DJ Foster Brooks

Foster Brooks died in 2001 at the age of 89. His talent has largely been forgotten as he spend the peak of his career type-cast into a role as a lush. Cultural attitudes toward alcoholism had changed by the 1980s such that it wasn't funny anymore. The same thing happened to Dean Martin.  Brooks was was almost 70 at the time and it was late in life to re-make his image. But he still landed a reoccurring role on Mork & Mindy as Miles Sternhagen. The role was a manager at a TV station. With his background, it may have been an impersonation of someone from his own career. Brooks made do with these cameo appearances until finally retiring. Anyone born after the movie Dances with Wolves came out would likely have no idea who he was.  More here.

Brooks was born in Louisville in 1912 and was one of seven brothers. His career started in radio, at WHAS-AM right there in Louisville at the age of 13 singing with his mother Edna. He remained primarily a singer at WHAS for years. The station was barely three years old at the time, having only been founded in 1922.  The earliest record I have found of him at the station is from April of 1932. He would have been only 20 years old. "Foster Brooks and Jim Henry staff singers doing a prolog for Hayden Reads Organlog this week at Loew's State, Louisville."  Then in September of that year another issue of Variety reports "Foster Brooks, WHAS baritone will m.c. at Seville Tavern, Louisville."

He later sang harmony with staff pianist Joe Pierson and by January 1937, he was announcing the Bulova watch time during station breaks. But this was not his first radio program. I found a 1934 issue of Variety which puts him on KSO in Des Moines, IA in 1934. It's just one sentence "Foster Brooks and Joe Plerson a new duo for KSO, Des Moines." Plerson was announcing at WQAM in Miami by March of 1935, so clearly the duo split. Plerson later landed at WFBM in 1946 and stayed at least until 1952. Brooks went back to Louisville by 1936.  More here.

Breaking out of singing, Brooks did everything behind the mic he could. He announced softball games and had an oddball afternoon show called "Yellow Blank Salute" with Herbie Koch organ, Charles Hurta on violin and Brooks own recitations. Radio Daily describes it as the staff organist and a staff violinist and makes no mention of Brooks. It was sponsored by Western Union. Radio Dial confirms it was on the air from May 1937 through April of 1938. He was at WHAS for 7 years (total) and was even captain of their baseball team. 

The WHAS studios were in the Courier-Journal newspaper building in downtown Louisville. Brooks became a staff announcer.  In 1937 he raised his profile for his emergency reporting during a severe flood. This was broadcast on both WHAS and WSM-AM. [SOURCE] In one of the pictures he poses with equipment borrowed from WFIL-AM. Yes, that's Brooks up the pole. It looks like they were clowning, which they were, but Monroe died of an infection from an injury that occurred in that dirty water, he was a year younger than Brooks. He and Pete Monroe sent flood bulletins from Lock 41 on the Portland canal and ended up in Variety and Broadcasting magazine multiple quotes and pictures: 

"At that time WHAS bulletins were spaced five minutes apart... the critical stages of the rescue work had passed. An announcer (Pete Monroe) or (Foster Brooks) said "WSM, this is WHAS calling... we will keep our transmitter open to take whatever stray bulletins come in... perhaps five minutes apart. Our transmitters now working with reduced power— go home WSM and get some sleep..."

That coverage is probably why a year later in 1938 Brooks moved to KWK-AM in St, Louis as an announcer. Trade magazines already knew who he was and reported the move.  He followed WHAS alumni Allan Anthony to KWK. Even Rural Radio magazine called out the hire. (The 1978 book Golden Throats & Silver Tongues by Ray Poindexter incorrectly places this in 1931.) A 1939 issue of variety confusingly describes Brooks leaving again in 1939. [SOURCE]

In 1942 he replaced Jack Berry on WHEC-AM in Rochester, NY taking over the Musical Clock. (Those call letters come up again later.) [SOURCE] In 1946 Brooks made his first commercial record, a 78 on Continental "The Face On The Bar Room Floor" Parts 1 [LINK]  and 2 [LINK]. It's oddly rare. The recording is not music or singing or comedy. It's a recitation with multiple character voices, all of which are probably Brooks. The text is old, I found a copy of the poem in the Stone Cutters Journal in 1922. It's attributed to Hugh Antoine d'Arcy who wrote it in 1887 under the original title "The Face Upon the Floor".  I can't speak for the 78, but the poem was very popular for decades. He wasn't even alone in recording it. Harold Selman did a version in 1928 for Okeh, Art Leonard for Regal in 1930, Buddy Williams in 1942 for Zonophone, and that continued right into the vinyl era. Hank Snow did a version in 1968. 

