WUSS: The United States of Soul!

The radio metro Atlantic City - Cape May is a mixed market. The chart is a top 15 and in addition to local stations, a third of the list are stations which also chart in Philly and then a few radio stations Trenton. But that's a geographic problem with New Jersey. Most of their radio band is sandwiched in between the major metros of New York and Philadelphia, and in addition to Trenton also the Allentown-Bethlehem, Sussex and Wilmington MSAs.  The markets are easily 85% rimshot. So I'd like to zoom in on the history of a station that's 100% Atlantic City and always has been: WUSS.

In 1940 the local Atlantic City radio market was just one station 1200 WBAB-AM. There were no other local stations. Actually, at the time there were only 11 radio station in all of New Jersey, and some of those shared time. See below:

City	Frequency	Call sign	Licensee
Asbury Park	1280	WCAP	Radio Industries Broadcast Co.
Atlantic City	1200	WBAB	Press Union Publishing
Bridgeton	1210	WSNJ	Eastern States Broadcasting
Camden	1280	WCAM	City of Camden
Jersey City	940	WAAT	Bremer Broadcasting Corp.
Jersey City	1450	WHOM	New Jersey Broadcasting Corp
Newark	1250	WHBI	May Radio Broadcast Corp
Newark	710	WOR	Bamberger Broadcasting Service
Redbank	1210	WBRB	Monmouth Broadcasting
Trenton	1280	WTNJ	WOAX Inc.
Zarephath	1350	WAWZ	Pillar of Fire

As you can see above WTNJ, WCAP and WCAM had a three-way share time agreement, but in addition to that WHBI and WNEW has a share-time arrangement as did WBRB, WFAS and WGBB. But before the end of 1939 WBAB was part of a lawsuit with WILM and WAZL to stop Neptune Broadcasting from executing a CP for a new station on 1420 kHz in Atlantic City. (that station would be WFPG) Their entire basis was "economic injury", essentially arguing the metro can't support three stations. This would turn out to be prophetic. Strangely the FCC docket claims there are 12 radio stations in New Jersey, listing WPG as the only other stick in Atlantic city. Regardless of the other merits of that lawsuit, 1100 WPG was off air by 1940. The station was owned by Atlantic City municipal government and was on a share-time arrangement with WLWL in New York. It was sold in 1937 to John Iraci and Arde Bulova, who were trying to consolidate radio properties to make WOV a full-time station.They shuttered it and gave those hours to WLWL, later becoming WNEW.

So from the sign off of WPG in 1939 to the sign on of WFPG in 1941 WBAB was the only radio station in Atlantic City. They operated as a CBS affiliate in the 1940s and in the broadcasting annual of 1941 you can see that they're moving to 1230 kHz, but by the time the 1942 annual was published they were already on 1490. It was a clearly a quick frequency shuffle. It wasn't until 1947 that another local CP was approved and 1340 WMID made them a trio, unless you also count 100.7 WBAB-FM which had signed on in May of 1947.

WBAB went off the air in 1949. (Some guides list them as late as 1951.) But the cause was litigious. The Press Union lost the licenses of WBAB-AM and FM due to "unauthorized transfer of control" of the those stations. The case was notable enough to be referenced in multiple subsequent FCC rulings.

In 1955 a new CP was granted to Atlantic City Broadcasting for 1490 in Atlantic City. This station was to be WLDB. This is where the history gets really interesting. As late as 1974 WLDB was just another NBC affiliate playing a lot of country music.  But I noticed that in the 1956 Broadcasting Annual the station was listed as airing 10 hours of "Negro" programming. That's certainly not the most in New Jersey, but it was the most in Atlantic City. Perhaps that was something that foreshadowed the station's future. 

City	Frequency	Call sign	Hours of Negro Programming
Atlantic City	1450	WFPG	4 hours
Atlantic City	1490	WLDB	10 hours
Atlantic City	1340	WMID	7 hours
Bridgeton	1210	WSNJ	1 hour
Camden	1310	WCAM	77 hours
Camden	800	WKDN	0.5 hours
Newark	1280	WHBI	19.5 hours
Newark	1430	WNJR	130 hours
Trenton	1260	WBUD	7 hours
Trenton	920	WTTM	2.5 hours
Wildwood	1230	WCMC	0.25 hours

In November of 1974 WLDB was bought by the Atlantic City Community Broadcasting Inc. (ACCBI). In come documents they are listed as the Atlantic Business Community Development Corporation (ABCD). The corporation was owned by a group of local African-American businessmen. The station went dark in April and 2 weeks later a soul station debuted. By 1976 they had changed the callsign to WUSS which stood for ("We're the United States of Soul!") and the format was changed to focus on the black community. The station was a member of both the Mutual Black Network and the National Black Network but so were WNJR and WTNJ by 1977.

