October 3 Radio History

➦In 1901...The Victor Talking Machine Company, was incorporated.  In 1929 it was bought by the Radio Corporation of America and became RCA Victor.

The famous Victrola phonograph logo, with Nipper the dog, and the words “His Master’s Voice”, appeared on all RCA Victor phonographs..

➦In 1946...singer Dennis Day, a popular tenor featured on The Jack Benny Show, started his own NBC show, A Day in the Life of Dennis Day (1946–1951). Day having two programs in comparison to Benny's one was the subject of numerous jokes and gags, usually revolving around Day rubbing Benny's show, and sometimes other cast members' and guest stars' noses in that fact (e.g., "Dennis, why do you have two horns on your bicycle?" "Why shouldn't I? I've got two shows!"). His last radio series was a comedy and variety show that aired on NBC's Sunday afternoon schedule during the 1954–55 season.

➦In 1949...Radio staion WERD 860 AM Atlanta became the first to be owned and programmed by African Americans.

➦In 1952...The sitcom The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet started airing on ABC-TV.  It continued until April 23, 1966 The show starred Ozzie Nelson and his wife, singer Harriet Nelson, and their sons, David and Ricky.




In the early 1930s, a booking at the Glen Island Casino in New Rochelle, New York gained national network radio exposure for Ozzie Nelson's orchestra. After three years together with the orchestra, Ozzie and Harriet signed to appear regularly on the radio show, The Baker's Broadcast (1933–1938), hosted first by Joe Penner, then by Robert Ripley (famed for Ripley's Believe it or Not!) , and finally by cartoonist Feg Murray. The couple married on October 8, 1935 during this series run, and realized working together in radio would keep them together more than continuing their musical careers separately.

In 1941, the Nelsons joined the cast of The Red Skelton Show, also providing much of the show's music. The couple stayed with the series for three years. They also built their radio experience by guest appearances, together and individually, on many top radio shows, from comedies such as The Fred Allen Show, to the mystery titan Suspense, in a 1947 episode called "Too Little to Live On".

When Red Skelton was drafted in March 1944, Ozzie Nelson was prompted to create his own family situation comedy. The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet launched October 8, 1944 on CBS Radio, it moved to NBC in October 1948, then made a late-season switch back to CBS in April 1949. The final years of the radio series were on ABC (the former NBC Blue Network) from October 14, 1949 to June 18, 1954. In total 402 radio episodes were produced.

In an arrangement that exemplified the growing pains of American broadcasting, as radio "grew up" into television, the Nelsons' deal with ABC gave the network the option to move their program to television. The struggling network needed proven talent that was not about to defect to the more established and wealthier networks like CBS or NBC.

The Nelsons' sons, David and Ricky, did not join the cast until the radio show's fifth year (initially appearing on the February 20, 1949 episode, ages 12 and 8, respectively).

➦In 1954…"Father Knows Best," starring Robert Young, began its eight-year run on television, first on CBS, then moving to NBC in 1956.

The series began August 25, 1949, on NBC Radio. Set in the Midwest, it starred Robert Young as the General Insurance agent Jim Anderson. His wife Margaret was first portrayed by June Whitley and later by Jean Vander Pyl. The Anderson children were Betty (Rhoda Williams), Bud (Ted Donaldson), and Kathy (Norma Jean Nilsson). Others in the cast were Eleanor Audley, Herb Vigran, and Sam Edwards. Sponsored through most of its run by General Foods, the series was heard Thursday evenings on NBC until March 25, 1954.

On the radio program, the character of Jim differs from the later television character. The radio Jim is far more sarcastic and shows he really rules over his family.   In an interview published in the magazine Films of the Golden Age (Fall 2015), Young revealed about the radio program: "I never quite liked it because it had to have laughs. And I wanted a warm relationship show.... When we moved to TV I suggested an entirely new cast and different perspective."

Young was the radio show's only cast member to make the transition to the TV version. He was joined by actors Jane Wyatt, Elinor Donahue, Billy Gray and Lauren Chapin who played Anderson family members Margaret, Betty, Bud and Kathy, respectively.

➦In 1985...CBS newsman Charles Collingwood died (Born - June 4, 1917).  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.

