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Thursday, September 7, 2017

September 7 Radio History


➦In 1929...the forerunner to Let’s Pretend, a Saturday morning radio show for kids was heard for the first time on CBS Radio Network. The Adventures of Helen & Mary became Let’s Pretend 5 years later, all of it written & directed by Nila Mack, and hosted by ‘Uncle’ Bill Adams.  It continued for a quarter-century, until 1954.


➦In 1934...Daniel Trombley "Dan" Ingram was born.  Ingram is an American radio icon with a fifty-year career on radio stations such as WABC 770 AM and WCBS 101.1 FM in New York. "Big Dan" started broadcasting at WHCH Hofstra College, Hempstead, New York, WNRC, New Rochelle, New York, and WALK-FM, Patchogue, New York.

Ingram is a well regarded DJ from his era. He was noted for his quick wit and ability to convey a humorous or satiric idea with quick pacing and an economy of words—a skill which has made him uniquely suited to, and successful within, modern personality-driven music radio.

He is among the most frequently emulated radio personalities, cited as an influence or inspiration by numerous current broadcasters. One of Ingram's unique skills was his ability to "talk up" to the lyrics of a record, meaning speaking over the musical introduction and finishing exactly at the point when the lyrics started.



Dan was well known for playing doctored versions of popular songs. The Paul McCartney & Wings song My Love Does it Good became My Glove Does it Good. The stuttering title refrain of Bennie and the Jets went from three or four repetitions to countless. In the same vein, the distinctive refrain added to Hooked on a Feeling by Blue Swede, Ooga-ooga-ooga-chucka would start repeating and listeners would never know when it would end. (Other examples include Paul Simon's 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover, and "rearranging" the spelling of "S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y" on the Bay City Rollers' Saturday Night.)

Dan's longtime closing theme song was "Tri-Fi Drums" by Billy May. An edited version of the song was used for broadcast.



Dan commented occasionally about the pronunciation of his name: jingles often are heard pronouncing his last name as "Ing-ram," but Dan has said it is correctly pronounced "In-gram."

Today, Dan Ingram is living in retirement in Florida.


➦In 1936...rock & roll innovator Buddy Holly was born Charles Hardin Holley in Lubbock Texas. His name was misspelled on his first record contract and he decided to leave it that way.   He was killed in a plane crash Feb 3, 1959 along with Ritchie Valens and J.P.Richardson (Big Bopper.) Holly was just 22.


➦In 1949...Windsor (Ont.) radio station CKLW, later to become Canada’s all-time most listened-to station (due to its huge US audience), increased power from 5000 to 50,000 watts. The station had moved from 1030 to 800 KHz, a Canada/Mexico clear channel, in the great frequency shuffle of 1941.


➦In 1979...ESPN, the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, made its debut on US cable TV as the world’s first fulltime sports TV channel.



➦In 1985...Newcomer John Parr hit #1 on this date with "St. Elmo's Fire (Man in Motion)", overtaking "The Power of Love" from Huey Lewis & the News.

Tina Turner had #3--"We Don't Need Another Hero", swapping places with Aretha Franklin's "Freeway of Love".  The rest of the Top 10:  Bryan Adams from Reckless with "Summer of '69", Dire Straits with their biggest hit since "Sultans of Swing" in 1979--"Money for Nothing", Kool & the Gang and "Cherish", Phil Collins with his fifth consecutive Top 10 song "Don't Lose My Number" and Prince registered his 16th hit "Pop Life", with exactly half of those reaching the Top 10


➦In 1991...A pretty good Top 10 on this date--something you usually didn't find after about 1986--Bryan Adams scored week #5 at the top with "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You", Paula Abdul moved up to challenge with "The Promise of a New Day" and Boyz II Men were up from 9 to 3 with "Motownphilly".  C+C Music Factory had the #4 song--"Things That Make You Go Hmmmm..." and KLF had song #5 with "3 A.M. Eternal".  The rest of the Top 10:  Color Me Badd moved from 15 to 6 with "I Adore Mi Amor", Seal's first release "Crazy" hit #7, the Scorpions owned the #8 position with "Wind of Change", Michael Bolton enjoyed his 11th hit "Time, Love and Tenderness" and Hi-Five dropped with "I Can't Wait Another Minute".


➦In 1999…Viacom announced plans to buy CBS.


➦In 2012...WEPN 1050 AM om NYC switched to ESPN Deportes

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