This 20-year stretch was the stations strongest period, lasting into the 1990s. The ringleader of the group was Larry Hayes. He had been a DJ at WFOX in Milwaukee, WI;  KFIW in Fort Leonard Wood, MO; WJLD and WENN in Birmingham, AL;  WGPR in Detroit, MI; and both KALO and KOKY in Little Rock , AR. Hayes left his career in Birmingham under strange circumstances. A big Atlantic City property owner Jim "JC" Cuffee helped make the arrangements. How J.C. and Hayes connected I don't know. But I do know Jim Cuffee is a man who should have a book written about him. His name comes up in news articles about Liberia, the infamous Klinic Hotel, Black nationalist movements, and the civil rights movement. He's a ghost in the machine.

WUSS attracted star talent like Larry Hicks, Larry Hayes, Lee "Brown Sugar" Sherman, Ron Allen, Eddie O'Jay, Stan Brooks, Cooks Books, Kingsley Smith, Ellis B. "Bruce Ellis" Feaster, Vernon Robbins, Cleo Rowe, and William K. Fisher. DJs Vernon “Boogie Child” Robbins, and Curtis Grey were former WLDB staff they inherited. But they also reputedly inherited a debt of $300,000 from WLDB. There was a sheriffs sale of some of their equipment, which was bought up by rain-maker Jim Cuffee; thus settling their legacy debt. Nonetheless the station never did well financially. More here.


Most station histories attribute the fall of WUSS to the general trend away from music on AM band. That certainly didn't help. However, WUSS actually lost their license in 1990 at renewal time. The owners of ACCBI; Larry Hayes, and Fred "Eric" Anderson, had some hard questions from the FCC about their EEO policy. They had complaints, and had been sued and then had subsequently concealed it in later FCC filings. This is very naughty. In 1990 the Commission made a decision which included the most cutting remarks I've ever seen in one them publish:

"The facts surrounding Mr. Hayes failure to report the case are not the only issue of concern. The Commission has long had rules that prohibit broadcasting stations from discriminating against female employees... Mr. Hayes ultimate fall back position was that he thought that the only discrimination that the Commission cared about was race discrimination. There is overwhelming evidence that he knew this was not the truth... During his testimony Mr. Hayes was untruthful and withheld true facts about his conduct. He frequently had to be confronted with objective evidence before he would agree to the facts as they really were... he engaged in conduct as a station manager which is contrary to Commission rules and policy, and he lied in the course of a Commission proceeding about his conduct. ACCBI is not qualified to become a Commission licensee."

Lenore Frazier had filed suit against the station, the company, GM Larry Hayes and 10 John Does in a 1985 lawsuit for sexual harassment, and for unlawful termination over those very grievances. The Superior court in New Jersey ruled in her favor and awarded compensatory and punitive damages.  On May 15, 1986 the ACCBI filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.  Their landlord/benefactor Jim Cuffee tried to evict the radio station and padlocked the doors. WUSS went dark and ACCBI had to sue him. Eventually Cuffee won out, probably as their main creditor. In 1991 radio guides list him as the station president. But by the 1996 guide the station is listed as silent.

To his credit, Jim tried to run the station for years. The station rebranded as "1490 JAMs" but continued to decline. After a short period of running satellite-fed programming, it went silent in late 1995. WUSS was in the hands of court-appointed trustee Allan B. Mendelson by March of 1996; Cuffee was selling. South Jersey Radio already owned WOND in Atlantic City, so to buy WUSS they required a waiver, which the FCC granted.

South Jersey Radio changed the station's city of license to Pleasantville, NJ and relocated its antenna to the WOND broadcasting site. The call letters were changed to WGYM and the format flipped to sports talk. Things declined more. In 2001 the WUSS calls returned and they tried a gospel format. they tried simulcasting WTKU, WIP, WOND, even WBON. In 2005 they tried the Air America network and the new calls of WTAA. Today they are running syndicated "sports betting radio" as WBSS. Where is Jim Cuffee when you need him?

