➦In 1876...Alexander Graham Bell made the first successful telephone transmission of clear speech using a liquid transmitter when Bell spoke into his device, "Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you." and Watson heard each word distinctly.
Scottish-born Bell made the call over 100ft of wire during trials in his Boston laboratory in the US, summoning his electrician assistant from the adjoining room. In his journal for that day, Bell writes: “To my delight he came and declared that he had heard and understood what I said.”
The two men changed places and Bell listened as Watson read passages from a book over the device. Bell records: “It was certainly the case that articulate sounds proceeded from the speaker. The effect was loud but indistinct and muffled.”
Just three days earlier, Bell had been granted a US patent for his invention. But it wasn’t an instant success. Communications company Western Union rejected the opportunity to buy the rights for $100,000, believing it wasn’t a rival to the telegraph. A decision it later regretted.
➦In 1920...Kenneth Charles "Jethro" Burns born (Died - February 4, 1989), He was a mandolinist and one-half of the comedy duo Homer and Jethro with Henry D. "Homer" Haynes.
Burns was born in Conasauga, TN. His family moved to Knoxville when he was three. In 1936, he auditioned for a talent contest at Knoxville radio station WNOX where he met Henry Haynes, also 16. The two formed a duo and WNOX program director Lowell Blanchard gave them the stage names Homer and Jethro after forgetting their names on the air.
Burns was drafted into the US Army and served in Europe during World War II and reunited with Haynes, who had served in the Pacific, in Knoxville in 1945. By 1947, the duo moved to Cincinnati, Ohio and were working at WLW on the station's Midwestern Hayride. They signed with King Records, where they worked as a house band and recorded singles on their own, and two years later signed with RCA Records. The pair were fired along with other stars by new management at WLW in 1948, and after a brief tour, they moved to Springfield, MO and performed on KWTO with Chet Atkins, the Carter Family and Slim Wilson.
In 1949, they moved to Chicago, Illinois and played at the Chicago Theater. Between shows, they would go to WLS to appear live on National Barn Dance.
In 1959, they won a Grammy for the best comedy performance in 1959 for "The Battle of Kookamonga", a parody of Johnny Horton's "Battle of New Orleans".
➦In 1922...Flashback: From Variety...1M radio receivers in use...
➦In 1922...KLZ-AM, Denver, Colorado began broadcasting. It is the oldest broadcasting station in the state of Colorado, and one of the oldest in the United States
Two years earlier, Dr. William "Doc" Reynolds, a dentist, founded Colorado's first experimental radio station, 9ZAF, at his 1124 S. University home in Denver.
The studio was on the front porch and the transmitter was in the back yard.
On March 10, 1922, the station's call sign changed to KLZ, then-Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover granted Reynolds one of the first commercial broadcasting licenses in the country, and KLZ became Colorado's first commercial radio station.
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| 1920s-Era Radio Receiver |
Today, KLZ is owned by Crawford Broadcasting and airs a talk format.
➦In 1934...Radio, TV personality Gary Owens was born in Mitchell, South Dakota. At 18 he began working as a news reporter at local radio station KORN, and two years later was made news director. After several moves in the midwest he became a DJ in Dallas, New Orleans, St. Louis, Denver, Sacramento and San Francisco, before finally settling in Los Angeles. He spent two decades playing music with humorous word play in PM drive at KMPC, and became nationally known as the ear-cupping announcer on TV’s Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In. Owens is believed to have recorded some 30,000 commercials. He died Feb. 12, 2015 of complications from his life-long diabetes, at age 80.
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