - 1982. This is because 101.1 KRTH was KHJ-FM from 1943–1972.) [SOURCE]

 

The peak of her popularity was probably at KRTH. Ed Harrison wrote a half-page feature on her for Billboard in June of 1981. In an interview quoted in that article she considered the importance of her role as a feminist trailblazer. she said: 

"Things have changed today to a certain degree, and women deejays are much less of a novelty. My KLRB experience was an exciting opportunity to change attitudes about women disk jockeys. ... Five years ago, we had few female role models and therefore many women, including myself, found it frustrating, but rewarding, to be the so-called 'pioneers' in a traditionally male-dominated field..."

According to most sources, Cherie left KRTH in about 1982. The Carmel Pine Cone [SOURCE] describes her moving directly to "Power 106" KPWR but this is not exactly accurate. Omitted is her short tenure at KOST doing weekends. This is noted in the Dec 4th, 1982 issue of Billboard. Cherie also was at 105.9 before it was KPWR, when it was still KMGG (Magic 106). Billboard reports in February of 1983 that she was working weekends and performing additional duties as their promotion director.

Power 106 didn't exist until 1986 when KMGG flipped from traditional Top-40 to a very 80s dance-forward, almost proto-CHR format complete with with shock jocks. Their playlist concluded disco, dance, urban and Top-40 hits and their new calls were KPWR. The station is still KPWR today but Cherie left the station around that time, probably as part of a staffing shake up. 

After KMGG Cherie left radio to work in healthcare management. She had been the first female DJ in two metros and at least 3 different stations. How does anyone follow up an iconic career like that? She became Cherie Stock when she remarried in 2008. Her husband Bob Stock was a former news anchor at KSBW-TV. She retired in 2009 and took up painting. Good for her. More here and here.

The Whistling Brakeman

No, not the Singing Brakeman, that's Jimmie Rodgers. This is the lesser known Whistling Brakeman, George E. Nearpass III. Sources alternately give his middle name as Edward or Edwin. His gravestone just uses the initial. Nearpass was born March 5th, 1886 in Hart, MI. He really was a railroad brakeman. reputedly, he began working for the Pennsylvania railroad in 1900 as a newsboy at the age of 12. There's a little family information here. 

Overall, there isn't much information online for Nearpass. The earliest print reference I've found to Nearpass is in a 1925 issue of Traffic World, a railway journal. It reports as follows:

"The entertainment features were provided by an orchestra from Plymouth, Ind., the Broadway Quartet, composed of Pennsylvania employees in the Pittsburgh office, and George E. Nearpass, the “whistling brakeman,’ an employee of the Pennsylvania at Butler, Ind. "

The earliest radio appearance that I found documented was in a 1928 issue of Railway Age. It describes George performing on 720 WCCO-AM in St. Paul, MN on October 31st. The station was only 3 years old at the time, and had only change calls from WLAG a year earlier. Two years later it would join the NBC Red network. 

I found a promotional postcard for "Mr. Geo. E. Nearpass." It's stamped KFNF, and date stamped from April of 1929. The recipient is in Kansas City, MO.  This was the original 920 KFNF-AM in Shenandoah, IA and owned by the Henry Field Seed Co. It signed on in 1924. The stamped call letters suggest they were stamped for the different appearances and the same post cards shipped from each. There are some which are not stamped at all. More here and here. 

In addition to the radio performances they are even more dinner performances, conventions, banquets, and other small venues. One 1930 newspaper article described him as a vaudeville entertainer which is very apt. Some articles describe him as being able to whistle three tones at the same time, impossibly imitating a banjo while playing air banjo. [There's a phrase I never thought I'd write.]

 The Indianapolis Times of April 1929 describes one of these appearances.

"George E. Nearpass, 1429 East Vermont Street, known as “The Whistling Brakeman,” who recently has returned from a twenty-state radio broadcasting tour, will appear at the April dinner of the John H Holliday Jr. post, American Legion, at the First Presbyterian church, Tuesday evening.

Nearpass, who is a Pennsylvania brakeman between Indianapolis and South Bend, when he is not on broadcasting trips, has been heard over WLW, WLS, KDKA and other big stations, in his original monologue, “A Trip on the Punkin Vine Limited." 

In 1930 The Railroad Brakemans' Journal published a short bio which confirmed that Nearpass was employed as a regular brakeman on a daily passenger run between Indianapolis and South Bend. It further explains that he has broadcast from nearly fifty radio stations, listing off KDKA, WLW, WCCO, WSB and WLS. But it also notes that he gained the most attention through a monologue "A Trip on the Punkin' Vine Limited." It's exact contents may be lost to time but we know from news articles that the monologue describes a real train line in Indiana which operated until 1980. [SOURCE] 

Another promo postcard from 1924 puts Nearpass on KDKA at 8:30 PM doing barnyard imitations. This may be the Punkin' Vine Ltd. There are more sources that corroborate this. A 1930 issue of the Rushville Republican does explain it's contents:

"In taking his listeners on a "Trip on the Punkin Vine Limited" George describes his daily work on this train loading and unloading pigs, chickens, cows, caves, and what-not in and out of the express car. Nearpass makes with his mouth all the various noises in the car as he hustles the express."

By all appearances his radio career was short, perhaps just 6 years.  But his railroad career continued for decades more. A 1947 issue of the Railroad Trainman reported that George had retired from his work on the railroad. He would have been about 61 at the time. He died September 10th, 1963. His son, George Nearpass IV, also went to work for the railroad.

It's worth noting there were more Whistling Brakemen over the years. The most well known was a Canadian man in named Roy Thoreson. [SOURCE] According to one talent guide he performed on the Tonight Show. He seems to have been active from about 1980 to 1995.He was a regular on the Calgary Stampede, a rodeo. In 1993 he even met with then president of the soviet union, Mikail Gorbechev. He died in 2015.

Kresge 1931 Catalog

 

The rabbit hole goes deep indeed. In my personal archive I have only one of the S.S. Kresge Radio catalogs and this one is from 1931-1932. It runs 32 pages deep, chock full of resistors, batteries and tubes. You won't find the word capacitor in here. It's too early. They're still generally called condensers, mostly Mershon and Aerovox, a few from Potter and Muter. There are just two models made by Eureka I'm unfamiliar with.  I do appreciate that there is no safety warning whatsoever. Anything over about 100v can do you harm and these go up to 2,000 v. 

By 1931 we were growing out of the hobbyist era. Instead of lists and crude components there are now full branded kits for sale by Pilot and Philmore. Some of these kits have just 2 tubes which puts things in perspective. There is still some assembly required but the most expensive is $34.50. In 2026 dollars that's $738.24. But inflation in 2026 was so bad that numbers don't mean anything anymore.

You can download the whole catalog 
HERE