April 3 Radio History

In 1939...Mr. District Attorney was heard for the first time on NBC radio. The serial about the “champion of the people” was originally a 15-minute nightly program. In June of ’39, the program went to a half-hour weekly format. Pictured is Jay Jostyn who played the title role from 1940-52, when Mr. District Attorney became a syndicated TV show.

In 1942...People Are Funny was first heard on NBC radio. Art Baker was the show’s first host. Art Linkletter took over the popular program on radio in 1943 and later moved it to television.

In 1948…"The Louisiana Hayride" premiered on radio station KWKH in Shreveport, Louisiana, with the Bailes Brothers, Johnny and Jack, the Four Deacons, the Tennessee Mountain Boys featuring Kitty Wells, the Mercy Brothers, Curley Kinsey and the Tennessee Ridge Runners, Harmie Smith, the Ozark Mountaineers, and Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys performing on the first show, broadcast live from Shreveport's Municipal Auditorium. Admission was 60 cents for adults, 30 cents for children, and remained so for the next 11 years.

In 1949...the comedy team of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis started their own weekly 30-minute show on NBC radio.  It never really caught on, because Lewis’ brand of physical comedy was much more suited to a visual medium.

In 1949...KQW-AM, San Francisco, California changed its call letters to KCBS-AM.

Charles Herrold

KCBS has its roots in the experiments of San Jose engineer Charles "Doc" Herrold as far back as 1909, making the broadcaster a leading contender for the title of oldest continuously broadcasting station in the United States and possibly the world.

Herrold used a variety of different radio call signs in the early days, including FN, SJN, 6XF and 6XE. In the very beginning, Herrold used a simple greeting like "San Jose calling."

That greeting and the initial FN sign (which was an inverted abbreviation of "National Fone") reflected the fact that he had been partially working on the idea of a radiotelephone.



On December 9, 1921, Herrold received a commercial license under the callsign KQW. It was the 21st licensed radio station in the United States and the 11th in the state of California.

Original KQW Transmitter (courtesy of The Radio Historian)

However, the "arc-phone" Herrold had been using for over a decade had to be scrapped. It would only work at wavelengths above 600 meters, and all radio stations were restricted to 360 meters (roughly the equivalent of 833 kHz). He quickly created a replacement, using a tube-like transmitter drawing power from San Jose's streetcar lines. However, he never recovered financially from the loss of his arc-phone, and was forced to put the station on the market in 1925. After initially giving an option to a civic foundation, he sold it to the First Baptist Church of San Jose. Herrold stayed on as a technician for the station he had created for a few years, but died in obscurity in 1947.

There is at least one authentic broadcast recording chronicling this early history. On November 10, 1945, KQW presented a special program called "The Story of KQW," commemorating Herrold's early broadcasts. It includes a brief recorded statement by Herrold, just before his 70th birthday. During the introduction to the program, a KQW announcer explains that the program was produced to mark the 25th anniversary of the broadcasting industry as well as the 36th anniversary of KQW. The announcer then goes on to say that KQW was the first radio station in the world to operate on a regular schedule. The major events in Herrold's work are then dramatized.

In 1926, station manager James Hart bought KQW's license and facilities, eventually buying the station itself in 1930. A series of power boosts brought the station's effective radiated power to 5,000 watts by 1935. It served as the San Jose affiliate of the Don Lee Broadcasting System from 1937 to 1941; during the time, that it was owned by Julius Brunton & Sons, the station's operations being co-located with KJBS at 1470 Pine Street in San Francisco.

However, in 1942 CBS offered to move its San Francisco affiliation to KQW after KSFO (560 AM) turned down CBS' offer to buy the station. KQW jumped at this offer, having been without a source of network programming for over a year. CBS moved its affiliation to KQW later that year, with an option to buy the station outright. KJBS Broadcasters then sold the station and KQW moved to a lavish CBS-owned studio at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco. For all intents and purposes, it became a San Francisco station, though it continued to be licensed in San Jose.

At the end of World War II, KQW found itself in a battle with KSFO for its longtime home on 740 AM, the last Bay Area frequency that was authorized to operate at 50,000 watts. When CBS affiliated with KSFO in 1937, it cut a deal with KQW to swap frequencies with KSFO, which would then boost its power to 50,000 watts. The change was awaiting Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approval when World War II broke out.

By 1945, however, KQW had become San Francisco's CBS affiliate, and CBS was obviously not about to give up the advantage of having the last 50,000-watt frequency in the Bay Area. While the FCC granted the frequency to KSFO, its owners, Associated Broadcasters, later decided to concentrate on plans for its new television station, KPIX-TV (channel 5). Eventually, Associated Broadcasters traded 740 back to CBS in return for KPIX getting the CBS television affiliation for the Bay Area.

CBS exercised its option to buy KQW in 1949, changing the calls to KCBS (the KCBS callsign predates the use on the CBS-owned television station (then KNXT) in Los Angeles by over 30 years, and KCBS-FM there as well). The station also officially changed its city of license to San Francisco after seven years. In 1951, KCBS signed on at 50,000 watts for the first time from an elaborate multi-tower facility in Novato originally intended for KSFO. However, the station is a class B station, not a Class A (clear-channel).

In 1968, KCBS became one of the first all-news stations in the country. However, it already had a long history in news dating back to World War II, when it was the center of CBS' newsgathering efforts in the Pacific Theater.


In 1956...Elvis Presley makes the first of what would be two appearances on NBC-TV's Milton Berle TV Show performing "Hound Dog"  "Money Honey" and "Blue Suede Shoes" via live remote on the flight deck of the USS Hancock docked in San Diego. The show is seen by 40 million people around the US, approximately one-fourth of all TV sets. (Later in the show, Elvis plays "Blue Suede Shoes" again, this time with "Uncle Miltie" joining in as the King's "brother Melvin.")


In 1959…The British Broadcasting Corporation banned the Coasters' recording of "Charlie Brown" because of its reference to "spitballs." The ban was lifted two weeks later.




In 1974...Murray the K departed WNBC 660 AM NYC.  He had joined NBC in 1972 for the weekend NBC Monitor and also for a regular evening weekend program on WNBC radio. Although it was low-key, Murray's WNBC show featured his own innovative trademark programming style, including telling stories that were illustrated by selected songs, his unique segues, and his pairing cuts by theme or idiosyncratic associations.

In 1978...Mutual Broadcasting System moved the "Larry King Show" from Miami to Washington, D.C.

In 2014…WBT Charlotte  and WSPA Spartnburg radio host Arthur Smith died at age 93. Smith was also noted for his "Feudin' Banjos" (1955), which was also recorded by Lester Flatt. It was revived as "Dueling Banjos" and used as a theme song in the popular movie, Deliverance (1972). Released as a single, it became a hit, played on Top 40, AOR, and country stations alike. It reached the Top Ten and hit #1 in the US and Canada.  Because he was not credited in the film for the song, Smith sued Warner Brothers, and gained a settlement. His name was added to the film credits for his piece, and he received a share of royalties.

In 2015...listeners heard the final broadcast for WLW 700 AM morning host Jim Scott who retired from radio after nearly 50 years on the air in the Queen City.