October 1 Radio History

➦In 1909...actor Everett Sloane  was born in New York City. From the mid-1930’s to the 1960’s, for 20 years on radio & 15 on TV, Sloane was a prominent part of New York’s drama broadcast scene.  He won raves for a supporting role in the movie classic Citizen Kane.  Reportedly depressed over the onset of blindness, Sloane committed suicide in 1965 at age 55.

WJZ - 1922

➤In 1921...WJZ Radio signed-on. WJZ is now WABC in New York City. The original Westinghouse Electric Corporation, whose broadcasting division is a predecessor to the current broadcasting unit of CBS Corporation, launched WJZ in 1921, and was located originally in Newark, New Jersey.

WJZ was sold in 1923 to the Radio Corporation of America, who moved its operations to New York, and on January 1, 1927, WJZ became the flagship station for the NBC Blue Network.

NBC Blue would become the American Broadcasting Company in 1942.  In 1953, ABC merged with United Paramount Theatres, and changed the call letters of their New York area stations to WABC.  Today, the WJZ call sign is assigned to 1300 AM in Baltimore.  It is owned by Entercom and airs  CBS Sports Radio.

➦In 1922...the first daily news program on radio, “The Radio Digest,” debuted on WBAY in New York City. (WBAY is now WFAN 660 AM)

➦In 1942…Art Linkletter took over from Art Baker as the host of NBC Radio's "People Are Funny." Linkletter remained with the show on radio until 1960 and hosted a television version of the program on CBS from 1954 to 1960.

➦In 1952...Ralph Edwards  began a new TV program on NBC called This is Your Life. Each show began with Edwards surprising some unsuspecting victim, er, lucky person. The surprisee would then be presented with the story of his or her life, complete with friends and relatives who had been brought in for the big occasion. The popular show, which had debuted on NBC Radio in 1948, ran for the next nine years on TV.

➦In 1975...Seattle radio station KOL changed its call letters to KMPS,surrendering forever the three-letter call that had served the Puget Sound well for nearly 50 years. While the modern incarnation of 1300 AM uses KOL as its ID, the official call sign is KKOL.

➦In 1979...the RKO Radio Network began operation.

The newscasts, aimed at a young adult audience, had a conversational, high-energy style developed by co-founders Vice President and News Director Dave Cooke, and Vice President of Programming Jo Interrante.

RKO was popular from the start, signing up hundreds of affiliates coast to coast. Its base was the RKO General-owned radio stations in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and other large markets. RKO initially purchased downlink satellite dishes for its affiliates, creating the nation's first satellite-delivered commercial radio network.

The original network, which fed newscasts at :50 repeated at :00, became known as RKO 1 when RKO 2 debuted on September 1, 1981. RKO 2 fed newscasts at :20 repeated at :30 and was aimed at an older audience. Both networks offered sportscasts, music, public affairs programming and closed-circuit affiliate feeds of news and sports correspondent reports and news-maker actualities.

The networks were home to three groundbreaking long-form programs. NightTime America with Bob Dearborn was the first live, daily, satellite-delivered music show in radio history. Dearborn produced and hosted the five-hour adult contemporary show from January 9, 1981 until 1984.

January 9, 1981 was also the premier of America Overnight, a six-hour interview and call-in show hosted by Eric Tracey in Los Angeles and Ed Busch from Dallas. It was the first national talk show delivered by satellite. It also marked the first time a network offered simultaneous overnight programs.

Dick Bartley created, produced and hosted the first live national oldies radio show, Solid Gold Saturday Night.

➦In 1977...The hot 100...1977:  Meco flew up from #8 to #1 with "Star Wars Theme/Cantina Band". K.C. and the Sunshine Band were next with "Keep It Comin' Love", amazingly jumping over Fleetwood Mac and "Don't Stop".  The Emotions' former #1 "Best Of My Love" was fourth followed by "Strawberry Letter 23" from the Brothers Johnson.

The rest of the Top 10:  Carly Simon scored her fourth Top 10 song and 12th hit with "Nobody Does It Better", ELO was on hold with "Telephone Line", Shaun Cassidy had #8--"That's Rock 'N' Roll", Foreigner's second hit "Cold As Ice" was #9 and Andy Gibb's former #1 "I Just Want To Be Your Everything" closed out the list

Early Sony CD Player

➦In 1982...First CD players are sold in Japan

➦In 1983...The Album Charts...The Police topped the Album chart for the tenth week with Synchronicity.  Thriller by Michael Jackson had 20 weeks at #1 and needed 11 more to tie Fleetwood Mac's Rumours.  It would get them.  The Soundtrack to "Flashdance" was a distant third, followed by Pyromania from Def Leppard and An Innocent Man from Billy Joel.

The rest of the Top 10:  Asia had Alpha at #6, Metal Health by Quiet Riot was #7, Bonnie Tyler shot up from 17 to 8 with Faster Than the Speed of Night, the Fixx and Reach the Beach and Robert Plant's solo album The Principle of Moments was #10

➦In 1983...The Hot 100...Bonnie Tyler reached #1 with the biggest hit of her career--"Total Eclipse of the Heart".  Billy Joel relinquished the spot with "Tell Her About It".  Men Without Hats had one of the top #3 songs of the Rock Era--"The Safety Dance".  Air Supply's 10th career hit "Making Love Out Of Nothing At All" was #4 with the Stray Cats moving up with "(She's) Sexy + 17".

The rest of the Top 10:  The Police with "King Of Pain", Spandau Ballet moved from 13-7 with their only Top 10 song "True", Michael Sembello's former #1 "Maniac", Kenny Rogers & Dolly Parton had a huge hit with "Islands In The Stream", which moved from 17 to 9 and Sylvester Stallone's brother Frank made the Top 10 with "Far From Over".

➦In 1991...Howard Stern added Baltimore to his radio network (WJFK-AM).

➦In 2003...Rush Limbaugh resigned from ESPN after comments about black quarterback, Donovan McNabb (Philadelphia Eagles) caused controversy.