Sherrif Tom Owen's Cowboys on WMT

 

June 18th, 1953 - Eldora, IA

The first thing you might notice about Tom Owen's Cowboy's is that their leader, and namesake is at least 20 years older than the rest of the group. I'll get to that in a moment. Their first appearance in the Radio Guide is in December of 1938. The 15-minute show aired M-F in the morning. Different Radio Guides have them at 10:45, 11:00 and 11:15 depending, but all times CST. In the 1940s their slot moved around, and they began playing the "WMT News" Program on Wednesdays at 1:45 exclusively. In 1941 they moved around and played more Noon and 1:00 slots, playing a 15 minute spot before :Voice of Iowa News." Joe Doakes appears to have taken the news/music role.

Most of what I know about the line up of Sheriff Tom Owen's Cowboys' starts with three post cards which have hand notes identifying the members. None of them have been mailed, so we have no dates attached to any of the three. But I have some dating conjecture... Let's start with that short discography:

Label	Sides	Year
Mercury	A New Ten Gallon Hat / You Can't Cry Over My Shoulder	1946
Mercury	Down By The Railroad Tracks / The Freight Train Blues	1946
Mercury	Don't Say You Love Me If You Don't / Baby You Done Flubbed Your Dub With Me	1946
Dome	Down In The Sweetheart Valley / Hey! Hey! Ioway Polka	1948
Mercury	Just Because / My Darling Tell Me True	1948
Dome	I Send Back Your Letters / The Trouble With Me Is You	1949
Mastertone	Man, Man, What A Band / The Cowboy's Dream	????

Their entire known discography consists of seven 78s all released between 1946 and 1949. Some of their 78's attribute song writers, but none that were definitively written by band members. Even the Owen behind (W-1010-A) "Man, Man What A Band" is Harry Y. Owen. That disc is interesting. It is also one of the few items in their historiography which lacks a WMT logo, and Tom Owen lacks the title Sheriff. I suspect it's their first release, and that it came early in the WMT radio program because Mastertone was a local Des Moines, IA label. It did credit some players: Chuck & Johnny on side A and Jim, Chuck & Johnny on side B. So I believe those three belong to the original line up.

But Sheriff Tom Owen's Cowboys' had a few different line ups. The image above looks like Tom (calling), Charles "Chuck" Youtzy (trumpet), Mibs Allen (drums), Johnny Lyons (accordion), Harold "Bub" Goodwick (clarinet), and Jim Pye (bass).  It's similar to the below pose but the bass drum head is different as is the line up. It look more like a candid than a pose because of the gap between Tom and Jim.

The line up below is Tom (calling), Jerry (accordion), Don Wachal (Clarinet), Mibs Allen (drums), Johnny Kettleson (guitar), Bub (trumpet) and Jim (bass).  Supposedly at some point Leo Greco played accordion. (I've added surnames where possible) More here. Tom Owen's sheriff costume was really just a suit and a badge but sometimes he wore two holsters on his hips with pistols.

I found another image (below) with a line up that looks like Tom, Chuck, Don Wachal, Mibs, Bub Goodwick, Gene and Jim. There's also one of them piled in a wagon: Tom, Chuck, Don, Mibs, Bub, Johnny, Jim and Don...  I take this horse carriage promo picture to be the latest one. The band is wearing monogrammed chaps. More here. In January of 1946 they got a write up in Billboard claiming they were booked solid for all of 1946. 

This phenomenal gent was Sheriff Tom Owen and His Cowboys, a six-piece band that does a business which makes other combos envious. Playing in a 100 -mile radius of Cedar Rapids, IA., where the cowboys play a daily program on Station WMT, the band is the hottest thing for box-office receipts to hit the territory. The band will gross $72,000 for 1945 plays 1,400 - 1,600 consistently...

Billboard went on to explain they play the old-time music of 25 years ago with a zip to it, westerns, Hillbilly and some modern. By Modern he means 1940s country. That's a funny thought, today we'd call it all country oldies. Tom Owen's career apparently goes back to WLS where he was a square dance caller where he worked for 13 years. The trio recorded 8 sides in Gennett’s studio, in Richmond, Indiana on February 1926.

Artist biographies are often embellished but Tom Owens recorded previously was the Tom Owen's WLS Barn Dance Trio which whom he recorded 7 discs in 1926 and 1927. [SOURCE] The members of that band are poorly documented but Tom Owen is a given, and Tommy Dandurand is credited as the fiddler player on most of them, something musicologists grant is possible. Those discs were issued on Silvertone, Challenge and Gennett. One article about the WLS Barn Dance Trio reports that Tom Owen is from Missouri.

I don't think that's Tom Own's only bands.  One Gennett discography reports that the band uses the name Uncle John Harvey’s Old Time Dance Orchestra on Herwin. [SOURCE]  I also found an image where Tom Owen is posed next to a group with a bass drum painted with the logo for "Tom Owen's WLS Entertainers." I also found a few Gennetts with the name Tom Owen's Barnstormers, a newspaper listing Tom Owen's Cornhuskers. I think that's the band with Matt Hickey. It's all probably the same group, more or less affiliated with the WLS Barn Dance. (discography below) More here.

The WLS Barn Dance was only debuted on April 19, 1924. So Tom Owen was a very early figure. For his start the book Exploring Roots Music by Nolan Porter told the story. "As a listener that night, I remember that a request went out for a square dance caller and the announcer reported: "Tom Owen, a hospital worker, telephoned that he used to call dances down home in Missouri and he'll be right over." Such things did happen in those early days of radio. The story is canonized in the 1969 book Prairie Farmer and WLS by James Evans.

The Daily Iowan 10-10-1952

The National Barn Dace website lists Tom among the early stars. "Early stars of the National Barn Dance included Tommy Dandurand, Tom Owens, Chubby Parker, Pie Plant Pete, Walter Peterson, Rube Tronson and Cecil & Ethel Ward among others." [SOURCE] You wouldn't think a square dance caller was such a big deal but they were re-creating a type of music which was already considered old-timey. As the Barn Dance Trio Tom Owen's recorded the below. You can see the later three are re-releases.

Richard Peterson in the book Creating Country Music claimed that Square dance calling only constituted part of the WLS Barn Dance radio program from 1924 to 1929. That could have also been the end of Tom Owen on the program but a 1935 issue of Radio Guide suggests Tom Owen was still on air. We know he was at WMT in late 1938 so instead of a gap there may even be an overlap.

