May 30 Radio History

➦In 1894...Radio comedian, Fred Allen, was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Best known for "The Fred Allen Show".

From 1942...



Allen has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame: a radio star at 6713 Hollywood Blvd. and a TV star at 7001 Hollywood Blvd

➦In 1908...American voice actor and comic actor Mel Blanc was born.

Blanc began his radio career at the age of 19 when in 1927 he debuted as a voice actor on the KGW (Portland OR) program The Hoot Owls, where his ability to provide voices for multiple characters first attracted attention. He moved to Los Angeles in 1932, where he met Estelle Rosenbaum (1909 - 2003), whom he married a year later, before returning to Portland. He moved to KEX in 1933 to produce and co-host his Cobweb And Nuts show with his wife Estelle, which debuted on June 15. The program played Monday through Saturday from 11:00 pm to midnight, and by the time the show ended two years later, it appeared from 10:30 pm to 11:00 pm.

Mel Blanc and Characters

With his wife's encouragement, Blanc returned to Los Angeles and joined Warner Bros.-owned KFWB in Hollywood, California, in 1935. He joined The Johnny Murray Show, but the following year switched to CBS Radio and The Joe Penner Show.

Blanc was a regular on the NBC Red Network show The Jack Benny Program in various roles, including voicing Benny's Maxwell automobile (in desperate need of a tune-up), violin teacher Professor LeBlanc, Polly the Parrot, Benny's pet polar bear Carmichael, the tormented department store clerk, and the train announcer. The first role came from a mishap when the recording of the automobile's sounds failed to play on cue, prompting Blanc to take the microphone and improvise the sounds himself. The audience reacted so positively that Benny decided to dispense with the recording altogether and have Blanc continue in that role.



By 1946, Blanc appeared on over 15 radio programs in supporting roles. His success on The Jack Benny Program led to his own radio show on the CBS Radio Network, The Mel Blanc Show, which ran from September 3, 1946, to June 24, 1947. Blanc played himself as the hapless owner of a fix-it shop, as well as his young cousin Zookie.

Blanc also appeared on such other national radio programs as The Abbott and Costello Show, the Happy Postman on Burns and Allen, and as August Moon on Point Sublime. During World War II, he appeared as Private Sad Sack on various radio shows, most notably G.I. Journal. Blanc recorded a song titled "Big Bear Lake."

He passed away on July 10, 1989.

'Similin' Ed McConnell

➦In 1922...“Smilin'” Ed McConnell debuted on radio, smiling and playing his banjo. McConnell quickly became a legend in the medium, and 22 years later was still entertaining young people as Smilin’ Ed’s Buster Brown Gang debuted on NBC radio.  That series ran for 9 years, with a TV series running parallel starting in 1950.

➦In 1928...Legendary radio personality Herb Oscar Anderson, who was the morning deejay at Musicradio WABC 770 AM in New York City from 1960 to 1968, was born.

HOA also worked at KSTP and WDGY St. Paul-Minneapolis during the '50s. Also in the '50s HOA appeared on a number of shows for the ABC Radio network. He started in 1958 at WMCA NYC, worked WMGM in '59 and became the Morning Mayor on WABC in 1960.



Today, he continues to serve up some wonderful music at his current station in Vero Beach, FL. HOA died January 29, 2017 at age 88..

➦In 1935…"America's Town Meeting of the Air" began its 21-year run, mainly on the NBC Blue Network and its successor, ABC Radio. The moderator during the first 17 years was George V. Denny, Jr., executive director of the League for Political Education, which produced the program.

➦In 1943...the "Archie" comic strip was first broadcast on the Radio.




➦In 1989...the 20,000th "Rambling with Gambling" Radio show aired on WOR-AM, New York City. (Several generations of Gamblings kept the program going continuously)

John A, John R, John B Gambling

John B. Gambling started the show in March 1925, when WOR was a promotional arm of the Bamberger's department store in Newark. His son, John A. Gambling became host in 1959. He brought his son, John R. Gambling, to the show as co-host from 1985 until his retirement in 1991. John R. Gambling has been solo host since that time.

In September 2000, WOR cancelled the program. At the time, it was the longest continually-running radio broadcast in America, a position now held by the Grand Ole Opry.

After a brief hiatus, WABC hired John R. Gambling.

WOR owned the rights to the name Rambling with Gambling, so the revived show was renamed The John Gambling Show.

In January 2008, WABC laid off Gambling in a cost-cutting measure.

On Wednesday, April 30, 2008, WOR and John R. Gambling announced the return of the show to its original station.

They began broadcasting on Monday, May 5, 2008, from 6 AM to 10 AM. despite the return to WOR.

Gambling retired from WOR radio at the end of 2013, bringing an end to the almost 89-year combined run of The John Gambling Show and Rambling with Gambling.

He has since returned to the NYC airwaves hosting 11am to 1pm on WNYM 970 AM The Answer.

➦In 2014...actress Joan Lorring, who began her career in 1940’s Hollywood radio, who was regularly cast on CBS Radio’s Mystery Theater in the 70’s, who was featured in the early TV series ‘Norby,” and guested in anthology & episodic TV until 1980, died at age 88. Her many small screen appearances included The Star Wagon, a 1966 movie with Dustin Hoffman and Orson Bean, and The Love Boat in 1980.