Radio History: Aug 22

➦In 1906…The Victor Talking Machine Company began to manufacture a record player called the Victrola. The hand-cranked unit, with horn cabinet, sold for $200. Records had to be purchased separately, usually in the appliance stores that sold the machines, at a price of $1 to $7. Music conductor John Philip Sousa predicted "a marked deterioration in American music" and said that generations of amateur musicians would give way to "canned music."

Nipper

The advent of radio as a home entertainment medium in the early 1920s presented Victor and the entire record industry with new challenges. Not only was music becoming available over the air free of charge, but a live broadcast made using a high-quality microphone and heard over a high-quality receiver provided clearer, more "natural" sound than a contemporary record.

In 1925, Victor switched from the acoustical or mechanical method of recording to the new microphone-based electrical system developed by Western Electric. Victor called its version of the improved fidelity recording process "Orthophonic", and sold a new line of record players, called "Orthophonic Victrolas", scientifically designed to play these improved records. Victor's first electrical recordings were made and issued in the spring of 1925

➦In 1947...“Jack Armstrong, the All-American Boy“, expanded to length of their ABC Radio Networks shows to 30-minutes and aired three-times weekly.  The program had been a 15-minute program for 14-years.

➦In 1964...The Beatles were in concert at Empire Stadium in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, playing to 20,261 fans.

The Bill Black Combo, the Exciters, the Righteous Brothers, and Jackie DeShannon opened for the group.  The show was broadcast locally by CKNW 980 AM.

➦In 1965...The Beatles performed two shows at Memorial Coliseum in Portland, Oregon.  Mike Love and Carl Wilson of the Beach Boys stopped by between shows to meet the group.

➦In 1970...Chart Check:  Bread reached #1 with their first hit--"Make It With You".  That ended a five-week reign for the Carpenters' classic "(They Long To Be) Close To You".  Eric Burdon & War were up to #3 with "Spill The Wine" while the song "War" was at #4 for Edwin Starr.  The rest of the Top 10:  Mungo Jerry with "In The Summertime", Stevie Wonder had #6--"Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I'm Yours)", Clarence Carter moved from 16 to 7 with "Patches", Freda Payne's "Band Of Gold", B.J. Thomas moved into the list with "I Just Can't Help Believing" and one of the great One-Hit Wonders of the Rock Era*, "Tighter, Tighter" by Alive & Kicking was still alive at #10.

➦In 1990...Orchestra leader David Rose died aged 80. He had the 1962 US No.1 single ‘The Stripper’. He led the band on NBC radio’s Red Skelton Show, and wrote music for the TV series Little House on the Prairie and Bonanza.

➦In 2004...Al Dvorin, the announcer who coined the phrase "Elvis has left the building" while working the King's Seventies concerts, died in a car crash en route home from a Californian Elvis convention.

➦In 2011...Jerry Leiber (left) died in Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, aged 78, from cardio-pulmonary failure. He along with Mike Stoller, wrote many of Elvis Presley's big early hits, including "Hound Dog" and "Jailhouse Rock", as well as "Kansas City" for Wilbert Harrison, "Stand By Me" for Ben E. King and "On Broadway" for the Drifters.

➦In 2011...Nickolas Ashford of the duo Ashford & Simpson, who wrote songs such as "Ain't No Mountain High Enough", "You're All I Need To Get By", "Ain't Nothing Like The Real Thing", and "I'm Every Woman" with wife Valerie Simpson, died at the age of 70 from throat cancer

➦In 2014...A Philadelphia radio legend, Don Cannon, died at age 74.

Cannon, who was born Dominic Canzano in Yonkers, N.Y.  He was known as “The Dean of Philadelphia Radio.”

He was a voice on morning radio in Philadelphia from 1969 until he retired in 2004. The “Cannon in the Morning” show started on WIBG and has been heard on WIP, WFIL, WIFI, WSNI and WOGL.

In the original Rocky movie, when the morning alarm clock goes off for Rocky’s run, it is Cannon’s voice heard on the radio.

WOGL 98.1 FM, the radio station where Cannon last worked in Philadelphia, put up a tribute page on its web site. It included this posting:

“It is with heavy hearts we announce the passing of a member of the 98.1 WOGL family. Our friend and radio legend Don Cannon passed away peacefully on Friday morning, August 22.