Label	Sides	Year
Silvertone	Ocean Waves / Kings Head	1926
Silvertone	Stoney Point / Buffalo Girls	1926
Silvertone	Buckwheat Batter / The Irish Washerwoman	1926
Silvertone	Hell On The Wabash / McLeod's Reel	1926
Gennett	Stoney Point / Ocean Waves	*1926
Gennett	Buckwheat Batter / Hell On The Wabash	*1926
Challenge	Ocean Waves / Buffalo Girls	*1927
Herwin	Buckwheat Batter / Hell On The Wabash	????

In 1949 Tom Owen appeared with Pat Barrett, aka Uncle Ezra, Bradley Kincaid, Malcolm Clair, and Joe Kelly to celebrate the 25th birthday of the WLS Barn Dance. In September 1952 Feedstuffs (a trade newspaper for the feed industry" listed Tom Owen and his Cowboys playing an industry event. Then he appeared again in 1952 for it's 28th birthday alongside Ford Rush and Glenn Roswell. In 1952 there's an ad for a dance Tom Owen's Cowboys are playing, it refers to their 16th WMT anniversary. That'd put their start in 1936 or 1937. This may even overlap with Tom's time touring with his Entertainers in 1937 as a "WLS artist" but probably no longer on the air at the Barn Dance.

Tom Owen died in 1956. Variety wrote "Tom Owens, 63 bandleader who headed a western music group known as Tom Owens's Cowboys died May 27th in Cedar Rapids, IA after a long illness. He joined radio station WMT, Cedar Rapids, in 1937 and continued with that outlet until his illness. Surviving are his wire, daughter and son." The Cowboys had been on WMT for about 20 years. Owen's radio tenure included at least another 10+ years  at WLS.

Arlington Heights Herald, 07-29-1932

In January and February of 1958 Sponsor and Broadcasting magazine carried an ads for a country special on WMT, Noontime RFD, which lists Tom Owen's Cowboys. But there the trail ends. Some ads for that Noontime RFD program co-branded Owen and Johnny Kettleson. The group photo no longer includes Owen but they kept his name at least on the print ads. 

Johnny Kettleson played with his own band from the early 1950s into the early 1970s. Their short-lived accordionist Leo Grecco started Leo & The Pioneers, which eventually became the Leo Greco band. He broke into television and started his own WMT-AM radio program on Sunday mornings "Variety Time" which ran for decades. Charles "Chuck" Youtzy might have become an electric utility worker at Jo-Carroll Electric. Harold ‘Bub’ Goodwick had previously been in the Glen Victoria Band and he left Tom Owen's  Cowboys in 1949. In 1952 he started Bub and His Boys in Illinois with his brother Donovan. He continued to perform until his death in 1991. Like with Tom Owen, his band carried on for another few years. [SOURCE] 

But in a strange kind of serendipity Sheriff Tom Owen's Cowboys were mentioned in Billboard in 1995. Mercury released a 50th anniversary Country music box set which included 73 artists who recorded between 1945 and 1995. The first name was Sheriff Tom, the last name was Shania Twain. What a mismatched  pair of bookends.

The Whistling Brakeman

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Superjock!

Doesn't that picture (above) of Larry Lujack just look like a DJ?  (The shot reminds me of Buster Poindexter for some reason.) He's got the coffee and cigarette, the open collar, the tousled hair and that smarmy smile that screams 100% rock n' roll, drink tickets, dirty cab rides and a hotels bars doing ludes with David Brenner.  If you've heard an aircheck before you know he's got that perfect 1970s rock DJ voice all the morning guys were still aping in the 1980s, and that includes me. 

Born Larry Lee Blankenburg, he changed his name to Larry Lujack for football hero Johnny Lujack. That Lujack played for Notre Dame, won the Heisman Trophy in 1947 and went on to play for da' Bears. Why would Larry think of that particular college football player? A man born in Pennsylvania, playing in Indiana?  You may not know it but Johnny Lujack had a radio program in 1949. The "Johnny Lujack of Notre Dame" program was a daytime adventure show, which aired as a Summer season replacement for Jack Armstrong. 

It aired three days a week: Monday, Wednesday, Friday from 5:30 - 6:00 EST on ABC. Lujack starred as himself with Ed Prentiss as a sidekick. A few different radio show directories say that Boris Aplon provided music, but I suspect he may have actually been the announcer. He did radio and TV acting, but was mostly a Broadway actor but he had one of those resonant voices. I find nothing about him as a composer. An article about Chicago radio is one of the few sources that describe him at all, in this case, in a Chicago Tribute radio special [LINK]. 

"Our main villain at the time was Ivan Shark, played by a fellow of Russian descent named Boris Aplon, a fine character actor who was also a fop. He dressed fantastically, drove enormous, beautiful cars., sported a thin, sweeping mustache, and carried a cane." 

Prentis has a much longer radio career. He was the announcer on Jack Armstrong so there was some continuity there. Prentis later played Captain Midnight. More here. But let's get back to the younger Lujack.

Planters is not a sponsor, not yet anyway. 

Larry was born in Quasqueton, IA. That town had a population of 570 at the time of the 2020 census.  It's about 45 minute north of Cedar Rapids which is still not a whole lotta city. The family moved to Caldwell, ID when he was 13. It's not the big city but at least it has sidewalks. He was a small town guy that decided to go to Washington State University, probably to get the hell out of doge. But looking for work he took a summer job at 1490 KCID-AM in Caldwell, ID at the age of 18 in 1958. From there he did a stint at 1140 KGEM-AM, which is even recorded in the 1974 book Who's Who In The Midwest.

Though an influence on some of the biggest egos in radio, notably Rush Limbaugh and Howard Stern, Lujack was not a shock jock. His own delivery leaned more onto sarcasm and cynicism. But that big ego was real. At the height of his popularity, his day his Midwestern popularity was probably second only to Dick Biondi; and only maybe. The Encyclopedia Britannica actually uses the word "braggadocio" to describe him. The 1977 book This Business of Radio Programming in a soliloquy about ego could not resist  the reference "disk jockey should enjoy being egotistical as does Larry Lujack..."  He was like Don Imus but kinda charming. 

