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.

Find That Zenith

 

I do like it when I find a radio with identifiable presets. It means we get to play a game I call Find That Radio. It also helps that this Zenith is gorgeous, though I think it's been refinished. This looks like someone stripped it and put on a thick coat of modern polyurethane. Looks good though, nice job.  It's a model 5S319 made in 1939. [SOURCE] Zenith made a few Art Deco models mostly in the late 1930s and early 1940s: 5S126, 5S218, 7S323, 7SC33R, 6R631, 6S632 and the 5F233 which this one also resembles. 

The call signs on the 5 preset buttons are WJZ, WORK, WLW, WCAU and WGR.  The WJZ-AM of today is on 1300 in Baltimore as it has been since 2008. But this is definitely the earlier WJZ. The original WJZ was out of Newark from 1921 - 1923 on 833 kHz. Based on the age of the radio, 1940s this is the WJZ in New York City that operated from 1923 - 1953 on 660 kHz. It's a 30-year window of time, but we can narrow that down I think.

1000 WORK-AM was a station in York, PA. They signed on March 17, 1932. After NARBA in 1941 they moved to 1350. They kept the calls until 1973 which narrows our time frame significantly on the bottom end. Despite using the call letters for over 40 years there is very little written about WORK. Most of what you will find focuses on Shorty Fincher and his Prairie Pals. This 1,000 watt station would have been mostly a local or regional station even in 1940. 

Station WLW began as experimental station 8XAA around 1921. That start date is somewhat debated.  More here. Putting that aside, WLW became WLW in March,1922 and operated on 833 kHz. It moved to 970 in 1923, then 710 where it stayed until 1927 when it made the move to 700 kHz where it remains today. This completely envelops the time frame and adds little to the story. Except for adding a pin to the map in Cincinnati, OH. 

This WCAU is not the 98.1 WCAU-FM but the AM station which began broadcasting in 1922. It operated as WCAU from 1922–1990, almost 70 years. The frequency would have been 1170 when this radio was first plugged in. It was probably listened to before and after WCAU both the AM and FM sides were sold to The Philadelphia Record in 1946.  After 1990 it became WOGL, then WGMP and is today WPTS, a news-talker on 1210. 

The last station on the list is 550 WGR-AM in Buffalo, NY today.  There is no debate on the frequency, they have been on 550 since 1928. It's interesting that the frequencies hop back and forth and aren't in any particular order on the presets. This 5,000 watt station would have been audible for hundreds of miles back in 1940, whereas WLW at 50,000 watts would have had it's frequency to itself across the whole east coast and been heard clear across the Mississippi river. 

 

Looking at the pins on a map I think the radio was East of Pittsburgh, PA but north of Baltimore, MD. There are just no local station in these presets except for WORK. If it was in a major city we might see local calls from those cities like WBAL or even WKBO if it was in Harrisburg. This really has to be in some reasonable distance from York, PA probably in a square between York, Hagerstown, Lancaster and Reading. Strangely I found this radio in Georgia. 

DJ Powel Crosley Jr. and the mystery of 8CR

 

How or when Crosley wrote the above pamphlet I do not know. It's obscure ephemera. But powell has always been involved writing his own history. Wikipedia clearly states that Powel Crosley Jr.'s company "operated" WLW. The Cincinnati Enquirer states that he founded WLW. These are two very different things. So let's get specific. In 1921 the Crosley Manufacturing Company was issued two radio station licenses: one for a standard amateur station, 8CR, located at 5723 Davey Avenue, Cincinnati, OH.  The other for an Experimental station, 8XAA, located at the company's Blue Rock Street factory building in Cincinnati. Neither of these stations is WLW. More here.  The definitive book on the topic is Not Just a Sound; the story of WLW by Dick Perry. He noticed a problem in the official history

WLW became WLW in March,1922, if that helps. Some say the original call letters were 8CR, and those of you who are fond of old call letters, as I am, are probably wondering where 8CR vanished. Well, the only record of 8CR's existence seems to be in the news releases that Crosley, Jr., himself wrote. He said 8CR was the forerunner of WLW. The Department of Commerce, then licensing stations, has no record of it; the department says his first station was the aforementioned 8XAA. Shall we leave that discussion to the ages?

Crosley, Jr., is the source on the connection to 8CR. He was making the claim at least as early as 1938. Every version I read is slightly different. But for it to be true the  8CR facility would have to be located in Crosley's College Hill home. The location today is a car park. Precision Equipment Co made his transmitter. But at the time Crosley was primarily a maker of auto parts. He didn't make his first retail radios until 1921. The radio band in Ohio was a really happening place in the early 1920s.

Most biographies start in 1921 when Crosley moved his 8CR transmitter to his factory. It implies that it was also licensed in 1921 which is not the case. From the Bulletins below we can see that it was issued in February of 1920. So before proceeding I took a look at the Special Land Station in the Department of Commerce radio Service Bulletins [LINK] for 2020 and 2021, paying special attention to find all of the relevant call signs. *Note: I'm skipping the issues with no Ohio-relevant entries. There were no Ohio stations of this type in the 1919 bulletins, and no bulletins at all in 1918 due to WWI. You will see some incongruities I cannot account for such as 8YR being licensed to Oxford, OH twice. I also cross-referenced the listings with the canonical source: earlyradiohistory.us.

