Find that Philco

 

Are these all Philcos? No. I just like the alliteration. This dial lists KOA, KGIR and all the other buttons are knocked out. That's not a lot to work with. 850 KOA-AM signed on in 1924. They signed on as a 5,000 watt station and in 1927 increased to 12,500 watts, becoming an NBC affiliate in 1929. The station was so ubiquitous in that era it does not narrow the date range. 

Today the KGIR-AM calls reside in Cape Girardeau, MO. But back in the 1930s, KGIR was a 500 watt station in Butte, MT on 1360. With only 500 watts of power, I think that puts our radio somewhere between Butte and Cody, WY. They're about 500 miles from Denver, but surely able to receive a clear channel station in that era.  The station signed on in 1929 and changed its call letters to KXLF in 1946 which book ends our date range.

Here we have a more to work with, though the labels have slid around unhelpfully: KMPG?, KOH, KGMB, KGKB, KROV, and KICA. But what a weird selection. 590 KGMB I can hardly believe as it's was based in Honolulu. It also can't be KGME-AM in Phoenix, AZ. It signed on in 1940 on 1200, as KPHO only picking up the KGME call letters in 2000. I hope I'm misreading that one. KROV does not exist that I'm aware of. I think that could be KRGV in Oroville, CA but more likely 690 KROW in Oakland, CA which used those calls from 1936 until 1964 before it changed to KABL.  More here. 

980 KICA-AM was most recently a farm station in Clovis, NM. The calls are not cut off. But earlier it was a TV station with the same calls in the same city. It was on 1240 back in the 1940s, and 1370 in 1936. This is highly unlikely with it's distance from the other bay area stations, but I have no other plausible matches. 

630 KOH-AM was not in LA, it was in Reno, NV from 1928-1994 when it became KRCV-AM. The stick on 780 in Reno is KKOH, it borrows the brand name but is not otherwise related. The original KOH, now KPLY is known the oldest radio station in Nevada. 

The first calls are KMP-something. Station 710 KMPC-AM was in Los Angeles. More here. The calls have moved around and currently broadcast Radio Korea on 1540 in LA. The original station first signed on as KRLO in 1927 and changed calls to KMPC in 1930 and held the calls for 67 years. Gene Autry owned KMPC in the 1950s. It aged with it's audience and was Adult Standards and talk radio in the 1980s.  

Just one more. This one is fun with the vertical station levers instead of push buttons. I see KGFW, KFAB, KMMJ, WGN, and WOW.  KGFW, is another heritage station, founded in 1927in Ravenna, NE. The station moved to Kearney in 1931 where is remains today on 1340. KFAB is even older and first signed on as KFRR in 1924. It moved to 770 in 1928. 

KMMJ is almost as old, having been founded in 1925 in Clay Center, NE. Noe how near Kearney that is.  I think 720 WGN-AM out of Chicago is an outlier, received only because it's a clear channel station.  Likewise 590 WOW has been on air for 100 years but never more than 5,000 watts. I think this radio sat between Omaha and Grand Island. This set of stations is pretty consistent. 

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 Blisard Brothers

 

Don and Norman Blisard were the Blisard Brothers. One promotional photo shows them in cowboy hats with a mandolin and a guitar standing in front of a microphone bearing a KUOA badge. Their parents were Ben D. and Mary Blisard of Gainsville, MO. Don was born February 22nd, 1919 and his younger brother Norman was born in Corral, ID August 3rd, 1920. The duo are obscure enough that Hillbilly-music.com only has a stub. 

Their radio program was on 1290 KUOA-AM in Siloam Springs, AR. The date it aired is uncertain, but their songbook was printed in 1945. Their songbook was published in shape note which is rare enough to narrow things down. The publisher is given as "The Blisard Brothers, KUOA Artists" at 50¢ a copy. More notably the introduction was written by Albert E. Brumley a prolific printer of shape note music into the 1960s.

