January 7 Radio History

In 1904...the Marconi Company made a proposal that there be an international Radio distress signal. "C.Q.D" meant "Stop Sending and Listen" although many eventually thought it to mean "Come, Quick, Danger". The code began use February 7, 1904 and was replaced in 1908 by "S.O.S."




In 1924...At the age of 26, composer George Gershwin began writing his classic, "Rhapsody in Blue," which he completed three weeks later. He passed the score to Paul Whiteman's arranger Ferde Grofé, who orchestrated the piece, finishing it on February 4, just eight days before its premiere in an afternoon concert by Whiteman and his Palais Royal Orchestra at Aeolian Hall in New York City.

In 1939...comedian Red Skelton was given his first national starring vehicle as ‘Avalon Time’ debuted on the NBC Red radio network.





In 1940..."Gene Autry’s Melody Ranch" first aired on the CBS Radio Network. It stayed on the air for 16 years.




In 1941...The NBC Blue Radio Network debuted "The Squeaky Door". The show was later became known as "Inner Sanctum."


In 1943...Physicist/engineer/inventor/futurist Nikola Tesla, best remembered for his design of the alternating current (AC) electricity supply system and his contributions to the invention of radio communication, died of a coronary thrombosis at the age of 86.

Nikola Tesla

Tesla's theories on the possibility of the transmission by radio waves go back as far as lectures and demonstrations in 1893 in St. Louis, Missouri, the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and the National Electric Light Association.  Tesla's demonstrations and principles were written about widely through various media outlets. Many devices such as the Tesla Coil were used in the further development of radio.

In 1898, Tesla demonstrated a radio-controlled boat—which he dubbed "teleautomaton"—to the public during an electrical exhibition at Madison Square Garden.  The crowd that witnessed the demonstration made outrageous claims about the workings of the boat, such as magic, telepathy, and being piloted by a trained monkey hidden inside. Tesla tried to sell his idea to the U.S. military as a type of radio-controlled torpedo, but they showed little interest.   Remote radio control remained a novelty until World War I and afterward, when a number of countries used it in military programs.

In 1900, Tesla was granted patents for a "system of transmitting electrical energy" and "an electrical transmitter." When Guglielmo Marconi made his famous first-ever transatlantic radio transmission in 1901, Tesla quipped that it was done with 17 Tesla patents.

This was the beginning of years of patent battles over radio with Tesla's patents being upheld in 1903, followed by a reverse decision in favor of Marconi in 1904. In 1943, a Supreme Court of the United States decision restored the prior patents of Tesla, Oliver Lodge, and John Stone.  The court declared that their decision had no bearing on Marconi's claim as the first to achieve radio transmission, just that since Marconi's claim to certain patents were questionable, he could not claim infringement on those same patents  (there are claims the high court was trying to nullify a World War I claim against the U.S. government by the Marconi Company via simply restoring Tesla's prior patent).

In 1949...Radio personality Bill Gable was born.

Bill Gable got his start in radio as a teenager in Allentown, Pennsylvania and went on to work in the biggest markets in North America, including Detroit-Windsor at CKLW (The Big 8) in the 1970s.

He retired March 2014 from AM 740 in Toronto.


In 1950...Nova Scotia-born Hank Snow and Ernest Tubb made their first appearances at “The Grand Ole Opry” in Nashville.  Ernest also did a 15-minute radio program each day that became very popular in West Texas. So popular, in fact, that he bought the radio station that had aired the program for years and years: KGKL in San Angelo, Texas.


In 1968...KMPX in San Francisco, a pioneer in "underground" FM radio, holds a "grass ballot" vote for national office among its listeners. The results: Bob Dylan is elected President; Paul Butterfield, Vice-President; George Harrison, US ambassador to the UN. Jefferson Airplane are all elected Secretaries of Transportation and the Grateful Dead are all elected Attorneys General.


In 2013...Radio engineer Bill Mouzis died in LA at age 90.

Bill Mouzis 1965

Mouzis was already at AM station KHJ  as an engineer and board operator when the station shifted in 1965 to a rock and roll format promoted as Boss Radio.   He was the format’s first production director.

KHJ became a big deal in baby boomer Los Angeles, with on-air personalities such as Sam Riddle, Robert W. Morgan and The Real Don Steele.

Mouzis became the production director for the station and for its signature piece of work, an ambitious compilation of records and interviews that KHJ aired as a 48-hour special "The History of Rock and Roll" — radio's first "rockumentary," they called it.