July 21 Radio History

Himan Brown

➦In 1910...radio’s most prolific producer Himan Brown was born in New York City.  Over a span of 65 years Brown produced more than 30,000 radio programs, including The Adventures of the Thin Man, The Affairs of Peter Salem, Bulldog Drummond, Dick Tracy, Flash Gordon, The General Mills Radio Adventure Theater, Grand Central Station, The Gumps, Inner Sanctum Mysteries, Joyce Jordan, M.D., Marie, the Little French Princess, The NBC Radio Theater,  Terry and the Pirates, numerous daytime soap operas, and many lesser known programs.

After the end of most network radio programming in the early 60’s Brown persisted with such series as the CBS Radio Mystery Theater, thereby keeping the art of radio drama alive for another generation. He died June 4 2010 at age 99.





➦In 1969...Six hours after first landing on the moon, American astronaut, Neil Armstrong, stepped on the Moon at 2:56:15 AM and the world watched and listened, all made possible by the transmission of radio waves.


➦In 1980...WMCA 570 AM, New York, hosted a reunion featuring Joe O'Brien, Harry Harrison, Dan Daniels, Jack Spector and B. Mitchel Reed.

In 1960, WMCA began promoting itself by stressing its on-air personalities, who were collectively known as the Good Guys. Led by program director Ruth Meyer, the first woman to hold the position in New York City radio,  this was the era of the high-profile Top 40 disc jockey with an exuberant personality aimed at a certain audience segment. With the advent of the Good Guys format, WMCA became more "on top" of new music and started to become known for "playing the hits."

In the early 1960s, the top 40 format was still young, and the field was crowded in New York City. Two major 50,000-watt stations, WMGM (now WEPN) and WINS, had battled each other, playing pop music for years. Then in 1960, WABC joined the fray and started featuring top 40 music. Ultimately, it was WMCA's earnest competition with rival WABC that forced WMGM (in early 1962) and then WINS (in spring 1965) to abandon the top-40 format. There was so much attention on the high-profile WMCA-WABC battle that WMGM and WINS were each summarily forced to find a new niche.


➦In 2011...WRXP 101.9 FM NYC changes call letters to WEMP


 In 

➦In 2013…Cabaret singer Page Morton Black, who sang the Chock Full o' Nuts coffee jingle in radio and TV commercials during a two-decade run in the middle of the 20th century, died at age 97.


➦In 2016…Roger Ailes resigned as CEO/Chairman of Fox News in the wake of sexual harassment allegations made by former Fox host Gretchen Carlson and as many as 20 other current or former female employees of the cable network.


➦In 2016....Longtime Pittsburgh radio personality (WJAS, WIXZ, WPEZ)/TV host Bill Cardille, who for 37 years handled local segments of the annual Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy Association Labor Day telethon, died of liver cancer at age 87.