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Wednesday, June 12, 2019

June 12 Radio History


➦In 1851...Early Radio pioneer, Oliver Joseph Lodge, was born in England (Died - August 22, 1940).

John Lodge
He was a British physicist and writer involved in the development of key patents in wireless telegraphy.

On 14 August 1894, at a meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science at Oxford University, Lodge gave a lecture on the work of Hertz (recently deceased). 

There he conducted a demonstration of Hertzian (radio) based wireless telegraphy, transmitting messages between two buildings, showing their potential for communication.   

This was one year before Marconi demonstrated his system for radio wireless telegraphy.


➦In 1911...the consummate radio actress Claudia Morgan was born in Brooklyn.

Throughout the 1940’s she played Nora Charles opposite Les Tremayne in The Adventures of the Thin Man. She was married to radio announcer and actor Ernest Chappell, and performed with him on the late ’40s horror show, “Quiet Please.” She was also a regular on The O’Neills, David Harum, Ford Theatre, Joyce Jordan, M.D., The Right to Happiness, Grand Central Station, Inner Sanctum Mysteries, On Stage and Dimension X.  In the early ’70s, Morgan was heard on Himan Brown‘s CBS Mystery Theater.

She died Sept. 17 1974 at age 63, cause undisclosed.


➦In 1914....actor William Lundigan was born in Syracuse NY.

He began as an adolescent announcer for a hometown radio station in a building owned by his father. He spent thirteen years as announcer before being discovered by a Universal film executive in 1937.  When big screen roles dried up in the mid-50′s he returned to announcing as host of TV’s dramatic anthology Climax, and Shower of Stars, on which he did commercials for the sponsor Chrysler. He also starred in the 1959 TV series Men into Space.

He died of heart failure Dec 20, 1975 at age 61.

➦In 1928....singer/radio-TV host Vic Damone was born in Brooklyn. He entered the talent search on CBS Radio’s Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts and won in April 1947. This led to his becoming a regular on Godfrey’s show. By mid-1947, Damone had signed a contract with Mercury Records. In 1948, he got his own weekly CBS radio show, Saturday Night Serenade. In January 1950 he made his first of several guest appearances on Ed Sullivan‘s Toast of the Town, including a duet with future TV hostess Dinah Shore. Over the next thirty years he became a regular featured guest on every major variety series on network television.

He died Feb. 11, 2018 from complications of respiratory illness at age 89.

➦In 1955Monitor debuts on the NBC Radio Network. The weekend program "Monitor," the brainchild of NBC radio and television network president Sylvester "Pat" Weaver, began its 19½-year run on NBC Network Radio. The initial broadcast lasted eight hours. After an introduction by Weaver, news headlines from Dave Garroway and a routine by Bob and Ray, Garroway cued a music remote featuring live jazz by Howard Rumsey and the Lighthouse All-Stars at the Lighthouse Café in Hermosa Beach, California.



➦In 1972...the Sound Broadcasting Act was passed in the United Kingdom, providing for 21 new commercial radio stations, the very first legal competition for the state-owned BBC.

➦In 1989…Former disc jockey Vivian Carter, co-founder with Jimmy Bracken (later her husband) of Vee-Jay Records (the label name formed from their initials) died following a stroke and complications from diabetes at the age of 69.

Vee-Jay was the largest black-owned label of the 1950s and over its 13-year lifespan had a talent roster that included the Spaniels, the Dells, Jimmy Reed, Rosie & The Originals, John Lee Hooker, Hank Ballard & The Midnighters, Betty Everett, Gene Chandler, Jerry Butler, the 4 Seasons and, briefly, the Beatles. Vee-Jay went bankrupt in 1966.

➦In 1989...The first Memphis station to air Elvis' 'That's All Right Mama' back in '54, WHBQ announced it would no longer play Presley's songs.  However, after Elvis fans protested, the station changed it mind. Sounds like a hype promotion, eh?

➦In 2007…Citadel took  control of Disney/ABC radio stations



➦In 2013…Bill Bailey, a veteran radio personality and programmer doed from a heart attack at age66. He had stints are WLS-AM Chicago, WDRQ Detroit, WXTR-Washington, WIZF-Cincinnati, WLHT, WTRV and WGVU Grand Rapids).

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