Bulletin Date	Calls	Owner	Location
Mar. 1915	8ZX	Harry S. Weber	Canal Dover, OH
Mar. 1915	8ZF	Henry M. Rubel, Jr.	Cincinnati, OH
Mar. 1915	8YO	Ohio State University	Columbus, OH
Mar. 1915	8ZU	Doron Bros. Electric Co.	Hamilton, OH
Mar. 1915	8ZM	Ross McGregor	Springfield, OH
May 1915	8XW	Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.	Warren, OH
Aug. 1915	8YP	Ohio University	Athens, OH
Sept. 1915	8ZH	Clayton M. Howe (Hughes H.S.)	Cincinnati, OH
Sept. 1915	8YL	J. E. Collins (Board of Education)	Lima, OH
Oct. 1915	8ZT	John J. Grossman	Tiffin, OH
Dec. 1915	8ZD	Keith Henny	Marion, OH
Jan. 1916	8ZI	Roy C. Burr	Norwalk, OH
Jan. 1916	8ZG	Henry W. Campbell	Ironton, OH
Jan. 1916	9ZO	Ross Gunn	Oberlin, OH
May 1, 1916	8YR	Miami University	Oxford, OH
Nov. 1, 1916	8ZL	Willis K. Wing (Scott H.S.)	Toldeo, OH
Mar. 1, 1917	8ZQ	Charles K. Brain	Springfield, OH
Feb. 2, 1920	8ZV	Henry L. Ley	Canton, OH
Feb. 2, 1920	8XB	Precision Equipment Co.	Cincinnati, OH
Feb. 2, 1920	8XF	Emil J. Simon	Cleveland, OH
Feb. 2, 1920	8ZY	K. A. Duerk	Defiance, OH
April 1, 1920	8XI	Ohio State University	Columbus, OH
April 1, 1920	8ZI	Adelbert J. Gogel	Toldeo, OH
May 1, 1920	8ZX	Harry S. Weber	Dover, OH
July 1, 1920	8ZJ	Hughes High School	Cincinnati, OH
Sept. 1, 1920	8XC	Glen L. Martin Co.	Cleveland, OH
Oct. 1, 1920	8ZH	East High School	Cincinnati, OH
Oct. 1, 1920	8ZE	Norman A. Thomas & Edward Manley	Marietta, OH
Oct. 1, 1920	8ZT	George M. Withington, Jr.	Marietta, OH
Oct. 1, 1920	8ZA	Charles J. Murray	New Philadelphia, OH
Oct. 1, 1920	8ZG	A. J. Manning	Salem, OH
Oct. 1, 1920	8ZB	Earl S. Ensign & William P. Van Behren	Toldeo, OH
Nov. 1, 1920	8ZP	Edward I. Deighen	Cleveland, OH
Dec. 1, 1920	8YR	Miami University	Oxford, OH
Dec. 1, 1920	8ZL	Charles Candler	St. Mary's, OH
Jan, 3, 1921	8YK	Ohio Wesleyan University	Delaware, OH
April 1, 1921	8ZN	J. W. Kauffman	Ashland, oh
April 1, 1921	8XY	Cino Radio Mfg. Co.	Cincinnati, OH
April 1, 1921	8YS	University of Cincinnati	Cincinnati, OH
April 1, 1921	8YM	Richard H. Howe	Granville, OH
May 2, 1921	8YT	Mount Union College	Alliance, OH
May 2, 1921	8YX	University of Cincinnati	Cincinnati, OH
May 2, 1921	8XV	Frederick S. McCullough	Cleveland, OH
May 2, 1921	8YU	Young Men's Christian Assoc.	Dayton, OH
May 2, 1921	8ZAA	J. Warren Wright	Springfield, OH
Aug 1, 1921	8XAA	Crosley Manufacturing Co.	Cincinnati, OH
Nov. 1, 1921	8YO	Ohio State University	Columbus, OH
Dec. 1, 1921	8ZAC	Clifford, OH	Barnesville, OH

You will notice that 8CR is not on that list anywhere. The numeral 8 matches the radio Inspection District. But only certain call letters were granted in that period and the middle character is always a Y, Z or X.  8XB is a plausible first call sign for WLW. It matches the time period, location and Dept of Commerce records. But it actually became WMH.  

In August 1923 8CR belonged to Wilbur E. Cook of 552 Ferdinand Ave., Detroit, MI. In July of 1914, 8CR was licensed to Allen W. Coven located at 446 Earl Court, Elyria, OH and operating at 35 watts, not 20 or 30 as most often cited. It is not a "special land station" but an "amateur station" not that the technical difference was as clear cut as it is today. Later he took the call sign with him to 1122 West Ave., Elyria, NY. Then in July 1916 the calls are reassigned to Johnson J.H.E. of 319 Glenn Ave, Springfield, OH. In 1919 and into 1920 8CR belonged to Ralph R. Chartener of 47 Allen Ave. Pittsburgh, PA.

If you look at the Amateur Radio Station list of 2021 [SOURCE] or the Citizens Radio Call book [SOURCE] of 1922 there are finally entries for 8CR that match the Crosley story.  On page 87 it lists 8CR as being owned by Crosley Mg. Co and located at 5723 Davey Ave.. Cincinnati, OH. But that's after the 1921 date. A 1924 issue of the Crosley Broadcaster makes no mention of 8CR. [SOURCE] It's quite clear that Crosley was misremembering, or possibly lying, though it's unclear why.

Precision Equipment was founded in Cincinnati in late 1918 by Thomas E. New. Actually it was first founded as the Precision Engineering Association, and the name changed to the Precision Equipment Company before 1920.   They operated a store at 2437 Gilbert Avenue, in the Walnut Hills section of Cincinnati. In February of 1920 the Commerce department issued a license for 8XB. According to an anecdote from Harry F. Breckel they operated without a license prior to that with the fake call sign PC. In 1919 they mostly made test broadcasts. In February they began airing photograph records. In December of 1921 they were assigned the WMH call sign which when they were all assigned to 260 meters they had to share with WLW. Crosley bought our Precision in early 1923 and merged the companies and shut down WMH.

Shortly before buying Precision and WMH, Crosley was assigned the license 8XAA in August of 1921. In the book Golden Throats and Silver Tongues, Ray Poindexter specifically wrote "In the summer of 1921, he bought a 20-watt transmitter and began broadcasting recorded music over 8XAA, the forerunner of WLW."  But in the July 1928 issue of the Crosley Broadcaster, he claimed that 8XAA was licensed for an aircraft. [SOURCE] The Commerce guides routinely routinely mobile radio stations with the note "mobile" and this one did not, not in 1921 anyway. Maybe he confused 8CR and 8XAA or just preferred the 3 letter call sign. They were already no longer issuing them.

