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Tuesday, April 30, 2019

April 30 Radio History


➦In 1908....actress Eve Arden was born Eunice Quedens in Mill Valley Calif. She won an Emmy for her star-making turn as “Our Miss Brooks”, which she introduced on CBS Radio in 1948 and on CBS-TV in 1952.  It continued  weekly on television through 1956 and on radio through 1957.  She died from arteriosclerotic heart disease Nov 12, 1990 at age 82.

➦In 1917...Beatrice Ruth Wain born in the Bronx (Died at age 100 – August 19, 2017).  She was a Big Band-era singer and radio personality.

She had a number of hits with Larry Clinton and his Orchestra. After her marriage she and her husband became involved in radio, helming a show titled "Mr. and Mrs. Music". Wain made her debut on radio at age six as a "featured performer" on the NBC Children's Hour. As an adult, she sang regularly on The Larry Clinton Show (NBC 1938), Monday Merry-Go-Round (NBC Blue 1941-1942), Starlight Serenade (Mutual 1944) and Your Hit Parade.

She was married to radio announcer André Baruch. They were married for 53 years. Baruch died in 1991.



Following her musical career, the couple worked as a husband-and-wife disc jockey team in New York on WMCA, where they were billed as "Mr. and Mrs. Music". In 1973, the couple moved to Palm Beach, Florida, where for nine years they had a top-rated daily four-hour talk show from 2 PM to 6 PM on WPBR before relocating to Beverly Hills. During the early 1980s, the pair hosted a syndicated version of Your Hit Parade, reconstructing the list of hits of selected weeks in the 1940s and playing the original recordings.


➦In 1938...Historic CBS Columbia Square Studios Dedicated. Click Here for the full story on this, and all the CBS studios in California.


Jack Bailey
➦In 1945...“How would you like to be queen for a day?!” was heard for the first time, as Jack Bailey introduced the show “Queen For a Day” on Mutual radio. The show later moved to television, where it ran locally in the Los Angeles area from 1948 through 1955, on the NBC Television network from January 3, 1956 to September 2, 1960, and on the ABC network from September 5, 1960 to October 2, 1964.

Each episode started with a different introduction, but inevitably the opening would resolve when Bailey pointed to the camera (and the audience) and loudly asked, "Would you like to be Queen for a Day?" as the live audience, mostly women, cheered.

Prior to his success with Queen for a Day, Bailey had a varied career, including "playing with jazz bands, directing musical comedy, tent shows and barking for the World's Fair in Chicago in 1933." He was an announcer for several radio programs, including The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, Duffy's Tavern, and Meet the Missus.

Bailey also hosted the television game shows Place the Face (1953 – February 1954) and Truth or Consequences from 1954 to 1956. His run as host on that show followed Ralph Edwards as host (1940–1957 on the radio and 1950–1954 on television). In time Bailey was succeeded by Bob Barker (1956–1975) Bob Hilton (1975–1978), and Larry Anderson (1987–1988). The television version of the show ran on CBS, NBC, and also in syndication.

He was awarded two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame—one for his radio career, at 1708 Vine Street, and one for his work in television, at 6411 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California.

➦In 1945...Arthur Godfrey began his CBS Radio Network show. It aired for 27 years until the very same day in 1972.  Arthur Godfrey Time was a Monday–Friday show that featured his monologues, interviews with various stars, music from his own in-house combo and regular vocalists. Godfrey's monologues and discussions were usually unscripted, and went wherever he chose.





➦In 1957…Elvis Presley recorded "Jailhouse Rock" at Radio Recorders in Hollywood.

➦In 2004...Radio/TV Newscaster Rolf Hertsgaard died at age 81.



Hertsgaard was born in Minneapolis to first-generation Norwegian-Americans. He attended St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn., and by his early 20s he had gone into broadcasting. He worked at WCCO-AM in Minneapolis until 1955.

Hertsgaard anchored the evening newscasts of WBAL from 1958, when they were only fifteen minutes long, until 1973, when a shift to so-called "happy talk" news led to his dismissal.

The cause of death was complications from prostate cancer.

➦In 2005...WOR moved to 111 Broadway, NYC

➦In 2012...WEPN NYC moved to 98.7 FM, when the Walt Disney Company and Emmis Communications agreed to a 12-year-lease of the 98.7 FM frequency for an undisclosed price.


➦In 2016...Peter Addenbrooke Thomas died  at age 91 (Born in Pensacola FL - June 28, 1924). He was an announcer and narrator of television programs, including shows such as Nova and Forensic Files.

Thomas began his career at 14 as an announcer on a local radio show. Since the station could not pay him, due to his age, they arranged for the sponsor, Piper Aircraft, to give him flying lessons in a Piper Cub. Within just a few years, Thomas would be hosting big band remotes.

With the onset of World War II, he served with  Armed Forces Radio, and served with the First Infantry Division in five major campaigns, including the Battle of Normandy and the Battle of the Bulge. He was issued a Battle star for each of the five campaigns. He was also awarded the Bronze Star, the Purple Heart, the Unit French Croix de guerre, and Belgian Fourragère.

Thomas received many awards for his work but cited, as one of his best, the Oscar won by a documentary he narrated, One Survivor Remembers. The film, produced by HBO, chronicles the personal experience of Gerda Weissman Klein, who was interned at the Nordhausen Concentration Camp when she was a teenager; Thomas' unit participated in the liberation of Nordhausen.



He was also a news anchor at WCBS-TV, and did voiceover commercials for Coca-Cola, IBM, Valvoline, NBC, United Technologies, Burger King, etc., and ESPN Monday Night Football commercials.

➦In 2017…Classical music radio announcer June LeBell, who logged almost 30 years as a presenter on New York's WQXR, died of ovarian cancer at 73.

She became a familiar voice on the station, hosting “IBM’s Salute to the Arts” and “Kitchen Classics,” which coupled her favorite subjects, music and food.

LeBell was 29 when she joined WQXR, an FM station then owned by The New York Times Company, becoming what the station described as its first full-time female host and the first woman on the staff of any major commercial classical radio station.

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