May 7 Radio History

➦In 1941...Glenn Miller recorded "Chattanooga Choo Choo" for RCA which subsequently became a huge hit on Radio.



➦In 1945...America learned that the war in Europe was over...

There were two sources of news during the World War II era - newspapers and radio.  Radio was faster, just as the internet and social media are (generally) faster with the news today.

Ray Steele WIBC

On May 7, an Associated Press reporter May 7, broke an embargo and sent first word of the German surrender to his wire service, ostensibly to be passed on to newspapers (the news was supposed to be embargoed to allow the leaders of the three Allied nations - the U.S., Britain and the Soviet Union - to jointly announce the surrender on May 8.  But radio stations and networks also subscribed to the AP wire, and as soon as the news was reported, it was on the radio - hours before it could be printed in a paper.  Thus began a long period, though short by today's cable news endless coverage standards, of reporting about the end of the first half of the war.

Ray Steele on WIBC 93.5 FM Indinapolis spoke in 2015 with radio historian Steve Darnall. He hosts two wonderful weekly programs on the golden age of radio - Those Were The Days, which airs Saturday afternoons on WDCB 90.9 FM in the Chicago area, and Radio's Golden Age, which airs online at yesterdayusa.com and talkzone.com.  Steve is also editor and publisher of the quarterly Nostalgia Digest.





➦In 1946...Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering (later renamed Sony) is founded with around 20 employees.


➦In 1955...Decca Records released, for the second time, “Rock Around The Clock” by Bill Haley & His Comets. It had first been issued 12 months earlier, but did not take off until it was used in the 1955 movie, Blackboard Jungle.


➦In 1969...the CBC/Radio Canada banned all tobacco advertising on the CBC/SRC radio and television networks.


➦In 1996...Don McNeill - ABC Radio Breakfast Club died at age 88.

The Breakfast Club was a long-run morning variety show on NBC Blue Network/ABC radio (and briefly on television) originating in Chicago, Illinois.

Hosted by Don McNeill, the radio program ran from June 23, 1933 through December 27, 1968. McNeil's 35½-year run as host remains the longest tenure for an M.C. of a network entertainment program, surpassing Johnny Carson (29½ years) on The Tonight Show and Bob Barker (34⅔ years) on The Price is Right.

In Chicago during the early 1930s, McNeill was assigned to take over an unsponsored early morning variety show, The Pepper Pot, with an 8 a.m. timeslot on the NBC Blue Network. McNeill re-organized the hour as The Breakfast Club, dividing it into four segments which McNeill labeled "the Four Calls to Breakfast."



McNeill's revamped show premiered in 1933, combining music with informal talk and jokes often based on topical events, initially scripted by McNeill but later ad-libbed. In addition to recurring comedy performers, various vocal groups and soloists, listeners heard sentimental verse, conversations with members of the studio audience and a silent moment of prayer. The series eventually gained a sponsor in the Chicago-based meat packer Swift and Company. McNeill is credited as the first performer to make morning talk and variety a viable radio format.

The program featured Fran Allison (later of Kukla, Fran and Ollie fame) as "Aunt Fanny", plus Captain Stubby and the Buccaneers and various comedy bits. Every quarter-hour came the "Call to Breakfast" -- a march around the breakfast table. A featured vocalist on the show, under her professional name of Annette King, was Charlotte Thompson Reid, who later became an Illinois congresswoman for five terms (1962–71).

The Breakfast Club initially was broadcast from the NBC studios in the Merchandise Mart. In 1948, after 4,500 broadcasts from the Merchandise Mart, the program moved to the new ABC Civic Studio. It was also heard from other Chicago venues: the Terrace Casino (at the Morrison Hotel), the College Inn Porterhouse (at the Sherman House) and "the Tiptop Room of the Allerton Hotel on Chicago's Magnificent Mile," as well as tour broadcasts from other locations in the U.S. It remained a fixture on the ABC radio network (formerly the NBC Blue Network; it became known as ABC in 1945), maintaining its popularity for years.

From 1993....



After ABC Radio was split into four networks in 1968, The Breakfast Club was moved to the new American Entertainment network, and was known for its last months on the air as The Don McNeill Show






➦In 1982...Dan Ingram does his last show at 77 WABC (Sound quality is fair, it was recorded 100 miles from NYC.). WABC would change to Talk Radio three days later.








➦In 2002...WYNY 107.1 FM dropped country format in NYC.