KUOA started at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville first signing on in 1923. The station was acquired by John Brown University in 1933 who ran it as a christian station mixing Southern Gospel, and other religious music with preaching programs. The founder and first president of the eponymous university, John E. Brown Sr. was a long time radio enthusiast and this was far from his first radio station having owned KFPW previously and had a program on KMPC. 

The surname Blisard isn't common. Despite that random hits are few. There was  George C. Blisard of Waco, TX writing in the Sylvania newsletter from the service department of Cogdell auto supply advising on the repair of radio sets in 1942 and 1944. A relative perhaps.  A Thomas A Blisard Sr. testified in the HUAC, the House Investigation of Un-American Propaganda Activities in the United States hearings. He gives his birth date and place as 1880 in Philadelphia. But his statements were about Stalin on the radio, not southern gospel. Random searches produce Blisards, but no clear connections. The mystery endures.

Benjamin Donovan "Don"  Blisard was a landscape painter even back in the 1940s. He has some renown even now for his works. Because of that we know that he died in 1989,  his grave is in Aurora, MO and that his wife was Imogene. Hispainting style is similar to Charles Wysocki, which might be how they both ended up on jigsaw puzzles. 

I did find one relevant clipping from the Arkansas Times from January 13th 1969. It helped fill out the family tree a bit. Rex Wayne Blisard of Siloam Springs, son of Mr. and Mrs. Norman Blisard was killed in Vietnam January 9th. He had been born July 15th, 1949. He was survived by his parents (above) and his siblings Dale and Lana; his maternal grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. W. T. Robinson and paternal grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Ben Blisard all of Siloam Springs.

WJR Bans Jive

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




750 WJR-AM in Detroit banned Maxine Sullivan's swinging of classics back in the mid-1930s. The station owner, G.A. Richards hated jive and hot jazz. Richards was the owner of Goodwill Stations" and was also president of Pontiac Automobiles for southern Michigan. (He also owned the Detroit Lions from 1934 to 1939.)  He said "In our opinion, hot jive music which usually emphasizes suggestive lyrics, arouses degenerate instincts and emotions."  GM Leo Fitzpatrick called her song blasphemy and said "they'll be swinging Nearer My God To Thee next." Time Magazine covered the story as well

"Last week Leo Fitzpatrick, doughty Celtic manager of Detroit's WJR and radio adviser to Father Coughlin switched off Tommy Dorsey's band right in the middle of their swing. The trouble was they were swinging Loch Lomond. Said Manager Fitzpatrick: "It is a sacrilege to make a swing version of a tune sacred to a lot of Scotsmen." Cleveland's WGAR and Beverly Hill's KMPC nodded their heads, pursed their lips and proclaimed a ban on swing versions of eleven old songs, including Comin' Thro' the Rye."

This was a big deal. Life magazine gave Maxine a full page picture and teeny tiny text at the bottom below the title "Negro Girl Swings A Scottish Tune And Blows Up A Radio Storm."  She had taken the song "Loch Lommond" and made it into a vocal jazz number. It caught on with the college crowd and sold over 50,000 records. She re-recorded it in 1955 as a "modern" jazz number and it sold all over again. Her music continues to be classic. G.A. Richards died in 1951, and in 1964, Goodwill Stations was sold to Capital Cities Communications. That company was later bought by ABC and  in turn merged with Walt Disney. They still haven't played anything interesting in over 70 years.

Hollywood Walk of Fame: M - R

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mary Margaret McBride - See previous post here. 

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

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

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

Hattie McDaniel - See previous post here.

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

Don McNeill - See previous post here.

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

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

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

Everett Mitchell - See previous post here.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Joe Penner - See previous post here.

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

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

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

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

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

Robert Ripley - See Previous post here.

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

Will Rogers - See previous post here.

