Radio Nick's Island Paradise

Delmar Nicholson was known as "Radio Nick" in his Florida homeland. He was born in Orlando in 1899, 20 years before the city's first radio station, WFAW-AM signed on. The station became WQAM in 1923. Two years earlier, at age 21, Nicholson went to Philadelphia to study radio engineering. He got the nickname "Radio Nick" for building wireless sets.  He kept the name when he became a DJ later on Orlando's WDBO-AM.

After his schooling, he opened Orlando's first store to sell and repair radio set. He sold it in 1927.  On WDBO in 1931 he scheduled a fund-raising stunt described as a battle to the death, with three rattlesnakes, a pine snake, a coachwhip, an indigo and a water moccasin.  He wisely backed out.

Nicholson was also a grower of orchids, an amateur herpetologist, and helped set up the a city zoo in Lake Lorna Doone Park  in1935. He also had civic ambitions. He helped found Goodwill Industries of Central Florida and served a term on the Orlando City Council. It must have been some combination of these ideas that drove him to buy an island.

In the early 1900s the little island in the middle of Bay Lake was known as Raz Island. It was named after a  family that farmed the roughly triangular isle. In 1937, Nicholson purchased it for $800. He renamed the island "Idle Bay Isle" and lived there for 20 years with his wife and pet crane. Already retired from radio, he grew orchids, joined the Florida State Horticultural Society, and the Florida Audubon Society. He sold the island to a local executive who used it as a hunting retreat and renamed it Riles Island. More here.

Nicholson, who died in 1978 at the age of 79 he was cremated but he has a headstone that reads "Radio Nick" just below his name. In 1965 Disney bought his island paradise and added fill to expand it to 11.5 acres. He named it Treasure Island, then re-named it Discovery Island when the pirate-theme played out. Disney closed it in 1999 after some animal abuse scandals and it is now abandoned and growing wild. Nicholson would have approved. 

The first stations in each state

I didn't do the research on this, but I did check their list twice. I also re-sorted it into chronological order. This is a list of the first licensed radio stations in each U.S. state. Well all know KDKA, and WQAM, and WBZ but the rest are surprises. Also surprising is how long some states took to get it together. It's very interesting, and the rest of the National Radio Club website is also well worth the browsing. http://www.nrcdxas.org/

I've tried to space it out to be more readable in Blogger but I've been thwarted by it's "smart corrections" at each attempt. I recommend you click the header to see their work in it's original and more readable glory.

1. KDKA Pittsburgh, PA Oct 27, 1920
2. KQL Los Angeles, CA Oct 13, 1921
3. WCJ New Haven, CT Sep 29, 1921
4. WQAM Miami, FL Feb 1921
5. WDZ Tuscola, IL Mar 17, 1921
6. WGAZ South Bend, IN Sep 25, 1921
7. WBZ Springfield, MO Sep 15, 1921
8. WWJ Detroit, MI Oct 13, 1921 
9. WEW St. Louis, MO Apr 26, 1921
10. WOU Omaha, NE Dec 29, 1921
11. WJZ Newark, NJ Jun 1, 1921
12. WJX New York, NY Oct 13, 1921
13. WLW Cincinnati, OH Mar 3, 1921
14. WKY Oklahoma, OK City Apr 21, 1921
15. WRR Dallas, TX Feb, 1921
16. KFC Seattle, WA Dec 8 1921
17. KFXZ Logan, UT 1922, (moved to ID)
18. WGH Montgomery, AL Feb 3, 1922
19. KFAD Phoenix, AZ Jun 21, 1922
20. WOK Pine Bluff, AR Feb 10, 1922
21. KLZ Denver, CO Mar 10, 1922
22. WHAV Wilmington, DE Jul 30, 1922
23. WSB Atlanta, GA Mar 15, 1922
24. KGU Honolulu, HI May, 1922
25. KFXD Logan, UT 1922
26. WOC Davenport, IA Feb 18, 1922 
27. WEY Wichita, KS Mar 23, 1922
28. WHAS Louisville, KY Jul 18, 1922
29. WWL New Orleans, LA Mar 31, 1922
30. WKC Baltimore, MD Mar 23, 1922
31. WLB Minneapolis, MN Jan 13, 1922
32. KFBB Great Falls, MT Jul 11, 1922
33. WKAV Laconia, NH Aug, 1922
34. KOB Albuquerque, NM May, 1922
35. WBT Charlotte, NC Apr 10, 1922
36. WDAY Fargo, ND May 23, 1922
37. KGG Portland, OR Mar 15, 1922
38. WEAN Providence, RI Jun 5, 1922
39. WCAT Rapid City, SD May 9, 1922
40. WKN Memphis, TN Mar 23, 1922 
41. WCAX Burlington, VT June, 1922 
42. WHD Morgantown, WV Mar 16, 1922 
43. WHA Madison, WI Jan 13, 1922
44. WTAR Norfolk, VA Sep 21, 1923
45. KFQD Anchorage, AK Apr, 1924 
46. WCSH Portland, OR Jul 24, 1925
47. WDBT Hattiesburg, MS May 1, 1925
48. KOH Reno, NV Oct 25, 1928
49. WSPA Spartanburg, SC Nov, 1929
50. KDFN Casper, WY Jan 2, 1930
    