Perhaps the calls were re-used in 1928? But that seems very unlikely as he didn't have the call sign very long.  In 1924 the Dept. of Commerce moved to Morgantown, WV at the West Virginia University, Dept. of Physics. This matched an entry in the the Citizen's Call Book of 1926 [SOURCE]. This differs slightly from the Dept of Commerce radio guide for 1925, which assigns the calls to Mason, OH at the United States Playing Card Co. I credit that to the lag in printing the Citizen's call book. More here and here.

WLW applied for and was granted several power increases over the next six years. By 1927, WLW was transmitting with 50,000 watts.  You probably know him better as a manufacturer of radios, whose brand name continues to live on. More here.

The Doris Day Radio Show

On The air, the Encyclopedia of Old-Time radio by John Dunning describes the 30-minute program in one sentence: "Singer Doris day with such guests as Danny Thomas, Kirk Douglas, Jack Smith, and Jack Kirkwood." Then it notes Sam Pierce as the producer and director. The Doris Day Show program lasted a whole 60 weeks, slightly less than 14 months; from March 28th, 1952, to May 26th, 1953.. The Les Brown orchestra played the theme "It's Magic" on every episode. Despite mixed reviews that film helped Doris transition Doris from a band leader to an actress. Doris was the host as you'd imagine, and announcer opened every episode with some variant of: 

"From Hollywood with ____ as her guests it's the Doris Day show! Yes, from Columbia Square in Hollywood here's Warner Brother's lovely singing star Doris Day!"

In Episode 50 the Announcer, Don Wilson, slipped his own name in there. The other announcers Johnny Jacobs and Roy Rowan didn't insert themselves into the script. But honestly they didn't have the name recognition to bother. But Wilson has been on the Jack Benny show, Kraft Music Hall, Glamour Manor, and the appallingly bad Fanny Brice's Baby Snooks. He'd been around the block a few times having made his radio debut in 1933 so we'll forgive his hubris. 

That theme is an interesting pick as it was first recorded by Doris Day in her 1948 Warner Brothers film debut, Romance on the High Seas; alternately titled It's Magic" in the UK. It's interesting because she did not pick Sentimental Journey, a song known as her signature tune. The record debuted on the Billboard chart March 29th, 1945, and occupied the number one spot for nine of those weeks back.  Les Brown and His Band of Renown had been performing the song on tour with Doris but were unable to record it because of the 1942–44 musicians' strike. When they recorded it for Columbia that single started Doris's career. The hit was so big that Doris & Les recorded a total forty-two songs between November 1940 and August 1946.

I suspect that Doris picked the studio orchestra. Her connection with Les Brown went way back. She started singing with Les Brown and his Band of Renown, in 1940 when she was only 18.  (Some sources say 16) Les was ten years older than her which may be why he always considered himself some kind of surrogate father figure to Doris. So in the tabloid versions of her life story he often figures prominently trying to extricate her from one bad relationship or another. 

While we're on that topic lets also note that Doris was born Doris Marianne von Kappelhoff. One can see why she'd shortened it to the stage name of Doris Day. Alternate accounts state that bandleader Barney Rapp changed her name either because it was "too Jewish" or "too long" but either way the new surname was for the tune "Day After Day" sang on a contest at WLW in Cincinnati in 1938. It composed by Richard Himber and Bud Green. She probably knew it from the Artie Shaw Orchestra version sung by Helen Forrest. More here. 

The format of the program was already kind of old fashioned for 1952. Doris sang a couple tunes, did a little Q&A, talked with the band, and broke for commercial.  It was broadcast on CBS initially sponsored by the Rexall drug company as a summer replacement for Amos 'n' Andy. It was later sponsored by CBS-Columbia, Incorporated, the manufacturing subsidiary of CBS. You can hear some here.

The Fix-Tuned Radios of 4VEH

4VEH  transmitted its first radio program in Haiti on June 2, 1950. the station was founded by a missionary named Green Tolbert Bustin. The station was called "La Voix Evangélique d’Haïti."In English that's "The Evangelistic Voice of Haiti." Bustin was an American, born in 1903 in Hillsboro, MS. He was quote a self-promoter and wrote two autobiographies from which we can reap some context for how this station came to be. Rachael Picazo wrote a station history in 2000 titled The Rocks' Cry Out.

I think it's important to point out that these evangelicals were more than a tad patronizing about the local Haitian people. Even Picazo's book in the year 2000 referred to Haitian "witch doctors" and "Satan" controlling the lives of "savage" people. They refer to people as "cannibals", and "primitives" in ways you seldom see outside of a Trump rally today. Bustin's books are even less tactful. The explicit racism is astounding by modern standards. But between the three texts there is a lot of radio history. In his book My First Fifty Years Bustin wrote:

"To  the  best  of  my  remembrance  my  first  public  mention  of  the  Broadcasting  Station  was  in Chicago only a few weeks before leaving for Australia in June of 1948... A few days later while in conference with our Advisory Board, Brother J. W. Menefee, one of our members, assured me that he highly favored the plans for the Broadcasting Station and had $500 to give toward the project."

 After returning from Australia, he met again Menefee to make plans for the radio station.  only a few days after the meeting Menefee died. Then just a few weeks later Bustin's wife died as well. but he pressed on. Bustin had no radio knowledge of his own. Due to that technical deficit, neither of his autobiographies contain any technical information about the station. He credits an engineer named Paul Shirk from California, with the transmitter design plans. Bustin had a "vision" and selected a location in Haiti at the base of a mountain. Even Shirk pointed out the engineering errors in god's plan. The first 4VEH broadcast was with a 700 watt transmitter on 31 meters. It was only receivable to the south as there was a mountain blocking half of their coverage area. But the signal was strong to the South.  HJCM in Quito, Ecuador was able to return their QSL.

Regardless, the station continued to broadcast. They carried the sort of programs you'd expect, testimonials, devotionals, sermons, hymns and requests for domination. An organist, Mrs. DeMille, visited the 4VEH studios and spent days recording hymns on reel-to-reel tapes. It sounds like quote an effort to expand the station library, but her first name was not recorded.