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

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

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

George A. Richards

Much has been written about the pro-fascist, antisemite radio preacher Father Coughlin. (prior post here.) Very little has been written about the man that put him on the radio. The comparisons between Coughlin  and Bill O'Reilly and/or Glenn Beck while sometimes thoughtful, really don't do justice to the vitriolic candor of Coughlin. Today it's unthinkable, but even back then Coughlin's brand of explicit racism was considered unseemly.  Beck, Hannity, O'Reilly et al. rate as merely fear-mongers when compared to Coughlin—who was a genuine hate-monger. But it is sometimes forgotten that there was a money-man behind it all: George A. Richards. If you compare Glenn Beck to Coughlin, you must also compare George A. Richards to Roger Ailes.

 In 1926 WJR-AM was purchased by George A. Richards and associates from the two shareholding companies: Jewett Radio and Phonograph Company and the Detroit Free Press. (Those associates were Leo Fitzpatrick, John Patt, P. M. Thomas and M. R. Mitchell.)  Richards was the president of Pontiac Automobiles for Southern Michigan. He relocated the station  to a street-level studio in his showroom on the Cass Avenue side of the General Motors Building in Detroit. At the time it was still a time-share with WCX-AM. Richards put an end to that in 1929 with an offer to buy them out. and even increased power to 10,000 watts in 1932. He called it the "Goodwill Station."  It wasn't meant to be ironic, but it was.

Set on expansion, he bought WFJC-AM in 1930 from William F. Jones. The station had been founded in 1924 in Cleveland by Stanley Broz as WDBK-AM. It had been moved to Akron in 1927 by Jones who changed the calls to WFJC. Richards moved it back to Cleveland and rechristened it with his own initials WGAR-AM. It signed on in Cleveland December 15, 1930 as a part of the Goodwill Station group.

In June of 1934, Beverly Hills Broadcasting went belly up. It's assets were bought up by the Pacific Southwest Discount Corporation and the sold to in  1936 to Beverly Hills Broadcasting Corporation. Beverly Hills Broadcasting sold one of those assets, KMPC-AM to George A. Richards. It too became a part of the Goodwill Station group.Richards now had stations in Cleveland, Detroit and Los Angeles. But with exposure comes scrutiny. The antisemitism that was considered "acceptable" prior to WWII became associated with the Nazis, and became unacceptable. Richards didn't budge. His radio stations espoused his beliefs. George A. Richards hated Jews, unions, blacks, communists and possibly most of all...President Roosevelt.

It began to unravel in 1948. A cadre of his own former employees complained to the FCC about his authoritarian tactics. In 1949, Jewish civic organizations began petitioning to revoke The licenses of George A. Richard's stations. The National Community Relations Advisory Council (NCRAC) specifically went after him. They were a coordinating body of eight national Jewish organizations. Richards, savvy as ever, tried to dodge a bullet and transfer control to a trustee board of his own selection. The opinion of NCRAC was that transferring the control from Richards, to the puppets of Richards, was no change at all. More here.

In response, the FCC released a report titled Report on Editorializing by Broadcast Licensees. It took a dim view of such monomania. The FCC began hearings to consider suspending Richards's licenses. Lawyers argued that he had not acted in the public interest. The FCC took testimony from 177 witnesses, the minutes are some 3.5 million words in length. Richards spent millions defending himself. Before a decision could be reached, he died on May 25th 1951. Printers Ink wrote that it was of a "heart condition." His widow began selling off the stations within just a few years. These events set the stage that allowed the Fairness Doctrine to come into existence, something that Richards would have despised.

DJ Wink Martindale

Today Winston "Wink" Martindale is remembered as the host of a number of cheesy TV game shows. He hosted a total of 12 different game shows including Las Vegas Gambit, You Don't Say, Can You Top This, Headline Chasers, High Rollers, Debt, Tic-Tac-Dough and Trivial Pursuit. To modern sensibilities his accomplishments are cheesy, and trite. But in many ways he was a leader in this arena. Without Tic-Tac-Dough there wouldn't be Deal or No Deal, or Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. Today there's an all Gameshow network, GSN. Wink is a part of that somewhat grotesque legacy, and before all this... he was a radioman.

