August 26 Radio History

➦In 1873...radio inventor Lee DeForest was born in Council Bluffs, Iowa.

Lee DeForest circa 1914-22

His invention of the electron tube, specifically the triode, a three element vacuum tube, made possible radio broadcasting as we knew it in the first half of the 20th century. However, he was forced into selling the rights to his patent to American Telephone and Telegraph for $500,000; considered by most to be foolish of AT&T.

In the summer of 1915, DeForest  received an Experimental license for station 2XG, located at its Highbridge laboratory in New York City. In late 1916, de Forest renewed the entertainment broadcasts he had suspended in 1910, now using the superior capabilities of vacuum-tube equipment. 2XG's debut program aired on October 26, 1916, as part of an arrangement with the Columbia Gramophone record company to promote its recordings, which included "announcing the title and 'Columbia Gramophone Company' with each playing". Beginning November 1, the "Highbridge Station" offered a nightly schedule featuring the Columbia recordings.

DJ DeForest 1916

These broadcasts were also used to advertise "the products of the DeForest Radio Co., mostly the radio parts, with all the zeal of our catalogue and price list", until comments by Western Electric engineers caused de Forest enough embarrassment to make him decide to eliminate the direct advertising.  The station also made the first audio broadcast of election reports — in earlier elections, stations which broadcast results had used Morse code — providing news of the November 1916 Wilson-Hughes presidential election.  The New York American installed a private wire and bulletins were sent out every hour. About 2000 listeners heard The Star-Spangled Banner and other anthems, songs, and hymns.

With the entry of the United States into World War One on April 6, 1917, all civilian radio stations were ordered to shut down, so 2XG was silenced for the duration of the war.

Phil Baker

➦In 1896...comedian and radio host Phil Baker was born in Philadelphia.  He came out of vaudeville (where he teamed with Ben Bernie) to star in 1933 as a comedian and accordion player in his own NBC radio series The Armour Jester.  The show moved to CBS and became first The Gulf Headliner and later Honolulu Bound. In the 1940s for six years he was the host of the CBS radio quiz show Take It or Leave It, which later became The $64 Question.

He died Nov. 30 1963 at age 67.

➦In 1911...announcer Hal Gibney was born in Woodland Calif.  In 1939 he left KPO San Francisco to move to L.A. to become the official West Coast announcer for NBC. He is best known as the announcer for NBC radio’s The Six Shooter and ABC-TV’s The Mickey Mouse Club. He was also the announcer (with George Fenneman) for both the radio and the original NBC-TV versions of Dragnet.  Gibney died June 5, 1973 at age 63.

➦In 1926...WWRL NYC signed on.

Founded by radio enthusiast William Reuman, WWRL (for Woodside Radio Laboratory) began broadcasting at 12:00 a.m., Thursday, August 26, 1926 from a studio and transmitter in his home at 41-30 58th Street in Woodside, Queens, New York on a frequency of 1120 kHz. In 1927 the nascent Federal Radio Commission ordered the station to move to 1500 kHz. In its early days, the station served many ethnic communities, broadcasting programs in Italian, German, French, Hungarian, Slovak, and Czech, as well as English. Following implementation of the 1941 North American Radio Broadcasting Agreement the station again changed its frequency, this time to 1490 kHz, followed shortly thereafter by a move to the current 1600 kHz.

In 1951 the station's official licensed location was changed from Woodside, NY to New York, NY. In 1964 Reuman retired and sold the station to a group headed by Egmont Sonderling.

Gary Byrd

WWRL in the 1960s was an R & B radio station focusing on popular music aimed at the young black community. They played a blend of Motown, Stax and Memphis soul, and early James Brown-styled funk. In that era, disc jockeys, Carlton King Coleman, Douglas Jocko Henderson, Frankie Crocker,Herb Hamlett, Gary Byrd and Hank Spann were featured on the station. In the 1970s WWRL stressed Philadelphia soul and other 1970s soul artists. The station was owned during this period by Sonderling Broadcasting. In 1979 Sonderling merged with Viacom.

Viacom bought 106.7 WRVR (now WLTW) in 1980 and in 1981 donated WWRL to the United Negro College Fund. The Fund then sold the station to Unity Broadcasting later in 1981. The station planned to affiliate with a new sports talk radio network in 1982 but the network never got on the air. Also that year WWRL began playing Gospel music in the evenings as well as airing religious features, and expanded Gospel programming on Sundays. In Fall 1982 WWRL shifted to a full-time Gospel music format along with sermons from local black churches. WWRL stayed with this format until 1997.

Transmitter in Seacaucus, NJ.

