June 17 Radio History

➦In 1926...Colonel George Johnston and E. G. Hauselt took over WDBO, Orlando from Justice Lee and Maxwell Green.

According to cflradio.net, WDBO began in 1924 as a physics class project. In May  E.F.  Wineberg, a Rollins College math, physics and engineering professor, launched  a 50-watt radio station in a small wooden building on the Winter Park campus.

The first night's programming - less than an hour - included talks by college officials, a violin solo and a performance by the men's glee club, according to the Rollins newspaper that week. It was the first radio station in Orange County and only the third in  Florida. WDBO operated at 1250 on the dial with 50 watts of power for thirty hours a week. There are some conflicting stories surrounding the call letters.

Some research says the call letters were issued in alphabetical sequence as was the policy of the time.  There was WDBN Bangor, Maine, and WDBP, in Superior, Wisconsin. That would make the next set of call letters WDBO. Other research shows a request for the call letters WDBO to stand for "Way Down By Orlando."

Rollins College decided the $600 budget to run WDBO was too much and gave the station to Col. George C. Johnston. Johnston was a radiologist from Pennsylvania who headed an investment bank called The Morris Plan, Co. Johnston named the corporation that took ownership of WDBO, The Orlando Broadcasting Company.

Today, WDBO 580 AM airs ESPN Sports.


➦In 1927...WOR switches to 710 AM.

WOR began broadcasting on February 22, 1922, using a 500-watt transmitter on 360 meters (833 kc.) from Bamberger's Department Store in Newark, New Jersey.

The station's first broadcast was made with a home made microphone which was a megaphone attached to a telephone transmitter, while Al Jolson's "April Showers" was played.  Louis Bamberger's sale of radio sets to consumers explained their affiliation with the station.

The WOR call sign was reissued from the U.S. maritime radio service. The station initially operated limited hours, sharing time with two other stations, WDT and WJY, which also operated on 833 kc. WOR changed frequency to 740 kc. in June 1923 and shared time with WJY until July 1926, when WJY signed off for good and WOR received full use of the frequency. In December 1924, WOR acquired a studio in Manhattan.

On June 17, 1927, as a result of General Order 40, WOR moved to 710 kc., the channel it currently occupies (unlike most stations, it was not affected by NARBA). Later in 1926, WOR moved from its New York City studio on the 9th floor of Chickering Hall at 27 West 57th Street to 1440 Broadway, two blocks from Times Square.


➦In 1941...WNBT-TV, channel 4 in New York City, was granted the first construction permit to operate a commercial TV station in the United States. (WNBT signed on the air on July 1, 1941 at 1:29 p.m. but just months later went dark for the duration of WW2.) Owned by Radio Corporation of America (RCA), the station later changed its call letters to WRCA and finally WNBC.


➦In 1942...‘Suspense,’ known as radio’s outstanding theatre of thrills, debuted on CBS radio. The program kept millions of loyal listeners in suspense every week for the next 20 years.


➦In 1954...guitarist Danny Cedrone died of a broken neck suffered when he fell down a staircase.  Ten weeks earlier the 33 year old had recorded the lead guitar break on ‘Rock Around The Clock’ with Bill Haley and His Comets, for which he was paid a mere $21, although it is widely considered one of the greatest rock and roll guitar solos of all time.


➦In 1968...Seattle’s KOL-FM 94.1 switched from automated background music to “Progressive Rock”, a format based on album cuts and album sales, instead of the singles used in Top 40 radio. Today it is all-country KMPS.


➦In 1986...rotund singer Kate Smith, whose rendition of ”God Bless America” made her a symbol of U-S patriotism, following a long career in 30’s & 40’s radio as well as early TV, died of diabetes at age 79.


➦In 2004...Joe McCoy leaves as PD at WCBS 101.1 FM.  McCoy had been program director since 1981.

Joe McCoy

McCoy took over as program director in 1981, and at that point WCBS-FM began to gradually shift its focus to the 1964–1969 era, but would also feature a more pre-1964 oldies than most other such stations. The station continued to also feature hits of the 1970s and some hits of the 1980s while cutting future gold selections to one per hour.

Also in the 1980s, after 77 WABC and later WNBC 600 AM abandoned music in favor of talk, WCBS-FM began employing many disc jockeys who were widely known on other New York City stations, most notably Musicradio WABC alumni Ron Lundy, Dan Ingram, Bruce "Cousin Brucie" Morrow, Chuck Leonard and Harry Harrison, as well as former WMCA "Good Guys" Dan Daniels and Jack Spector.

Bob Shannon, whose only previous New York City radio experience before coming to WCBS-FM was as a fill-in DJ at WYNY, became well-known himself through his 19-year run as the station's afternoon disk jockey. Bill Brown (who had started with the station in 1969, during their rock days) and Don K. Reed (who started at the station 6 months before the switch to oldies) remained with the station during their entire first period as an oldies station.

In 1989, WCBS-FM limited current music to late nights and overnights. While most oldies stations were playing songs from exclusively 1955 to 1973, WCBS-FM continued to play a moderate amount of songs from the late 1970s as well as about one 1980s hit per hour. Most of the 1980s music came from core oldies artists.

The station's ratings increased during the 1990s (and were sustained into the 2000s) and market research studies showed a small and growing audience in the 35-to-49-year-old demographic as a new generation's "songs they grew up with" moved into the oldies format. The station even hit number one overall in the ratings on at least several occasions during the 1990s.