November 5 Radio History

Dale Evans and Roy Rogers

➦In 1911...singing cowboy Roy Rogers was born Leonard Slye in Cincinnati.  He starred in 85 Republic Pictures westerns, and headed up his own adventure show on radio beginning in 1944.  The Roy Rogers Show moved to TV in 1957, and wife Dale Evans was added to the title in 1962.  He died July 6, 1998 of congestive heart failure at age 86.

➦In 1946...This ad appeared in the NY Times...

➦In 1948...Jack Sterling starts at WCBS 880 AM.

Jack Sterling

The "Jack Sterling Show," broadcast Monday to Saturday from 1948 to 1966, was noted for its relaxed chatter, joking, storytelling, interviews, features on news and sports and tips on fishing sites.

The show was one of the last radio programs to offer live music -- by a quintet occasionally joined by the host's drumming. Mr. Sterling succeeded Arthur Godfrey in the local show when that humorist joined the CBS network.

Sterling, a six-footer with a trim mustache and contagious laugh, described his style this way: "It isn't pleasant for most people to get up early in the morning, so we use the undersell, quiet approach."



He appeared in vintage hits and worked up a minstrel routine. At age 24, he turned to radio, working for stations in Peoria and Quincy, Ill.; St. Louis; Bridgeport, Conn., and Chicago. He worked for CBS and its affiliates for 25 years and retired in 1979.

Sterling died November 1, 1990 at his home in Stuart, Fla. He was 75 years old.

Tallulah Bankhead, far right

➦In 1950...a 90-minute radio spectacular to battle the TV onslaught, The Big Show was launched by NBC Radio. “The greatest stars of our time on one big program” was the introduction by hostess/actress Tallulah Bankhead.  It was a big show all right. The peacock saw red as losses exceeded a million dollars in the three years the program was on the air.




➦In 1988...The Beach Boys set two records with their latest #1 hit, "Kokomo," which marks the group as having the longest gap between chart-toppers (21 years and ten months from 1966's "Good Vibrations") and the longest stretch of career #1s (dating back to their first, "I Get Around," 24 years and four months earlier).

➦In 2003...singer Bobby Hatfield of the Righteous Brothers,   was found dead in a hotel room in Kalamazoo, Michigan, just 45 minutes before the duo was to perform. Hatfield was 63.  Cause of death .. an accidental cocaine-induced thrombotic heart attack.

➦In 2011…Veteran radio personality (WEEP-Pittsburgh, WIND-Chicago, WJAS-Pittsburgh, KQV-Pittsburgh, KDKA-Pittsburgh) Perry Marshall died of a heart ailment at 86.

➦In 2014…TV broadcaster (KNSD, KFMB) Larry Hammil, who variously reported features, weather, and sports on San Diego television for 35 years, died of cancer at age 68.