November 27 Radio History

➦In 1901...Early radio sportscaster Ted Husing was born in the Bronx NY.

Ted Husing

At age 16, he joined the National Guard and during World War I was assigned to stand watch over New York's harbor. Following the war, he floated between jobs such as carnival barker and payroll clerk. After he won an audition over 500 other applicants for announcer at New York City radio station WHN, Husing found his life's calling. He was schooled under the tutelage of pioneer broadcaster Major J. Andrew White. There he covered breaking news stories and political conventions and assisted White during football commentaries.

By 1926, Husing was working at WJZ and his  rapid manner of speech earned him the nickname Mile a Minute Husing. His use of descriptive language combined with a commanding voice made his broadcasts must-listen events. By 1927, he was voted seventh most popular announcer in a national poll. Following a pay dispute, he moved to Boston, where he broadcast Boston Braves (now Atlanta Braves) baseball games.

Later in 1927, he returned to New York and helped his mentor, J. Andrew White, start the new CBS chain.  After cigar mogul William S. Paley bought the cash-strapped network in 1928, Ted Husing rose to new heights of glory and fame.

At CBS, Husing took on a wide variety of events. In 1929, he was named studio director of WABC (the CBS flagship station) in addition to continuing his work as an announcer for the network.

In addition to his sports preeminence, Husing also did news/special events coverage for the CBS Radio Network. In the 1930s, he gave early tutelage to a budding CBS Radio announcer, Mel Allen, who, like Husing, would become a legendary sportscaster. (And, like Husing, Allen would also understudy in news, with Robert Trout.) In 1933-1934, he was host of the Oldsmobile Program, providing sports news to complement music from other participants on the program.

In both sports and special events areas, Husing developed a bitter rivalry with rising NBC announcer Bill Stern. When the two became the sports stars of their rival networks (and eventually their networks' sports directors), they would battle fiercely not only for events but also for broadcast position.

Husing could be arrogant, coarse, and opinionated. He was the first to bring a candid, editorial style to sports play-by-play.

1939 Advertisement

In 1946, Husing moved from CBS to WHN 1050 (later WMGM) to pursue a career as a disk jockey. (He was succeeded as CBS Radio's sports director by Red Barber.) Husing's popular music show the Ted Husing Bandstand ran from 1946 to 1954. He continued to busy himself with sports assignments, including boxing on CBS and DuMont television, one year (1950) as the radio voice of New York Giants football, and as host of DuMont's Boxing From Eastern Parkway from May 1952 to March 1953. Perhaps he was best known as the voice of Army football from 1947 to 1953. By that time, Husing's yearly salary was close to half a million dollars.

In the spring of 1954, an operation to treat a malignant brain tumor left him blind and forced him to retire. He died at age 60 in 1962.

In 1963, Husing became the second inductee of the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association Hall of Fame.  In 1984, Husing was part of the American Sportscasters Association Hall of Fame’s inaugural class which included sportscasting legends Red Barber, Don Dunphy, Graham McNamee and Bill Stern.

➦In 1926...KXL AM in Portland, Oregon signed-on with 50 watts of power. Today, the station is owned by Alpha Media, it calls are KXTG and the station airs sports talk at 750 AM.  KXL-FM airs news/talk on 101.9 FM.

➦In 1930...“First Nighter” was first heard on NBC. It was a long-running 30-minute radio anthology comedy-drama series broadcast from November 27, 1930, to September 27, 1953. The host was Mr. First Nighter (Charles P. Hughes, Macdonald Carey, Bret Morrison, Marvin Miller, Don Briggs and Rye Billsbury (later known as Michael Rye).

Ad for FM Radio, NY Times 11/27/60; The price?  $24.95

➦In 1960...the CBS Radio Network canceled "Have Gun Will Travel".  It was a Western series that was produced and originally broadcast by CBS on both television and radio from 1957 through 1963.

The television version of the series was rated number three or number four in the Nielsen ratings every year of its first four seasons, and it is one of the few shows in television history to spawn a successful radio version.  That radio series debuted November 23, 1958, more than a year after the premiere of its televised counterpart.

This series follows the adventures of a man calling himself "Paladin" (played by Richard Boone on television and voiced by John Dehner on radio), taking his name from that of the foremost knights in Charlemagne's court. He is a gentleman investigator/gunfighter who travels around the Old West working as a mercenary for people who hire him to solve their problems.

NY Times article 11/27/60

➦In 1960...Veteran announcer, newsman Tony Marvin joined the Mutual Broadcasting System.

Tony Marvin - 1950

Marvin's first job in radio was at WNYC in New York City. From there, he went to CBS as a staff announcer, beginning October 1, 1939.  A 1959 article in Radio and Television Mirror reported that at CBS "Tony did everything from daytime serials to symphonies and in 1946, when the Arthur Godfrey morning show was sustaining, Tony was assigned to it." When Godfrey's activities expanded from Arthur Godfrey Time to include Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts and Arthur Godfrey and his Friends, Marvin did the announcing for those shows as well.

