January 6 In Radio History

In 1838...Morse Code privately demonstrated

In 1941...actor Richard Widmark made his first radio appearance in "The Home of the Brave."


In 1957…Elvis Presley appeared for the third and final time on CBS-TV's "The Ed Sullivan Show." After receiving viewer complaints about Presley's first two appearances on the show and worried about getting more negative audience reaction because of Presley's pelvic gyrations, Sullivan demanded that the cameramen shoot Elvis only from the waist up this time. Presley sang seven songs: "Hound Dog," "Don't Be Cruel," "Love Me Tender," "Heartbreak Hotel," "Peace in the Valley" (at the request of the network), "Too Much," and "When My Blue Moon Turns to Gold Again." After the last of Elvis' performances, Sullivan attempted to prevent any further controversy by declaring:"I just wanted to say that this is a real decent, fine boy. We want to say that we've never had a pleasanter experience with a big name than we've had with you."

In 1969...Joe O’Brien starts at WNBC 660 AM. He died in a car accident in 2005 at age 90.



In 1971...WJRZ 970 AM sold to Pacific Southern.  It changed its call letters on May 16 of that year and became WWDJ, known on the air as "97-DJ", attempting to take on WABC and replace WMCA as the New York market's second Top 40 outlet. For a brief time, program director Mark Driscoll began imaging the station as "9-J", giving rise to a recorded parody of the station called "Nine" produced by a group that included future disk jockeys Howard Hoffman and Randy West. The station was hampered by a directional signal that covered Manhattan and parts of New Jersey well but suffered in the rest of the Five Boroughs and was virtually nonexistent on Long Island and western New Jersey. Eventually, FM competition from WCBS-FM and adult top 40 station WXLO (now WEPN-FM), and an evolution to adult Top 40 by WNBC (now WFAN), began to eat into WWDJ's ratings. In November 1973 it was ranked 15th in the Arbitron ratings.

In 1974...the CBS Radio Network debuted "Radio Mystery Theatre."

In 1980...the "1940's Radio Hour" closed at the St. James Theater in New York City after 105 performances.

In 2012...WFME 94.7 FM NYC (now WNSH) license changed from non-commercial to commercial.