Don was our morning show host from March 1990 to June 2004. He was born in New York but started working in Philadelphia radio at a young age, and Philly became his true home.

Don was a big (NFL) Eagles fan, and had a great sense of humor."

➦In 2014...Ted Moore, the retired voice of the Green Bay Packers during the glory years in the 1960s and who made a memorable call in the famed Ice Bowl on Dec. 31, 1967, at Lambeau Field, died at age 87 from heart failure.

Ted Moore

Moore spent 48 years in the radio and television broadcasting business. But he was best known for his work with the Packers. At the Ice Bowl, with the Packers trailing the Dallas Cowboys, 17-14, in the NFL Championship Game, Moore peered through a small unfrozen section of the press box window and called quarterback Bart Starr's sneak into the end zone.

"The Green Bay Packers are going to be world champions, NFL champions for the third straight year," Moore yelled.

A native of Bristow, Okla., Moore worked for a number of stations in Madison, Marshfield, Neenah, Menasha, Green Bay and finally, in 1958, at WTMJ radio and television.  Moore also worked for WEMP and WOKY in Milwaukee.

He was later inducted into the Wisconsin Broadcasters Hall of Fame.

Collin Raye is 64

🎂HAPPY BIRTHDAYS:

• Newsman Morton Dean is 89. 
• TV writer/producer David Chase (“The Sopranos”) is 79. 
• Correspondent Steve Kroft (“60 Minutes”) is 79. 
• Guitarist David Marks of The Beach Boys is 76. 
• Guitarist Vernon Reid of Living Colour is 66. 
• Country singer Collin Raye is 64. 
• Actor Regina Taylor (“The Unit,” ″I’ll Fly Away”) is 64. 
• Singer Roland Orzabal of Tears for Fears is 63. 
• Drummer Debbi Peterson of The Bangles is 63. 
• Guitarist Gary Lee Conner of Screaming Trees is 62. 
• Singer Tori Amos is 61. 
• Keyboardist James DeBarge of DeBarge is 61. 
• Country singer Mila Mason is 61. 
• Rapper GZA (Wu-Tang Clan) is 58. 
• Actor Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (“Oz,” “Lost”) is 57. 
• Actor Ty Burrell (“Modern Family”) is 57. 
• Celebrity chef Giada De Laurentiis is 54. 
• Actor Melinda Page Hamilton (“Devious Maids,” ″Mad Men”) is 53. 
• Actor Rick Yune (“Die Another Day,” “The Fast and the Furious”) is 53. 
• Guitarist Paul Doucette of Matchbox Twenty is 52. 
• Rapper Beenie Man is 51. 
• Singer Howie Dorough of the Backstreet Boys is 51. 
• Comedian Kristen Wiig (“Bridesmaids,” ″Saturday Night Live”) is 51. 
• Actor Jenna Leigh Green (“Sabrina the Teenage Witch”) is 50. 
• Keyboardist Bo Koster of My Morning Jacket is 50. 
• Bassist Dean Back of Theory of a Deadman is 49. 
• Actor and TV host James Corden is 46. 
• Guitarist Jeff Stinco of Simple Plan is 46. 
• Actor Brandon Adams (“The Mighty Ducks”) is 45. 
• Actor Aya Sumika (“Numb3rs”) is 44. 
• Actor Ari Stidham (TV’s “Scorpion”) is 32.

✞REMEMBRANCES

• In 1940..Oliver Joseph Lodge, English physicist, early radio pioneer, dies at 89
• In 1977..Sebastian Cabot, British actor (Kismet; Family Affair - "Mr. French", Time Machine), dies at 59
• In 2006..Bruce Gary, American rock drummer (The Knack - "My Sharona"'), dies of Non-Hodgkin lymphoma at 55
• In 2011..Jerry Leiber, American songwriter (Leiber & Stoller - "Hound Dog"; "Jailhouse Rock"; "Is That All There Is?"), dies at 78
• In 2021..Brian Travers, British rock saxophonist (UB40 - "Red, Red Wine"), dies of cancer at 62
• In 2022..Jerry Allison, American rock drummer and songwriter (Buddy Holly & Crickets - "That'll Be The Day"; "Peggy Sue"), dies at 82.