Radio History: Aug 18

➦In 1900...Walter O'Keefe born  (Died – June 26, 1983).  He was a songwriter, actor, syndicated columnist, Broadway composer, radio legend, screenwriter, musical arranger and TV host.

Walter O'Keefe

O'Keefe was born in Hartford, CT, he began as a vaudeville performer in the Midwest for several years. In 1925, he went to New York City and became a Broadway performer. By 1937, he wrote a syndicated humor column and filled-in for such radio personalities as Walter Winchell, Edgar Bergen, Don McNeill and Garry Moore. He became the long-time master of ceremonies of the NBC show Double or Nothing and was a regular on that network's Monitor series.

O'Keefe also worked in television, presiding over talk shows and quiz shows for the CBS network. Producers Mark Goodson and Bill Todman hired him for their game show Two for the Money. When the show's usual host Herb Shriner had other commitments during the summer of 1954, O'Keefe took over for three months. He was the host for the first Emmy Awards ceremony, held on January 25, 1949 at the Hollywood Athletic Club.

He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in the category of radio. He died in Torrance, California of congestive heart failure at the age of 82.

➦In 1927...Theodore H. Epp (January 27, 1907 - October 13, 1985) started his 'Back to Bible Broadcasts on radio. The broadcasts were heard worldwide on 800 stations in eight languages, until 1985.

➦In 1937...FCC issued first FM construction permit. W1XOJ/W43B/WGTR, Paxton, Mass. (Yankee Network) W1XOJ went on the air May 27, 1939, with 2000 watts on 43.0 MHz. On July 24, 1939, W1XOJ began operating on a schedule of 16 hours a day on the air (8 a.m. to midnight). Broadcasting magazine on Aug. 1, 1939, listed this as one of the four FM stations "in actual operation."

John Sherpard

W1XOJ was the result of a partnership between Yankee Network owner John Shepard and FM inventor Edwin Howard Armstrong to explore the potential of inter-city FM networking. Programs were fed from the Yankee studios in Boston to Asnebumskit, and were picked up from there at stations on Mount Washington, N.H. and in Meriden, Connecticut. Other programs were picked up at Meriden from Armstrong's W2XMN in Alpine, N.J. and carried through Asnebumskit to Mount Washington.

In 1941, W1XOJ became commercial outlet W43B, with 300 kW ERP (50 Kw TPO) on 44.3, as a sister to Boston's WNAC and WAAB. Two years later, Yankee moved WAAB to Worcester to escape the FCC's new anti-duopoly rule. While WAAB and W43B were nominally sister stations, they were never operated jointly (W43B was treated as a "Boston" station and operated from Yankee's Boston studios), and Yankee soon sold WAAB to new owners.

Edwin H Armstrong

W43B eventually took new calls WGTR, moving to the new FM band on 103.1 and then on 99.1. In October 1948, the Yankee Network moved its FM operations to Boston, on the new WNAC-FM 98.5. WGTR's license was transferred to Eastern Radio, which apparently operated the station with “Transit Radio”, providing programming heard in city buses. The 1951 Broadcasting Yearbook shows WGTR once again under the ownership of the Yankee Network, but operating from the same 34 Mechanic Street address as WAAB, by then under Olin Company ownership.

WGTR faded from the scene completely within a year or two, as WAAB flirted with television. By 1961, WAAB was in the hands of Waterman Broadcasting, and when its new FM signal signed on that fall, it was as a simulcast of the full-service AM station. The simulcast lasted until 1967, when WAAB-FM split off from the AM with a stereo beautiful music format. In 1969, WAAB-FM became WAAF, adopting a freeform rock format at 107.3 FM that later evolved into album rock.

A power increase in 1970, to 16.5 kW at 780 feet above average terrain, gave WAAF a commanding signal that could be heard across most of Massachusetts, as well as large portions of eastern Connecticut, Rhode Island, southern New Hampshire and southern Vermont.

➦In 1961...Dan Daniel started at Top40 WMCA 570 AM.

Dan Daniel

He started as a disc jockey at age seventeen on Armed Forces Radio with the US Navy. His first commercial job was at KXYZ in Houston in 1955 and he then worked at WDGY in Minneapolis before moving to WMCA in 1961.

