July 27 Radio History

➦In 1958…A study by the Esso oil company found that drivers speed more and therefore waste more gasoline when listening to the new rock 'n' roll music on the car radio.


➦In 1974...NBC-TV removed the daily Dinah’s Place from its programming roster. The move brought Dinah Shore’s 23-year association with the Peacock Network to a close.

Dinah Shore

Born Frances Rose Shore (February 29, 1916 – February 24, 1994) was an American singer, actress, radio/television personality, and the top-charting female vocalist of the 1940s. She reached the height of her popularity as a recording artist during the Big Band era of the 1940s and 1950s, but achieved even greater success a decade later, in television, mainly as hostess of a series of variety programs for Chevrolet.

She had a string of 80 charted popular hits, spanning the years 1940 to 1957, and after appearing in a handful of feature films went on to a four-decade career in American television, starring in her own music and variety shows from 1951 through 1963 and hosting two talk shows in the 1970s. TV Guide magazine ranked her at #16 on their list of the top fifty television stars of all time. Stylistically, Shore was compared to two singers who followed her in the mid-to-late 1940s and early 1950s, Doris Day and Patti Page.

1947

Shore made her radio debut on Nashville's WSM-AM radio station. Shore decided to return to pursuing her career in singing, moving to New York City to audition for orchestras and radio stations. In many of her auditions, she sang the popular song "Dinah." When disc jockey Martin Block could not remember her name, he called her the "Dinah girl," and soon after the name stuck, becoming her stage name.  Shore eventually was hired as a vocalist at radio station WNEW, where she sang with Frank Sinatra. She recorded and performed with the Xavier Cugat orchestra, and signed a recording contract with RCA Victor Records in 1940.

In March 1939, Shore debuted on national radio on the Sunday afternoon CBS radio program, Ben Bernie's Orchestra. In February 1940, she became a featured vocalist on the NBC Radio program The Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street, a showcase for traditional Dixieland and Blues songs.

Shore soon became a successful singing star with her own radio show in 1943, Call to Music. She continued appearing in radio shows throughout the 1940s, including Birds Eye-Open House and Ford Radio Show. In early 1946, she moved to another label, Columbia Records.

➦In 1982...one of the great announce voices of network radio in the 1930’s and 40’s, Dan Seymour died at age 68.  He had parlayed his skill with commercial copy on shows such as The Aldrich Family, Orson Welles’ Mercury Theatre, Sing it Again, We the People & Aunt Jenny’s Real Life Stories into a very successful advertising career, rising to CEO of the prestigious J. Walter Thompson agency.

Bob Hope

➦In 2003...singer-actor-comedian Bob Hope died of pneumonia at his home in Toluca Lake, California at the age of 100.

His career in broadcasting began on radio in 1934. His first regular series for NBC Radio was the Woodbury Soap Hour in 1937, a 26-week contract. A year later, The Pepsodent Show Starring Bob Hope began, and Hope signed a ten-year contract with the show's sponsor, Lever Brothers. Hope hired eight writers and paid them out of his salary of $2,500 a week. The original staff included Mel Shavelson, Norman Panama, Jack Rose, Sherwood Schwartz, and Schwartz's brother Al. The writing staff eventually grew to fifteen.



The show became the top radio program in the country. Regulars on the series included Jerry Colonna and Barbara Jo Allen as spinster Vera Vague. Hope continued his lucrative career in radio through to the 1950s, when radio's popularity was overshadowed by television.


➦In 2013…Syndicated radio (Kidd Kraddick in the Morning) and TV (Dish Nation) personality David "Kidd" Kraddick died of a brain aneurysm while hosting his Kidd's Kids charity golf event at age 53.

Kidd Kraddick

Kraddick received the nickname "Kidd" from a radio producer and used the name on-air from 1978 until his death. He won the Billboard Magazine “Air Personality of the Year” Award three times, received the 1992 and 1997 AWRO "Air Personality of the Year," the Marconi Award for "Radio Personality of the Year", won the first annual 1999 WB Radio Music Award as the "Best Radio Personality in the Country", and also the 2001 "Radio and Records CHR/Pop Personality/Show of the Year."

He moved from Tampa to Dallas in 1984 and took over the night shift on the newly formatted Top40 station KEGL (The Eagle) and established a following. In 1990, Kraddick was named to the Ten Outstanding Young Americans list by the United States Junior Chamber. KEGL changed formats from Top 40 pop/rock to Modern Rock in 1992 and Kraddick was released from his contract. After eight months off the air, he was hired to a morning position at Top40 KHKS-106.1 Kiss-FM in Dallas-Fort Worth.  He won a 1998 Marconi Award for Major Market Radio Personality of the Year while he was with KHKS and the next year he won Air Personality of the Year at the Radio Music Awards. He began to syndicate the show in 2001 and moved the production to an independent studio in Las Colinas.  He became a member of the Texas Radio Hall of Fame.

In the early 1990s, Kraddick launched two radio oriented businesses. A monthly publication for morning personalities called "The Morning Mouth" and a show prep "sharing service" for air personalities called "BitBoard".  Kraddick subsequently sold both entities; BitBoard is now operated by iHeartMedia and The Morning Mouth is owned and operated by Talentmasters in Atlanta, Georgia


➦In 2013...Herb Kaplow, for 45 years a Washington correspondent for ABC and NBC who brought an authoritative voice to his wide-ranging reporting, suffered a fatal stroke at age 86.