Martindale was born in Jackson, Tennessee in 1934 and got his first DJ gig at the age of 17 at 1490 WPLI-AM.he is listed incorrectly in the 1953 issue of the Broadcasting Yearbook as "Winkie" Martindale. At least I hope it's incorrect. That'd be an awful nickname. The station's license was cancelled 2 years later. He crossed the street to WTJS-AM then WDXI, but his last stop was definitely 1460 WJAK-AM. The 1957 Broadcasting Yearbook lists Winston Martindale as it's PD. He didn't stay in town long after that. He graduated from Memphis State College, with a Bachelor of Science degree that year.

He tried Television for the first time in 1958 at WHBQ-TV in Memphis. the program was a kids sci-fi show called  Mars Patrol. While at WHBQ-TV  Martindale became the host of the Saturday night "Dance Party" show. I dont' have the sequence cemented yet btu that same year Martindale recorded the song, "Deck Of Cards" and it went to number seven on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The disc sold over a million copies. He even performed it on the Ed Sullivan Show. He was two steps away from becoming Dick Clark. Instead, he retreated back to radio. maybe the offer from  KHJ-AM in Los Angeles looked better than his prospects in TV. Fellow WDXI-AM alum Ron Meroney was happy to take over for him at WHBQ-TV.

In 1959, he became the host of the morning show at KHJ-AM. It was a Top-40 station at the time. About a year later he moved to KRLA where he stayed a bit longer. Then he moved to KFWB in 1962 where he stayed 5 years replacing Gary Owens in morning drive slot. Simultaneously he was hosting the game show What's This Song? on NBC.  (Two episodes are known to exist.)  But TV wasn't hsi mainstay yet. He had some more miles to put into radio.

He started at KGIL in 1968, and put in three years there. Then on to 710 KMPC-AM doing oldies under Golden West Broadcasting then owned by Gene Autry.  He worked briefly at KJQI and KOJY in 1993 staying less than a year then went back for another short tour stop at KGIL. But that was it.. he did another year of KGIL maybe then off to TV land for good. In 1966, Billboard had voted Wink the #1 mid-day personality. He was a hot item and he seized the day so to speak. He began hosting the game shows Everybody's Talking, and You Don't Say in 1967.  In the 1970s he went onto the big name shows like Las Vegas Gambit, and Tic-Tac-Dough. He's still at it today, he's slowed down a bit, but he's 77 cut the guy a break.

Sig Alert!

 Every major metropolitan area has it's highway information system. Californiahas Sig alerts. A "Sig Alert" is defined by the California Highway Patrol (CHP) as any unplanned event that causes the closing of one lane of traffic for 30 minutes or more." Sig Alerts are carried on radio, television, highway message signs, and posted on their Web site. The actually made it into the dictionary in 1993.

While the California Highway Patrol currently issues these messages, they used to originate with L.A.P.D.  They began issuing Sig Alerts in 1955. The story begins in that year with a man named Loyd "Sig" Sigmon. He was the co-owner of AM radio station 710 KMPC-AM in Los Angeles, with Bob Reynolds. It was at the time part of the Golden West Broadcasting network. Yes, that's the one founded by Gene Autry.

Los Angeles radio stations began carrying traffic information early on. There were 74 million cars in the United States by 1960. We got there very quickly. There were only about 4,000 in 1900 and less than 200 miles of road were even paved. large cities led the way, so they also had the curse of leading in traffic, gridlock and car wrecks. [ref hypertextbook]  The anecdotal version is that people began calling the police department, soliciting traffic information. I cant corroborate thsi at all.  What is certain is that it was Sigmon who convinced the L.A.P.D. to call KMPC-AM when accidents were effecting traffic. KMPC summarized all this in regular traffic reports. Sigmon thought it woudl be good for ratings. He was right. More here.

