April 17 In Radio History

In 1923...Newscaster Harry Reasoner was born. He died Aug. 6, 1991 at 68.


In 1934...WLW Cincinnati licensed to operate at 500kW.



In January 1934 WLW began broadcasting at the 500 kilowatt level late at night under the experimental callsign W8XO. In April 1934 the station was authorized to operate at 500 kilowatts during regular hours under the WLW call letters. On May 2, 1934, President Franklin D. Roosevelt pressed a ceremonial button that officially launched WLW's 500-kilowatt signal.  As the first station in the world to broadcast at this strength, WLW received repeated complaints from around the United States and Canada that it was overpowering other stations as far away as Toronto.

In December 1934 WLW cut back to 50 kilowatts at night to mitigate the interference, and began construction of three 50 ft. tower antennas to be used to reduce signal strength towards Canada. With these three antennas in place, full-time broadcasting at 500 kilowatts resumed in early 1935.

However, WLW was continuing to operate under special temporary authority that had to be renewed every six months, and each renewal brought complaints about interference and undue domination of the market by such a high-power station. The FCC was having second thoughts about permitting extremely wide-area broadcasting versus more locally oriented stations, and in 1938, the US Senate adopted the "Wheeler" resolution, expressing it to be the sense of that body that more stations with power in excess of 50 kilowatts are against the public interest. As a result, in 1939 the 500-kilowatt broadcast authorization was not renewed, bringing an end to the era of the AM radio superstation.  Because of the impending war and the possible need for national broadcasting in an emergency, the W8XO experimental license for 500 kilowatts remained in effect until December 29, 1942.

In 1962 the Crosley Broadcasting Corporation again applied for a permit to operate at 750 kilowatts, but the FCC denied the application.


In 1935…After more than a year as a local program on WENR in Chicago, "Lights Out" debuted to a national audience on NBC Radio. In June of 1936, Chicago writer Arch Oboler took over from series creator Wyllis Cooper and stayed with the program until 1943. The series continued until the summer of 1947.



In 1964…Washington's FBI lab reported it could not determine the lyrics to "Louie Louie."



In 1965…RCA and the LearJet Corporation announced the development of the combination 8 track tape player and car radio that would become available in next fall's new cars.


In 1970...the Apollo 13 astronauts splashed down safely in the Pacific Ocean, four days after a ruptured oxygen tank crippled their spacecraft en route to the Moon.


In 1971..."Joy To The World" by Three Dog Night peaked at number one on the pop singles chart, where it remained for six weeks.

Anthony Perkins, Peter Potter, Troy Donahue

In 1983...Peter Potter, DJ on KMPC, KFWB, KLAC L-A and host of the ABC-TV Show Juke Box Jury in the '50s, died at 78


In 1986...WRFM 105.1 FM switched from beautiful music to soft rock as WNSR


In 1996...Bob Grant did last show at WABC NYC


In 1998...Photographer Linda McCartney, wife of former Beatles member Paul McCartney, died of cancer. She was 56.