April 18 In Radio History

In 1939…In Los Angeles, Gene Autry recorded "Back In The Saddle Again," a song he co-wrote with Ray Whitley. It was included in the Autry movie "Roving Tumbleweeds," then became the theme song for his "Gene Autry's Melody Ranch" radio series which aired on CBS from 1940 to 1956.



This is the original pilot episode that debuted on KNX Radio in Los Angeles as a private preview for the Doublemint Gum Merchants of America and was presented during the last 15 minutes of the final broadcast of Gateway to Hollywood on December 31, 1939.


In 1983...KMO 1360 AM in Tacoma Wash changes call letters to KAMT (now KKMO)


In 1999...Last broadcast of the Mutual Broadcasting System

On September 29, 1934, four AM radio stations—WXYZ in Detroit, WGN in Chicago, WOR in New York, and WLW in Cincinnati—agreed to form a cooperative, program-sharing radio network. WGN and WOR controlled the operation (first dubbed the Quality Group), and the Mutual Broadcasting System was incorporated in Illinois one month later. When WXYZ (which had contributed the popular western adventure program The Lone Ranger) withdrew to join the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) network in 1935, Canadian station CKLW in Windsor, Ontario (serving the Detroit market), replaced it. (The Lone Ranger remained on Mutual until 1942 under contractual obligation.)

After a year on the air, the new network carried 40 hours of sustaining (non-advertiser-supported) programs and 20 hours of commercial programming per week. The network’s first coast-to-coast broadcast came in September 1936, and by 1940 Mutual had 160 affiliates, nearly 20 percent of the stations then on the air. As Mutual’s stations in rural areas often had less power than the affiliates of the older national networks, many stations held primary affiliations with the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) or NBC and only a secondary relationship with Mutual. Nevertheless, Mutual had more affiliates than any other network—a record it held into the 1980s.

MUTUAL BROADCASTING TRIBUTE WEBSITE:  Click Here

Mutual ended its cooperative operation in 1952 when the network was purchased by General Tire and set up in New York. In the late 1950s network ownership changed several times, often within months, and none of its owners had sufficient funding to move Mutual into television. On at least two occasions, a shortage of funds threatened to close network operations, and Mutual filed for bankruptcy in 1959. The number of employees dropped to only 50, compared with 350 at its peak in the 1940s. The network faced a scandal when it was discovered that one short-term owner had secretly accepted money from a Caribbean country in return for favourable comment on the air, and Mutual lost 130 of its affiliates.

Ownership changes continued as the network shifted its headquarters from New York to Washington, D.C., in 1971. In 1972 Mutual began special network feeds to African American and Spanish-programmed stations with news and sportscasts.

One of the few primary network programs outside of news and sports that Mutual initiated during this era became one of the most successful in its history: the first nationwide, all-night call-in show, which launched on November 3, 1975, with Herb Jepko as host.  Jepko, who had run a telephone talk show out of KSL in Salt Lake City for years, so determinedly avoided controversy that some callers simply talked about the weather where they lived.

Jepko was briefly succeeded by Long John Nebel, before Mutual tapped a local talk show host at WIOD in Miami. Larry King made his network premiere on January 30, 1978; by the turn of the decade, he was being carried by 150 stations and credited with attracting many new affiliates to Mutual.  King continued his Mutual call-in show for years, even as he began appearing on television in the mid-1980s. From 1970 through 1977, Mutual was the national radio broadcaster for Monday Night Football.

In 1977 then-owner Amway bought Mutual’s very first outlet owned and operated by the company, WCFL in Chicago, followed in 1980 by the purchase of WHN in New York. Mutual also signed a contract with Western Union to use its satellite facilities, thus becoming the first radio network to employ satellite distribution. Aided by its satellite network, Mutual served 950 affiliates by 1979, but the number slowly declined.

Mutual was purchased by Westwood One in 1985. In its last 15 years Mutual largely produced newscasts. Westwood One closed Mutual on April 18, 1999, but its newscasts continued under the marketing name of CNN Radio. (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

In 2012…Radio/TV host Dick Clark died following a heart attack at 82. He had suffered a significant stroke in 2004.