In 1943 550 WGR-AM & WKBW in Buffalo, where he hosted "The Musical Clock" and "Million Dollar Ballroom". In Buffalo, Brooks also performed with a country and western vocal group known as the Hi-Hatters.  Foster continued to play up the zaniness and organized stunts. He co-hosted a quiz show called "Stump Bob Smith." In 1949 he coordinated a canoeing event with WKBW and WEBR. There is one picture from this even of four very soggy DJs: Clare "Butch" Allen, Al Healy, George Walker, and Foster Brooks. It's not clear who won but if that meant staying dry, everyone lost. 

In 1950 went back to Louisville and got a really weird gig on WKLO. The WKLO DJ page describes his time at the station as short and says little else but there are other sources. [SOURCE]  His show was on 15 minutes five nights a week, then Saturdays from 9:30 PM to 1:00 AM. The description (below) in Variety magazine sounds truly bizarre. It sounds vaguely like his old WHAS show, "Yellow Blank Salute." I wish there was a tape of this show somewhere. 

"Brooks has a telephone in the studio and invites listeners to phone in their requests. One of the few air comics in this town, and by far the most versatile, Brooks intersperses vocals with the disks. Accompanied by the electric organ by Jerry Bottorff WKLO program director, Brooks vocals ballads in an excellent baritone voice. He has a gift for ad lib, and his throw-away remarks are entirely unpredictable. His timing and razor sharp zanyisms [sic] are making him a standout ad lib jock." 

By 1950 Brooks was on 970 WAVE-AM. The advertised him in Broadcasting magazine with the note "A top notch MC and wit —has appeared appeared with Arthur Godfrey, Vaughn Monroe, Spade Cooley and others! ... Louisville's most colorful television personality!"  In 1950 He had a "Foster Brooks Show" in 1950" which again sounds oddly like that Yellow Blank Salute again, ad-libs, card trucks and telephone gimmicks and musical accompaniment by the Mart-John Duo playing piano and bass-fiddle. He had a morning show "wake up with WAVE."  H Then he had a kids show at WAVE-TV where he played mickey mouse cartoons and portrayed The Old Sheriff in a western jail set.  Disambiguation Brooks father was a real sheriff in Louisville and Bhis brother was "Cactus" Tom Brooks who portrayed a cowboy clown on WHAS-TV in the 1950s 

Brooks stayed at WAVE for about 5 years. In 1957 Broadcasting also reported when he jumped to WHAM-AM in Rochester, NY. Brooks moved from WHAM-AM/WHFM-FM to WHEC-AM-TV in 1959. [SOURCE] It was the same year he won a Ray-O-Vac radio announcer Top 10 contest. I wish that tape still existed. 

Most short biographies report that he moved to Los Angeles in the 60s and began acting in television and doing stand up comedy. But this is glosses over the details. A Buffalo Bills press book still puts Foster Brooks on WROC-TV, Rochester in 1960, but so does the 1963 issue which seems erroneous. In 1962 KHJ schedules put him on that station in L.A. from January through at least June of that year. This seems to be his last regular radio gig and it's terminus marks the end of his radio career and the transition into character acting and television. 

According to Brooks he quit drinking in 1964 on a $10 bet. "I never drew a sober breath from Friday night to Monday. Eight years ago I quit. Fellow made me a $10 bet I couldn't quit, and I haven't had a drink since. At the time I needed the $10." His first TV appearance was on Gunsmoke in 1962, and his did dozens more; clearly playing a drunk was better for his career than being one. [SOURCE] He had a 30 year career in radio and then had another 20 year career in television. In 1997 Brooks was inducted into the Buffalo Broadcasters Association Hall of Fame. He died in 2001.

Transcription Mystery Disc #186

This is an 8-inch, paper-core, Wilcox-Gay Recordio. It has an outer edge start and spins at 78 rpm. It's fire engine red but so are many others. The disc is in typical condition for a paper core disc which is to say not great. It has a lot of bed noise though that can be mitigated somewhat with a low pass filter. It had no major blemishes otherwise. It's also wholly unlabeled.