So it's no surprise that his self-appointed nickname was Superjock, Which later became the title of his autobiography.  He had other nicknames: Lawrence of Chicago, Uncle Lar, and King of the Corn Belt app were used at different times. I've also seen "Superjerk" some were less polite.  But Superjock... he actually trademarked that one. No really.  [SOURCE]  [Didn't know you can do that? Yes, DJs can do that.  Let me know if you need help.] 

Superjock: The loud, frantic, nonstop world of a rock radio DJ

Between 1960 and 1964 Lujack managed to work at KNEW, KPEG, KRPL, KFXM, KJRB and then in 1964 landed at KJR in Seattle. [SOURCE] He used the Lujack name at KJR and in some ways it starts his big "rock n' roll" image. Then he switched coasts completely and worked at WMEX in Boston starting in 1966.  Lujack joined WCFL-AM in 1967 and moved to WLS-AM four months later. Lujack returned to WCFL for four years before going back to WLS for the next two decades. This time period was his golden era, mostly doing mornings. That's where all his famous bits happened, the best quotes, and most of the classic collectible airchecks. [More here]

In 1984 WLS-AM gave him a twelve year, $6 million contact, making him one of the highest-paid radio personalities ever. That's 18 Million in 2025 dollars. When their ratings declined in 1987, the station’s owner, Capital Cities-ABC, bought out his contract. The buy out was a motherlode, but it included a non-compete which locked him out of the Chicago market for 5 years. Lujack shrugged it off and retired to New Mexico. 

The end of WLS as a rock station was largely the end of Lujack's golden era. After moving to New Mexico in 1987 he only occasionally did radio work. R&R quipped "Lujack won't be able to work elsewhere in Chicago, but is accepting offers for foursomes at the golf links."  Rather than rehash the programming mistakes of Capital Cities I'll quote the FMedia Newsletter column "AM Happenings" from September 1989. They hit it on the nose. 

"WLS 890 AM is scheduled this month to switch from music to all talk. "It brings an end to what was once one of the Midwest's most popular and most successful AM rock stations. During its heyday in the '60s and early 70s, WLS was THE station for the most popular rock and roll hits of the day. It boasted such legendary disc jockeys as Dick Biondi, Art Roberts, Clark Weber, Ron Riley, Larry Lujack, Fred Winston, Bob Sirott, John (Records) Landecker and Yvonne Daniels. But it wasn't until the '80s that age and FM radio were starting to creep up to WLS. Younger listeners turned off by the station's conservative music mix defected to upstart WBBM-FM with its high-energy sound. By the mid-'80s, morning man Lujack switched to afternoons, and things went downhill from there. The station couldn't make up its mind whether to play music or to go all-talk. This ill-conceived middle-of-the-road format did in the 'Big 89'. And now, the owners of Capital Cities/ABC are finally going to switch the format to all-talk. I only wish they could've done it sooner. Everyone here in Chicago will have their own memory of WLS in its glory years as an AM powerhouse..." 

Locked out of the Chicago market by his buy-out deal he subsequently worked at a few other radio stations in new markets including a breif return to KJR-AM in Seattle. In 2000 long after the non-compete was expired, he tried a slot at WUBT in Chicago. Then in 2003, Larry and his long time partner Tommy took a show together at 1690 WRLL-AM. But that was short-lived.  Lujack did his show remotely from home, and the 1,000 signal barely covered Chicago. The older, more sedate Lujack didn't rekindle much fanfare. He still sounded great though. More here. 

Larry Lujack died in 2013 of esophageal cancer, probably from smoking. In a fit of irony, his own namesake outlived him by 10 years. Johnny Lujack died in Naples, FL in July of 2023, at the age of 98. Larry would have liked the irony.

Humbard Family Radio Favorites

The first print reference I found to the Humbard family was in the Indianapolis Times, September 5th, 1949. The Humbard family was performing at 4:30 PM on 1260 WFBM. I didn't immediately connect them to the evangelist Rex Hubbard. I'll circle back to that in a moment. I had found a Humbard Family hymnal which was notably hefty compared to most radio hymnals, with 201 pages of mostly Stamps-Baxter hymns. A highly unusual book, the music is all in shapenote musical notation. It bore no date, but the individual hymns have copyright dates. The latest of these are from 1945.  I corroborated dates at Hymnary.org. (They need to update their SSL certificate)  Anyway, I'd put publication of the hymnal shortly thereafter, probably in 1946-ish. The interior of the cover states "features on ABC and Mutual networks." The NBC Blue Network became the ABC network in 1943 so that tracks.

Interestingly the Humbards didn't seem to publish much of their own music. They seemed to be primarily live performers. In the Radio Favorites hymnal there are zero originals. Most of the music is by Albert E. Brumley a prolific 20th century, shape note music composer. Almost every hymn in the book is under Virgil O. Stamps publishing.  Their earlier work, the 1939 hymnal,  Humbard Family Songs, only sports three originals (below). I have not found information on their 1942 hymnal, the Humbard Family Radio Book so there may be a few more originals out there.

• The Blood Done Sign My Name - Alpha Edward Humbard
• One Day While I Was Far Away - Martha Bell Humbard
• Better Than Gold - Martha Bell Humbard

The various members of the Humbard Family put out books, LPs, 78s, 8-tracks, and broadcast on radio and television. I even found a translucent red 10" record. They ran an inter-generational ministry which eventually collapsed in scandal and embezzlement in the 1970s. But I'm more interested in the early radio era than the quaaludes and nose-jobs era.  It is with thanks to the 2012 obituary of Maude Aimee Humbard in the Akron Beacon Journal that we can start to piece this together. 

Maude Aimee Humbard was born in 1922 in Dallas, TX. She married the Rev. Rex Humbard in 1942. Rev. Rex Humbard's actual name is Alpha Rex Emmanuel Humbard and he was born in 1919 in Little Rock, AR. They settled together in Akron, Ohio, in 1952. Their kids were, Don, Charles and both a Rex jr. and an Aimee Jr. 

The father of our Rev. Rex was Rex Alpha Edward Humbard and he was some kind of an itinerant evangelist. His mother was Martha Bell Humbard. Martha and Rex Sr. had 5 children including Rex jr., they were Branson Clement Edward, Anna Mary Esther, Martha Ruth (Davidson), Elizabeth Juanita (Banker), and Margaret Leona Belle. Rex Sr. actually ordained the younger Rex which is how we ended up with a family of traveling musical radio evangelists. This family tree does not even begin to address the husbands and wives, sister-in-laws and brother-in-laws with contributed to broadcasts and recordings like Wayne Jones who was on that red 10-inch. This family needs a flow chart. [LINK]  If they didn't recycle names every generation this would be easier. To quote Shupe Hadden (1988) 

"He included his whole family in the act - wife, children, and grand children. ...A  whole generation grew up with the Humbards, and, for may of them, the Humbard family was a part of their own..."