Eric Dolphy On The Radio

Eric Dolphy died of complications due to diabetes on June 29th, 1964. He was only 36 years old. His career was short but legendary. Already he had worked with Charles Mingus, John Coltrane, Booker Little, Mal Waldron, Ornette Coleman and Max Roach to name only a few. He saw just seven albums released in his lifetime; amazingly all in a 3-year span.

• 1960: Outward Bound
• 1961: Caribé with The Latin Jazz Quintet
• 1961: Out There
• 1961: At the Five Spot, Vol. 1 (live)
• 1962: Far Cry
• 1963: Conversations
• 1963: At the Five Spot, Vol. 2 (live)

But posthumously another 25 Eric Dolphy albums have been released (mostly live recordings) and he appears on another 50 albums as a sideman. More than 70% of his ourve was released after his death, so he had little input into those releases. That being said, the last three known recordings he made were intended for radio broadcast: 

• 1964: Last Date (for radio program at Hilversum)
• 1964: Naima (for ORTF radio program at Paris)
• 1964: Unrealized Tapes (for ORTF radio program at Paris)

1964 was a busy year. Dolphy left for a European tour with Charles Mingus. Their first concert of the tour was at Amsterdam's Concertgebouw on April 10th. As a tour highlight, Dolphy also was on Belgian Television RTB (Radio-Télévision Belge). That performance was taped at at the Palais des Congres in Liege on April 19th with the Charles Mingus Quintet. Normally a sextet, Johnny Coles was too ill to perform and they performed minus a trumpeter. Not everything was bright. In Bremen some young fascist painted a swastika on Dolphy's hotel room door. Dolphy announced on tour that he would remain in Europe when the tour wrapped up. More here.

Last Date was recorded on June 2, 1964 in Hilversum, Holland. The material was actually released in early 1965 which is earlier than any of his other radio recordings. Numerous radio stations operated from this location at the time: NCRV, KRO, VPRO, AVRO, RVU, ICOR, NRU, RNW, NTS, NOT, TELEAC, and TROS. This session was for the program "Jazz Magazine" on VARA in Holland. It's host Aad Bos was with VARA from 1954 to 1992. His program used the studio 5 space. After being laid off in 1992, Bos hosted "VPRO Jazz In Four" until he retired in 1996. More here.

Naima was mostly recorded Paris, France, June 11, 1964. Triple Mix was recorded in November of 1960 at Esoteric Sound Studios in New York. The other 4 tracks were recorded live for OTRF. Unrealized Tapes also consists of tracks from the June 11th session. It is confused by misspellings of some of the players names. They share a two tracks "G.W."  and "Serene." Discogs labeled this as a free jazz album which I would argue it is not. If you expect Ornette Coleman's reed squealing, this will strike you as comparatively subdued. Regardless the recordings should be observed with some reverence as they are Dolphy's last known recordings; made just 18 days before his death from diabetic shock.  More here.

Jacques Dieval, the French pianist produced the session at ORTF. Some of the session men like Donald Byard, and Nathan Davis has also joined Dolphy at the Chat Qui Peche club. But this session was probably recorded at studios in the Maison de L'ORTF.  To their credit, Resonance records has been releasing a number of ORTF jazz recordings from this era. That list also includes sessions with Larry Young, Nathan Davis, and Wes Montgomery. Jazz was part of the French post-war identity. They had been early adopters in the 1920s and in the following decades many African-American jazz musicians toured Europe, as it was more socially progressive than the U.S. Some came to stay, like Dolphy. More here.

From 1949 to 1981 as the RTF, then after 1964 as the ORTF, the Office de Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française, oversaw all public radio and television in France. All radio programming, and especially news broadcasts, were under the control of the national government. It sounds ominous but think of it as French NPR. But in 1980 there were only 7 of these licensed stations in France. Their competition was mostly French-language radio stations originating outside of France in the micro-state of Monaco, the Principality of Andorra, Luxembourg, Germany and of course BBC Francais.

