June 16 Radio History

➦In 1934...Edwin H. Armstrong transmits FM signal 70 miles from Empire State Building to Long Island

➦In 1941...Frank & Anne Hummert’s latest daytime radio serial Front Page Farrell starring Richard Widmark made its debut for Anacin.  The first year was on Mutual, the following twelve years (without Widmark) were on NBC.

Charles Farrell, Gil Stratton Jr. "Freddie", and Gale Storm

➦In 1952...“My Little Margie” on CBS debuted as a summer replacement for “I Love Lucy” in 1952. The series, starring Gale Storm and Charles Farrell, aired original episodes on CBS Radio concurrently with the TV broadcasts from December 1952 through August 1955.

➦In 1962...Bob Lewis did his first show on WABC 770 AM, New York. He stayed on for about 8 years.

Bob died in January 1987 at age 49. According to Steve West at Airchexx.com, Bob ‘Bobaloo’ Lewis was best known as one of the “All Americans” on 77 WABC. Lesser known was the fact that he was also heard on the FM side. WABC-FM 95 1/2 was a Progressive Rock station. The format was called “Love”. It featured tons of album cuts from all the heavys of the time, Hendrix, the Doors, the Who, and many more similar artists which would become the staples of AOR and later, Classic Rock stations.



➦In 1968...Jackson Armstrong premiered on CHUM 1050 AM, Toronto.

Jack Armstrong

Big Jack Armstrong, born John Charles Larsh in Durham County, NC, began his radio career at WCHL in Chapel Hill, North Carolina in 1960 at the age of 14 as an after school and weekend job. He also worked at WCDJ in Edenton in the summer when his family would go back home during summer break. At some point, he worked for WSSB in Durham, but the time frame is unclear.

Upon graduating from high school in 1964, Larsh moved to Atlanta, where he got an FCC First Class engineer's license, while working on the radio at WDJK. His parents enrolled him in Guilford College in Greensboro in the pre-med course. Larsh dropped out almost immediately, having gotten a radio job at WCOG.

In early 1966, WAYS-AM in Charlotte had begun 24 hour operations.the FCC required that any station must have an engineer on duty at all times the station was on the air. When Larsh applied for a job there, the station quickly saw an opportunity to fill two sets of shoes with one person, since Larsh already had a First Class license. He was hired to fill the overnight shift.



At WAYS, Larsh met Jack Gale, a seasoned veteran of both the radio and music business who would become his mentor. Larsh later remarked, "Jack (Gale) has forgotten more about the radio business than I've ever known." When asked, he would always cite Gale as one of his major influences.

Larsh's first big break came later in 1966, when he landed a job at WIXY 1260 AM in Cleveland, Ohio. The evening disc jockey at this station was always called 'Jack Armstrong,' after the 1930s radio serial Jack Armstrong the All American Boy. With his fast talking, young, friendly approach, Larsh became a huge hit in Cleveland - so huge that floundering WKYC 1100 AM asked him to break his WIXY contract, and come to work for the 50,000 watt blowtorch in January 1967.

'Jack Armstrong' was a copyrighted moniker in the market, so Larsh adopted the alias 'Big Jack Your Leader', and went to work for WKYC. He also occasionally taunted WIXY by calling himself Jackson W. Armstrong.

Larsh moved on, working at other 50,000 watt stations like WMEX 1510 AM in Boston; CHUM 1050 AM in Toronto, Ontario, Canada; KFI 640 AM in Los Angeles, KTNQ 1020 AM in Los Angeles and WKBW 1520 AM in Buffalo, New York.  Larsh was one of the original disc jockeys hired for the all new 13-Q in Pittsburgh in the early 1970s. Larsh also worked at KFRC, The Big 610 in the early 1980s, dominating the mid-day, late night, and overnight shifts at the station.

Larsh was working for WWKB 1520 in Buffalo, New York when the sudden format change in 2006 to liberal talk put him in the unemployed ranks. He died on March 22, 2008 at High Point Regional Hospital in North Carolina. He died from injuries suffered in a fall down his very steep stairs at his home.

➦In 1996...Mel Allen - Voice Of The Yankees - died.

Among Allen's many catchphrases were "Hello there, everybody!" to start a game, "How a-bout that?!" on outstanding Yankee plays, "Go-ing, go-ing, gonnne!!" for Yankee home runs, for full counts, "Three and two. What'll he do?" and after a robust Yankee swing and miss, "He took a good cut!"


➦In 2015…Detroit radio personality Alan Almond, longtime host of WNIC-FM's "Pillow Talk" program, died of a heart attack at age 68.