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

WSBA Cookbook

I found this in a junk shop recently. The introduction reads "Welcome to a world of delicious eating, the 1984 WSBA/WARM 103 Cookbook! In the pages that follow, you will find recipes to please every Central Pennsylvania palate, as compiled by home economist Doris Thomas"  It's existence led me to believe that in the early 1980s there had been a cooking program on one or both of those stations. Actually I assumed that 103.3 WARM was still simulcasting 910 WSBA-AM at least most of the day in that era. I was wrong. I also haven't figured out who Doris Thomas was.

WSBA-AM has been on the air since 1942. During the 1960s and 1970s, WSBA was a big Top-40 format station in the Harrisburg and Lancaster markets. But as FM rose in prevalence they moved inexorably toward a talk format like many. In fact in 103.3 FM in York only signed on in 1983 and in early 1984 it was still WSBA-FM. But it's programming was already AC and different from WSBA-AM. They didn't get the WARM-FM call sign until 1988. "WARM 103" was the brand name. They borrowed the brand and callsign from another Susquehanna property WNNX in Atlanta. They kept that brand and that stale playlist until 2011 when they dropped the pre-1980s cuts and became "Wink 103." After their usual multi-week stretch of all-Christmas music that December they returned in January 2012 as "Warm 103" but with the same newish playlist. More here. There is no way this station was airing a cooking show.

But I found in the 1979 edition of The Working Press of the Nation, a single reference to a home-maker show. The program "Housewife Oriented" hosted by Rod Burnham was airing as late as 1979. Rod was the PD of WSBA following their move from Top-40 to AC. Burnham is reputed to have fired a lot of staff in his tenure prior to their flip to news/talk, it's hard to say if the station had a cooking program—even briefly. While I've confirmed that WSBA-AM did have home-maker programs in the 1940s and 1950s... I suspect the real answer here might be related to a home economics program on WSBA-TV.

Rushing Clear Channel

I recently read that Clear Channel(specifically CC Media Holding) reported a Q4 loss of $191.3 million for 2013. Compare that to their Q4 loss in 2012 of $43 million. In that same period, Clear Channel Outdoor reported a loss of $148.4 million. The rest of the year as not kind to them. For all of 2012, the company posted a loss of $424 million, compared to a $302 million loss in 2011.  [Source here] Liberal blogs jumped all over this with some dubious math blaming Rush Limbaugh. I'm no fan of his program but the link is dubious.

The connection they use is his salary. In 2008 Rush signed an 8 year contract for about $400 million. That's not his annual salary, that's his total gross revenue under the deal. He's not earning 50 million per year. He received a signing bonus of 100 million. So (300 ÷ 8 =37.5). His prior deal signed in 2001 was worth $285 million. So Rush landed a 35% raise with his renewal. But in the interval Clear Channel had some problems. Thomas H. Lee Partners and Bain Capital took Clear Channel private in 2008 and in the process racked up 200 million in debt. 

Clear Channel CEO Bob Pittman was quoted as saying “We are very pleased with our Company's progress in strengthening our businesses over the past year, and we look forward to continuing our momentum into 2013...”  I would not be nearly as optimistic after losing 700 million dollars. Moody's estimates that they will be in the hole 16 billion by 2016. Currently they are proposing selling their debt as notes for a total of $500 million that would be due in 2021. Ouch. Their problem is not overpaid talent, it's compound interest on debt.

It's just not accurate to suggest that dropping Limbaugh is a solution to this problem. His ad revenue is probably down, but he's not a money-loser. Despite the efforts of some activist groups such as StopRush, his program rolls on. The focus on his advertisers is savvy, but it doesn't hurt Rush personally. It hurts Premier radio Networks and the radio networks that carry his program such as Clear Channel and Cumulus. But none of those companies release quarterly numbers on ad revenue tied to his program and it's certainly not to their benefit to do so.

I was in Amish country recently and I found that at 2:00 PM I could hear Rush at 5 different spots on my radio dial: 910 WSBA-AM, 580 WHP-AM, 790 WAEB-AM, 830 WEEU-AM , and 1390 WLAN-AM. Those originate in York, Harrisburg, Allentown, Reading and Lancaster respectively. Those were just the ones that came in clearly on a car radio. A total of 600 affiliates still carry his show, nationally. So despite the price tag, those ad revenues are probably well into the black. I would expect that in 2016 when his contract runs out that Rush will have to take a haircut. But in the interim I don't expect any changes.