April 2 Radio History

In 1872…Portrait painter-turned-inventor Samuel Morse, who contributed to the invention of a single-wire telegraph system and was co-developer of the Morse code, died at the age of 80.

Jack Webb

In 1920...the creator & star of Dragnet Jack Webb was born in Santa Monica.  

Before Dragnet hit the bigtime on NBC Radio in 1949 he had already scored two west coast cult hits with Pat Novak for Hire, & Johnny Madero Pier 23.  Dragnet came to TV in ’51 while continuing on radio until ’56.  Pete Kelly’s Blues, featuring the jazz he loved so much, was an unsuccessful Webb radio series in ’51, a moderate film success in ’55, and a so-so TV series in ’59.  He scored one more TV hit, producing Emergency (1972-77.)  

Webb died of a heart attack Dec 23, 1982 at age 62.

In 1947...The Big Story (dramas based on newspaper reporting) was first heard on NBC radio. It stayed on the air for eight years.

In 1964...As popular music’s most resounding commercial success, the Beatles have sold more than 2.3+ billion albums, while earning six diamond, 24 multi-platinum, 39 platinum and 45 gold albums in the United States alone. It is a remarkable sales record, by any measure, although their most historic, chart-making moment is easily the first week of April 1964, when the band held the top five positions on the vaunted Billboard charts, writes Kenneth Womack at Penn State University.

As the April 4, 1964, issue of Billboard magazine demonstrates, the Beatles were simply dominating the American music scene. And during that unforgettable week, their music occupied the top five chart positions — the only time in pop-music history that a single act has accomplished such a feat. With “Can’t Buy Me Love” holding down the top slot, “Twist and Shout” was second and “She Loves You,” “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and “Please Please Me” rounded out the top five.

Even more incredibly, the Beatles held seven additional positions on Billboard’s Hot 100, including “I Saw Her Standing There” at No. 31, “From Me to You” at No. 41, “Do You Want to Know a Secret?” at No. 46, “All My Loving” at No. 58, “You Can’t Do That” at No. 65, “Roll Over Beethoven” at No. 68 and “Thank You Girl” at No. 79. As if to underscore the awe-inspiring power of Beatlemania during that fabled period, two Beatles tribute acts clocked hits that very same week, including the Carefrees’ “We Love You Beatles” at No. 42 and the Four Preps’ “A Letter to the Beatles” at No. 85. For April 11, 1964, issue of Billboard, the Beatles added two more hits to the Hot 100, including “There’s a Place” at No. 74 and “Love Me Do” at No. 81, giving them a total of 14 hits songs on the Billboard charts at the very same time.

In 1973...the CBS Radio Network began to offer top of the hour newscast 24-hours-a-day.



During the 1970s and into the mid-1980s, the CBS Radio owned-and-operated news stations had a superior style and sound: tight and cohesive production, lively presenters, excellent engineering and outstanding "audio logos" from a company called Identitones. This compilation contains a few stagers and sounders from the heyday of the CBS Radio local news format.

In partnership with CBS Laboratories, CBS Radio developed a unique system to advise affiliates of news bulletins. When activated from network headquarters, CBS NetAlert transmitted coded information over the network lines to each station to communicate anything from the start of a special feed to a national emergency. The system had the capability to override local programming for a special report from CBS News. A NetAlert receiver is seen toward the end of this video.


In 1997...FCC auctioned first S-DARS licenses to CD Radio and American Mobile Radio Corp.


In 2010...Joey Reynolds does last show at WOR 710 AM