 Hawaiian Mystery


The recording is of a man singing and playing lap-steel with considerable skill. His technique is more Hawaiian than country but it's clear he has chops on both genres. The recording is from a radio broadcast, the tail end of the recording has a snipped of the news announcer breaking in. Like the other discs from this batch I suspect it's a recording of WFIL-AM.

RADIO ARTIFACT: WRTI signs on

This is a copy of the October 3rd 1947 issue of the Temple University News. It announces the impending completion of their own AM carrier current radio station, WRTI. It was such a big story at the time that it warranted front page top fold coverage. According to the article even the call sign was still 'tentative.'  The book Temple University: 125 Years of Service to Philadelphia, by James Hilty puts their debut in January of 1948 so this paper predates that slightly. More here.


Some details pique my interest. The article repeatedly refers to it's connections to WFIL and Havertown. WFIL had given them a $50,000 grant to develop and run a broadcasting curriculum. So they remained tightly tied.  "WRTI will have wires to the Cedarbrook and Havertown units and one to the master control room of WFIL" Cedarbrook and Havertown were remote facilities of Temple University, that were closed in 1951. It's just a coincidence that in the late 1940s that two of the very few non-commercial radio facilities in the US  were in the same zipcode: WRTI and WHHS.  Temple didn't get an FM transmitter until 1952. The rest is history.

DJ Shorty Long

Despite their name, it's doubtful that Shorty Long his Santa Fe Rangers ever went to Sante Fe, let alone New Mexico. He was born in 1923, and in 1939 studied violin at the Conservatory of Rome. His real name was  Emidio Vagnoni, but that didn't roll off the tongue of country music fans so he went with a stage name.  Almost his entire country music career seems to have occurred locally in Berks country Pennsylvania. Shorty played the violin the accordion, and sing, just not all three at once.

He was with radio station WEEU-AM in Reading from about 1946 into 1955. He also recorded a couple sides for Cowboy Records and one for Decca, . I found a note in Billboard in 1945 noting that he left WFIL-AM and was being succeeded by the Sleepy Hollow Ranch Gang, because he was departing for The National Barn Dance. The program aired on WLS-AM. It was a big deal. He parlayed those appearances in Chicago into a deal with Victor records in 1949. ON the career upswing he also played New York City's Paramount Theatre with the Foy Willing Trio on the Andrew Sisters' "Eight-To-The-Bar Ranch Show".  While he was in Chicago he also appeared on the WSIL-AM Hayloft Hoedown. More here.

But it didn't last forever.  Record reviews described his cuts as novelties, somewhat dismissively. In 1950 he was touring with other second stringers like Little Jimmy Dickens and appearing on the Hillbilly Matinee on 870 WGTL-AM in Kannapolis, NC... a city so small it remained  unincorporated until 1984. He did vocals on a single for MGM with the "Blacksmith Blues" with art Mooney in 1952, another novelty. Ella Mae Morse cut the same single that year and her version charted at #3. His didn't. The same year King records released a duet with his wife Dolly Dimples titled "Hillbilly wedding, yet another novelty. More here.

Shorty Long returned to his hometown of Reading, PA and his live show on WEEU around 1952.  In 1955 he took on a regular program on WPAZ-AM in Pottstown, PA while still playing on WEEU. His new  show ran 2 hours a day and 3 on Sundays just spinning records.His show ran at least until 1954. that year he made a special appearance at a polio jamboree on WCOJ-AM in Coatesville. In 1955 he went back to RCA Victor, not just as talent, but as an assistant to A&R director Steve Sholes. In 1956 he did music for a Broadway Play called 'Most Happy Fella" it was not country, not even a tiny bit.  He kept making music into the 1970s and then retired. He died in 1991 at the age of 67. Over the years his name was repeatedly usurped diminishing his brand. An R&B artist using the same name cut "Function Junction" in 1966, and "Here Come the Judge" in 1968. Today there's a midget using the name, I kid you not. I think he'd have been amused.

