June 20 Radio History

Frank Gallop

➦In 1900...announcer Frank Gallop was born in New York City.

After starting his radio career in Boston, the sombre-voiced Gallop moved back to New York with friend and fellow announcer Ed Herlihy and soon established a busy career on CBS and NBC. He was heard on such soap operas as Amanda of Honeymoon Hill, Hilltop House, When A Girl Marries, and Stella Dallas, as well as Gangbusters, the Columbia Workshop and New York Philharmonic broadcasts. He was the announcer and comic foil for the host on Milton Berle’s program on radio and The Perry Como Show on TV. He narrated a 1966 hit comedy record, The Ballad of Irving.

Gallop died May 5 1988 at age 87.

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Fanny Brice

➦In 1910...Fanny Brice, born Fannie Borach, debuted in the New York production of the Ziegfeld Follies.

It wasn’t long before Brice became known as America’s funny girl. A regular on Rudy Vallee’s radio show, The Fleischmann Hour, in the 1920s, Fanny Brice joined The Ziegfeld Follies of the Air at age 45. The show on CBS radio was the introduction of her funny-voiced character, Baby Snooks. In 1937 she joined NBC radio and continued as the Snooks kid, a seven-year old spoiled brat. Brice’s most famous line was, “Whyyyyyy, daddy?”  From 1936 through 1951,

Brice was one of radio’s biggest draws, right until her sudden death of a cerebral hemorrhage on May 29, 1951 at age 59.

➦In 1982…WCBM 680 AM Baltimore announced it was switching from adult contemporary to news/talk. KEZL 102.9 FM in San Diego dropped Shulke II (The automated vocal/lite AC service) in favor of live adult contemporary.

➦In 1982….ABC Radio kills its much-promoted “SuperRadio” satellite fed A/C format. The network was due to premier July 1. The DJ lineup was completed only a few weeks ago when Jack Spector, Bob Dayton and Steve York were signed for weekends.  A lack of affiliates has been cited – with only three-full time stations ready to go.

➦In 1988...WABC 770 AM officially becomed the NHL NJ Devils new home radio.

➦In 1996…Westinghouse Electric agreed to buy Infinity Broadcasting for $3.9 billion, a deal made possible after the U.S. Congress in February passed the Telecommunications Act permitting expansion of TV and radio station holdings, and removing restrictions on how many stations in one market could be owned by one corporation.

➦In 2004…Ken Rank died at age 66 from lung transplant complications. Rank worked on KRMG in Tulsa and as “Ken Knight” and on KTCS in Fort Smith, Arkansas.

➦In 2006...Dan Rather reached agreement with CBS News to leave the network after 44 years. He later accepted an offer from Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban to do a weekly news program for Cuban’s HDNet cable channel.