July 24 In Radio History

In 1933…The soap opera "The Romance of Helen Trent" began its 27-year run on CBS Radio. Virginia Clark played Helen for the first 11 years, then Julie Stevens took the role for the next 16 years.


In 1965...Bob Dylan released "Like A Rolling Stone" to Radio


In 1978...WKTU 92.3 FM changed to disco at 6pm.

In June 1975, 92.3FM was, owned by the San Juan (Puerto Rico) Racing Association flipped to Soft Rock and became known as Mellow 92 WKTU. That station had very low ratings and had no effect on Top Rate Musicradio 77 WABC.   But on July 24, 1978, at 6 PM, WKTU abruptly dropped its Soft Rock format in favor of a disco-based top 40 format known as "Disco 92". By December of that year, WABC was unseated, as WKTU became the No. 1 station in New York City. The first "disco" ratings saw WKTU with 11 percent of the listening audience—a huge number anywhere, let alone in a market the size of New York City—and WABC dropping from 4.1 million listeners to 3 million, losing 25 percent of its audience practically overnight.

After this initial ratings tumble, WABC panicked and began mixing in several extended disco mixes per hour and sometimes played two back-to-back. Some of the disco songs ran in excess of eight minutes. What regular listeners heard was a major change in sound. While the station continued playing non-disco and rock songs about a third of the time, familiar format had seemed to disappear and as a result, WABC began to lose its identity. In late spring 1979, Billboard magazine reported that Rick Sklar had demoted program director Glenn Morgan to "moving carts" instead of making programming decisions. WABC's numbers dropped for four consecutive ratings periods. WABC evenutally dropped music for talk in May 1982.


In 2000…Singer/songwriter Smokey Robinson began a two-year stint as an evening radio host on KCMG in Los Angeles. "Intimate With Smokey Robinson," aired from 8-10 p.m., Monday through Thursday.


In 2005...NYC Personality Joe O’Brien died in a car accident at age 90.

Joe O'Brien

Joe O'Brien was one of the WMCA Good Guys on WMCA Radio in New York City.  O'Brien began his career in 1935 when he got his first radio job with WMCA 570 AM in New York City. He worked at the station for 34 years.

The Good Guys had the same clean-cut hairstyles, wore matching suits and worked together at record hops and personal appearances. They also sang as a group and released an album. During that time, Mr. O'Brien was the No. 1 morning man in New York City.

In 1970 he left for WNBC 660 AM, where he handled morning duties until he was replaced by Don Imus in 1972. Mr. O'Brien then went to WHUD in Peekskill, N.Y. He retired in 1986, but continued to do weekend specials for WHUD until 2000.