Wayland Villiers Radio

Who was Wayland Villiers?  I wouldn't be interested but one of his pamphlets. His 1936 work The Story of Sex, carried the tagline "A New Book By Your Radio Advisor."  Suddenly I had the strange idea this "Professor" might have actually been on the radio. He was and he was talking about sex. Was that even allowed in the 1930s?  Let's start with a short listing of his limited bibliography:

• 1929 - The Dawn of Love (as Thomas Wayland Villiers)
• 1931 - The Law of Nature: A book of sane sex knowledge for red-blooded men and women
• 1935 - Why Marriage Fails: Sex Secrets Revealed
• 1935 - The Truth About Birth Control
• 1936 - The Story of Sex
• 1937 - Nudist Racket Exposed (as Thomas Wayland Villiers)

I am somewhat amazed the man was actually doing this pre-1950. It's clear from multiple sources that Prof Villiers had taken his show on the road.  The book Next Year Country by Craig Miner makes a single direct reference to him lecturing in Kansas. That healthiest specimen referred to below was probably Vivian Vaughn.

"People professed to be shocked by a sex lecture given in Wichita in 1931, in which Professor Wayland Villiers demonstrated "the Law of Nature" with "living girl models," including one said to be the healthiest specimen in America."

There are references to him in Newspapers as well. That same year in the Reading Times he was reported to be broadcasting on WRAW-AM. The Reading Eagle Newspaper called him a "Sex Philosopher." Villiers appeared at the Orpheum Theatre with Princess Signa Serene of Denmark. She was not royalty but a then famous mentalist.

Also in tow was Miss Vivian Vaughn, then recently crowed "Miss New Orleans."  They had a five day engagement demonstrating a program about the necessity of sex education. Showings were segregated by gender: matinee performances at 2:30 PM were for women only, and evening shows at 10:00 PM were for men only. On Friday there was a special 6:00 PM show for "working girls". [sic double entendre.]

Princess Signa Serene and the professor took to the air daily to answer peoples questions. It was a routine they must have done before and one that probably brought them much trouble in certain cities along the way. There are references to Ms. Serene as late as 1937.. but by then Mr. Villiers had long since vanished.

The Philco Radio Dial tells All

This is a picture of a nice old Philco I saw at a yard sale. What's interesting about old radio dial presets is that you can use them to determine where the radio came from, and how old it is even without the model number of the radio. The stations listed here are  WOR, WEEU, KYW, WHUM and WRAW.

From even that short list we can limit our time line. 710 WOR-AM signed on in 1922, and is still on air so that's not useful. They encompass the entire consumer-grade history of radio. KYW-AM is in the same bucket. At first I thought WHUM was actually WHOM, but there was actually a WHUM in reading, PA. WHUM-AM changed calls to WAGO-AM in late 1986 and then WIOV-AM in  about 1990. So we know this device had to have been set up prior to at least the mid 1980s. Seems late but you'd be surprised.

The real  deal closers are WEEU and WRAW. There is a 1340 WRAW-AM in Reading today; where they have been since before 1950. WEEU has a tenure in reading just as long.  So what we have here are two clear channels stations audible anywhere in the north east (KYW, and WOR) and three much smaller AM stations providing local service to the Reading area. I'm pretty confident this radio spend most of it's life on a kitchen table in Reading probably prior to 1960.

Crossing central PA with Ohio plates

More traveling for The Radioman. It has been many long days and there were many long stretches of no mans land in PA. Many windmills, rest stops and podunk towns blissfully without rock n' roll. Little towns where you are immediately welcome but immediately identified as an outsider. Nobody spits in your food, but you are constantly watched. I'll stop here before I start sounding like William bradley It's a little early in the season for the college stations, lots of jazz, very few DJs. But the AM band was rich with the radio stations that belong to these towns.

There was little to talk about between Philly and Harrisburg, but about there things got interesting.
WRAW-AM 1340 out of Reading runs a killer 50s program called the "Doo-wop shop." Great stuff. http://www.1340wraw.com/main.html

WSKE 104.3 FM is normally a pretty dull commercial country hits station but on Sunday is was a cute litle specialty program: "Knee-deep in bluegrass." Possibly the best show on the station.

WWII-AM 720 I read is a religious talker but sunday was running some amazing gospel programming, I mean AMAZING. These ladies put Aretha to shame! http://www.720therock.com/

WWSM-AM 1510 runs country oldies dead pan dead sincere. Clearly local DJs, mispronouncing words, getting tongue tied... but the playlist is something you dont normally see this side of west Texas. Roy Acuff, Kittie Wells, Tex Carmen... just great. http://www.wwsm.us/

Then around Pittsburgh I caught WJAS-AM 1320 and Uncle Douggies Rock N' Roll Oldies Party. He was laying into some deep catalog Duane Eddy and only got beter from there. Funny thing about their signal though, you can actually hear this stion in the tunnels around town. I mean hundreds of feet inside a mountain even! I notice AM fade-out under an overpass. I cant really account for this...http://www.132owjas.com/

and 91.1 WRUW was running an R.L. Burnside retrospecitive that was very genuine, and very appropriate. It wasnt sappy at all, but truly professional and you still could tell DJ Chip of Woodchoppers Ball was a real fan. http://www.wruw.org/

FACT FOR THE DAY: Pittsburgh is named for the Prine Minister of England from that Era -William Pitt. It began as Fort bitt, then later Pitts-borough. You can guess the rest from there.

IF you EVER ned to know about radio in Pittsburgh.. check here: http://www.pbrtv.com/
Eric O'Brien knows all