In April 1997 they dropped Gospel programming except for Sunday. They flipped to playing R & B oldies from the 1960s to the 1980s. The format change was not successful. They added some talk shows by 1999. By 2001 they had evolved towards their current format. Although the station was recently able to increase daytime power to 25,000 watts (it is still 5,000 watts at night) -- after purchasing the frequencies of WLNG in Sag Harbor, New York, WQQW in Waterbury, Connecticut, and WERA in Plainfield, New Jersey. WWRL does not achieve any substantial ratings, and has not since their gospel days.

By 1999, WWRL began mixing in paid programming during the week. By 2001, the station evolved into a diversified station selling blocks of time to various interests. Their programming included gospel music and preaching on Sundays, some Caribbean Music, talk shows, infomercials, and other programs. In September 2006, WWRL became an affiliate of Air America, a liberal talk radio network.

Also, WWRL is owned by Access.1 Communications Corporation. Access.1 is a 24-hour African American owned and operated radio broadcasting company.  In December 2013, WWRL announced that programming will become All-Spanish on January 1, 2014.

➦In 1939…In New York City, the first televised major league baseball games, a double-header between the Cincinnati Reds and the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field, were shown on experimental channel W2XBS (which is now WNBC-TV) with Red Barber as the play-by-play announcer. Along with the 33,000 people in the ballpark, an estimated 3,000 people watched on TV.

➦In 1939...the radio program “Arch Oboler’s Plays” presented the NBC Symphony, for the first time, as the musical backdrop for the drama, “This Lonely Heart.”

➦In 1961...Chuck Dunaway does last show on 77 WABC.

Chuck Dunaway

While working at WKY, Oklahoma City, Dunaway's afternoon radio show scored a 72.9% audience share - a rating never previously achieved in the market - that brought WABC (AM)'s program director, Mike Joseph, to Oklahoma City to offer Dunaway the afternoon drive shift at New York City's number one station. Dunaway eventually became disillusioned with the station's broad play list and after a year and a half decided to return briefly to his old job at WKY in Oklahoma City.

Dunaway occupied the afternoon drive slot at every radio station he worked at during his 35 year career, including radio KILT-AM Houston, KLIF-AM Dallas, WKY Oklahoma City, WABC (AM) New York City and WIXY Cleveland.

He finished his career as the owner and operator of six FM and two AM radio stations in Joplin, Missouri.

Larry Keating

➦In 1963...actor/announcer Larry Keating succumbed to leukemia at age 67.  A staff announcer at NBC radio in the 1940′s, he was probably best recognized as the voice of ABC Radio’s This is the FBI for 12 years.   As a TV actor he was a regular on Burns & Allen and Mr. Ed.


➦In 1969…Elvis Presley released "Suspicious Minds," his 18th and last #1 single in the U.S.


➦In 1972...More FM stations are programming beautiful music than ever before. Some 20% of all FM stations program the format, up from 13.7% in 1970.

➦In 1972...WAPE 690 AM Jacksonville Lineup – Cleveland Wheeler, Larry Dixon, Tom Kennedy, Don Smith, Sean Conrad and John Moore.

Tom Donahue

➦In 1972...KMPX 106.9 FM San Francisco, the station the hippies listened to during the summer of love and beyond, was now programming big bands! After its fall from progressive prominence, following the now historic KMPX-FM strike that resulted in Tom Donahue and the majority of the staff departing to rival KSAN-FM – the station struggled for a number of years.

➦In 1972...Bruce Bradley is the new morning man at WHN 1050 AM New York, replacing Herb Oscar Anderson.

➦In 1980...announcer/narrator Knox Manning died at the age of 76. His most notable bigtime radio assignment was as commercial spokesman (for Bromo Quinine) on the 1939-46 run of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. But his main income came from narration assignments on almost 100 films in the 30′s 40′s and 50′s. After a career-threatening throat operation he ended up as news anchor for KDAY Radio, Santa Monica until retirement in 1961.

➦In 1997...Since federal rules on radio ownership were eased last year, more than 2,100 stations have changed hands in deals valued at more than $15 billion. This week – Dallas-based investment firm Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst Inc agree to buy SFX Broadcasting for $2.1 billion – making them the industry leader.

➦In 2009…songwriter Ellie Greenwich (Be My Baby, Da Doo Ron Ron, Then He Kissed Me, Leader Of The Pack, Do Wah Diddy Diddy, Chapel Of Love, River Deep Mountain High) suffered a fatal heart attack while in the hospital being treated for pneumonia. She was aged 68.

➦In 2013…Journalist (St. Petersburg Times, International Herald Tribune) Bruce Dunning, a reporter for CBS News for 35 years until his retirement in 2005, died as the result of injuries from a fall at the age of 73.