Hackberry Hotel

Hackberry Hotel was amazingly racist by modern standards. But in Dallas, TX in 1948 that's about as surprising as sunshine in the the daytime. The program was broadcast on 570 WFAA-AM and was 15 minutes long and at least in 1948, sponsored by the Armstrong Packing Co. The program continued until at least 1951. You can hear some episodes here.

The "two voice rural comedy" was set in a "mythical peaceful valley" according to it's promotional literature. Other characters appears only via the telephone who's ring opens every episode. In 1948 it was in it's 5th year. They advertised the program for syndication in Radio Daily, and it even ran during the Early Birds radio program according to some sources. The show announcer was John Allen, a WFAA regular. Ben was on the Early Birds program through 1956.  But that program had it's 25th anniversary in 1955, Ben was a late addition. In 1956 the roster also included Elmer Baughman and Alex Keese.

The two main characters on Hackberry Hotel were Mr. Hack Berry the hotel manager and Willie Botts, an African American hotel worker. If you didn't notice in the above image, the one black character is played by a white voice actor. In their promotional ads and post cards he wears black face.Yes, black face. It was the 1940s. 

Ben McClesky played Willie Botts a.k.a. "Little Willie."  He also appeared as the same character on The Saturday Night Shindig. He had created the role possibly as early as 1931 and was also a script writer on Saturday Night Shindig. [SOURCE] Mr. Hack Berry was played by the Managing Director of WFAA, Martin B. Campbell. He had been with the station since at least 1934. Before WFAA he was the publicity director at 1280 WRR-AM in 1938. 

George Gimarc & Johnny Rotten

Will you stop blogging about the Sex Pistols? Just one more. In the 1990s, John Lydon aka Johnny Rotten, hosted a radio segment called "Rotten Day." It was a syndicated daily distributed by Premier Radio Networks airing on more than 40 radio affiliates including WBCN, WREV, and XTRA in the U.S. It had a 2-minute 'This Day in Rock n Roll' sort of format. Except that it's focus was on punk rock, and it was designed to be a promotion for the book Punk Diary by George Gimarc. It was more or less plugola from the get-go.

The scripts were usually written by George Gimarc. The schtick was to note a music or cultural event on that calendar date and then Lydon would slag on it. You would that that would get old fast. It's amazing that it lasted from September of 1995 to February 1997. They show grew beyond the confines of Gimarc's book as did Lydon's radio aspirations. Lydon went on to record a weekly 4 hour program for eYada.com in 1999. But his most recent radio work that I know of was in 1999 to record promos for 91X. More here.

George Gimarc on the other hand is a radioman through and through.He began his radio career as a DJ at University of North Texas radio station KNTU in 1977. He moved on to intern at WRR-AM also in Dallas. At KNTU he started a very early alt-rock program called "The Rock & Roll Alternative." He took the show with him from there to a commercial station 97.9 KZEW-FM "the Zoo."  In 1982 he also became music director on its sister station KRQX-AM. The station continued on with the Zoo format until 1987. He was hired by KDGE in 1989 and he re-launched his alternative program.  Somewhere in there he also took his program to KNON, the home to all the weirdness in Texas allowed to stray outside of Austin city limits.

Gimarc's books, all four of them, are about music, three of the four mention Lydon by name and or the Sex Pistols or Public Image Ltd. But I suspect it was Premier Networks that connected Johnny Rotten and Gimarc. As canonical as his archive is, I doubt he had his home phone number. But the result was that Johnny Rotten got to harass celebrities at the Grammy awards one year, and then fade back into the B-list, possibly the C-list. Gimarc continues to work in radio. At Comcast now, he's developed a couple truly terrible radio formats that even Comcast tries to ignore.

The WFAA Early Birds

WFAA-AM was home to the long-running morning program, "The Early Birds", hosted by John Allen. It was broadcast from from the Santa Fe Railroad Warehouse in Dallas, TX. they called it "the penthouse ." Back in those days 820 kHz was a day share with WBAP-AM and WFAA took over at 7:00 AM, starting each weekday with The Early Birds. It was not like modern morning zoo programs. This was a full-blown variety program. The show premiered on premiered March 31st 1930 and celebrated the quarter century mark with a 25th Anniversary Album in 1955. More here.

WFAA itself only signed on in signed on in June of 1922. It changed frequencies a couple times but starting in 1938 it moved to 570. The share agreement was truly bizarre. WBAP Radio would broadcasting on 820 from midnight till six AM. Then WFAA took over till noon and WBAP broadcast the afternoon slot and WFAA took over again until midnight. Apparently WFAA thought it was worth working for every minute of clear channel signal time they could get on 820. To further complicate this nonsense, they aired NBC network programming on 820 kHz and ABC network programming on 570 kHz. To signal the frequency changes on air WBAP staff always rang a cowbell. 

John Allen hosted the program for it's entire run.He had a number of co-hosts over the years including Bob Shelton, Ben McCleskey, Emcee Jimmle Jefferles, Bert Noyd, Announcer Eddie Dunn, Board Operator Red Lucas, Emcee Norvel Slater, and others. They had skits, stand up comedy, an orchestra, an awkward number of black-face routines and a live studio audience.  Guests included Lynn Hoyt, Katy Prince, Frances Beasley, Terry Lea, Louise Mackey and Dale Evans. 

You can hear an episode here:
PART 1 - https://digi.countrymusichalloffame.org/digital/collection/musicaudio/id/2436
PART 2 - https://digi.countrymusichalloffame.org/digital/collection/musicaudio/id/2437 

In 1945 they debuted an FM simulcast on W5X1C on 94.3. The arrangement continued until the early 1960s gradually adding their own programming until they became an MOR station. On May 1, 1970, this messy and senseless share time arrangement came to and end. WBAP paid $3.5 million dollar to WFAA to buy them out. WFAA was relegated to 570. They dropped the WFAA call letters in 1983 becoming KRQX. The call sign still lives on as Channel 8 on the TV band.