In the Fall of 1951 the station was struck by lightning and knocked off the air. Shirk took advantage of the outage and designed a 3,000 watt transmitter to replace it. But while in Haiti Shirk got malaria and the dysentery was crippling. Job unfinished, he had to return to the states to recover. Another engineer Mardoqueo "Mardy" Picazo finished the job. He had been an engineer at WVLK in Lexington, KY; WMTC-AM in Jackson, KY, and WLW-TV.

In the above fund-raising pamphlet you'll notice the donations are correlated to amounts of diesel fuel. Bustin's autobiographies don't mention it. But Ms. Picazo's book includes a multiple references to their generators. A passing reference identifies the early generator to be a Witte pair. [LINK] Later she refers to a Cummins engine. In 1961 the Cummins company actually donated  a 4.5 ton, 75 kw diesel generator to 4VEH. It's hard to over-rate the significance of that donation. In Haiti even today less than 40% of the population has access to electricity officially. Those italics are intended. In urban areas 72% of the population has electricity but in rural areas only about 15% of homes have electrical service. Haiti 155 [LINK] wrote "When available, electricity is extremely unreliable. A combination of worn wiring, overloading, and illegal “tapping” has resulted in irregular service."  The 4VEH site was in a rural area so it was imperative that they generate power locally. This became central in the mid 1990s after a coup and U.N. occupation. Diesel was rationed and they have to cut back their programming hours and ask for donations of diesel fuel.

They moved to new studios in 1953. They station now broadcast on both 31 meters and 49 meters. Picazo described the studios and Celotex sound proofing writing a vivid paragraph on the spare station library. Less than 10 years later they would build a new library to hold 16,000 tapes

"A record case in the control room held the entire station music library: about a hundred 78 rpm discs which were used for daily song request programs and a literal "handful" (since I could put my hand around the pile) of 33 rpm records, and some classical and a few sacred pieces."

In 1959 they acquired some land near the ocean where 4VEH would have better coverage than in god's original plan. It was three miles across the bay from Cap-Haitien, near the small town of Petite Anse. The new transmitters were flipped on in October of 1960 with 15,000 watts of power. They also added a 2,500 watt signal at 1035 kc in the AM band.  Interestingly even in 1961 they only had 2 hours of programming in French or Haitian Creole despite the fact that about 90% of Haitians speak only Creole and about 5% speak primarily French. It's a bit daft but after 10 years they finally began recruiting local Haitians to create programming in creole.

In 1960 they also began locally distributing pre-tuned radios called "Go-Ye" radios. Whatever the stated intentions of the program, it reminds me of a similar practice in North Korea. Radio and TV sets in North Korea are supplied pre-tuned to state-run North Korean  stations. Citizens are not permitted choice. There it is actually illegal to tune into foreign broadcasts. While 4VEH lacks the enforcement power of a government entity, the lack of choice inherent in poverty re-defines their programing as propaganda.

4VEH still operates today. They have 4 FM signals on the island and one AM signal and their programming is almost exclusively French or Creole.  The expansion was slow and steady. In 1968 they added an annex. In 1976 they put on another addition which included new studios and in 1980 they did another large remodeling.  Rev. G.T. Bustin died in 1995 at the age of 92. Mr. Paul Shirk, engineer, died in 1996 at the age of 89.  In 1996, 4VEH began distributing solar-powered radios, they've given away about 60,000 of them so far, with a goal of distributing 250,000. Sadly even in 2020 these are still pre-tuned (fix-tuned) devices expanding their captive audience. [SOURCE]

Suppertime Frolic

In 1940 they advertised 1130 WJJD-AM as "The Largest Independent radio Station in the Nation."It was probably even true at 20,000 watts over Chicago. Some announcers left WLW for slots at WJJD. They claimed the radio station was founded by the Loyal Order of Moose.. that might have been true as well. They did a lot of public service programming which was important to their image.. Unsurprisingly their sports programming was wildly more popular. But what has proved the most enduring was the Suppertime Frolic.

Billboard dismissed the program as "...a popular program for rural consumption, patched up to sell a number of products, most of them patent medicines." Ouch. It had been founded by A&R man Ken Nelson later famously of Capitol records. Early on it was hosted by announcer and emcee Uncle Ervin Viktor, the program was panned by city press.
The program aired Monday through Saturday from 7:30 PM to 9:30 PM.

In 1935 DJ Randy Blake (aka Harold Weinstein) joined the program as a sacred singer. He had previously been at WBBM and felt the pull of hillbilly music. By 1941 he was officially it's host. The program went on to have the Kasapar Sisters, Patsy Montana, Red Foley, Lonnie Glosson, the Cumberland Ridge Runners, Jimmy Dale, Les Paul (as Rhubarb Red), The Kentucky Mountaineers, Bob Atcher and Bonnie Blue Eyes and others as entertainers.  Randy didn't leave the program until 1957, when he moved to WLW. excepting a short stretch in 1948 when he served in WWII, he hosted the program for 22 years.

But after WWII most of the live talent was gone. Randy just play3ed Country Western Disc Jockey. So it was no surprise when Blake took the program with him to WLW and moved it's time slot to 8:00 PM to 9:30 PM, Tuesday through Sunday. The days changed, but the program got shorter. The name quickly changed to "The Randy Blake Show." I get the impression it didn't last long.

DJ Chet Atkins

Born in 1924, Chester "Chet" Atkins is known today almost entirely for his country guitar picking.  He was also a lifetime radio man and that is no exaggeration. He was an ARRL member, and earned a Ham Radio General class license in 1998. His first call sign was WA4CZD, but he traded that in for a vanity call sign contianing his initials W4CGP in 1998.  That's a radio man.

He was born in  Luttrell, TN on the distant outskirts of Knoxville. He landed his first radio gig on WRBL-AM at the age of 17 in 1941. It was a 30 minute Saturday morning program at 10:00 AM, hosted by Parson Jack, a local preacher. Parson Jack had actually heard Atkins playing on at a farm and spontaneously invited him to perform on the program.