Branson Clement also became an itinerant musical radio evangelist. He and his wife Priscilla even performed in Canada at 630 CFCO. In 1964 they put out a self-released christian LP "Come Home, It's Suppertime" when they were based in Youngstown, OH. Their twin daughters Drusilla and Susanna handled most the lead vocals. But read the credits carefully, those list Leona Jones and Danny Koker. Leona is a Humbard by birth, Danny is Rex Sr's son-in-law. Leona and Danny had a son also named Danny Koker (Jr). He too is an ordained minister. He would therefore be Rev. Rex Jr's Humbard's nephew. That Danny Koker was the host of Counting Cars on the History Channel.

Anyway, getting back to the Humbards of the 1930s. Purportedly Rex Humbard's religious broadcasting career started on radio in 1932. [SOURCE] If that were true his radio career began at the age of 13 on 1040 KTHS-AM. This is corroborated by the Encyclopedia of American Gospel Music by W.K. McNeil which states:

"Their first and best-known child, the future televangelist Rex Humbard, was born in Little Rock, AR... Of their five later children, the oldest three (Ruth, Clement, and Leona) joined Rex in the first and best-known musical Humbard Family. During the late 1930s, they became radio regulars on  KTHS."

Some sources refer to this show as the Saturday Night Jamboree. In the late 1930s that's not possible, because by 1938, KTHS was airing the NBC syndicated National Barn Dance out of WLS on Saturday nights. [SOURCE] The show was picked up by NBC Radio in 1933, so this local jamboree window would have to be short.

There were a lot of Jamboree programs and they are often conflated. Excluding the ones on NBC-TV (1948-1948) and the one on WSAZ-TV (1953-1965) a Barnyard Jamboree and an Old Time Jamboree on WLS, there was also a Saturday Night Jamboree on KWEM in Memphis 140 miles east of Little Rock, and another on KCMO in St. Louis.  There was the Blue Monday Jamboree on KFRC, Tennessee Jamboree on WLAF, (1953 - 1978),  the Saturday Nite Jamboree on CBC Newfoundland (1963),  a Wheeling jamboree on WWVA,  the WNAX Hillbilly Jamboree, the Cornhusker Jamboree on KFAB, the KARK Dixie Jamboree, the Old King Jamboree on KVOO... the list goes on.

KTHS was only briefly a Mutual affiliate in 1938. But they were an NBC Blue affiliate starting in 1929 not switching to CBS until 1951. So it's no surprise to see them airing the WLS National Barn Dance.So If this program existed on KTHS, it had to be earlier. The signed on in 1926, so there is a lot of early to speak of.  But I pulled out a Indianapolis Times radio schedule January 23rd 1932 and lists a Barn Dance at 8:30 PM on Saturdays. Notably this is before the WLS program was syndicated. So that might be it.

Even the meticulously researched book Arkansas Airwaves by Roy Poindexter refers to the dubious Saturday Night Jamboree program. All print sources I have found which give attribution go back to his 1974 book as it's source material.  But even June and September Radio Movie Guides for 1940 thru 1942 [SOURCE] list the Humbards on only two radio stations: KLRA at 7:30 AM Saturday and at 12:45 on Sunday at KTHS. 

The Poindexter book clearly states that in 1940 "Humbard Family switched their religious radio  program from Hot Springs to KLRA."  But schedules in the Radio Movie Guide clearly show they were on both stations at at least into early 1942 intimating they had not fully relocated to Dallas yet. Kevin Keherberg's dissertation [SOURCE] corroborates some of the above. Additionally, Keherberg pointed out the Stamps/shapenote connection on page 186.

 "Brumley’s songs were frequently sung by all of Stamps-Baxter’s radio groups—especially after the composer joined the company’s staff in 1937—and KRLD was Stamps-Baxter’s home station."

Then in 1939 Virgil O. Stamps brought the family to Dallas to play at the state fair. In Dallas they impressed Pastor Albert Ott leader of the mega-church Assembly of God. The Humbards were so well received in Dallas that they relocated there, and stayed for 2 years. [SOURCE]  The church's website today claims that the Christ Ambassadors Full Gospel Hour” began on local radio station KRLD. But Mr. Ott also had another program, the Old Camp Meeting on 1310 WRR which dates back to at least 1937. Documents clearly indicate that the shows aired concurrently. Ott's program on Full Gospel Hour program aired on KRLD at 11:00 AM to noon on Sundays which is immediately after the WRR program ended. But even if the Humbards were playing all of Ott's programs I still only come up with three weekly shows, and not the 13 listed in the encyclopedia. In Billboard magazines 1967 The World of Gospel Music special. It claims that "In 1939 the family moved to Dallas and did 33 radio programs a week for the Bethel Temple, WRR, and the Stamps -Baxter Music Co., KRLD."   So Billboard says 33, the encyclopedia says 13, but I count only 3. You start to get the impression that they were prone to exaggeration.

Their resume isn't all bunk, but clearly there is some incongruity here. The Encyclopedia of Arkansas claims that in the early 1940s, rev. Rex (Jr.) began a daily radio program carried nationwide on Mutual Network and the NBC Blue Network.That Billboard special [SOURCE] goes on to claim they began syndication on Mutual in 1943 and their daily program was carried on 100 stations. In 1944 they were picked up by NBC Blue. There is very little documentation on that syndication. at all save for that single WFBM listing in 1949. But that single listing on 1230 WFBM is an anachronism, as WFBM was a CBS affiliate and they had been broadcasting the Humbards since 1942. Mutual did have 500+ affiliates but mostly either small stations in big markets or just stations in small markets. So airplay there may have been real but poorly documented.

The Humbards also claimed to have broadcast over the Mutual Network for more than 30 years. This is false, not even possible. Their radio career before Akron, OH was under 20 years ⁠—total (1932 - 1942). But there is an obvious doorway to the Mutual network on their resume. In 1940 WRR was already a Mutual network affiliate, and they remained one through the whole decade. But the Ypsilanti Daily Press managed to close the loop. Their Feb 14th, 1944 issue lists " Humbard Family" in their "Pick of the Air Today" column. No call letters are included. It lists them only as "BLU" which means the NBC Blue Network: WLW, CKLW, WJBK and WGN. A November 25th, 1943 issue of the same newspaper lists them under the Mutual Network.