Loyd C. Sigmon was a true radioman, (W6LQ) actually an engineer by trade. He began his broadcasting career in 1932 at the Boston Short Wave and Television Laboratories. He joined KMPC in 1941, 11 years before he Bob Reynolds and Gene Autry had purchased it. Sig was also in the Army Signal Corps during World War II. So it's unsurprising that Sig had a hardware solution to collecting these disparate traffic reports from the police. It was a reel-to-reel tape deck that recorded automatically when it was triggered by a tone. This allowed the police to phone in the reports in an automated fashion via the regular police dispatch frequency of 1730 kc.

LAPD's chief, William H. Parker who later insisted they be called "Sig Alerts" was also the person who insisted that KMPC not have a monopoly on the information. But the stations that participated also had to use the specially made Sig Alert reel-to-reel decks. The words Sigalert" were stenciled on the side. In 1969, the Calofirnia Highway patrol assumed responsibility for freeway traffic from the LAPD and also the mantle of control over sig alterts. They worked to expand it state wide. Messages are still broadcast on the current CHP  frequency - 42.34 MHz. But the information is mroe commonly acquired directly from the CHP's website. Loyd C. Sigmon died in 2004. He was 95 years old.

The Bebop Radio Ban

Long before the harsh attacks on rock n' roll in the 1950s, there was an attack on bebop for  the same reasons. Bebop burst on the the American jazz scene from the fingertips of rebellious musicians like Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Bud Powell and Charlie Parker. Even other more traditional jazz musicians criticized their experiments. But in the early 1940s it was catching on with a certain audience: rebellious white teenagers; a group we now refer to historically as beatniks. (though the term 'beat' wasn't popularized until the late 1940s.)

As it did in later in the 1950s, racial mixed audiences really set off conservatives. It may seem incongruous, but the most remembered even event in this "ban" was in California. In the March 25th 1946 issue of Newsweek, Ted Steele Program Director of 710 KMPC-AM was quoted as saying "Bebop... tends to make degenerates, out of our young listeners. . . ." Time Magazine backed them up with an article that described bebop in unflattering terms "What be-bop amounts to: hot jazz overheated with overdone lyrics, full of bawdiness, references to narcotics and double talk." Ted listed a some of the "banned" songs:

1. Woody Herman - Your Father's Moustache

2. Harry "The Hipster" Gibson - (All Releases)

3. Slim Gaillard - (All Releases)

4. All versions of the song "Come For A Ride"

5. All versions of the song "Drink Hearty"

6. All versions of the song "Cement Mixer"

7. All versions of the song "Who Put The Benzedrine In Mrs. Murphy's Ovaltine."

You might immediately notice that not all of the above is strictly bebop. What had set Ted off was the drug references the song "Who Put The Benzedrine In Mrs. Murphy's Ovaltine." He was singling out for the most part Harry Gibson and Slim Gaillard. Predictably, the ban packed houses for Slim and Slam and won Gaillard an invitation to to appear on Bing Crosby's radio show.The move was wholly ineffective. Gaillard had already sold 20,000 records in Los Angeles alone. In 1938 Benny Goodman played "Flat Foot Floogie,"on the Camel Caravan program; the tune was written by Slam Stewart. the ban coalesced the jazz community in favor of bebop with Downbeat and Metronome magazines both supporting the artists.  Downbeat accused Steele of slander. Metronome was more interested in defending jazz as a whole, explaining that strictly speaking, Slim Gaillard and Charlie Parker were very different birds. Unexpectedly it was all thsi press that elevated the word "bebop" into the formal jazz lexicon. More here.

According to some sources, other stations, as many as 19 unnamed broadcasters followed suit. Different articles refer to east Coast stations that followed suit. There's also a direct reference to KFWB dropping it's land line to Billy Berg’s Rendezvous, a hot jazz night club where Harry the Hipster performed. Harry's program was mostly targeted at a black audience, but unknown to many.. he was white. In 1947 Harry released a 78 rpm platter on Musicraft "I Stay Brown All Year ‘Round / Who Put The Benzedrine In Mrs. Murphy's Ovaltine."  Harry got black balled by the record industry after that. In 1951 he opened a club in Miami, and started his own label: Hip Records.