He next appeared on the radio closer to home, at WNOX-AM on the Bill Carlisle program. He played for Jumpin' Bill Carlisle regularly and became a studio musician for the station. There he met the Carter Family and became their guitarist.  In 1945 he relocated to Cincinnati to play on WLW. His reasons for leaving are unclear but one biography said he lost his job to "cut backs." In his autobiography he just flatly said he was fired. Regardless, he lasted only six months and moved on to Raleigh in 1946 and WPTF-AM. That was short lived as well and he moved on to WRVA in Richmond and played the Old Dominion Barn Dance. He lost his job too, this time due to missing work over asthma attacks.

He auditioned in Chicago, for Red Foley, and later made his first appearance at the Opry in 1946 in Foley's band. The Opry gig wasn't a stayer so Atkins moved on to KWTO-AM in Springfield, Missouri.  There VP Si Siman nicknamed him "Chet." Apparently it stuck. In 1947 Chet went back to Knoxville and had a regular slot on the WNOX programs the "Tennessee Barn Dance" and the "Midday Merry Go Round". Two years later he left

WNOX to re-join the Carter Family back on KWTO. He was briefly fired there was well and ended up playing with Saddle Rockin' Rhythm on KOA-AM in Denver. The Carter Family, then including Chet, relocated to Nashville in 1950. Atkins began performing on WSM-AM regularly and became a member of The Opry thereafter.  In his later years he went back to radio, appearing on Garrison Keillor's Prairie Home Companion radio program, and other public radio programs. He died of cancer in 2001.

DJ Merle Travis

I know all of two songs by Merle Travis but I bet you know them too. "Dark as a Dungeon" and "Sixteen Tons" were both written and recorded by Merle Travis in the mid 1940s. But 10 years before that he made his first forays into radio and that is where we shall begin. There are two versions of the story, but one has him playing the "Tiger Rag" at the age of 18 on 1280 WGBF-AM in Evansville, IN. He was attending a dance in 1936 and his brother talked the DJ into letting Merle play a short tune during the break. That appearance got him invited to play in the band the Tennessee Tomcats. His career would go on to include the Knox County Knockabouts, Whitley's Western Swing Band, the Drifting Pioneers, Clayton McMichen's Georgia Wildcats, Brown's Ferry Four and many others.

A year after his radio debut, he was hired by fiddler Clayton McMichen as guitarist in his Georgia Wildcats. but while the Wildcats were regulars on WAVE-AM in Louisville, KY that was years after Travis left the group in 1939 to join the Drifting Pioneers, a Chicago-area gospel quartet. They became very popular regulars on the Boone County Jamboree program on WLW-AM. The program was later known as Midwestern Hayride. Travis stuck with the station long after the group broke up and fell in playing with other country artists like Grandpa Jones and the Delmore Brothers whom he played with as Brown's Ferry Four.

He went to LA and played on Cliffie Stone's Hometown Jamboree, which aired on both KXLA-AM and KCOP-TV. On KXLA he also played on Town Hall Party and Dinner Bell Roundup, and on AFRS on the Melody Roundup. On KNX he became a regular cast member of The Hollywood Barn Dance. It wasn't until the late 1960s Travis relocated to Nashville and became a member of the Grand Ole Opry. More here.

He was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970 and elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1977. In the 1980s CHM records started to reissue his old records while he recorded new material.  He died of a heart attack in 1983. The Country Routes label has since issued several compilations of his radio transcriptions from the 1940s and 1950s

Transcription Mystery Disc #168

This is a 78rpm Federal Perma Disk it's dated and labeled in pencil leaving less mystery than usual. The scrawl isn't even in the dreaded cursive, it reads "9-21-40 Moon River DeVore Sisters" Moon River was a radio program that ran night program that ran on WLW-AM in Cincinnati, OH. it was really mellow, sort of like elevator music. It was cancelled in 1953, revived immediately then killed again in 1972. The show actually began airing in 1930 so this 1940 program is well into it's run. I ripped one other disc from this set already here.

DeVore Sisters
 
The DeVore sisters were a bit of a house band on WLW in those days. They were a trio of actual sistes including Billie, Ruth and Marge. Then when Ruth left, Barbara Cameron filled in. Barbara actually outloved the troupe going into television at WKRC-TV later on. More here and here.

A note on the longevity of the Moon River program though. Both the Jay Hickerson History of Network Programming and the John Dunning Encyclopedia of Old time Radio list the program as ending in 1940 or ambiguous 1940s. The only source for it running longer is a Cincinnati Magazine article from 1985 and a Time Magazine article abstract from 1954. Wikipedia makes up it's own bunkum version of history referencing all three of those sources but adhering to none. My recordings corroborate add nothing to that conversation since they all date to either 1940 or 1941.

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.

Hollywood Walk of Fame: S - Z

At long last this research project has come to an end. I have asked the question repeatedly why these people are famous within radio and the answer appears to be that some of them were not. Though the walk even includes some misspelled names, cartoon characters and animals, there are no erroneous inclusions. There is always a reason, it's just not always apparent, though it is sometimes a parent. No doubt these oddities will spawn many future posts.(and corrections)

Julia Sanderson - Julia Sanderson and her husband Frank Crumit were a comedy and singing duo in 1928 on CBS as the "Singing Sweethearts" even though they were already divorced. In 1930 they started co-hosting a quiz show called "The Battle of the Sexes", which ran 13 years.

Vin Scully - starting out at WFUV as a student DJ, he graduated and got a job filling in at WTOP. He did well enough there to get a better job doing college football coverage on the CBS Radio Network. He currently does Play-by-play for the Los Angeles Dodgers on KLAC.

Ryan Seacrest - An internship at WSTR turned into an overnight shift which inexplicably parlayed into a Hollywood career hosting vapid reality TV programs. In 2004 he took over American Top 40 from a retiring Casey Casem, and later that year starting doing "On Air With Ryan Seacrest" mornings on KIIS.

Dinah Shore - By all reports her radio debut was actually on the Grand Ole Opry on WSM-AM with a Vanderbilt singing troupe. She left for New York and began singing on WNEW. There she sang with Frank Sinatra and for Xavier Cugat which began her recording career.