Then came the move to Akron in 1952. First they broadcast on 1350 WADC-AM from 9:15 AM - 9:45 AM Saturday mornings and later they added WXEL in Toledo and then 640 WHLO-AM. Strangely the WADC 30-year anniversary booklet barely mentions them, and does not even list them in the 1955 schedule, leaving the impression they were still very much small potatoes. [SOURCE]

The Humbards made the jump to television via WAKR-TV Channel 49 and WJW-TV. The once itinerant evangelists became televangelists. In the 1970s the ministry started to unravel: internal disputes, lawsuits, financial problems, tax fraud, loans from Jimmy Hoffa, embezzlement, and the IRS was sniffing around. In 1983 Rev. Rex Humbard resigned as pastor. He retired from on-air preaching in the 1990s. In 1994 he sold off his Akron Cathedral and retired to Florida. He died on September 21st, 2007.

DJ Lucky Lang

Above is a scan of the cover of the Lucky Lang Original Song Folio. My copy is in poor, maybe even vile condition. It's been stored in a moist place, it's biodegrading at the spine and bears strange brown and purple stains related to the moisture. It could be mold, possibly Stachybotrys leprosus. The staples are even rusted and have further stained the pages. It's a tad gross really. But the hand notations on the cover make up for all that. I had to soak it in bleach to proceed.

This copy is  Book #1, and I've seen that there actually is a Book #2. Interestingly it's cover is identical except for the "No. 2" text. Both editions list the following radio stations: WLS, WSBA, WSAL, WDBJ, WAPO, WSB, WJAX, WNAX, WGST, and WAGA. My copy continues with hand notations: WORK, WHBB(?) WHHB, and WLBR. I was able to corroborate the WLBR reference from January copies of the Harrisburg Evening News, and the Lebanon Daily News.

He appears to remain in the music biz through about 1959 and then he disappeared. In this songbook is a very short biography. I'll paraphrase: Lucky was born in Georgia on January 27th 1913. He's 5 foot 9 inches tall, and has brown hair and brown eyes. He didn't finish medical school but did take music lessons from Bob Burns in his home town.  The first radio station he played on was 740 WSB-AM in his home town where he teamed up with Chuck Swain.

So we can infer from this that Lucky is from Atlanta, or at least near Atlanta. Chuck Swain is much better known Lucky. Swain also played on WLS with Langdon L. Howe on the Smile-A-While program, and the National Barn Dance as the Blue Grass Boys. In the folio Lucky refers to it as the Blue Ridge Boys. One may be wrong, or perhaps both are right. But it's clear that Langdon L. Howe is Lucky Lang.  After they parted ways, Swain later played on WZIP in Covington, KY back in 1948.  He was a member of the Fiesta gang which also included Shorty Hobbs.  An October 1943 Billboard article notes that Swain had come to WLS from WLAV in Grand Rapids, MI, and Lang had come from WAPO in Chattanooga, TN.

Also notable about the song book; Lucky isn't listed as the author on all the lyrics. Some are unattributed, but the last few are by Mary Jean Shurtz. She was a well-known another country song-writer, and poet, but more importantly one of the earliest journalists in country music. So in addition to writing songs for performers such as Webb Pierce, Hawkshaw Hawkins, Cowboy Copas, and Hank Snow. In 1948 she signed an exclusive deal with Hill & Range Songs Inc. You may not know the name but they also controlled much of Elvis Presley's early recorded material. She has a short bio at Hillbilly-music.com HERE.

Excluding their mutual levels of concurrent fame, the only connection I've found between them is radio station WORK-AM. WORK is a very annoying station to research as it's one of those rare call signs which is a common word. 1000 WORK-AM signed on in York, PA on March 17, 1932. After NARBA in 1941 they moved to 1350.  Shorty Fincher and His Prairie Pals of WORK-AM played Shurtz's songs and even published her poems in their song books. When Lucky Lang's folio was printed he was playing with the 101 Ranch Boys who were also based in York PA and reputedly played at WORK-AM twice daily in 1947.  But their publicity photos usually bear the  900 WSBA-AM calls around the mic.  But WSBA didn't sign on until 1942.  It appears they played both stations at different times in the 1940s. (WORK changed calls to WOYK around 1983).  It's also possible that WORK is a red herring, and  Lucky thought it was just good business sense to score points with columnist Mary Jean Shurtz.

But back to 1946 and my folio: There is a notation on an interior page from 1946 that Lucky was playing in December with "Coco." The August 3rd, 1946 issue of Billboard does reference Coco...

"...Golden Valley Boys featuring Ray Myers, the armless wonder boy, headlined show at Mount Gretna (Pa.) Park, together with Mickie McKay, Pop Melchor and Marie, and The Blue Ridge Boys and Coco."

The Lebanon Daily News on August 30th also mentions Coco with the Blue Ridge Boys. Lucky Lang is on that same bill, so it's possible Lucky ran off into the sunset with Coco, whomever or whatever it was. But as far as the rest of Lucky's career, I see he played the West Coast Shows carnival in 1955 and again in 1959, then he disappears.
As for the folio, I've uploaded all 25 pages HERE

DJ Freedom Fries

In France they're pommes frites.  The same taters in Spanish are patatas bravas. Italians call them patate fritte. In Poland they are placki kartoflane.  In England they call them chips, and the rest of their former colonies call them hot chips, finger chips, steak fries, french fries, and potato wedges to name a few. ...Except in the USA in 2003. That year, freedom fries was a political euphemism for French fries in the United States. For that particular lexicographical misdemeanor we can thank DJ Jerry Agar.

On March 11, 2003 Republican U.S. Representatives Bob Ney and Walter B. Jones directed the three cafeterias serving the House of Representatives to change all references to "French fries" and "French toast" on menus, and replace them with "Freedom fries" and "Freedom toast."  I am sure the head fry cook thought they were kidding the first time they asked.

Our key man here, Jerry Agar isn't even American. He's Canadian and was born in Gilbert Plains, Manitoba actually. Unsurprisingly, he spent his early radio career in Canada. His first gig was in 1973 fresh out of high school at at 730 CKDM-AM. In 1976 he went to 980 CJME-AM in Regina, Saskatchewan to do morning traffic and a midday two hour show. Just a couple years later he went to 880 CKLQ-AM in Brandon, MB for the PD slot at the long-time country music station. More here.

