April 20 In Radio History

In 1952...the "Big Show" finished a two year run on the NBC Radio Network.


In 1961…The U.S. Federal Communications Commission approved FM stereo broadcasting.


In 1985...Flashback..From the pages of Radio&Records...

In 2007...a survey was released which said 54% of Americans thought firing talk show host, Don Imus, several days earlier, was justified for his comments about the Rutgers women basketball team.

The following is an excerpt from a 1999 memo written by Mark Katz, the in-house humorist at the Clinton White House, to presidential adviser Paul Begala regarding an interview request from radio host Don Imus:

Courtesy of the previously restricted documents released on Friday by the Clinton Library.


In 2011…Former Los Angeles radio personality (KFWB, KRLA, KEZY, KFI) Ted Quillan, the first to play a Ritchie Valens record on the radio and portrayed by Rick Dees in the film "La Bamba," died at age 81.

Ted Quillan

Born in Oklahoma City, Quillin moved to El Paso, Texas where he finished high school and attended Texas College of Mines and Metallurgy now known as UTEP. During this time, while still in high school Ted started his broadcast career at KEPO, an ABC station in El Paso. He started as a ‘gofer’ on a morning show from 6 to 7 AM, before he went to school. He graduated to staff announcer. After that he took a job in Corpus Christi, Texas at KSIX. The program director from KXYZ in Houston heard him, and hired him as a staff announcer. From there he went to WACO in Waco, Texas. Ted moved to KELP which was a Gordon McClendon station, doing top 40. This is where he met Chuck Blore and when Chuck got the call to Hollywood he took Ted with him and Ted became one of the original "Seven Swingin’ Gentlemen", who took Rock and Roll into its first major market, at KFWB. His listeners became known as the "Quiverin' Quillin Clan."

Quillin's years in radio include: KFWB–Hollywood, 1958–61; KRLA–Pasadena, 1962–64; KORK–Las Vegas, 1964–1966, KFI- L.A, 1969; KFOX-Long Beach 1969-71; XPRS-1972, and finally, KORK-Las Vegas, 1972, when he became a permanent resident of Las Vegas.


In 2005 Ted was inducted into the Broadcasters' Hall of Fame in Nevada.