January 10 Radio History

➦In 1942..."The Better Half,", a quiz show, was first aired on Mutual Radio.


➦In 1943...Singer Jim Croce was born. He died in a plane crash on September 20, 1973 at 30


➦In 1945...Singer Rod Stewart was born.




➦In 1949...RCA Victor announced the creation of a new record format logically nicknamed the "45," since the two-sided seven-inch vinyl discs were designed to play at 45-RPM. 1949 RCA 9Y7 45 rpm record and radio in bleach blond mahogany with AM radio playing Someone you love by Nat King Cole.

➦In 1956...Elvis Presley recorded his first tunes as an RCA Victor artist in a marathon 8-hour session. Recording in Nashville, Elvis sang “Heartbreak Hotel”, “I Was the One”, “I’m Counting On You”, “I Got a Woman” and “Money Honey”. Elvis was backed by a drummer, D.J. Fontana, for the first time, in addition to guitarists Scotty Moore and Chet Atkins, bassist Bill Black and piano player Floyd Cramer.

➦In 1960...Marty Robbins‘ hit tune, “El Paso”, set the mark for the longest #1 song to that time. The song ran 5 minutes and 19 seconds, giving many radio Program Directors fits; because the average record length at that time was around 2 minutes, and formats and commercial loads didn’t allow for records much longer than that.




➦In 1964...The first North American Beatles album, "Introducing The Beatles," was released by Chicago-based Vee-Jay Records. The label was forced to stop selling the disc by the end of the year because of legal complications, after 1.3 million copies of the album had been sold.





➦In 1965...Howard Cosell does first “Speaking of Everything” program on 77 WABC in NYC.




➦In 1969...Frustrated by Paul McCartney's dominance during the filming of "Let It Be," George Harrison nonchalantly told the rest of the band that he was quitting immediately and sarcastically said as he walked out, "See you around the clubs." George later stated that while he had a growing backlog of new material, he constantly had to work on Lennon and McCartney's songs before the group would work on his. George was the second Beatle to quit; Ringo had left the group for a brief period a year earlier.


➦In 1987...NRSC-1 goes into effect to establish AM emphasis/de-emphasis curves. Read more here.


➦In 2007...Wilks Broadcast Group completed $138 million acquisition of radio stations in Kansas City and Columbus from CBS Corporation


➦In 2016…Singer/songwriter and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer David Bowie died of liver cancer at age 69.