February 3 In Radio History

In 1927...the FCC, then known as Federal Radio Commission, was created by a law signed into effect by U.S. President Calvin Coolidge.

In 1935...Martin Block starts at WNEW 1130 AM in NYC at a salary of $20 per week. In 1935, while listeners to New York's WNEW in New York (now information outlet WBBR) were awaiting developments in the Lindbergh kidnapping, Block built his audience by playing records between the Lindbergh news bulletins.



This led to his Make Believe Ballroom, which began February 3, 1935 with Block borrowing both the concept and the title from West Coast disc jockey Al Jarvis, creating the illusion that he was broadcasting from a ballroom with the nation’s top dance bands performing live. He bought some records from a local music shop for the program as the radio station had none. Block purchased five Clyde McCoy records, selecting his "Sugar Blues" for the radio show's initial theme song.

Because Block was told by the station's sales staff that nobody would sponsor a radio show playing music, he had to find himself a sponsor. Block lined up a producer of reducing pills called "Retardo"; within a week, the sponsor had over 3,000 responses to the ads on Block's radio show. Martin Block's style of announcing was considerably different than the usual manner of delivery at the time. Instead of speaking in a voice loud enough to be heard in a theater, Block spoke in a normal voice, as if he was having a one-on-one conversation with a listener.

When one of Block's sponsors offered a sale on refrigerators during a New York snowstorm, 109 people braved the elements for the bargain Block advertised; by 1941 potential sponsors for his show had to be put on a waiting list for availabilities.

In 1959…At about 1:00 a.m. CST, shortly after taking off from the Mason City, Iowa airport, the chartered airplane containing Buddy Holly (Peggy Sue, That'll Be The Day), Ritchie Valens (Donna, La Bamba), and the "Big Bopper" J.P. Richardson (Chantilly Lace), crashed into an Iowa field, instantly killing all three and the pilot Roger Peterson.

Headed for the next "Winter Dance Party" tour stop in Fargo, North Dakota, the plane had been chartered by Holly so that the band members could travel in heated comfort (their tour bus had a broken heater) and arrive early for the next show. The pilot, not informed of worsening weather conditions, decided to fly "on instruments," meaning without visual confirmation of the horizon, which led to the crash.

Richardson was 28, Holly was 22, and Valens was 17.



Don McLean later immortalized the tragedy in his classic song "American Pie," calling this "the day the music died."


In 1968…At EMI's Abbey Road Studios in London, the Beatles began recording "Lady Madonna." All four of them played and/or sang on the track, with four studio musician saxophonists added, finishing February 6. Issued in mid-March, the single was their last release on Parlophone in the UK and Capitol Records in the U.S. All subsequent releases, starting with "Hey Jude" in August 1968, were issued on their own Apple Records label.

In 2003…Longtime St. Louis radio personality Ron Morgan died of a heart ailment at age 60.