Transcription Mystery Disc #119

This is a 7-Inch, 78 rpm Duodisc. Like many others it has no markings of any kind, nor does its crumbling sleeve. It sounds similar to another in my collection. It too was unlabeled but it's sleeve had a single marking.  I cannot firmly date the recording based on the brand of blank. I have found ones attested to anywhere from 1945 to 1952 depending on the label. I still suspect this whole batch originates with some member of the 560 WFIL-AM Barn Dance also called the "Hayloft Hoedown."  I further suspect that some of these and perhaps this one is Texas Jim Robertson.

Unknown country instrumental
 
Unlike other recordings from this set, this one is an instrumental, and clearly not from a broadcast. You can hear the engineer pot up and down during the recording and breaks within the tracks as if they are rehearsing. I have inserted 3 beeps to separate the two tracks.  The fidelity is quite good, superior to most of the others.

Transcription Mystery Disc #27

It's nice when there's at least a hint. A totally unlabeled disc is really difficult, sometimes impossible to identify. This 7-inch Recordisc as no labeling on either side of the disc. But the sleeve bears a name in pencil "Texas Jim Robertson."  The disc has some delamination at the center, and it has pulled away from the outer edge creating a void three inches long. Being an outer edge start disc it makes playback especially difficult.

Texas Jim Robertson lied about his age. He was born in 1909, but his later biographies claimed 1916. Nonetheless he died in 1966 which puts a firm top end on the possible age of the recording. True to his name he was from Batesville, Texas and recorded for Bluebird, RCA, and Montgomery Ward. that big catalog gives a wide basis for comparison.

This recording is obviously live and breaks into live radio chit chat after the song sends. I have no identified the tune, and it does not appear to be in his catalog. Being that thsi is from my stack of WFIL-AM transcriptions I'll assume again that this is from one of his performances on the Hayloft Hoedown. there's a little bit of conjecture there, but every time one of these discs is individually connected to this program, it validates collective association.

Transcription Mystery Disc #97

This 7-Inch 78 rpm Duodisc bears no markings of any kind. But the crumbling sleeve had a small scribble in pencil. It appears to read "Earl B" in flowing cursive. I despise cursive. Cursive is is designed for writing notes and letters quickly by hand. It's not particularly quick, and then it's very hard to read so it's more like scribble that can only be read by the writer. Please, engineers of today, write clearly and legibly on your master tapes!

I have never personally certified the recording date of a Duodisc. I have found ones attested to anywhere from 1945 to 1952 depending on the label. Like many acetates there is no available labelography. These red labels seem to be early 1950s, possibly as late as 1954. I found a fellow via Flickr who ripped a set and posted them online here. He did  a great job cutting the bed noise, it's a set of nice rips. His also date from 1954 and 1955. Those are worth browsing.  

This song is a country tune of unknown origin, clearly recorded from the radio. Then he tells a joke about Bessie who I believe is a dairy cow. The B-side is a badly recorded room, many voices, lots of racket pretty unintelligible. It was probably recorded at a party. Age and origin remain unknown but as always with this batch I continue to suspect the WFIL-AM Barn dance.

Transcription Mystery Disc #48

 This is a 78 rpm 8-Inch transcription disc, it starts at the outer edge and has two tracks on each side. each side having two-takes each of a song. I've included both takes of "Riding Down The Canyon" from what we can hypothetically call Side A.

"Riding Down The Canyon" is by Gene Autry and the other side is "Jimmy Crack Corn".  Jimmy Crack Corn is alternately titled "Blue tail fly" and it is virtually un-datable, going back to the 1840s. "Riding Down The Canyon" was first released in 1942 and has subsequently been covered by Roy Rogers, Marty Robbins, Bing Crosby and more recently, Willie Nelson. It appears in the soundtrack of a film by the same title which sported a version by Sons of the Pioneers. That flick came out in 1942.



This disc has no identifying markings of any kind. It's just a red Recordio in nice condition. I know the recording isn't' any of the above versions as it has no harmonies or accompaniment. That excludes by default essentially all known contemporary versions. Interesting in the production is that the singer has a lot of bass response. That's not my EQ job, I actually laid on a low pass filter and tweaked down the bass, it was too boomy. That tells me this was not recorded from the radio, nor dubbed. This was a singer "eating the mic" as we say in the studio. So this really is a transcription, and since it's from the same set of discs, I suspect it may be from a member of the Hayloft Hoedown and the station is therefore WFIL-AM.that would date the recording between 1944 and 1948. The artist sadly remains unknown.

