June 10 Radio History

➦In 1895...actress Hattie McDaniel was born in Wichita Kansas.

In the 1910s she was a band vocalist, then began playing increasingly assertive maid roles on the big screen, culminating in the supporting-actress Oscar for her ‘Mammy’ in Gone With The Wind (1939), the first African-American to be so honored.  She played on the “Amos and Andy” and Eddie Cantor radio shows in the ’30s and ’40s, and had the title role in her own radio show “Beulah” (1947-51), which she also played on TV (1950-’52) until her death from  breast cancer Oct 2, 1952 at age 57.


➦In 1924…WTAM was the first radio station to broadcast coverage of a political convention when it covered the 1924 Republican National Convention at Cleveland's Public Auditorium on June 10–12, 1924.


➦In 1931...In a country-music milestone, Jimmie Rodgers records in a Nashville studio with gospel harmony legends The Carter Family.


➦In 1985...gravel-voiced sportscaster Bob Prince, for 28 years the radio play-by-play man for baseball’s Pittsburgh Pirates, many of them during the team’s hey day, lost his battle with mouth cancer at age 68.

➦In 1995…Lindsey Nelson - Voice Of The NY Mets died of Parkinson's disease.

Lindsey Nelson

He spent 17 years with the New York Mets and three years with the San Francisco Giants. For 33 years Nelson covered college football, including 26 Cotton Bowls, five Sugar Bowls, four Rose Bowls, and 14 years announcing Notre Dame games. He is in 13 separate Halls of Fame. Fans remember a talented broadcaster, an expert storyteller, and a true sports enthusiast.

Nelson began his national baseball broadcast career as one of Gordon McLendon's radio announcers for the Liberty Broadcasting System, which primarily did recreations of games. After a stretch as an administrator with NBC Sports, he began doing the network's baseball broadcasts in 1957. He also broadcast college football, NBA and college basketball, and professional golf and tennis during his NBC tenure.

In 1962, he was hired as the lead broadcaster by the expansion New York Mets, and for the next 17 seasons did both radio and television with Ralph Kiner and Bob Murphy. All three were eventually inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.


➦In 2000...broadcast journalist Judd Rose, who built his reputation at ABC before becoming a CNN anchor, died from a brain tumour at age 44.