Ted wasnt' just a hater of jazz, he was also a stuffy musician who was vested in the old meme. On the West coast Steele had been a bandleader for a number of big names: Perry Como, Frank Sinatra, Louis Prima and Jo Stafford. Ted left town shortly thereafter and played some CBS shows with his own Orchestra. He even did one of those awful Novachord records for Decca. He and his orchestra ended up hosting the Stork Club in New York City, for the Chesterfield Supper Club on NBC. 

Things didn't work out at KMPC-AM and he left for KNX-AM in 1949. He stayed for a year then left for New York. From there he went to TV in about 1953. He also worked at WPIX-TV channel 11 doing a teen-focused dance program sponsored by Pepsi called The Ted Steele Show and another as Uncle Ted  hosting a program of silent cartoons. He must have liked TV as he also worked on WATV-TV channel 13 and WOR-TV channel 9. In that era he also was announcing at WMCA and also appearing on Cavalcade of America. In 1950 Billboard magazine said he was on air 32 hours a week, making him one of the busiest broadcasters in the city. But he fell out of favor, or burned out or something. the reasons are lost to time but a few years later he was doing a lone program on 970 WAAT-AM in Newark NJ.

The First Black Radio Announcer (Part 3)

Bass Harris was the first black radio host on the west coast. Each book, and article states that he first was on air at KING-AM in Seattle. Every source I can find repeats that claim. the problem is that either the year of the call letters are wrong.  The biographical information is so spare that it's no help.  He was the son of a local minister, and his program was at least initially brokered time. Hard data is so elusive that I sometimes doubt he existed.  The book Entrepreneurs of Profit and Pride put him on air in the Seattle market for 15 years. Despite the absence of Terra-firma, Radio Ink listed him as one of the 16 African American DJs who were on air in the 1940s. 

In that era many of the few programs hosted by African Americans were on brokered time. That's how Harris broke into the radio biz. He paid his way, then sold enough spots to make it profitable by running a show that attracted those dollars. All sources claim that his program debuted in 1933 on KING-AM in Seattle. But there was no KING-AM in Seattle in 1933, or even 1943. KING-AM didn't sign on until 1949, which did sign on at 1090. White's Radio log lists the station at 10,00 watts actually in the Spring of that year. In the Broadcasting yearbook for 1949, KING is listed as having been started inexplicably in 1927.  But it fills in some small details. They were clearly a share-time broadcasting only 6:00 AM to noon.

Interestingly KRSC-AM and KIRO-AM were founded in 1927. KOMO-AM launched in 1926. KFOA-AM was on as early as 1923. Another source puts him on 1300 KOL-AM in the 1940s. But KOL-AM wasn't on 1300, it was on 1270. On the upside, at least KOL existed in 1933 all 1000 watts of it. KOL-AM is presently on 1300 so I am assuming that's a failure of memory and not of math. regardless the KOL reference cites the program as called Bass Harris's  House of Joy. He mixed pop sides with swing and played both black and white artists in 15-minute blocks.

Some of the confusion may come from a rather unpleasant set of frequency and call changes in the Seattle market painfully shuffling heritage calls around the metro. For several decades the 1090 kHz frequency in Seattle was home to KING-AM, founded in the late 1940s by broadcasting pioneer Dorothy Stimson Bullitt. KING-AM was known as the "Mighty 10-90," featuring great radio personalities such as Frosty Fowler, Ray Court, Mark Wayne and late night talk with Irving Clark.  It became a talk station in 198s.  As of 2004, 1090 became KPTK-AM still airing news/talk.