But jazz is an instrumental music that supersedes language. Jazz Magazine listed off programs French jazz-heads could hear from Algiers, Brussels, Monte Carlo, Copenhagen, Stockholm, and several in Germany, coming from Munich, Frankfort, Salzburg and Hamburg. Perhaps the most popular were the American jazz programs on VOA like Downbeat, or Willis Conover on the Voice of America Jazz Hour and Leonard Feather's Jazz Club USA. I won't go further down this tangent but if you are interested she covered this in great detail in the book  Jazz and Postwar French Identity by Elizabeth McGregor.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention one more radio session. There was one more in 1964, recorded before those but only released much later, piecemeal on other albums. Dolphy played with the Bob James Trio and Once Brass Ensemble at the ONCE festival at a VFW hall in Ann Arbor, MI on March 2nd, 1964. The session is mostly under the Bob James name, but a single Eric Dolphy track called "A personal statement" was recorded at WUOM. In that same era, 1956 through at least 1969 WUOM recorded and released LPs of it's own glee club and symphony band so they clearly had the ability. [LINK] But it remains uncertain who made the recording. Dolphy may have taped it himself, his earliest known recording is a home recording with Clifford Brown from 1954. The WUOM session was probably first released in 1987 on  Eric Dolphy ‎– Other Aspects. It was a re-release more recently on the album Eric Dolphy: Musical Prophet: The Expanded 1963 New York Studio Sessions. More here.

The Busiest FM Frequency in Philadelphia

For reasons forever lost to the ethereal vagaries of FCC licensing, the 92.9 FM channel is the busiest in the Philadelphia metropolitan area. If you were to drive a lap around the MSA, you might be able to tune in 12 different radio stations on that frequency. This is only hypothetically possible because 10 of those stations are low power (LP) stations operating at under 100 watts. However, it is literally impossible because unlike most major metros, Philadelphia has no perimeter highway. So that traveling band-scan would require hours of circumnavigation across the cities' east-west arterial roads. Let's not, and merely imagine that we did.

I'd like to start at the epicenter of this engineering miracle. Closest to the center of the MSA is WOOM. Initially the station was to be named WJFN-LP for Jefferson Hospital System who was to be involved with the station. But ultimately, they had to form their own non-profit entity. When Jefferson withdrew support, Randolph went with the call sign WOOM-LP for its Onomatopoeic qualities and design potential.

The station turns out to be amazing from an engineering perspective; 92.9 is a 4-way time share WOOM, WGGT, WRGU, and WRLG. But these 4 are merely the survivors of a large pool of applicants. WOOM is self-aware enough that they posted an interview online with station founder Chris Randolph. [I cannot recommend that interview strongly enough] He tells the origin story of WOOM, warts and all; complete with bogus civic groups, dishonest executives, dirty lawyers, and an unexpected bitcoin bonanza. It helps add color to the story of all the other stations at the epicenter of this radio market melee. He goes on in some detail:

"There were 4 applicants in Germantown who are obviously kind of planning to work together, and there was a group that was calling itself the NAACP, that was not actually the NAACP... a splinter group that had a variety of legal problems. There was an evangelical group in North Philly who were Latino and apparently connected to Senator Pat Toomey, and a variety of other groups as well."

The WJFN note is important because they were using those calls in 2014. Even Pirate Jim's Philly radio history page [LINK] specifically listed them under those calls at the time. From this applicant stage the FCC applies a 5-point scoring system. The FCC allows each applicant 'points' for meeting certain criteria. Applicants then can challenge every point lost to winnow the field. It's designed to be very competitive and applicants can normally only "win" through attrition. Agreeing to share time being the only other way out alive.

Writing for Radio Survivor, Paul Rismandel covered this situation in detail back in 2015. He identified the NAACP-related group as a Social Justice Law Project of the local NAACP chapter, and the evangelical group as Nueva Esperanza. both of groups filed petitions against the share. Their basis for the petition was that the four groups (G-Town Radio, Historic Germantown Preserved, Germantown Life Enrichment Center, and Germantown United Community Development Corporation) coordinated in advance of their filings. The FCC rejected that argument. So, Nueva Esperanza the objected to the scoring methodology. They claimed that groups should not be able to aggregate their points if they coordinated before filing. The FCC was completely clear in their response. They specifically said “There is no rule prohibiting LP FM applicants from filing separate applications with the goal of arriving at a timeshare agreement." You can read the Notices here.

