June 28 Radio History

In 1940...The Quiz Kids was first heard on radio as a summer replacement for the blind piano virtuoso Alec Templeton. The show, with Chicago’s Joe Kelly as host & quizmaster, continued on a succession of networks (ABC, NBC, CBS) until 1953.


In 1943...the Dreft Star Playhouse debuted on NBC radio. Jane Wyman (the first Mrs. Ronald Reagan) starred in the first broadcast, titled Bachelor Mother. The 21-month series was expensive by radio’s daytime standards, with $3,000 a week budgetted for big name talent.

In 1944...The Alan Young Show debuted on NBC radio featuring the raised-in Vancouver comedian. It was the summer replacement for the popular Eddie Cantor. The show became a regular in the fall lineup.. on ABC. Young, incidentally, made the switch to TV in 1961. He became a CBS star with a talking horse, of course, of course, named Mister Ed.

In 1947…The forerunner of TV's "Candid Camera," "Candid Microphone" began its 15-month run on ABC Radio. It returned to the air on CBS Radio for three months in 1950.


In 1951...an old favorite of radio audiences made the switch to TV.  Amos ‘n’ Andy moved to CBS-TV. Two years later, criticism from the NAACP about ‘stereotyping’ forced the network to drop the show.

In 1965…Early Bird (Intelsat II), the first commercial communications satellite, began service.


In 1965....Dick Clark's latest rock n' roll variety show, Where The Action Is, premieres on ABC-TV, featuring performances by Jan & Dean, Dee Dee Sharp and Linda Scott, and also introducing a new house band called Paul Revere and the Raiders.

Meanwhile, over on CBS, influential DJ Murray The K's variety special It's What's Happening, Baby! features performances by The Supremes, The Ronettes, The Drifters, The Miracles, The Temptations, Little Anthony and the Imperials, Martha and the Vandellas, The Righteous Brothers, Tom Jones, The Dave Clark Five, Patti Labelle and the Bluebelles, and Gary Lewis and the Playboys.


In 1968...Don Imus got his first radio job. Imus was a brakeman on the Southern Pacific Railroad. Upon winning a talent contest at Johnny Otis's nightclub, he began working as a singer/songwriter, managed by Otis.

After hearing a morning disc-jockey, he went to the nearby radio station and persuaded the owner to hire him. Thus he began his career as a radio disc jockey on June 28, 1968 at radio station KUTY in Palmdale, California.

He stayed at the station until 1969 when he left for a job at KJOY, a small radio station in Stockton, California. He was later fired for saying "hell" on air.

After being fired in Stockton, he went to KXOA in Sacramento, California. His on-air pranks, such as calling up a restaurant and ordering 1200 hamburgers to go, made his show immensely popular and boosted ratings.


In 1975...David Bowie released the single, "Fame", to Radio.


In 1997...George Harrison secretly undergoes surgery to have a cancerous lump removed from his throat. Though it turns out to be benign, the ex-Beatle will eventually succumb to the disease in 2001.


In 2013…Veteran radio broadcaster Rick Barber, a KOA-Denver talk show host for 30 years, died following complications from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease) at 67.

His voice kept company with countless insomniacs in Colorado and beyond for 30 years on "The Rick Barber Show." The show was an institution on KOA 850 AM from 1982 until he signed off in early 2012, a victim of Clear Channel downsizing.


In 2015…Radio personality (KSTP-Minneapolis-St. Paul, WNOE-New Orleans, KAAY, Little Rock, WOOJ-Baton Rouge) William Grady "Doctor" Brock died at the age of 66.