Transcription Mystery Disc #49

Phonozoic refers to this as a "Wilcox-Gay Recordio Type 4A, red lacquer."  As old as this disc is, the surface is still bright red, Red lacquer acetates are very neat, you can see the fragile lacquer build up very easily on the phonograph needle. It reveals just how delicate these can be. It also serves as a reminder that really.. one needs to make a good transfer within just a couple attempts. Further attempts approach some point of diminishing returns with undue wear. I bought a small stack, so I am presenting them to you in hopes that I can do so without destroying them..

Most Recordio discs date to the late 1940s. This was a bag of 5 that uniquely came in their original packaging. As nice a find as that was, not one of these was labeled in any way except that each sleeve bore a check mark in pencil. It spins at 78 rpm and has an outer edge start. Strangely there is a quiet echo throughout that might be from the adjacent groove, or possibly a recording artifact. Thin groove walls are not the only source of this artifact.  It's even conceivable that the broadcaster had a bad night with the god button. The appearance of the echo on most of the recordings make me think its the recording device or the broadcast. regardless it's quite listenable.

This is a certainly recording of a radio program, there are parts of a couple different programs on the two sides of this disc. I trimmed it down to one short 2 minute contiguous segment that ends in an endorsement for Double-mint Gum. The other side has another chunk of program and a ABC network ID and a snippet of an ad for Fisher Furniture. I played my way through a few more discs and did narrow it down. The program is probably the Hayloft Hoedown and the station is therefore WFIL-AM.

The program ran Saturday nights from 10pm to 11pm. It first began in 1944, and was picked up by ABC for syndication in 1945.  This disc must therefore have been recorded after that date as it includes the network ID.  The show continued until 1948.  Jesse Rogers was a regular on the program but many others appeared including Dapper Dan, Eddie Arnold, Sons of the Pioneers, The Murray Sisters, Hackshaw Hawkins, The Bland Boys, Billy Strickland, The Sleepy Hollow Gang, Texas Jim Robertson and many others. 

In 1946 Jesse started his own program on WDAS-AM. His program, Ranch Roundup ran weekdays at noon. The ones I can date seem to be from 1947 and possibly early 1948.There are some real winners in the batch, I'll keep posting them if you keep listening.

Transcription Mystery Disc #83

This disc came with no label on either side. But even with not a lick of text, we can piece together some of the story. The presence of two holes indicates this is probably an Audiodisc blank or a Duodisc. We can eliminate Prestos because they had Four holes and Wilcox-gay which had three. Sound Craft's had two holes but they painted the shellac all the way to the center hole. Recordisc were typically on a cardboard blank not aluminum.

Yeah that doesn't help much. But the audio does. It's recorded from tape to transcription disc. You can hear jumps in the audio that can only come from inconsistent tape speed. In the era this must have been made it was rare for someone to own a transcription recorder. It would be more rare for them to own both a transcription machine and a reel-to-reel deck. This was almost certainly made at a radio station. I think this is a dub of a broadcast made for a performer in the recording.
That would explain the sloppiness of the dub. Side A has about 4 minutes of audio and Side B has about 2 minutes. the two sides are parts of two different songs. they probably ran out of disc on Side A and flipped it and dropped the needle again. It's clearly not made for broadcast, it's made for personal use. In this rip I've spliced together the two sides with a short gap between.

At the very end of the recording the mystery recording finally finds a source. In the beginning the tape jumps obscure some key words but the pianist is from Schwenksville, PA. "Thank you very much Karl. Ladies and gentlemen you've been listening to another in a series of cultural and arts broadcasts sponsored jointly by station WFI..." And it cuts off.

It probably is the station we now call 560 WFIL-AM. Station WFI-AM became WFIL-AM in 1935 they kept those calls until 1993. They reclaimed the calls in 1994 and continue to use them today. In the 1930s it was an NBC affiliate and in the 1940s an ABC affiliate. Dick Clark worked there in 1952. In the 1960s they were a top 40 station. I would guess this recording is from the late 1940s, early 50s. You can see a schedule from that era here. It's got everything from Walter Winchell to cooking shows.