A tale of two DJS

In the mid fifties there were two very mighty DJs. Thsi was a world long before MTV or VJs and as entertainers went... without being a rockstar they were as big as big got.

I'm talking about Dick Clark and Alan Freed.

I mentioned Mr. Moondong himself in my poston the Sony Paola scandal and later thought I was unfair. I threw his name out ther ewithout any backstory at all. Most of us are vaguely aware of the story, vaguely aware that hew was bribed. Nobody sems to know by whom, for what record or for how much.... So let me put it in prespective.

This was an era where there were no Federal payola laws. NONE. So these were violations only of state law. A lot of equity trading law, and related contract law has changed since then too so please, really listen to this one.

In 1957 Alan Freed got a show on WABC-AM new york. He'd come over from WINS-AM and had to for legal reasons related to a vagrant musician had to change his DJ name and his show name. Never mind that his PIA would forbid this today but just know that he was at WABC at this point, his new show was "Big Beat" and that Dick Clark by all reports hated his guts.

So Alan takes a bribe, and then a couple more. Later on he would he would put the tally in court documents at about $30,650 from seven record labels. Just previousto this WABC asked all staff to sign contracts stating that they had never taken bribes and never would. Alan refused. It made him a target and it was a poor choice. But it might have been unavoidable. The State of New York fined him $300.
Regardless. He was out at WABC after the arrest came down. He moved to KDAY in Los Angeles. Three years later he was busted again for taking $2,700 in payola from Sun records among others. The bust sent him to WQAM in Miami... and onward.

Dick Clark was running American Bandstand at this point. He signed the contract. Dick claimed to have never taken payola. Tuth told, he probably hadn't. Instead he held stock in 33 music companies. In court he admitted that these "investments" were making him $500,000 a year. On his show he frequenty played songs by bands wherein he held label intrest or publishing monies.

For example. He owned a peice of Duane Eddy. So Duane got played more than say... The Beatles. This went on until WABC pressured him to divest the "questionable conflicts." Dick didnt exactly take payola since he would only have to bribe himself.

TOTALS:
Alan Freed: under $35,000
Dick Clark: over $10,000,000 (probably more)

But Dick played the game and American rascist politics was pretty mad at Alan for refusing to play the lame-ass WHITE VERSIONS of black R&B hits. Dick Played Pat Boone versions. Alan played the original singles when they orignially came out. He was spinning cuts by by Joe Turner, Little Richard and Fats Domino. Thats why there were congressional hearings. It was not about the damn 30 grand.