Community Group	Hours	Facility ID	Callsign
Germantown Life Enrichment Center	10	195802	WRLG
South Philadelphia Rainbow Committee Community Center Inc.	60	196383	WOOM
G-Town Radio	88	192746	WGGT
Germantown United Community Development Corporation	10	195118	WRGU
Historic Germantown Preserved	N/A	196209	X
Nueva Esperanza, Inc.	24	193022	X
NAACP Social Justice Law Project	12	195646	X
Inge Davidson Foundation	N/A	193177	WZML

Cleverly, the Inge Davidson group filed an amendment to move their site into the suburbs to get away from this mess. Then the Germantown 4 became the Germantown 3. The Historic Germantown group disappeared. Randolph describes that group as having had a change in management and being "no longer interested in doing radio." WOOM tried to work with the social justice group briefly, and then teamed up with the remaining three Germantown groups combining their scores for a decisive win. Nueva Esperanza even went outside the proper process and got Senator Pat Toomey [R] to write a personal letter of support to the FCC, but that did not sway the bureau. Still unsatisfied, Nueva Esperanza then sued them all in Federal Court. The FCC's decision was affirmed.

Thus after a 2-year struggle, the 4-way share with the Germantown trio and WOOM won the day. More here. Back to the Chris Randolph interview itself for a moment. He also understood that the LP FM window owed a great debt to Radio Mutiny, the pirate radio project in West Philly. He gave them all due credit in his interview:

"The kernel of this goes back about 20 years to a project out of West Philly WPPR aka Radio Mutiny. Which gave birth to a number of things including the Prometheus radio Project right here in Philadelphia...  after this roughly 15-year struggle in the courts and through the passing of legislation that the FCC was finally going to open an application window for community groups for a low power FM, LP FM license."

So, the genesis of  this whole story lies in 91.3 WPPR, Radio Mutiny, a pirate radio station formerly based in West Philadelphia. They operated from 1996 to 1998 at about 20 watts. The station was founded by Pete Tridish, Ed Cummings and others. Mother Jones magazine went as far as to call him a 'Broadcasting Buccaneer." [More here] After the shut down Radio Mutiny led a protest and then sued the FCC to re-examine its media ownership rules. Then in a Christmas miracle... they actually won. This eventually led to the opening of the LP FM filing window. Every LP station in America owes it's existence to this lawsuit. More here.

But let's get back to Philly. Moving out to the the suburbs... the next closest station on 92.9 is in Upper Gwynedd, PA - according to radio-locator.com it's a Travelers' Info outlet. Then in a ring around the Philly suburbs is a ring of more LP stations all on 92.9, though not on any kind of share time arrangement.Those stations are as follows:

• WZML-LP is owned by the The Inge Davidson Foundation. An escapee of the situation in Germantown they are a volunteer organization who seems to mostly play a kind of deep catalog AC. I've tuned in a few times and caught U2, Bill Withers, Buffalo Springfield.  More here. they received their approval December 10th 2014.

• WEMK-LP is in Upper Gwynedd, PA at 27 watts - (Travelers' Info outlet) owned by Montgomery county, the antennas appears to be on the roof of the Volunteer Medical Service Corps of Lansdale building on the Jefferson Health campus. it signed on around March 26th 2014

• WLRI-LP is in Gap PA at 100 watts airing mostly Pacifica Radio Network programming. They first signed on in 10/27/2003 as WOMB, and then inexplicably proceeded to change call letters 24 more times for reasons unknown. They broadcast from Christiana, PA —an area largely unknown to Google Maps. More here.

Also sharing 92.9 in that MSA are a slew of FM repeaters. These clutter the radio band preventing even more LP FMs from signing on in the greater metropolitan area.

• W225CF up in Reading repeats the either the HD-2 or the HD-3 channel of 100.7 WLEV which is the same tropical music programming also carried by 1400 WEST-AM and 1600 WHOL-AM. When WOOM and the Germantown trio were first getting their CPs this was branded as "La Ola." On January 1st, 2017 the whole group rebranded as "Mega 99.5." RadioInsight dramatically referred to the format flip as "Spanish Wars" in 2017. More here.

• W225DJ in Burlington NJ repeats religious talk from 1460 WIFI-AM. It's coverage targets Levittown, PA. But WIFI's contour only rim-shots the Philly market otherwise as it's directional to the east protecting both 1480 WDAS-AM in Philly and 1490 WBCB-AM whose facilities are a mere 1.5 miles away in Levittown proper.