He started on the graveyard shift overnight but from 1962 to 1968 he played the top 40 hits from 4 pm to 7 pm — the evening drive home slot.  The station produced a survey of the current sales in New York record stores and Dandy Dan gave the countdown of the week's best sellers every Wednesday in this late afternoon slot.  From 1968 to 1970, he did the early morning drive-to-work slot before leaving WMCA after nearly nine years; his final broadcast was on 11 July 1970.

Dan was heard coast-to-coast on NBC Radio's "Monitor" in the summer of 1973.

He subsequently worked on WYNY-FM where he hosted the mid-day slot and later morning and afternoon drives. He then did a stint at WHN playing country music before returning to WYNY-FM. Finally, he moved to WCBS-FM in 1996. He retired from WCBS on December 31, 2002.

WMCA transitioned to talk in 1970, bringing an end of the “Good Guys” era.  It did well until rivals WOR and WABC flipped to talk through the early 1980s.   Salem Communications bought WMCA in 1988, which started the current Christian radio format.

➦In 1984...Flashback From R&R...

➦In 2014...announcer Don Pardo died in his sleep at age 96 (Born - February 22, 1918). His radio and television career spanned more than seven decades.

Don Pardo

A member of the Television Hall of Fame, Pardo was noted for his 70-year tenure with NBC, working as the announcer for early incarnations of such notable shows as The Price Is Right, Jackpot, Jeopardy!, Three on a Match, Winning Streak and NBC Nightly News. His longest, and best-known, announcing job was for NBC's Saturday Night Live, a job he held for 39 seasons, from the show's debut in 1975 until his death in 2014.

Pardo's first radio position at NBC affiliate WJAR in Providence starting in 1938. He joined NBC full-time as an in-house announcer in 1944, remaining on the network staff for 60 years. During World War II, Pardo worked as a war reporter for NBC Radio.

For more than 30 years, Pardo was one of the rotating announcers on the KFOG San Francisco radio show "Ten at Ten", appearing at 10 a.m. and in syndication with Dave Morey on KFOG HD Radio.

➦In 2018...Radio personality Scott Shannon reached a milestone - his 1000th broadcast at Classic Hits WCBS 101.1 FM NYC. Shannon joined WCBS-FM in March 2014 after he 'retired' from the morning show at WPLJ 95.5 FM.

Robert Redford is 88

🎂HAPPY BIRTHDAYS:

• Actor Robert Redford is 88. 
• Actor Henry G. Sanders (“Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman”) is 82. 
• Drummer Dennis Elliott (Foreigner) is 74. 
• Comedian Elayne Boosler is 72. 
• Country singer Steve Wilkinson of The Wilkinsons is 69. 
• Comedian-actor Denis Leary is 67. 
• Actor Madeleine Stowe is 66. 
• TV news anchor Bob Woodruff is 63. 
• Actor Adam Storke (“Mystic Pizza”) is 62. 
• Actor Craig Bierko (“Sex and the City,” ″The Long Kiss Goodnight”) is 60. 
• Singer Zac Maloy of The Nixons is 56. 
• Musician Everlast (House of Pain) is 55. 
• Rapper Masta Killa of Wu-Tang Clan is 55. 
• Actor Edward Norton is 55. 
• Actor Christian Slater is 55. 
• Actor Malcolm-Jamal Warner is 54. 
• Actor Kaitlin Olson (“The Mick,” ″It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”) is 49. 
• Comedian Andy Samberg (“Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” ″Saturday Night Live”) is 46. 
• Guitarist Brad Tursi of Old Dominion is 45. 
• Actor Maia Mitchell (“The Fosters”) is 31. 
• Actor Madelaine Petsch (“Riverdale”) is 30. 
• Actor Parker McKenna Posey (“My Wife and Kids”) is 29.

✞REMEMBRANCES

• In 1940..Walter Chrysler, Automotive pioneer (Chrysler Corporation) and thoroughbred breeder, dies at 65
• In 2009..Robert Novak, American journalist and commentator (b. 1931)
• In 2010..Kenneth "Kenny" Edwards, American musician and singer-songwriter (The Stone Poneys, Bryndle), dies of cancer and a blood disorder at 64
• In 2012..Scott McKenzie, American singer, dies at 73
• In 2014..Don Pardo, TV announcer (Jeopardy, Saturday Night Live), dies at 96
• In 2019..Jack Whitaker, American sportscaster (ABC, CBS), dies of natural causes at 95
• In 2023..Ray Hildebrand, American pop and contemporary Christian music singer and songwriter (Paul & Paula - "Hey Paula; Land and Hildebrand), dies at 82