Ginny Simms - She was in the Kay Kyser band circa the Kollege of Musical Knowledge. The Ginny Simms show ran from 1941 to 1942 on CBS went thru a couple changes becoming the Purple Heart Show, and Talent Theater around 1945. She sang on many other programs including The Pause That Refreshes, The Bob Burns show, and others.

Penny Singleton - He fame originate in one character, Blondie of the comic strip of the same name. She played opposite Arthur Lake (as Dagwood) starting in 1939 on their radio show until it ended in 1950. In 1967 she famously led the Rockettes in a strike against Radio City Music Hall.

Red Skelton - His first appearance on the Rudy Valee show was in 1937. the appearance went so well that in 1938 1938, Skelton replaced Red Foley as the host of "Avalon Time" on NBC. He started doing MGM films and did another radio show "The Raleigh Cigarettes Program" starting in 1941. It lasted until 1953. He moved on to a 3-year syndicate deal with Ziv radio. He was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 1994

Smilin' Jack Smith - (Not to be confused with "Whispering" Jack Smith) He first appeared on KFRC with Anson Weeks and His Hotel Mark Hopkins Orchestra. More radio work followed and he guested on The Kate Smith Show, and The Prudential Hour. Jack got his own radio show in 1945 and it lasted until 1952. He moved into TV afterwards.

Kate Smith - See previous post here.

Phil Spitalny - See previous post here.

Hanley Stafford - His most popular role was as Lancelot Higgins on The Baby Snooks Show. He also played parts on several classic programs such as Popeye, Flash Gordon, Calling All Cars, Jungle Jim, and "The Shadow of Fu Manchu."
Jo Stafford

The Real Don Steele - As a Boss Jock he became nationally-known during his run on KHJ which lasted from 1965 to 1973. (He hosted a TV version from 1965 to 1975 on KHJ-TV.) He also spent time on KIQQ, KTNQ, KRLA, KODJ, KCBS-FM and KRTH.

Bill Stern - Known by me only for announcing the nation's "first" remote sports broadcast. He started out doing play-by-play in 1925 on WHAM-AM. Then was hired by NBC Blue in 1937 to host The Colgate Sports Newsreel as well as Friday night boxing on radio. It ran until 1956. He later did sports commentaries for Mutual. He was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame in 1988.

Cliffie Stone - See previous post here.

Ezra Stone - His biggest role was as Henry Aldrich in t"The Aldrich Family" which ran 1939-1953. The Aldrich family sketch started out in a stage show, then was reworked to a bit for both Rudy Vallée and Kate Smith's shows. NBC brought it in to develop into a 30 minute program. He went on to direct programs.

Gale Storm - She beat all the odds and won a 1939 "Gateway to Hollywood" radio contest and got a 2-year contract with CBS. She appeared on variety programs like The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom, Lux Radio Theater, Family Theatre, My Little Margie and a number of feature films.

Igor Stravinsky - (There are multiple alternate spellings) I can fine no records of live radio broadcast US performances. His inclusion appears to be dubious.

Alec Templeton - He played with several orchestras and played on piano on The Rudy Vallée Show, The Chase and Sanborn Hour, Kraft Music Hall and The Magic Key of RCA. His own program, Alec Templeton Time ran from 1939 to 1941.

Jay Thomas - Best known for a reoccurring role on Mork & Mindy he started in radio as a high school football announcer. He went on to KPWR, WXLO, WKTU and many others. Billboard magazine like to refer to him as semi-legendary. He now hosts the Jay Thomas Show on XM/Sirius.

Lowell Thomas - In 1930 he became a news commentator with the CBS radio. He switched to NBC and in late 1930 he hosted the first-ever television-news broadcast. He came back to CBS in 1947. He retired in 1976. He was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame in 1989.

Bill Thompson - Starting in 1934, he was a regular on Don McNeill's morning show "The Breakfast Club" He was also in the choir on "The Sinclair Weiner Minstrels" in 1937. He was also a regular in the cast of "Fibber McGee and Molly." In the 1950s he was in several episodes of CBS Radio Workshop. He went on to do voice over for Walt Disney cartoons.

Tommy & Betty Lou Riggs - In 1931 Riggs was running a poultry business and Tommy was a pianist-vocalist on WCAE-AM. Then they began doing the Tom and Betty bit together on WCAE's. Tommy voiced both himself and a 7-year old girl... which is creepy. the program moved to KDKA, then WTAM then WLW in 1937. They did a stretch on Rudy Vallée's Royal Gelatin Hour. they also did the Kate Smith Show and were a summer replacement for Burns and Allen in 1942. In 1950 Tommy Riggs and Betty Lou ran for one season on CBS.

Arturo Toscanini - He conducted Operas and led the NBC Symphony Orchestra. In 1963, NBC Radio broadcast a weekly series of programs entitled Toscanini: The Man Behind The Legend, commemorating Toscanini's career. Like Stravinski this is a dubious inclusion. The series was rebroadcast by PBS radio in the late 1970s.

Charlie Tuna - See previous post here.

Lurene Tuttle - Another claimant to the title of "The First Lady of Radio," she was reputed to be appearing in 15 programs a week at her peak. She did play virtually every female character "The Adventures of Sam Spade" in addition to appearing on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, and the Great Gildersleeve. She was in a slew of soap operas, The Red Skelton Show, Hollywood Hotel, The Restless Gun, Dragnet, Lux Radio Theater, The Screen Guild Theater, Suspense... the list seems to go on forever.

Vera Vague - Barbara Jo Allen got her star in the name of a fictional spinster-type character she created and portrayed on radio and in film. After Vera was introduced in 1939 on "NBC Matinee," she became a regular on Bob Hope's show around 1941. In 1937, she had debuted in network radio as Beth Holly on NBC's "One Man's Family." She also did roles in "Death Valley Days," "I Love a Mystery" and others. In 1952, still in the role of Vera, she hosted her own television series "Follow the Leader" on CBS.

Rudy Vallée - See previous post here.