Then his career changed. He married an American woman and was able to emigrate to the USA and begin working in radio stateside. His first US gig was at 1480 WFXW-AM in Geneva, IL (now WSPY) In the mid 1980s he moved over to his first FM station, 96.7 KKSR  (now KZRV) in St. Cloud, MN. In his own recounting, he got fired a lot. So he relocated again for a morning slot in Toledo at soft rock 1470 WLQR-AM. He was fired again and ended up part-time at 107.9 KQQL in Minneapolis. He relocated all the way to Tucson, AZ for a full-time gig at 94.9 KMXZ in 1996, and was fired again.  From there he went to 102.1 WMYU-FM in Sevierville, TN (they did a call swap with 93.1 WWST in 2001)... anyway he was fired again.

It was in January of 2000 that he was hired by 680 WPTF-AM in Raleigh, NC for an afternoon slot. This is where the sliced fried root vegetable hit the fan. It started with a small, local, right-wing publicity stunt. Innocently enough, a Prof. Crystall at UNC-Chapel Hill warned her studnet, Tim Mertes, in an email for  harshly criticizing homosexuals in class. The Professor rightly stated she would not tolerate "racist, sexist and/or hetero sexist comments in class."  Unknown parties shared that email.  Mike Adam, a Heritage Foundation alum, and UNC Wilmington professor and his pal Rep Walter Jones, began milking a politically correct professor for political capital. It became a meme in the war against political correctness.

While it can be excessive, political correctness is just another word for courtesy and politeness. It's the heart of the golden rule, reciprocity, the foundation of civilization. But in a culture war right and wrong are just ideas used to exploit the politically ignorant. Jerry Agar jumped on the story like a hungry DJ with a bad resume. He interviewed student Tim Mertes on air. Rep Jones heard the interview and sent a bitchy press release and a letter to UNC's chancellor.  Agar milked the story from every angle. He even interviewed Neal Rowland, the owner of Cubbies restaurant in Beaufort, NC because he changed his menu to read "Freedom Fries" as well.  Cubbies fared worse than Agar, they are listed as closed on Yelp. More here.

In response most Americans yawned. A 2005 Gallup poll 66% of respondents called it "silly." By 2006 Rep Jones was regretting his escapade, he commented in one interview "I wish it had never happened." The House cafeteria menu was quietly changed back. Nonetheless Jones remains in his 3rd district seat today. In 2004 Agar left for 980 KMBZ-AM in Kansas City, and in 2006 he relocated to Chicago for a morning slot at 890 WLS-AM in Chicago. There he managed to also do an evening show for WABC in New York from studios in Chicago. He did a stint at WGN-AM around then as well.

But Agar tired of our American way of life and the unending French Fry jokes. He moved back to Canada in February 2010. There Agar joined 1010 CFRB-AM in Toronto to host The Jerry Agar Show on weekday mornings. He remains there today, but the Toronto Sun quietly took down his nutty blog in 2014.

The Hindenburg Disaster Broadcast

Hindenburg Disaster is understood as a historical event, but few know it was also historical for it's radio news coverage. Herbert Morrison and engineer Charlie Nehlsen (Neilsen) were assigned by radio station WLS-AM in Chicago to cover the arrival of the airship in New Jersey to record a news story. They got more than they bargained for when the shop crashed and burned killing 36 people. But the story was not carried live.

Hsi engineer, Nehlsen, recorded the monologue to 16-inch green lacquer disks which were flown hurriedly to Chicago and broadcast in full later that night. Portions were rebroadcast nationally by NBC network the following day. It has been claimed that the Hindenburg Disaster was the first recorded news event broadcast coast-to-coast radio broadcast. that's probably an exaggeration, but before WWII live on-the-scene news reporting was much less common.

It's also worth noting historians have generally accepted the recording speed was about three percent off which inadvertently turned Morrison into a falsetto. [SOURCE] The transcription is as follows:

"It's starting to rain again; it's—the rain has slacked up a little bit. The back motors of the ship are just holding it just, just enough to keep it from — It burst into flames! It burst into flames, and it's falling, it's crashing! Watch it, watch it! Get out of the way! Get this, Charlie! Get this, Charlie! It's fire—and it's crashing! It's crashing terrible! Oh, my, get out of the way, please! It's burning and bursting into flames, and the—and it's falling on the mooring-mast and all the folks agree that this is terrible, this is one of the worst catastrophes in the world. [Indecipherable] It's–it's–it's the flames, [indecipherable] oh, four- or five-hundred feet into the sky and it ... it's a terrific crash, ladies and gentlemen. It's smoke, and it's flames now ... and the frame is crashing to the ground, not quite to the mooring-mast. Oh, the humanity and all the passengers screaming around here. I told you, I can't even talk to people whose friends are on there. Ah! It's–it's–it's–it's ... o–ohhh! I–I can't talk, ladies and gentlemen. Honest, it's just laying there, a mass of smoking wreckage. Ah! And everybody can hardly breathe and talk, and the screaming. Lady, I–I'm sorry. Honest: I–I can hardly breathe. I–I'm going to step inside where I cannot see it. Charlie, that's terrible. Ah, ah—I can't. I, listen, folks, I–I'm gonna have to stop for a minute because I've lost my voice. This is the worst thing I've ever witnessed."

Bradley Kincaid's Favorite Mountain Ballads

Bradley Kincaid was born in Point Leavell, KY and I have the post card to prove it. But built his music career in the northern states. His first radio appearance came in 1926 when he performed on the National Barn Dance show on WLS-AM in Chicago, IL. Kincaid was born in 1895 so he was already 31 when he first stood facing the microphone at WLS-AM. So lets back up so we can have a little continuity here.

At the age of 14 his father gave him a guitar that he got in trade for a fox hound. That has got to be the best story in the history of country music. At the age of 19 he entered the Berea College Foundation School as a sixth-grader but left less than 2 years later to fight in WWI. After the war he resumed his education at Berea and graduated from the academy in 1921 at the age of 26.  He then moved to Chicago to attend Y.M.C.A. College. It's now known as George Williams College. There he joined a singing quartet which led to his famous 1928 solo audition for the National Barn Dance.