Charles Collingwood

Collingwood covered World War II for United Press in London and was soon recruited to CBS by Murrow in 1941. He established himself as an urbane and spontaneously-eloquent on-air journalist.

On D-Day he landed at Utah Beach hours after the first wave of soldiers had hit the beaches. Of the CBS reporters accompanying the ground invasion, he recorded a report on June 6 that made it to broadcast two days later.

When General Omar Bradley told Collingwood that the French Resistance was about to rise up and liberate Paris, Collingwood prepared and sent a recording with news of the liberation to CBS in London so that it would be ready when the city was actually freed. The recording bore a label that said to hold it back until Paris was actually liberated, but the technician at CBS did not read the label and immediately aired the recording. On that day, August 22, there were still thousands of German troops in Paris, and the Resistance fighters who were fighting and dying did not appreciate that the world was told that Paris had been liberated. The city would not be actually liberated until three days later, on August 25.

➦In 1988...WBMW-FM, Washington, D.C. changed calls to WJFK

➦In 2011…Arthur C. Nielsen, Jr., who transformed the company his father founded in 1923 into an international leader in ratings and research, died at the age of 92. Nielsen became president of the A. C. Nielsen Company in 1957 and its chairman in 1975. He presided over the company’s growth from a modest operation, generating less than $4 million a year in revenue, to one with revenue of more than $680 million.

➦In 2014...Radio programmer Kevin Metheny died (Born - June 6, 1954).  He began his career as on-air talent and went on to direct programming and audience research at many radio stations and in a number of broadcast conglomerates. During the 1980s, Metheny helped develop cable entertainment networks MTV and VH1 as vice-president in charge of Music Programming and Production; he later served as vice-president of VH1 before returning to broadcast radio

Kevin Metheny

Metheny became weekend air talent at Album Rock KWHP-FM in Edmond, Oklahoma in 1970. The next year, he moved to WKY in Oklahoma City, serving as weekend and fill-in talent during his senior year at John Marshall High School. Pat O'Day, General Manager of KJR/KISW-FM Seattle, hired Metheny as evening talent for  KJR. Following O'Day's 1975 departure, Metheny left KJR and became afternoon drive talent/music director at WNOE-FM, New Orleans, where he was promoted to Program Director. He next served as Program Director of KDEO in El Cajon, California, changing the AM Album Rock station to Top-40 KMJC, also known as "Majic 91".

Metheny became Director of Radio Audience Measurement (RAM) Research, working closely with its initial RAM client Fairbanks Broadcasting's Adult Contemporary WIBG in Philadelphia. He accepted the position of Program Director at WIBG (later known as WZZD, now WNTP). He went on to be named Program Director of Hearst Corporation's Top-40 WXKX, Pittsburgh, then of WEFM in Chicago, followed by KSLQ-FM in St. Louis.

Metheny was named Program Director of The National Broadcasting Company's WNBC (NYC) in 1980. In 1986, Metheny became Program Director of KTKS Dallas. He subsequently moved to Savannah as Vice President/General Manager at WSOK/WAEV-FM. He accepted the Operations Director position of Bedford Broadcasting's San Francisco Oldies and Adult Standards stations KFRC-FM & AM followed by Oldies KQQL (Minneapolis).

Metheny then moved to Jacksonville, Florida, where he combined programming and marketing operations of WQIK-FM and News/Talk WJGR with newly acquired Urban properties WSOL-FM, WJBT, and WZAZ. Metheny transferred to head programming for Jacor Communications' Cleveland area radio group, consolidating operations at their combined six Cleveland stations, WAKS, WGAR-FM, WMJI, WMMS, WMVX, and WTAM.

Following Jacor's merger with Clear Channel Communications Metheny was promoted to Regional Vice President of Programming, in which role he advised local Market Managers and Program Directors of 59 Ohio radio stations.

Simultaneously with the 2008 acquisition of Clear Channel Communications, Inc. by Bain Capital and Thomas H. Lee Partners, Metheny left Clear Channel to become Program Director of the Tribune Company's sole radio property, News/Talk WGN, where he stayed until November 2010. In January 2013, he was named program director at WJR Detroit. In June 2014, Metheny was named operations manager at San Francisco stations KGO and KSFO owned by Cumulus Media, a position he held until his death of an apparent heart attack at age 60.