Harry von Zell - His first radio gig was as an announcer for the Paul Whiteman Orchestra program, then he relocated to New York There he got a job as a CBS staff announcer and announced for Fred Allen, Phil Baker, Eddie Cantor, Eddy Duchin, Ed Wynn and others. He later headlined his own show "The Smiths of Hollywood" which lasted 1946 - 1947.

Mark Wallengren & Kim Amidon - In 1986, Mark Wallengren and Kim Amidon debuted their new eponymous morning show on KOST. Following a 2007 purchase by Clear Channel Amidon left the show and was replaced. Amidon was last known to be doing fill-ins on KTWV.

Jimmy Wallington - He was the announcer for several popular NBC radio shows including Carnation Contented Hour, Eddie Cantor, Fred Allen, the Screen Directors Playhouse, Jimmy Durante, The Big Show, and many others. He also announced for Voice of America for years.

Fred Waring - See previous post here.

Willard Waterman - His biggest role was in replacing Harold Peary as the title character of The Great Gildersleeve from 1950 to 1957. At the same time he had a recurring role as Mr. Merriweather in "The Halls of Ivy." Prior to all that he was on soap operas and a variety show called Chicago Theater of the Air .

Jack Webb - See previous post here.

Orson Welles - See previous post here.

Paul Whiteman - He started on the Old Gold Hour in 1930 but Whiteman had several radio shows, including The Philco Hour, Kraft Music Hall, the Chesterfield hour and Paul Whiteman's Musical Varieties on WJZ. He semi-retired in the late 1940s but He continued to perform on air and was also the music director for the ABC Radio Network.

Dick Whittinghill - He spent 30 years as a DJ at KMPC-AM starting in 1950. He also later did a the afternoon drive slot at KPRZ. He had previously DJ'd at AFRN, KPFA in Helena, MT, KIEV and KGFJ.

Tex Williams - His last appearance on radio was by phone from his hospital bed on Bill Aken's radio program "The Country Call Line" two days before he died. He was a western swing musician who had appeared on WSM at the"Grand Ole Opry," "The National Barn Dance" and Gene Autry's Melody Ranch. Williams also hosted his own radio program, "Riverside Rancho" in 1949.

Meredith Willson - A conductor and songwriter who in 1929 became the concert director for radio station KFRC then became the musical director for the NBC radio. He also appeared on on Good News, Maxwell House Coffee Time, Burns and Allen, and The Big Show. He later hosted his own variety show, the Musical revue which ran 1935-1953.

Don Wilson - Probably best remembered as the fat guy who announced on The Jack Benny show. But his career went back further than Benny's. Don started out singing on KFEL-AM in Denver in 1923. He had also been a sportscaster doing the Olympics in 1932. He also announced for Alan Young, Bing Crosby, Ginny Simms, Music by Gershwin and Baby Snooks.

Marie Wilson - Starting on Broadway she gained national prominence playing the lead role of a dumb blonde in My Friend Irma on film, TV and radio. The TV show and the radio show ran concurrently. The radio series ran from 1947 to 1954.

Paul Winchell - A ventriloquist, singer and comedian, whose he had many guest appearances on various radio programs starting in 1936, on Major Bowes' Original Amateur Hour. He had a season as WOR-AM in 1943, then again as 1948 Summer fill-in. He later did voice over on numerous cartoons and had a TV program where the ventriloquist thing makes more sense.

Walter Winchell - See previous post here.

Charles Winninger - A vaudeville actor who got typecast as a a riverboat captain and eventually ended up playing it on the NBC Maxwell House Show Boat program. He also made appearances on Lux Radio Theater.

Ed Wynn - He was the host of The Fire Chief on NBC from 1938 to 1949. In 1933 he founded his own radio network the Amalgamated Broadcasting System, which lasted only five weeks. He moved onto television. Also notable that He was once knocked unconscious by W.C. Fields with a pool stick.

Alan Young - His biggest roles were in television playing Wilbur Post in the television series Mister Ed, and as was the voice of Scrooge McDuck. He actually started out on the CBC in Canada, then in 1944 did a summer fill-in show, The Alan Young Show on NBC which was a hit. It ran for nine years 1944-1949 and then crossed over to television.

Carleton G. Young - He played many roles on may different soap operas such as "The Heinz Magazine of the air." He also played parts in some classic mystery and suspense programs. He played the character Phillip Galt on the suspense series "The Whisperer" in 1951, and "Jim Laughton" in Hollywood Mystery Time.

Robert Young - He always seemed to be playing doctors. He acted in "The Doctor Fights" in 1944, and played ones on TV as well. His biggest roles was as Jim Anderson, in "Father Knows Best" which ran on NBC radio1949 - 1953. Prior to that he acted on the CBS Studio One program, which ran 1947 - 1948 and "Passport for Adams which started back in 1944.

DJ Jacob Tarshish

I have often wondered aloud why almost all religious radio in the U.S. is of a Christian eschatology. There is precious little else.It used to be so more varied. To that end I've decided to write a bit about some of these all too obscure characters from radio history. His program "The Lamplighter" appears in the indispensable reference book On The Air: The Encyclopedia Of Old-Time Radio  by John Dunning. The entry is very brief.

"Jan. 3, 1936—April 14, 1941, Mutual. 15m, various times, with some gaps in continuity. Host: Jacob Tarshish. Continued into 1942 on the West Coast with Ted Yerxa."

Ted E. Yerxa is almost as enigmatic, a music columnist for the Daily News with a small record label. Both the record label and the column were also named Lamplighter. He put out a number of notable jazz sides in the mid 1940s. I was fortunate to find that the  University of Iowa scanned a brochure for Tarnish which contained more information on his early resume. You can see it here. Jacob Tarshish was a Rabbi, and a radio personality in the 1930's. (He was even a member of the central Conference of American Rabbis.) He broadcast on a number of stations such as WCAH, WAIU, WOR-AM, WLW-AM and WGN-AM. His nickname was "The Lamplighter" and he was said to have had two million radio listeners.