Throughout that time he collected folk songs. It was his passion. In addition to collecting song books he wrote country songs and his song books sold big time. His 1928 songbook called My Favorite Mountain Ballads sold more than 400,000 copies. He spent 4 years on WLS and paired up with Louis Marshall “Grandpa” Jones. He went onto play at WBZ-AM in Boston, at WHAM in Rochester in 1939, WLW in Cincinnati in 1941, and on WKRC-AM, with Cowboy Copas on the Cornhuskers Jamboree in 1945.


His last major radio gig was a stretch on the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville from 1942-1947 on WSM-AM. He did continue to perform but less and less on radio. He was mostly retired by the 60s but continued to record into the 1970s. In 1971, he was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. He died in 1989. His papers reside at Berea College. More here.

DJ Doc Hopkins

Born in 1900 (or maybe 1894, 1899, or 1901), Howard "Doc" Hopkins was a barber, a musician, a machinist and disk jockey. His career peaked in the 1930s and 1940s singing and playing banjo on both the WLS National Barn Dance with the Prairie Ramblers while also appearing on the WJJD Supper Time Frolic program. He appears in both the canonical  The Encyclopedia of Country Music and it's predecessor, the  History and Encyclopedia of Country Western, and Gospel Music.  The latter edition only notes his time on WJJD and WLS, but his radio resume is much longer indeed. Having also played with the Cumberland Ridge Runners, the UCLA Folk Festival in the early 1960s and even founded his own record label, DH in 1948 you might guess he got around.  More here.

The Encyclopedia of Country Music called him a "smooth-voiced balladeer with a storehouse of traditional material." He formed his first professional band in 1929 in Mount Vernon along with Karl Davis and Hartford Taylor. By 1943 he was playing the Smile-A-While program with the Prairie ramblers, a 30 minute slot on WLS-AM. In the book Smile when You Call Me a Hillbilly author Jeffrey Lange even goes as far as to credit the popularization of the mandolin as a country music instrument to Hopkins bands. Strangely  this popularity on air didn't translate to record sales. He cut a few sides for Broadcay Records in 1931, Then a couple for The American Recording Co in 1936 with the Carolina ridge Runners. In 1941 Decca tried and failed as well.

With the Krazy Kats he spent a year playing a regular spot on WHAS-AM in Louisville, KY. He relocated at the end of 1930 to Chicago and joined the Cumberland Ridge Runners and played regularly on the WLS-AM National Barn Dance. In 1935 he reappeared on WJJD's Suppertime Frolic. In 1942 he returned to WLS-AM.  In 1949 he quit the record biz and became a machinist again. In 1955 Billboard Magazine announced his return and the following year published a note that Alma records would be releasing a few sides of his Sacred recordings. In the 1960s with credit to the UCLA folk festivals he cut his first and only LP. He died in 1988. He might have been as old as 94 or as young as 87... nobody knows.

Art Hellyer is Not Dead

Art Hellyer, said in a 1993 interview on 97.1 WNIB that he wasn't really a DJ he just "played music as a fill between commercials." Hellyer was a mainstay of Chicagoland radio starting back in the 1940s and lasting for five decades. His zany off-beat humor was part of what shaped our modern radio gestalt bridging the gap between guy s like J. Aku Head Pupule and the modern morning zoo. He was on air at WGN, WJOL, WLS, WMAQ, WJJD, WOPA, WIND, WAIT, WOWO, WCFL, WBBM and certainly others. His biography The Hellyer Say is not to be skipped. 

His first show was on WKNA in Charleston, WV in 1947 interviewing auto salesmen.  Despite behaving like Art Hellyer, he was not fired from that job. (In his book he actually devotes a whole chapter to what he was not fired for.) It was a theme in his career. His zany behavior got him ratings. WBBM famously fired him over a dress-code violation and then re-hired him. As he told the Chicago Tribune in 1996 more simply that he got fired "a lot."

"...I counted 14 times. It may have been more than that... I always said every one of my battles was over creative control. I wanted to be creative, and they wanted control."

It's hard to say which of his programs was the most important to his career as several of them held the number one slot in one decade or another. In the 1950s his program The Art Hellyer Show aka the Morning Madcap on 1000 WCFL-AM, again on 780 WBBM with his Supper Club shows in the '60s while also doing mornings at WAIT, Then again on WLS-FM in the '70s until they went progressive rock in 1969. He was number one again on 1160 WJJD-AM in the '80s. His time at WOPA straddles some of that doing WOPA Art Hellyer's Memory Lane in the mid sixties.

What probably got his career going the most was his time on on WCFL. There he was given carte blanche for the first time in his career and he more or less ran amok. He offended big sponsors, like Coca-Cola and General Motors but the listeners loved it.  In he did spend a few serious on air. He advocated for the seat belts in cars in the 1950s and in 1960 spent time explaining to listeners the importance of the then brand new Polio vaccine to quiet the anti-vaccination nuttters. In 2011 he made another come back of sorts and began Internet radio station Party 934. Not bad for a guy that one quipped that "...the average life of a disc jockey in Chicago is three years."

Zeke Clements was not a dwarf

Marlon "Zeke" Clements was not a dwarf. He just played one on the big screen. In 1937 Clements yodeled the part of Bashful, in Walt Disney's 1937 version of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. To be clear, Scotty Mattraw was the speaking voice of bashful, but when Disney needed Bashful to yodel they used Zeke. Apparently even in the 1930s they couldn't find a single voice-over man to handle both the voice over and the yodeling parts. He wasn't always a dwarf however, he also appeared as a singing cowboy in several B-Westerns.

Over his career he performed as both under his stage name Zeke, the Alabama Cowboy and the Dixie Yodeler. Clements was born in Warrior, Alabama in 1911. His music career began in 1928 when he joined the touring show of Otto Gray and his Oklahoma Cowboys touring show. The band was formerly known as McGinty's Oklahoma Cowboy Band. McGinty had been a real-deal cowboy and a Rough Rider under Roosvelt. Graywas more of a band manager which is probably how they ended up on the National Barn Dance at WLS-AM in Chicago. they had been playing on KFRU-AM in Bristow, OK, and KFJF-AM in Kansas City. The barn Dance had only started in 1924, so in these early regional years of radio they were genuine celebrities. Gray actually made the cover of Billboard.

