Mac Odell the WLAC Dream Interpreter

Odell McLeod was known by his stage name Mac Odell. He was a country and gospel singer who wrote a number of tunes performed by the Stanley Brothers, Roy Acuff, Hank Williams, and Flatt & Scruggs to name a few. But he was also a frequent radio performer. He sold song books, harmonicas, and even live baby chicks. He also was a radio "Dream Interpreter." (see above) Nobody does that anymore either.

Born in 1916 in Roanoke, Alabama, Mac first played on the radio as "Harmonica Mac" at the age of 12. According to a biography in Bluegrass Unlimited he later added mandolin, guitar, banjo, piano, and vocals to his act. But that would have been in 1928.  There is one AM station local to Roanoke but WELR-AM didn't sign on until 1952. Back in 1928, the whole state of Alabama only had 5 radio stations: WAPI, WBRD, WKBC, WJBY, and WIBZ. It is not recorded where his debut occurred but I favor WKBC. Regardless by 1934 he was performing on WWL-AM in New Orleans with Slim Bassett as Mac & Slim. More here.


After Odell  married Addie Wood in 1940 they became a husband and wife team "Mac and Little Addie." They were played for Suppertime Frolic show on WJJD-AM until the start of World War II. During the war, McLeod was a factory worker, btu continued songwriting. After the end of the war in 1948, they went to Nashville and began performing at 1510 WLAC-AM  still under the brand Mac and Little Addie. Some sources describe him as leaving the station in 1952, but he was still using the callsign in his advertisements as late as 1959. This includes a classified ad  in the February 1959 issue of Popular Mechanics offering to write songs to peoples poems. Odell was on Mercury Records label from 1949 until 1952, leaving then to join King Records, where he cut a few more sides.

 In 1957 (or 1959) McLeod moved to Benton Harbor, MI where he ran a signage business. In the late 1970s, he began songwriting again and wrote and recorded for the label Folk Variety in Germany. In the 1980s he was sort of rediscovered and with Addie he traveled to the Netherlands for a gospel tour. He died in 2003.

Tom Fitzmorris and WWL On Demand

Tom Fitzmorris is a Certified Culinary Professional by the IACP. I had to Google that acronym to make sure he didn't make it up. It's the International Association of Culinary Professionals. I can't say how important that is, but I can say that I don't have one. His radio program has been running for 25 years and if you don't live in New Orleans you probably have no idea who he is.

"The Food Show" with Tom Fitzmorris started out in July of 1988 on 1350 WSMB-AM back before it became WWWL-AM. (You can read more about 1350 here.)  But Fitzmorris began his career in radioland. broadcasting a daily two-minute restaurant review on WGSO radio in 1974. In 1983 he moved to WBYU before the big jump to WWL. That move to was huge. For a time after Hurricaine Katrina the program was actually trimulcast airing at 3:00 PM to 6:00 PM on weekdays on 1350 WWWL-AM, then Saturdays on the simulcast: 870 WWL-AM/WWL-FM 105.3 FM. It was a tumultuous time. Let's review:

105.3 WWL-FM 
Went silent at the end of August 2005 and returned in October with "United Broadcasters of New Orleans."  Four days after returning they dropped their WKBU calls for WTKL, a couple weeks later they started simulcasting The Big 870. In April 2006 they changed calls again to match. 

870 WWL-AM
Has been unchanged for the better part of a decade. From 9/1/2005 to  11/7/2005 they ran the "United Broadcasters of New Orleans" emergency services programming. After that it was the heritage station it always had been, only better. The WWL brand proved itself worthy of it's homeland.

1350 WWL-AM
1350 was an odd frequency, starting on November 11th 2006, WSMB-AM became WWL-AM mostly simulcasting WWL-AM/FM. It was branded as "WWL On Demand" and it dropped Air America to get there. Off air for part of September 2005 due to flood surge debris from then until November it was also part of the "United Broadcasters of New Orleans." 

Today Tom's program airs only on the 870 WWL-AM/WWL-FM 105.3 FM simulcast. His radio program "The Food Show" continues without interruption. The newsletter he began in 1977 continues and is now online at nomenu.com. It's also worth noting that he's married to a former radio talk show host, Mary Ann Connell Fitzmorris.

WWL-AM

My favorite part of radio is the lunatics involved in it. My second favorite is any claim of any type of "first" no matter how conditional. First radio station, first regular broadcast, first 24 hour station etc etc. With enought qualifiers you too could have a first. Today's story is the tale ot the first public radio program ever broadcast on the gulf coast. This one has both.

It was in March of 1922, a busy month in radio history for the gulf coast. On march 31st WWL-AM went live on 833kHz , but 10 days earlier WGV-AM had gone live. WJBO-AM lit up in April as did WAAB, WCAG, WAAC and WBAM. It's a narrow window to be first at anything.

What makes them the first public station would make a Jesuit blush. The section of the Internal revenue Code that made WWL-AM a public station was orchestrated by Louisiana Senator Russell Long. Yes, son of the infamous power-broker, and sleaze-ball Huey P. Long. It's hard to say what Russell did to make it happen, but when he was done there were 3 new sections of tax provision, 26 U.S.C. 512(b)(15). The first two begin with "W" the third with "L." On the other hand the exclusion created a massive tax break for non-coms. I shouldn't complain.

WWL-AM claims to have broadcast the first "Public Radio Program" in that area. I assume this was by virtue of being the first public radio station in the region. Loyola University began it all with a piano recital and a transmitter in the university physics laboratory. If you didn't know, Loyola was a Jesuit University. (I swear could write a book about what the Jesuits did for radio.) They actually had to get permission from the Vatican to operate all 10 measly watts.

Before they founded WWL, the priestly and professors of Loyola University trained soldiers in radio operations. During WWII they produced propaganda programs informing on civil defense, rationing, and progress overseas. They radio joined the Columbia Broadcasting System in 1935, and sold off the station in 1989 to Keymarket Communications. Currently Entercom Communications owns the stick.