DJ Slim Willet

Slim Willet is not a name you hear every day. Often played as Slim Willet and the Brush Cutters. You probably have never heard of that particular western swing band. But you have heard some of his songs. He wrote Dont' Let the Stars get In Your Eyes, a single that became a standard.  He was born Winston Lee Moore on December 1st, 1919 in Dublin, Texas as you read above he was a musician, a songwriter and most importantly for Arcane Radio Trivia... he was a DJ.

That single was written in 1951. Slim once recounted that he learned the meter in 1937 at a CCC camp from some Mexican guitarists who played ranchero music. The lyrics were inspired by a letter from a GI in Korea. He liked letters from soldiers, he served in WWII himself. After the war he went to entered Hardin–Simmons University in Abilene. Many histories claim he headed their student radio station KHSU.  I have found contemporary records that indicate KHSU existed from newspapers. It launched in 1949, and I have found in their school newspaper that it still existed until at least 1961. according to those papers, It only regularly broadcast from 5:00 - 9:00 PM Monday through Saturday. Billboard magazine lists them under campus Attractions in 1964. Then nothing. Strangely they never appear in any radio log. I have assumed they were some kind of unlicensed closed cable system.

In 1949 there were 2 real AM radio stations in Abilene: 1470 KRBC-AM and 1340 KWKC-AM. Neither license was owned by Hardin-Simmons University. It could have been a closed cable station... but I doubt it. He got a journalism degree and began DJing and selling ads on local station KRBC. At this time he was already writing songs including Pinball Millionaire which was recorded by Gene O'Quin. He started doing promotional work. He started hosting the KRBC Big State Jamboree around 1954.  He booked Elvis's first appearance in Abilene in 1955. He was a friend of Bill Mack the famous WBAP-AM disc Jockey and sometimes brought him talent back when he was just a DJ at KWFT in Wichita Falls, TX. More here. 

His own recording career began in 1950 with the 78 rpm disc I'm Going Strong  / I'm a Tool Pusher from Snyder that came out on Star-Talent, a Dallas-based label. Hillbilly researcher has a great discography here.
Don't Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes came out on  in 1952 and was re-recorded and released nationally on 4-Star. It went to #1 on the Country & western Billboard chart. Perry Como took it to #1 on the pop chart.  The song exploded. It was even covered by pop artists in Japan. It was a once in a lifetime hit and Bill McCall at 4-Star stole most of the royalties. Apocryphal accounts say that Willet threatened to kill McCall and that got him a partial payment. More here.  The song's popularity won him guest appearances on the Big D jamboree on KRLD-AM, WFAA-AM in Dallas, the Louisana Hayride on KWKH-AM, The Grand Ol' Opry on WSM and even as far away as KFI in Compton, CA.

In 1957 he started  Winston Records, his own record label. He used it in part to releases some forays into rockabilly which he recorded as Telli W. Mils... Slim Willit spelled backwards.  That same year he quit KRBC and joined radio station 1280 KNIT-AM.The station was a brand new Key City Broadcasters station. He started a booking agency, an ice cream parlor, and bought a gas station. He became diversified.
He never had another single as big as that #1 hit, not even close. In 1964 he became general manager of KCAD.  At the time it was one of the only all-country music stations in all of Texas.  He died two years later and was finally inducted into the Country Music DJ Hall of Fame in 1994.

Lum and Abner

Lum and Abner were a comedy duo in the 1930s. Their fame has largely outlived their affiliates, and the men who played the characters. They began as a black face act locally at the University of Arkansas, they became a nationally syndicated program of great renown. But for some reason they are rarely grouped in with other golden era programs.



The general store that appears in the above film actually exists now as the Lum and Abner Museum. Chester Lauck and Norris Goff knew each other since childhood. They attended U of Arkansas together and even joined the Sigma Chi Fraternity together. They decided to try to get a job together at KTHS-AM in Hot Springs, AR but before the audition decided to drop the black face routine and do a hillbilly bit instead. It was something in the spirit of Amos & Andy but with decidedly more rural flair. PD Campbell Arnoux signed them for one 15 minute program each week. Their gig at KTHS went so well that after just a few weeks they got picked up by NBC for syndication. NBC even got them a national sponsor, Quaker Oats. When the Quaker contract expired, the duo picked up Ford as a new sponsor and broadcast just on WBAP and WFAA out of Dallas and Ft. Worth. In those days they were considered separate markets. More here.

NBC didnt' treat them well and In 1934 Horlick's Malted Milk because their new sponsor and the program moved to WCCO in Minneapolis and were heard on the station alone. When the station joined the Mutual Broadcasting System they picked up WXYZ in Detroit and Chicago's WGN-AM. In 1940 Alka-Seltzer became the sponsor and in 1944 they left MBS for ABC. which had only just ceased to be the NBC Blue network. The Keystone Broadcasting System recorded their programs for stations not directly connected to ABC. In 1948 they became a half-hour comedy series sponsored by Post Cereal. More here.
Those keystone network recordings are why we have recordings of Lum and Abner today. In 1948 they moved over to CBS where their program ran until 1950. the show ended in 1953. By then they were already on the big screen. They made 7 movies by the 1950s. My personal favorite bits are when Lum & abner start a radio station a plot that stretched over 3 15-minute episodes. You can download the Boxcars Oldtime radio podcast here.