December 26 In Radio History

In 1926...In Nashville, the "WSM Barn Dance" began regular Saturday night broadcasts.


In 1953...The radio program "Big Sister" signed off the air from the CBS Radio netowrk. The show aired for 17 years.




In 1954..."The Shadow" radio program signed off the air. 'The Shadow' began in 1930 as the Narrator for a radio show called 'Detective Story Hour' based on a magazine of the same name. The Narrator became more popular than the series and a 21 season run of 'The Shadow' series followed with actors in the leading role including Orson Welles (1937-1938), Bill Johnstone (1938-1943), John Archer (1944-1945) and Bret Morrison (1943-1944, 1945-1954).




In 1963...50 years ago, The Beatles released the single, "I Want To Hold Your Hand," which became their first U.S. smash hit, marking the beginning of Beatlemania and music's "British Invasion."

In 1965...Beatle Paul McCartney was interviewed on pirate radio station "Radio Caroline". Radio Caroline was a British radio station founded in 1964 by Ronan O'Rahilly to circumvent the record companies' control of popular music broadcasting in the United Kingdom and the BBC's radio broadcasting monopoly. Unlicensed by any government for most of its early life, it was a pirate radio station which only became formally illegal in 1967.

In 1992...NYC's WPAT-FM changed from beautiful music - down tempo AC


In 2004...longtime Iowa radio personality, Dick Petrik, died at age 76. Petrik began as the first News Director at KOEL, Oelwein, and maintained that position for 41 years.

Petrik took the job as KOEL’s first news director in April of 1952, nearly two years after the station went on the air. Petrik helped build KOEL into one of the best small-market radio stations in the country. He held the record for longest tenure of any news director in the nation. In 1972, he was the first recipient of the Jack Shelley award, the highest honor given annually by the Iowa Broacast News Association for outstanding contributions to professional broadcast journalism in Iowa.