June 4 Radio History

➦In 1917...CBS News correspondent Charles Collingwood born (Died – October 3, 1985).  He was  an early member of Edward R. Murrow's group of foreign correspondents that was known as the "Murrow Boys". During World War II he covered Europe and North Africa for CBS News. Collingwood was also among the early ranks of television journalists that included Walter Cronkite, Eric Sevareid, and Murrow himself.  Retiring from CBS in 1982, he died from cancer Oct 3, 1985 at age 68.

➦In 1942…Songwriter Johnny Mercer founded Capitol Records with financial help from songwriter and film producer Buddy DeSylva and the business acumen of Glenn Wallichs, owner of Wallichs Music City. Mercer raised the idea of starting a record company while golfing with Harold Arlen and Bobby Sherwood and with Wallichs at Wallichs's record store.

It was Wallichs, Capitol's manager, who invented the art of record promotion by sending free copies of new releases to disc jockeys.

Clem McCarthy

➦In 1962...Pioneeering sportscaster Clem McCarthy died at age 79 (Born - September 9, 1882.  He also lent his voice to Pathe News's RKO newsreels. He was known for his gravelly voice and dramatic style, a "whiskey tenor" as sports announcer and executive David J. Halberstam has called it.

As Halberstam's book Sports on New York Radio notes, McCarthy is considered one of horse racing's great callers, setting the stage for well-known voices. He was the first to announce the running of the Kentucky Derby back in 1928 and called every Derby through 1950.

In addition to being a race caller for racetracks and NBC Radio, he was a top boxing announcer, too. His most often replayed boxing sportscast is probably his NBC radio call of the 1938 Joe Louis-Max Schmeling rematch at Yankee Stadium:

McCarthy's career also included work at local radio stations, beginning at KYW in Chicago in 1928. From there, he went to WMCA in New York City.

➦In 1962...The Beatles signed their first record contract with EMI, though it's merely to produce a series of demos.

➦In 1963…"Pop Go the Beatles" was first broadcast on BBC radio.  Each edition of Pop Go The Beatles began and ended with a rock ‘n’ roll version of the nursery rhyme Pop Goes The Weasel recorded by The Beatles.

➦In 1973…WNBC 97.1 FM  (now Urban WQHT) switched format to “The Rock Pile”

➦In 1998… WNWK NYC changes call letters to WCAA (Now Public Radio WQXR).

The station first came on the air on 105.9 FM in 1964 as WHBI, which was originally owned by Hoyt Brothers Inc.. In the 1980s, the station - by then property of Multicultural Radio Broadcasting - went by the call letters WNWK, and aired leased-access ethnic programming.

Ray Erlenborn

➤In 2007...Radio sound effects genius Ray Erlenborn, a former child vaudeville singer and silent film actor whose career in the CBS sound department spanned the late 1930s on radio to the late 70’s on television, died at age 92.

➦In 2010...Himan Brown died at age 99 in NYC.Hecreated immensely popular radio dramas like “Inner Sanctum Mysteries,” “CBS Mystery Theatre,” “The Adventures of the Thin Man” and “Dick Tracy,” employing an arsenal of beguiling sound effects that terrified or tickled the listeners.