In 1933, he joined  singer Texas Ruby as member of the Bronco Busters. The book The Cowboy in Country Music by Don Cusic claims that in 1934 Zeke was the first Opry act to wear cowboy clothing. It's unclear if this was his first appearance on the Opry, or just his first appearance with the Bronco Busters... or just the first clad in chaps and boots. I find that "first" claim dubious. However, this was before the era of singing cowboy movies. Gene Autry's first cowboy movie began a year later, in 1935. Though Autry and Clements had both been on the National barn Dance by 1929, it's clear that Autry popularized the clothing fad. You can't see the outfits on the radio.

After the Opry, Clements also spent time on WHO-AM in Des Moints and WHAS-AM in Louisville.  The book The Encyclopedia of Country Music claims that it was while playing on the Hollywood Barn Dance on KNX-AM, that Zeke answered the Disney ad for a yodeler. But the Hollywood Barn Dance supposedly only ran from 1943 to 1948. This is long after Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was released. Only one of these things can be true. By all reports Ruby  was supposed to audition for a role as well but was too drunk. In 1939, Zeke broke it off with Ruby and went back to the Opry. He continued to be a successful songwriter for the rest of his life writing hits for both Eddy Arnold and Red Foley. He died in Nashville in 1994.

Spareribs' Blackface Children's Stories

Malcolm Claire had a one man show as "Uncle Mal" on WLS-AM reading children's stories. His only accompaniment was an organist named Irma Glen (sometimes written as Irma Glynn.) She also worked at WENR. A 1938 radio schedule lists him on WENR as well. The two stations operated under a share time agreement from 1925 until they finally merged in 1954. More here.

The Uncle Mal program was carried on NBC Monday through Friday airing at 5:15 EST. the program was so popular he was able to publish branded collections of stories almost every year from 1939 to 1946. His titles included Tune-in Tales, Tune-in Again, Story Time, Little Lord Fauntleroy, Always New Tales, and others. The book The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio list him as variously active from 1931 - 1940.

According to an article in a 1939 issue of Radio Guide the program debuted in 1930. He began with ribaldly racist  black face routines as the character "Spareribs" which he portrayed on both the WLS National Barn Dance and a lesser known program The Sinclaire Weiner Minstrels on WTMJ as early as 1932. Strangely the segue from black face to wholesome children's classics was gradual. When his children's began he actually did it in black face affecting the faux rural accent and all. More here.

The book The Hayloft Gang by Chad Berry even dedicated a few pages to the story of "Uncle Mal."  Claire was known to emcee the National Barn dance in that era as well. The 1944 WLS Family Album indicated that Malcolm was also doing overnights from 3am to 5am in the morning. I am only aware of a single recording of his program in the Radio Gold Index making it a true rarity.

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.

The Thinking Man's Hillbillies

 They were called the Thinking Man's Hillbillie. I'm not making that up. That's their actual marketing lingo from the 1950s.  Does a thinking man needed a different  kind of hillbilly than anyone else? Henry D. Haynes and Kenneth C. Burns performed as Homer and Jethro just to keep up appearances. In reality they had more in common with Weird Al than Bill Monroe. Their career was largely built on twangy parodies and original silly tunes. My personal favorite is "She Was Bitten On The Udder By An Adder."  You don't get tunes like that any more. Chet Atkins produced many of their recordings.

They were the same age, both born in 1920 with Haynes being a mere month older. They first met at WNOX-AM during a 1936 audition. (Yes, they were both only 16.) They were paired up with the house band, the String Dusters, and earned their nicknames when Program Director Lowell Blanchard forgot their names. By 1939 they were regulars on the Renfro Valley Barn Dance which was broadcast from the Memorial Auditorium in Dayton, Ohio. It was carried locally on WLW-AM. It was a good year to make the leap. Late that year the show relocated to a venue in Kentucky and was picked up by  NBC. Homer & Jethro missed out on some good years there as they were both drafted. They returned to the US afterward and found work at WLW, but were mercilessly purged by new management at WLW in 1948.

 They went on tour for a year and then relocated to Missouri for a year performing regularly on "Corns a Crackin" with Chet Atkins on KWTO-AM. That show eventually evolved into the ABC TV show "The Ozark Jubilee" but they left before it made the leap. They jointed the cast of "The National Barn Dance" on WLS-AM  in 1950 and stuck around  playing silly songs dressed in night gowns for 2 years. They later toured with Spike Jones, which if anything made them even zanier. They had a string of parody hits in the 1950s mostly on RCA.

Haynes died of a heart attack in 1971.  Burns tried to carry on with a new partner but the magic was gone. He started a solo career embracing his longtime love of jazz mandolin. He died in 1989 of prostate cancer. Homer & Jethro were inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2001. With some irony I must point out that the man who forgot their names Lowell Blanchard was inducted in 1977, over 20 years before them.

Radios Most Unrehearsed Show!

The Breakfast Club radio show in Chicago, on 1540 WLS-AM and its announcer Don McNeill. the program aired from 1933 to 1968. McNeill hosted the program for it's entire run, over 35 years. It ran for an hour on the NBC Blue Network weekdays at 8:00 AM. With the exception of his support for public prayer, he was a strictly apolitical character... something that's missing in our modern discourse. He debuted it in 1944 ostensibly to support the troops; a sentiment that was much more congruous in WWII. But even the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor he avoided the war topic and just let the new bulletins do the talking. If you get curious for more details, John Doolittle's book about the program, Don McNeill and His Breakfast Club is not to be skipped.

His radio career didn't' start in Chicago, not even in Illinois. It began 90 miles to the north in Milwaukee back in 1928. He graduated from Marquette University  in Milwaukee, class  valedictorian and started as an announcer at WISN-AM. and later for WTMJ-AM owned by The Milwaukee Journal. In 1930 he moved to Louisville and began announcing on  WHAS-AM. He tried to shop a vaudeville skit to radio stations on the west coast but that tanked. More here.

So in 1933, he auditions for an unsponsored morning program called The Pepper Pot. McNeill took over the show in June and renamed it The Breakfast Club. Pepper Pot is a terrible name for a radio shoe. It sounds like a restaurant. His re-formatted program was meant to be humorous and and topical but mostly just very wholesome and family oriented. It'd be pretty boring by modern standards. They had musical guests and both comedians and celebrities.After a few months letters started coming in with cornball jokes and bad amateur poetry. he incorporated it and the show became virtually an ad lib hour. It was called "radios most unrehearsed show" When the show was cancelled in 68' Don McNeill stepped out of the limelight forever. He wouldn't give interviews, he was just done. He died on May 7, 1996.