OTRpedia claims he was born in Lithuania in1892. In 1932, after18 years of the rabbinical life, he quit to be a radio personality. He started out on WAIU-AM in Ohio where he had a program for about 5 years. Then became a news commentator at WCAH-AM. He got into WLW in Cincinnati in 1933 doing Sunday afternoon religious broadcasts. But this wasn't pulpit material, he was increasingly sociopolitical and high brow. In November of 1936, he spent one of those Sunday time slots reading aloud from Charles M. Sheldon's article Poverty Doesn't Frighten Me, from an issue of the Rotarian Magazine.

Rabbi Nathan Zelizer described him as "a very polished person" and "an oratory."  But he also noted that Tarnish might not have quit his temple, he might have been kicked out for his commercialism.  More here. 
Over the years his sponsors included Dr. Edwards' Olive Tablets, Kreml Hair Tonic, and Kreml Shampoo, Zemo, and Zemo Ointment, Musterole, Bost Tooth Paste. Some of these products were cosmetics, others were more like patent medicines. He was now making a living speaking to groups just as an orator. That same promotional brochure listed off a litany of civic groups that he was hired to speak to.

"United Commercial Travelers Ohio Bakers Association Ohio Restaurant Association Mead Paper and Pulp Company The Food Growers of United States National Association of Sheet Metal Manufacturers Indiana Council of International Relations International Association of Motion Picture Operators and Stage Hands Ohio Canners Association Southwestern Ohio Teachers Convention Ohio Farm Bureau Ohio Parent-Teachers Association Columbus Junior League District Nurses Convention Rabbi Tarshish addresses annually over 300 audiences, composed of Service Clubs of all types, Fraternal Organizations, Women's Clubs, Churches and Church Organizations, Chambers of Commerce, Schools and Colleges and Graduation Classes."

I wish I had more information about his time in the 1950s. I can't imagine that his writings such as Judaism and Socialism (1929) went over well during the red scare. He died two days before Christmas in 1960. He was only 68 years old.

STUPID DJ TRICKS: Part 16

After a week of Stupid DJ tricks I start to lose interest. In real-time, I lose interest even faster than that.  I don't care if they're snorting their Cheerios down at the frat house, the morning zoo doesn't grab me. But this one is no morning zoo moment. It's nuanced, in a daytime TV drama sort of way. More here and here.

Our tale begins in Cincinnati on WLW-AM with radio host Eric Deters, who is also a licensed lawyer. You can see his own website here. He was very vocal and very active. According to the Kentucky Trial Court Review he has tried more civil jury trials than any lawyer in Northern Kentucky. That may or may nor be a good ting depending on your point of view. He's also a mixed martial artist cage fighter... yes a bit of an odd duck.  So don't get on his case, he'll sue you, kick your ass then tell everyone about it on WLW.

Despite his legal training Deters ended up in a big of legal trouble. The Kentucky Bar Association brought a suit against him that levy's six charges against him for violating the rules of professional conduct. One of them specifically dealt with his evening program on WLW.  He is accused of calling Grant Circuit Judge Stephen Bates an "unfair."  Bates had ruled against him in the case of a Grant County school bus crash in January of 2007. Apparently this is not something you can say about a judge on the radio.

Being a lawyer Deters filed a federal lawsuit against the Kentucky Bar Association to stop the proceedings against him. He felt the rules of professional conduct stifled free speech. Deters suit even claimed that the trial commissioner, Frank Doheny, was biased and refused to recuse himself. Deters is known for filing medical malpractice suits and Doheny for defending them. Deters has run for public office against some of the other members which intimates other personal motivations. The situation just sounds a bit off, you might even think that they had it in for him a bit. Well so did he.

Deters asked for a restraining order to prevent a trial and for an injunction to stop the bar proceedings against him.  He sought a new trail commissioner and a ruling that the bar’s Rules of Professional Conduct stifles free speech. U.S. District Judge Danny Reeves held a hearing in Frankfort, KY. Reeves shot down Deters and he ended up having a confidential disciplinary proceeding with the bar association. He lost the injunction, and he lost the appeal. But the tumult continued, Deters evening program on WLW was terminated, but his part time talk-program continued. Whatever was going on behind the scenes, Deters sued Kenton Commonwealth’s Attorney Rob Sanders for libel over comments he posted on twitter. Kenton Circuit Court Judge Martin Sheehan tossed that one too and made a side comment that summarized the problem nicely:

“The state’s interest in protecting the free and open expression of opinions cannot be lost on Deters, an individual who, when not practicing law, hosts what can certainly be termed a highly opinionated radio talk show.”

Transcription Mystery Disc #90

If this persons handwriting was more clear, tracking this one down would have been easier. It's very frustrating to find a disc that actually is labeled but that the label is nearly indecipherable. Only the date is clear 9-24-40, almost exactly 70 years ago. The rest is harder to read than doctors handwriting. Other than that it's relatively common in composition. It spins at 78 rpm with an outer edge start. The A and B sides appear to have been recorded on different dates with unrelated content.

I can infer some things from context.  It came from a stack of other Perma Disks from that era, many with similar handwriting, a few that are certainly the same.  I think under "speed" it says Moon River. Several other discs were labeled "Moon River."  My first thought was that some person had been bootlegging various versions of the song Moon River.  This was wrong. The song Moon River wasn't written until 1961.  (It's by  by Johnny Mercer and Henry Mancini)  It turned out to be a very obscure radio program.

Moon River was a  late-night radio program on 700 WLW-AM in Cincinnati. Moon River ran until the WLW sign off at night.  It had what would now be considered an odd mixture of soft, "dreamy" organ music and romantic poetry.  It was sponsored by Southern Cross Spring Mattress Company.  It's run was surprisingly long, it began in 1930 and continued into 1972. Actually station management tried to cancel the dinosaur in 1953 but it's loyal listenership rebelled and the show was reinstated. In 1995, WMKV on 89.3 revived it for a four-year encore with it's original narrator Bill Myers. You can download some programs at Archive.org HERE.

This disc has about 2 minutes of music and poetry from the original Moon River somewhere in it's second decade of broadcasting. But Moon River is still alive. In December of 2007 Ward Glen, a later Moon River announcer started a late night poetry and organ music program on Sonoma California radio station 91.3 KSVY with organist Everett Lehman. More here.