On the 28th in 1936...the radio show "Bachelor's Children" debuted on CBS Radio.
On the 28th in 1939...the "Fleischmann Hour" aired for the final time on radio.
On the 28th in 1963...The Beatles song "She Loves You" was first played on U.S. Radio by disc-jockey, "Murry The K", on 1010 WINS in New York. It is believed that this was the first time a Beatles song has been played anywhere in the United States. The song was played for two solid weeks. The response was tepid.
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| Murray Kaufman 1960 |
Murray the K reached his peak of popularity in the mid-1960s when, as the top-rated radio host in New York City, he became an early and ardent supporter and friend of The Beatles. When the Beatles came to New York on February 7, 1964, Murray was the first DJ they welcomed into their circle,
When the band arrived in New York, Murray was invited by Brian Epstein to spend time with the group, and Murray persuaded WINS to let him broadcast his prime time show from the Beatles' Plaza Hotel suite. He subsequently accompanied the band to Washington, D.C. for their first U.S. concert, was backstage at their The Ed Sullivan Show premiere, and roomed with Beatles guitarist George Harrison in Miami, broadcasting his nightly radio shows from his hotel room there.
He came to be referred to as the "Fifth Beatle," a moniker he said he was given either by Harrison during the train ride to the Beatles' first concert in Washington D.C. or by Ringo Starr at a press conference before that concert.
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| Dewey Phillips |
On the 28th In 1968…Pioneering Memphis disc jockey Dewey Phillips died of heart failure at the age of 42. He was the first person to play an Elvis Presley record on the radio. He also got Elvis to reveal his race (which was in question at the time) in an interview by asking which high school the 19-year-old singer attended (knowing that because of racial segregation, the audience would readily recognize what race attended which schools).
On the 28th in 1968...The Hot 100 "Hey Jude" became the Beatles' 16th #1 song. Jeannie C. Riley fell with "Harper Valley P.T.A." and the Rascals' former #1 "People Got To Be Free" came in third. Deep Purple's "Hush" was followed by "Fire" from The Crazy World of Arthur Brown.
The rest of the Top 10: Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66 with their version of "The Fool on the Hill", 1910 Fruitgum Company had "1,2,3 Red Light", the Bee Gees climbed to 8 with "I've Gotta' Get a Message To You", the O'Kaysions moved from 16 to 9 with "Girl Watcher" while Clarence Carter moved into the Top 10 with "Slip Away"
On the 28th In 1974…John Lennon visited radio host Dennis Elsas at New York City's WNEW-FM to promote his new album "Walls and Bridges." The former Beatle stayed on the air for several hours talking about the album, acting as a disc jockey, playing records and reading commercials.
On the 28th in 1974...The Hot 100 1974: Andy Kim had the new #1 song with "Rock Me Gently". Olivia Newton-John was one step closer with "I Honestly Love You" and Billy Preston was next with "Nothing From Nothing". Dionne Warwick and the Spinners combined for "Then Came You" and First Class were up big (12-5) with "Beach Baby".
The rest of the Top 10: Stevie Wonder and "You Haven't Done Nothin'", the Guess Who had song #7 with "Clap for the Wolfman", Cat Stevens reached the Top 10 with "Another Saturday Night", Johnny Bristol and "Hang On In There Baby" and Lynyrd Skynyrd reached the Top 10 with "Sweet Home Alabama".
On the 28th In 1997…After 54 years in broadcasting, much of it with NBC and later years with ABC, newsman David Brinkley retired.
On the 28th in 2004...Air personality Scott Muni, WMCA, WABC, WOR-FM, WNEW-FM, WAXQ died.
Muni then spent almost 50 years at stations in New York City. He became a Top 40 broadcaster at WMCA in the late 1950s, just before the start of their "Good Guys" era. In 1960, he moved to rival Top40 WABC. There he did an early evening show called "Scotland's Yard" and was the first WABC DJ to capture the attention of the teenage audience the station would become famous for. He also participated in the competition to cover The Beatles on their first visits to the United States, and thus began a long association with them.
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| Muni with John Lennon |
In 1965, Muni left WABC and ran the Rolling Stone Night Club while doing occasional fill-in work for WMCA. Muni had explored some opportunities beyond radio: he had recently co-hosted a local weekly television show on WABC-TV with Bruce "Cousin Brucie" Morrow, and he would go on to record the spoken single "Letter to an Unborn Child", about a soldier with a premonition, which was released in 1967 to little acclaim.
In 1966, Muni joined WOR-FM, one of the earliest pioneers of freeform-based progressive rock radio.
The notion did not last at that station, but in 1967 Muni moved to legendary rock station WNEW-FM, where the format really took hold. Muni stayed there for three decades as the afternoon DJ and sometimes program director. Muni was described by fellow WNEW-FM DJ Dennis Elsas as "the heart and soul of the place". Under assorted management changes during the 1990s WNEW-FM lost its way, and in 1998 Muni ended up as a one-hour noontime classic rock personality at WAXQ "Q104.3", where he worked until suffering a stroke in early 2004.
