In 1889…In San Francisco, the Palais Royal Hotel installed
the first coin-operated machine that, by about 1940, was known as a
"jukebox." In the beginning it was a crude slot-machine apparatus
connected to an Edison phonograph which, upon receiving a coin, unlocked the
mechanism, allowing the listener to turn a crank that simultaneously wound the
spring motor and placed the reproducer's stylus in the starting groove. This
was before the time of vacuum tubes, so there was no amplification. The music
was heard via one of four listening tubes. Despite its then-high price of a
nickel a song, the new contraption took in $1000 in its first six months of
operation.
In 1938…Bob Hope and Shirley Ross recorded his future theme song, "Thanks For The Memory," for the soundtrack of the motion picture "The Big Broadcast of 1938."
In 1959…Alan Freed was dismissed from his daily television
show, "The Big Beat," over allegations that he accepted money to play
certain records. Freed denied any wrongdoing.
In 1962…The Beatles did a ten-minute audition for BBC Television at St. James' Church Hall in London. Four days later, Brian Epstein received a polite rejection letter from the BBC. They eventually made it on the BBC in 1963.
In 1964…The Rolling Stones were late arriving for the BBC radio shows, "Top Gear" and "Saturday Club" and as a result were banned by the BBC for "unprofessionalism."
In 1967…San Francisco disc jockey Tom Donahue, inventor of "classic rock" and "deep cut" radio, told Rolling Stone magazine, "Top Forty radio, as we know it today and have known it for the last ten years, is dead, and its rotting corpse is stinking up the airwaves."
In 1993….FCC makes C-QUAM AM stereo standard.
In 2004…pioneering sports radio talk show host Pete Franklin
died at age 76. Franklin's stops included Cleveland and New York with his last job
at KNBR, San Francisco.
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