• W225BV regurgitates 90.7 WYRS religious talk, and in no way shape or form resides in the Philly market. Most of their signal goes crosses Atlantic City, NJ and out over the Atlantic ocean. WYRS's own signal points North East catching part of Tom's River on it's way to the beach.

Then to the South, in Smyrna, DE is 92.9 WRDX, a 1,700 watt Class A station with a Hot AC format, owned by iHeartRadio (Clear channel). It only signed on in 2007. Before the LP window they were Tom-FM. During the rigamarole, they re-branded as Mix-FM. Then in 2016 went back to being Tom as they remain to this day unaffected by the hi-jinks to the North. Their protected contour prevented this 92.9 LP snipe hunt from snaking down the coast into the Delmarva peninsula.

The Fraser Radio Gospel Hour (Part 2)

Courtesy of Bill Johnson

I got some new information on a post [LINK] from way back in March of 2012 and I am now able to post a Part 2 segment. My original research indicated that the program started "around" 1925 and ran until possibly as late as 1973 and was hosted by Rev. Robert Fraser, a Blind Radio Evangelist in Philadelphia. It even operated a gift shop at 36 North 8th Street, an area that's now prime center city real estate. a calendar I saw at the time listed the stations carrying the program in 1947, those were on Sunday from 4:00 - 5:00 PM: 1310 WCAM-AM, 1240 WSNJ-AM, 1110 WNAR-AM and 1360 WWBZ-AM. Then Sundays 9:00 - 9:30 PM: 990 WIBG-AM, WNAR-AM, 1360 WWBZ-AM and 1360 WPPA-AM. 

WCAM is particularly interesting as Camden New Jersey's oldest radio station. It dates back to September 1925, predating the program under the callsign WFBI-AM then on 1270. WPPA-AM was a share time with WCAM so it's all the more odd that both stations were listed. [More here] WSNJ-AM was in Bridgeton, NJ and had been since 1937. WNAR-AM only signed on in 1947 in Norristown so it would have been a brand new affiliate that year. WWBZ-AM was in Vineland, NJ, and WIBG was in Philly of course.

I had assumed originally that the program ended when host Rev. Robert Fraser died but that date was unknown, and  conjecture anyway. It took 8 years, but all of those questions have been answered.

Courtesy of Bill Johnson

Edward W. Fraser Jr. himself tell us that the program actually began in 1927 just after Robert Fraser and Ella Stark were married. Robert Fraser's prior radio experience was limited. He appeared with Christopher Graham "Uncle WIP" who read children's stories on WIP-AM. [More here] Later he was booked as the "Sunshine boy" at WCAU. He sang with Dumont and Emmett Welsch's  Minstrels on WFI-AM and WDAR-AM.

The Gospel Hour program ran until 1995. This end date is much later than I expected, as Bill Johnson confirmed that Rev. Fraser died April 11th 1957.  Mrs. Fraser (née Stark) continued to host the program. The speaker for the last 10 years of the show was the late Rev. Nelson H. Hill, Jr., of Aldan, PA. The equipment was run by James J. "Joe" Tolbert. His wife, Dianne, played the organ. Dianne's sister, Darlene, and mother Adele Marsh were on the program years before Mr. Hill was the speaker.  When the Gospel Hour program was finally discontinued, it was being produced at WVCH, Chester.

Courtesy of Bill Johnson

Prior to the studios of WVCH, The Fraser Radio Gospel Hour was produced at the Fraser Home for Elderly Ladies. Though at least some the equipment was still on site in 1972. He also operated a home for girls on 529 Tabor Rd in Olney, PA.  Chaplain Steve Phillips passed this information to us directly from Mr. Hill's wife, Lucille Mosher Hill. (Lucille, and Joe and Dianne are residents at Quarryville, Pennsylvania Presbyterian Retirement Community.)

Also interesting is that the program was also carried on channel 12.  While that is WHYY-TV today, that was WVUE-TV on the VHF band out of Wilmington back in 1957, as in the calendar below:

Courtesy of Bill Johnson

All of the above images came from Bill Johnson. He purchased a Bible at an Estate Sale in Southern California. Inside were several artifacts from the Fraser Radio Hour, including a card announcing the passing of Rev. Robert J. Fraser on April 11, 1957.

