October 18 Radio History

In 1922…The BBC, the British Broadcasting Company (later Corporation), was founded in London.

In 1931…Inventor (phonograph, long-lasting electric light bulb, motion picture camera, stock ticker, mechanical vote recorder) Thomas Alva Edison died from complications of diabetes at the age of 84.




In 1943...the first broadcast of Perry Mason was heard on CBS radio. In the 15-minute daytime drama, Perry was played by Barlett Robinson, Santos Ortega, Donald Briggs and finally & most memorably by John Larkin as Perry Mason and Joan Alexander as Della Street on the CBS daytime radio program. Larkin played the role the longest and was reportedly very disappointed when Raymond Burr got the gig on TV (1957).

In 1954…Six years after Bell Laboratories developed the first prototype, Texas Instruments announced the first production model of a transistor radio, a small portable receiver using transistor-based circuitry.


In 1954...WNBC 660 AM, New York City, changed its call letters to WRCA-AM (as a tie-in to their parent company RCA) and back to WNBC on June 1, 1960.

Chris Russo

In 1959...Sports personality Christopher Michael Russo known as "Mad Dog," was born in Syosset, NY.   Russo is best known as the former co-host of the widely popular Mike and the Mad Dog sports radio show with Mike Francesa, which was broadcast on WFAN in New York City and simulcast on the YES Network. Russo joined Sirius XM Radio in August 2008 and is in charge of his own channel, Mad Dog Radio.

Prior to joining WFAN, Russo worked for WKIS in Orlando, Florida between 1984 and 1987 and WMCA in New York City between 1987 and 1988.  He got the "Mad Dog" nickname from New York Daily News Sports TV and Radio critic Bob Raissman.


In 1964...The Beatles recorded “I Feel Fine,” which marked the earliest example of the use of feedback to enhance a recording.


In 1997…Journalist Nancy Dickerson, the first female correspondent at CBS, died after a stroke at age 70. She reported for NBC News from 1963 to 1970. She is the mother of current Face The Nation host John Dickerson.


In 2005...longtime San Francisco sportscaster Bill King died of a pulmonary embolism suffered during hip surgery at age 78.  For 25 years the Oakland A’s play-by-play man, at various times he had been the voice of almost every team in the  Bay area.


In 2013…News reporter (WLS-TV, WBBM-TV, WBBM-AM) Hugh Hill, a Chicago broadcast journalist for 43 years, died at the age of 89.

The son of a coal miner from the southern Illinois town of Gillespie, Hill graduated on the G.I. Bill from the University of Missouri journalism school and worked at radio stations in St. Charles, Aurora and Hammond before joining WBBM 780 AM in 1953.