June 4 Radio History

➦In 1917...broadcast journalist Charles Collingwood was born in Three Rivers Michigan.

As a protege of Edward R. Murrow he was a top-level CBS news correspondent from WWII through Viet Nam. He went on to become chief correspondent of CBS and host of its “Eyewitness to History” TV series. He took over hosting of Murrow’s live celebrity interview show “Person to Person” for the final two years of the series (1959-61).

Retiring from CBS in 1982, he died from cancer Oct 3, 1985 at age 68.

➦In 1942…Capitol Records opened for business, becoming the first major record label based on the U.S. west coast. The company had been established earlier in the year – by songwriters Johnny Mercer and Buddy De Sylva with Glenn Wallichs – as Liberty Records. It was Wallichs, Capitol's manager, who invented the art of record promotion by sending free copies of new releases to disc jockeys.

Clem McCarthy

➦In 1962...legendary sportscaster Clem McCarthy died at age 79. McCarthy was the first to announce the running of the Kentucky Derby back in 1928 and called every Derby through 1950. He also announced early boxing matches for NBC radio.

➦In 1962...The Beatles signed their first record contract with EMI, though it's merely to produce a series of demos. The band will have to pass its upcoming audition to get signed to make actual records.

➦In 1963…"Pop Go the Beatles" was first broadcast on BBC radio.  Each edition of Pop Go The Beatles began and ended with a rock ‘n’ roll version of the nursery rhyme Pop Goes The Weasel recorded by The Beatles.

➦In 1973…WNBC 97.1 FM  switched format to “The Rock Pile”

➦In 1998… WNWK NYC changes call letters to WCAA

The station first came on the air on 105.9 FM in 1964 as WHBI, which was originally owned by Hoyt Brothers Inc.. In the 1980s, the station - by then property of Multicultural Radio Broadcasting - went by the call letters WNWK, and aired leased-access ethnic programming.

In 1998, the station, under new ownership, started playing hit Spanish music as "Caliente 105.9" ("Hot 105.9"), with the call letters WCAA. In September 1999, the station changed its slogan to "105.9 Latino Mix" ("105.9 Latin Mix"). In February 2004, the station's owner, Univision Communications bought the 92.7 FM frequency in Garden City, New York which was the home of WLIR-FM and made it a western Long Island simulcast of 105.9 under the call letters WZAA.

Ray Erlenborn

➤In 2007...sound effects genius Ray Erlenborn, a former child vaudeville singer and silent film actor whose career in the CBS sound department spanned the late 1930s on radio to the late 70’s on television, died at age 92.

➦In 2010...Himan Brown, who created immensely popular radio dramas like “Inner Sanctum Mysteries,” “CBS Mystery Theatre,” “The Adventures of the Thin Man” and “Dick Tracy,” employing an arsenal of beguiling sound effects that terrified or tickled the listeners, died at his home in Manhattan at age 99.