The Jazz KNOB and the Lighthouse Cafe

 103.1 KNOB, which may have been the first all-jazz radio station in the world. I am always wary of broad claims of being "first," but Stein bought KNOB in 1957. Most other all-jazz stations claim much more narrow firsts. 88.3 WBGO claims to be the first Jazz Station to "webcast day and night" in 1997. In 1966, WLIB-FM claimed alternately to be the first jazz station in all of America programmed by African Americans and/or New York's only all-jazz radio station. It was almost certainly both, at least in 1966. Even WHAT-AM's all-jazz format only goes back to 1958, though their overnight jazz programming goes back to at least 1956... courtesy of Sid Mark's program.
Alex "Sleepy" Stein was a jazz DJ and owner of the infamous

If you are thinking of other Los Angeles area stations, KBCA only flipped to jazz in 1960, then dropped it in 1966. If you were thinking of the Alameda-based 92.7 KJAZ, it was founded in 1959. Despite their claims, it was not the first commercial jazz station. [More here] And what about KLON? It was founded in 1950 which is before most of these other claimants, but they didn't change to an all-jazz format until 1981! The station changed its call sign to KKJZ in July 2002. A 1958 article in Broadcasting magazine (below) firms up the KNOB claim. It appears that KNOB was all jazz but WHAT may have them on total operating hours:

"Southern California's KNOB began operation with a jazz format on 25 August 1957 in Long Beach, though the station only gradually increased its hours of operation to twenty-four hours as the station increased power and moved from 97.9 to 103.1 MHz a year later."

Stein for his part, didn't start in jazz. Stein was born in Georgia, then lived in Miami and Havana, Cuba. He even graduated from the University of Havana with a degree in languages. He moved to New York for a job at CBS. He later moved to Chicago for an announcing job on WIND. There he got his nickname "Sleepy" for a slot he inherited from Russ "Wide-Awake" Widoe. Later Alex was station manager and program manager at KARV in Phoenix. He moved from there to Long Beach, CA for a gig at KFOX-AM. It was at KFOX that Alex started doing remote broadcasts from the Lighthouse, a legendary jazz club in Hermosa Beach. More here. His show was called Mahogony Hall. Stein brought Niles, Jim Gosa and other early jazz DJs to KNOB. Ray Torian hired him as Program Director, then Stein bought half of the business and it flipped to all-jazz. Torian wasn't a jazz fan but he gave it a go.

But it was Howard Rumsey who brought jazz to the Lighthouse. Rumsey convinced John Levine, the owner The Lighthouse Café, to host a series of Sunday jazz jam sessions. Levine purchased the bar in 1949, Levine was skeptical but on May 29th, 1949 he gave it a whirl. It was hugely successful. Those live jam session broadcasts from the Lighthouse built Stein's reputation in the L.A. jazz scene. Jazz was popular but live jazz was a rare bird on the radio.

At the Lighthouse, the house band was Howard Rumsey's Lighthouse All-Stars. Rumsey was a local. He was born in Brawley, CA near the Salton sea. He first began playing bass with Vido Musso and Johnnie Davis, then became part of Stan Kenton's first band. He played with Charlie Barnet and Barney Bigard then returned to Los Angeles and founded the Lighthouse All-Stars. Contemporary records recorded Rumsey's All-Stars with it's various line ups multiple times between 1952 and 1960. Their regular Sunday gig became Stein's bread and butter at KFOX. More here.

In the end, the Lighthouse All-Stars outlasted jazz on KNOB. In 1966 The Jazz Beat column of Billboard remarked that the "...Sleepy Stein and Ray Torian interests, who became involved in internal fighting, and hindered the stations growth." In 1966 Stein sold his interest in KNOB and became a stockbroker. The station flipped to an “adult request” music format. KCBA bacame the top jazz station in Los Angeles by default. Live jazz continued at the Lighthouse Cafe until John Levine's death in the early 1970s. That brought an end to Rumsey’s time at The Lighthouse. Howard Rumsey himself continued to write and record for decades. He died on July 15th, 2015. He was 97. He lived long enough to see the formation of Woofy Productions. Between 2003 and 2007 they released nine different jazz LPs in their "Sunday Afternoons at The Lighthouse Cafe" series.  More here.

I strongly recommend reading the paper Jazz and Radio in the United States by Aaron Joseph Johnson. He dives into this topic than even the Peretti text. You can download it [HERE]