After all the conjecture I find Bass Harris in a radio schedule in the Long Beach Press-Telegram Newspaper.  He's listed on 710 KMPC-AM October 11th 1952 at 8:00 PM between the St. Francis Hour and a program called "Dance Time." The Book Swingin' on the Ether Waves identifies his KMPC program as "Bass Harris At Home." An article in the Los Angeles Sentinel called him a "longtime star of stage and radio."  If true, he would have already been on air for about 20 years. His program was described as follows:

"Harris will intersperse his own humorous and philosophical poems and monologues with the latest recordings and guest stars."

He appears on 1330 KFAC-AM .according to the August 22nd 1953 issue of Radio Today he had a program at 9:00 AM that Saturday following Unity View and preceding the Federation of Churches program. KFAC was largely classical during the week. In 1955 in another issue of Radio Today I find him on air at 640 KFI-AM at 8:00 AM on a Saturday after the news and before a program called "Jump Jump."  There the trail ends after two long and mysterious decades.

The Very Naughty Bob Crane

** Updated in 2025

Before we talk about radio I want to acknowledge that Bob Crane was not a entirely a good person. Some people might say he was naughty, others might be more specific and say deviant or perhaps even a peccant serial philanderer. Today he's called a sex addict. We are not going to get into what he did, or was accused of doing. It'd get this little blog a Google ban. But the fact is, he was a seriously dirty dude. But we're going to focus on radio.

He was born Robert Edward Crane in 1928. He started out as an announcer on 1480 WLEA-AM. It was his first radio gig, but it was in Hornell, New York over 230 air miles form his new wife Ann Terzian, in Stamford, CT. Bob toughed it out, at 1480 WLEA living at the YMCA until he could score a better gig at 1120 WBIS-AM (now WPRX-AM) in Bristol, Connecticut. He bailed on then quickly for a better gig as the morning man at 600 WLIZX-AM in Bridgeport. He stayed there over six years. In 1951, WLIZ purchased WICC and Bob's program moved to the new stick. But he left for a gig Boston, MA at WEEI-AM. He left in 1956 only at the beckoning of the CBS radio network.

CBS gave him the morning show at 1070 KNX-AM in Hollywood. Soon it was the number one rated morning show in Los Angeles. He was known locally as "the king of the airwaves" If you've ever heard an air check, he' was really good on air. [LINK] His guests included Marilyn Monroe, Marvin Gaye, Bob Hope, Jayne Mansfield, and Frank Sinatra. But while number one in his slot, he still was really number two overall behind Dick Whittinghill at 710 KMPC-AM. The two arch rivals were actually friendly and Crane filled in for Dick for a few weeks two decades later in July of 1972. It's interesting that Whittinghill's 1976 autobiography Did You Whittinghill This Morning? makes no reference to Crane at all. (That's probably because of his ...extra circulars.) More here.

It was only in 1965 that be was offered the starring role in "Hogan's Heroes" and became a television star.  In 1974, after years of TV he actually snubbed an offer for a new radio gig. He even had his own eponymous show for 14 whole episodes in 1975. After that his status as a regular at strip joints and discos got him blackballed from Disney, and probably other quarters. The poor performance of the movie Superdad in 1973 kept him out of yet more lead rolls. 

He spent the rest of his career doing dinner theater and making guest appearances. He filed a few TV pilots that went nowhere. In 1976, he made a guest appearance on WICC for their 50th anniversary. He was down but not out. But in 1978 he was found bludgeoned to death in an Arizona hotel room; he was fifty years old. His friend John Henry Carpenter was tried for the murder but was acquitted.

Elvis Banned on xmas!

Elvis got a rough shake at radio. He was banned a few times for his hip-shaking in a time that was so uptight you'd think Jedediah Bush was president too. Thankfully Elvis overcame adversity got fat and has a successful career complete with the comeback tour. What you didn't know was that among all his trouble was that even one of his Christmas songs got banned. It was that famous year that Ed Sullivan cut off Elvis at the hips...

