February 5 Radio History

➦In 1916...Pioneering radio-TV engineer Ernst Alexanderson completed a successful test of  the multiple tuned antenna.  He was a pioneer in radio and television development. He invented the Alexanderson alternator, an early radio transmitter used between 1906 and the 1930s for longwave long distance radio transmission. Alexanderson also created the amplidyne, a direct current amplifier used during the Second World War for controlling anti-aircraft guns. During some 45-years working for General Electric,  he was responsible for 322 patents.




➦In 1924...The Greenwich Time Signal (GTS), popularly known as the pips, were introduced They are a series of six short tones broadcast at one-second intervals by many BBC Radio stations. The pips have been generated by the BBC since 1990 to mark the precise start of each hour.

➦In 1931...Eddie Cantor appeared on Rudy Vallee's The Fleischmann's Yeast Hour. It eventually led to a four-week tryout with NBC's The Chase and Sanborn Hour. Replacing Maurice Chevalier, who was returning to Paris, Cantor joined Chase and Sanborn on September 13, 1931. This hour-long Sunday evening variety series teamed Cantor with announcer Jimmy Wallington and violinist Dave Rubinoff. The show established Cantor as a leading comedian.

➦In 1940..."Amanda of Honeymoon Hill" first aired on NBC's Blue Network.  It was a 15-minute daily radio soap opera produced by Frank and Anne Hummert. Broadway actress Joy Hathaway had the title role, sometimes described as "the beauty of flaming red hair." The series was broadcast from February 5, 1940, until April 26, 1946, on the Blue Network at 3:15 p.m. until August 1942. It then moved to CBS, airing at 10:30am until 1943 when it was heard at 11 a.m.first aired on radio.

➦In 1940...WTIC-FM was one of the two pre-World War II FM stations in Connecticut, signing on the air originally as W1XSO and using a frequency of 43.5 MHz. In December 1941, it became a commercial operation using the call letters W53H. In 1943, the call letters were changed for the last time to WTIC-FM. On April 17, 1948, the station moved to 96.5 MHz where it has remained, and switched to a classical music format. It switched from classical to CHR/Top 40 on May 12, 1977; the first song played as a Top 40 station was "Feels Like The First Time" by Foreigner.

The station's classical music library was donated to the University of Hartford radio station WWUH a few months later.

WTIC 96.5 FM (20 Kw) Red=60dBu Coverage Area

The station switched to its current Hot AC format on June 15, 1994. This was done in order to remove controversial rap music from its playlist.

After the switch, the station's sound has become decidedly softer in subsequent years compared to its past, though this has changed in recent years, as the Hot AC format as a whole has embraced more upbeat music. Since 1977, the station has referred to itself on the air variously as "Hot Hits 96 Tics","96TIC-FM", and "The New 965 TIC-FM".

The original WTIC-FM Top 40 format in the late 1970s consisted of only current hit songs (no oldies) in a high-energy, jingle-heavy presentation designed by consultant Mike Joseph, and it was an instant success. Joseph would later term this formatic approach "Hot Hits" and put it into use at other stations around the United States, most notably WBBM-FM in Chicago.

The station is now owned by Entercom.


➦In 1941...WNYC FM signed on as W39NY and was located at 43.9mc in the early FM band. On September 21, 1943, it became WNYC and in 1946 it moved over to 98.1 on the current FM band. By 1948, it settled on its current position of 93.9 FM.

It has always featured classical and other cultural programming.

The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 destroyed WNYC-FM's transmitter atop the World Trade Center. The station's studios, in the nearby Municipal Building, had to be evacuated and station staff was unable to return to its offices for three weeks. The FM signal was knocked off the air for a time. WNYC temporarily moved its offices to the studios at National Public Radio's New York bureau in midtown Manhattan, where it broadcast on its still operating AM signal transmitting from towers in Kearny, New Jersey and by a live Internet stream.

Ringo Starr 10/1961 w/"Rory Storm & the Hurricanes"

➦In 1962...Drummer Ringo Starr first appeared The Beatles when he filled in for ailing Pete Best. Their shows that day included a noon appearance at the Cavern Club and an evening performanc at the Kingsway Club in Southport.

➦In 1963...Patsy Cline recorded three songs at Columbia Recording Studios in Nashville, including the Don Gibson composition "Sweet Dreams (Of You)." The song was later used to title the 1985 Patsy Cline biopic starring Jessica Lange and Ed Harris.  The session was a month before her death in a plane crash.

➦In 1968...American Forces Vietnam Network (AFVN)  Detachment 5 stations at Hue South Vietnam was overrun after a fierce fire fight. Three AFVN’ers were killed, others taken as prisoners, to spend the rest of the Vietnam war as captives.

➦In 1977..."General Mills Adventure Theater" debuted on the CBS Radio Network.

➦In 1979...CBS Radio Net first aired the "Sears Radio Theater".  While a  critical success, the 60-minute nightly (Mon-Fri) drama anthology did not attract a large loyal listenership.

➦In 2015…RadioShack filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.  However, rather than re-organize the company announced it would close 4,000 stores.

➦In 2017…Retired WCCO-Minneapolis sportscaster Ray Christensen died at age 92.he began his career in radio at KUOM in 1949 followed by a position as program and sports director at WLOL. In 1963 he joined WCCO radio where he enjoyed a wide variety of broadcasting opportunities until he retired from full-time broadcasting in 1993.

➦In 2017...singer Sonny Geraci, who scored national hits as lead singer of The Outsiders in the 1960s and Climax in the 1970s, died at age 69, four years after suffering a debilitating brain aneurysm.