November 19 In Radio History

In 1933…Radio talk show host, Larry King was born. He later parlayed his Radio success into a successful television talk show on Cable News Network (CNN).

Larry King

King got his first job in radio in 1957, when the manager of a small station, WAHR (now WMBM) in Miami Beach, hired him to clean up and perform miscellaneous tasks. When one of their announcers quit, they put King on the air. His first broadcast was on May 1, 1957, when he worked as the disc jockey from 9 a.m. to noon. He also did two afternoon newscasts and a sportscast. He was paid $55 a week.

He acquired the name Larry King when the general manager Marshall Simmonds said that his real last name Zeiger was too ethnic and difficult to remember, so Larry chose the surname King, which he got from an ad in The Miami Herald for King's Wholesale Liquor, minutes before air.

He started doing interviews on a mid-morning show for WIOD 610 AM, at Pumpernik's Restaurant in Miami Beach.  He would interview anyone who walked in. His first interview was with a waiter at the restaurant. Two days later, singer Bobby Darin, in Miami for a concert later that day, walked into Pumpernik's as a result of coming across King's show on his radio; Darin became King's first celebrity interview guest.

His Miami radio show launched him to local stardom. A few years later, in May 1960, he hosted Miami Undercover, airing Sunday nights at 11:30 p.m. on WPST-TV Channel 10 (now WPLG). On the show, he moderated debates on important issues of the time.

Larry King circa 1960

King credits his success on local television to the assistance of comedian Jackie Gleason, whose national television variety show was being taped in Miami Beach during this period. "That show really took off because Gleason came to Miami," King said in a 1996 interview he gave when inducted into the Broadcasters' Hall of Fame. "He did that show and stayed all night with me. We stayed till five in the morning. He didn't like the set, so we broke into the general manager's office and changed the set. Gleason changed the set, he changed the lighting, and he became like a mentor of mine."

In 1978, King went national, inheriting the nightly talk show slot on the Mutual Broadcasting System, broadcast coast-to-coast, that had been "Long John" Nebel's until his death, and had been pioneered by Herb Jepko. King's Mutual show developed a devoted audience.

It was broadcast live Monday through Friday from midnight to 5:30 a.m. Eastern Time. King would interview a guest for the first 90 minutes, with callers asking questions that continued the interview for another 90 minutes. At 3 a.m., he would allow callers to discuss any topic they pleased with him, until the end of the program, when he expressed his own political opinions. That segment was called Open Phone America.

The show was successful, starting with relatively few affiliates and eventually growing to more than 500. It ran until 1994. King would occasionally entertain the audience by telling amusing stories from his childhood.

For its final year, the show was moved to afternoons. The afternoon show was eventually given to David Brenner and radio affiliates were given the option of carrying the audio of King's new CNN evening television program. The Westwood One radio simulcast of the CNN show continued until December 31, 2009.



In 1953...After popular singer and heartthrob Julius LaRosa finishes his version of "Manhattan" on today's CBS radio broadcast ofArthur Godfrey Time , host Godfrey says, "Thanks ever so much, Julie. That was Julie's swan song with us..." effectively firing the young singer on air without his prior knowledge.


Godfrey later holds a press conference after the incident becomes a national scandal, claiming that by hiring his own manager, LaRosa had lost his "humility," but several historians claim that Godfrey was actually upset that the singer was beginning to receive more fan mail than the host

In 1954…First mass-market transistor pocket radio introduced, the Regency TR-1. It's a four-transistor radio that operates on a 22.5 volt hearing aid battery and it sold for $49.95--quite a chunk of money for a radio back then.




In 1954...ABC Radio stations ban Rosemary Clooney's "Mambo Italiano" due to what it considers "offensive lyrics," more than likely the exaggerated Italian patois and words "goombah" and "gidrool." 

In 1957…The local chapter of the Elvis Presley fan club picketed Chicago radio station WCFL after it banned Presley's records (before the station flipped to Top 40). Nevertheless, the station did not reverse its policy.

In 1965…ABC radio began a weekly "Vietnam Update" report.

In 1971…Sportscaster Bill Stern, who announced the first remote sports broadcast in the U.S. and the first telecast of a major league baseball game, died at age 64. Bill Stern's Sports newsreel was a show about the way Bill Stern broadcast baseball games from 1937 to 1956. Stern made famous the dramatic pause, the over emotional call and exagerrated words in every sentence.

Bill Stern 1949

Stern began doing radio play-by-play commentary in 1925, when he was hired by a Rochester station, WHAM, to cover football games. Shortly after that, he enrolled at Pennsylvania Military College, graduating in 1930.

NBC hired him in 1937 to host The Colgate Sports Newsreel as well as Friday night boxing on radio. Stern was also one of the first televised boxing commentators.

He broadcast the first televised sporting event, the second game of a baseball doubleheader between Princeton and Columbia at Columbia's Baker Field on May 17, 1939. On September 30, he called the first televised football game.

According to the book Sports on New York Radio by sportscaster and Westwood One executive David J. Halberstam, Stern's remarkable career flourished despite a physical handicap. In 1935, on his way home from a football game in Texas, the car Stern was in got into an accident, injuring him severely enough that his left leg had to be amputated just above the knee.

Some observers consider Stern's style a blueprint in the 1940s for the style of Paul Harvey, ABC Entertainment Network social commentator, who adapted both Stern's newscasting (transforming his Reel One to Page One) and his stories about the famous and odd (to Rest Of The Story), although Stern made no effort to authenticate his stories and, in later years, introduced that segment of his show by saying that they "might be actual, may be mythical, but definitely interesting."  Harvey, on the other hand, said he told only stories he had authenticated in some way.

In 1980…the "Sunday Morning Oldies Show" with Roger Ashby debuted on CHUM-1050 AM in Toronto.