The hubub went down even later than you might expect. In 1957 Elvis was recording his first of several Christmas-themed releases. But it was released at the peak of Elvis's renegade status. Some stations in a fit of wholesomeness banned the album. WCFL-AM in Chicago banned all records by Elvis entirely. KMPC-AM and KEX-AM in Portland followed suit. But at KEX, DJ Al Priddy played his version of "White Christmas." anyway and was fired. In response DJ Allen Brooks of CKWS in Kingston, Ontario, played the entire LP.

The problem was that a secular and sex-crazed rock n' roller was playing sacred music. Fanning the flames was none other than Irving Berliner. Irving ran amok writing letters to radio stations. Elvis had recorded a version of his "White Christmas" a song that Berliner had written. Royalties be damned, it was too much for him to bear. I'm sure his estate has no problem depositing the checks today.

Gene Autry's radio station

Gene Autry, western star and recording legend was a good capitalist. He didn't just put his money in the bank to gather dust. He bought stuff. Since satellite radio, PCs and ipods had not yet been invented be started companies. He owned Golden West Broadcasting which in turn owned KMPC-AM, KOOI-AM, KOWL-AM, KPHO-AM, KOPO-AM, KSFO-AM, KTLA-TV and the California Angels baseball team. Let's focus on KMPC since I care less about baseball than TV.

Today KMPC-1540 is known in LA as 1540 The Ticket. It's owned and operated by the radio division of the Sporting News magazine under the company Rose City Radio. They compete directly with KSPN-AM, (ESPN outlet obviously) How the station got from the bedazzled hangs of Mr. Autry to a sporting magazine is kind of interesting. Go here, click the pic.

Let's move backwards. In September of last year KMPC's parent company was sold to American City Business Journals (ACBJ) with a block of other stations. ACBJ bought Sporting News at the same time. They used the brand to develop what they thought would be a competitor to the dominant ESPN brand. Before that it was on 710, and that was the stick that Gene owned. The irony is that today 710 is KSPN-AM, that aforementioned ESPN competitor.

The station first went on air in 1927 with the call letters KRLO and the frequency of 1170. it was started by a real Estate Developer and a Stock Broker. A year later the money men bailed, selling the station to engineer Ernest J. Krause who renames the station for himself with the calls KEJK. He offloads the hot potato the same year to R.S. MacMillan Petroleum Company. they start a dayshare with KFSG the station airing insane drug-addled mumbling from Aimee McPherson. In 1929 the gasman moves the stick to 710 to get away from Aimees death cult. http://www.710kmpc.com/kmpc61.rm

MacMillan tried to change the KEJK call letters to KMP the same year, but the call were already assigned to the Omaha-based Boeing Air Transportation Co. They retry in 1930 and settle naming it after themselves, MacMillan Petroleum Company. In 1932 they accept an offer from the Beverly Hills Broadcasting Co. It's major stockholders were all stars and starlets, including Bing Crosby, Paul Whiteman, “Amos & Andy” (Freeman Gosden & Charles Corell) and others.

The movie stars ran the station into the ground and by June of 1934, the Beverly Hills Broadcasting Co was in receivership. It was acquired by Pacific Southwest Discount Corporation and in turn purchased by Detroit businessman George Richards for $125,000. Things are profitable and stable until Dick kicks the bucket in 1952. It was only then, that the widowed Mrs. Richard offloads the station and Gene Autry became the principal owner. His real first name is Orvon just so you know. Gene is his middle name.

So what happened between then and the call change in 1998? Orvon died in 1998. his personal office was inside KMPC, it's bigger-than-a-football-field building was his as well. His own radio show had ended it's run in 1956. Gene’s Melody Ranch radio show aired for an unprecedented 16 years. Autry of course first found fame in radio, beginning his career as “Oklahoma’s Yodeling Cowboy” at KVOO in Tulsa, OK. Autry is the only entertainer to have all five stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one each for Radio, Recording, Motion Pictures, Television, and Live Theatre/performance. More here.