Godfrey at times stirred controversy with his firing of his show's personnel. Marvin was the last of Godfrey's supporting players to go. He had been with Godfrey 12 years when he learned in 1959 that Godfrey would not need an announcer for the coming year.  Marvin's departure was widely perceived as a more amicable parting than Godfrey's previous dismissals of cast members, which were often abrupt.

Marvin branched out in 1958, adding a two-hour, Monday-Saturday disc jockey show on WABC to his other duties.

➦In 1962...In London, the Beatles recorded their first BBC radio session, performing "Twist and Shout," "Love Me Do," and "P.S. I Love You." The tracks aired later on the BBC program "Talent Spot."

➦In 1975...Bill Winters WCBS 101.1 FM personality died at age 35.

Bill Winters

Winters worked in Tampa Bay in the early to mid 1960’s, first at WALT (mid-days) in 1963-64, and then WLCY. He also went on to work at Miami’s WQAM. During his short career, he held down shifts at some pretty impressive stations, including wakeup duty beginning in early 1968 at WPOP Hartford. There, he achieved the station’s highest Pulse ratings ever and, as a pivotal member of its “BOSS”ketball team, once broke two toes during a benefit game.

During a year out to serve with Uncle Sam, Bill worked part-time at WFBS in Spring Lake, NC, and then returned to mornings at WPOP. This time, he was billed as “The Big Kahuna – World Champion Surfer and 14th Degree Black Belt with Red Strikers.”

Early in his career, Bill worked at some fairly small stations, paying his dues at WCEC, WFMA-FM, and WEED AM/FM, all in Rocky Mountain, North Carolina, WGAI Elizabeth City, North Carolina, and WHAP Hopewell, Virginia. Later stops (and bigger stations) included WKYC Cleveland, CKLW Detroit, WCAO Baltimore, WBZ Boston, WCBS-FM New York (mid-days), and WIBG Philadelphia.





➦In 1979...Chuck Leonard aired his last show at WABC.  During his over 40-year career in broadcasting, Leonard worked virtually every shift and played all styles of music at stations including WWRL, WABC, WXLO, WRKS, WBLS, WQEW, WNSW-AM and WJUX. He has been inducted in the Museum of Television & Radio and is known as the first African-American disc jockey to work on a mainstream radio station.

Leonard was at WWRL for just seven weeks, before WABC's Dan Ingram heard him and convinced WABC to hire him. He was the first African-American broadcast personality on a major market Top 40 station.

Leonard began at ABC's flagship New York radio station, Musicradio 77 WABC (AM), under program director Rick Sklar in 1965. He broke the color barrier for all who followed — the first African-American to cross over from black R&B radio to (then-mostly white) mass-appeal radio.

Leonard began in the 11 p.m. to midnight slot, and continued working late nights and Sundays at the station until November 27, 1979. He did the 10:30 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. shift following “Cousin” Bruce Morrow and later George Michael. He also gladly handled weekend and fill-in work.

Leonard was the host of "Sneak Preview," a five-minute Monday-through-Saturday evening program on ABC's American Contemporary Radio Network, which featured newly released songs. After WABC, he worked at WXLO and WRKS.

➦In 1984...Radio personality, Jack Carney, died. He is best remembered for his stints at WIL and KMOX in St. Louis.

Jack Carney

Carney took his first radio job in New Mexico and moved from job to job at small stations throughout the southwest early in his career. Carney then became a rock n’ roll disc jockey serving up the hits to teens in Milwaukee, Atlanta, and Boston.

Carney’s first job in St. Louis came on WIL Radio from 1958-1960. While at WIL, Carney came up with his alter ego character “Pookie Snackenburg.” Carney was lured away from WIL to work for a short time at WABC Radio/New York.

Carney’s second stint in St. Louis was at KMOX where he established a following. Taking over the morning spot from Jack Buck in 1971, Carney was an instant hit.

During his KMOX years, virtually every celebrity that passed through St. Louis stopped by to say hello to Jack Carney. His show was a fixture in St. Louis for 13 years. Jack Carney died of a sudden heart attack at age 52.

Jack Carney was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 2001.


➦In 2006...Sportscaster and radio sports talk host Kenneth "Casey" Coleman, Jr., son of play-by-play announcer Ken Coleman and a broadcaster in Cleveland for almost 30 years, died after a 14-month struggle with pancreatic cancer. He was 55.

Casey Coleman

Coleman began his broadcasting career in Fall River, MA, hosting an evening sports talk show on WSAR 1480 AM. In 1978, he arrived Cleveland to host a radio sports talk show on WERE 1300 AM (now at 1490 AM), where he ended each broadcast by saying, "I'm rounding third and heading home.", a phrase he would carry over in to his TV career.

From 1984-1996, Coleman worked for WJW TV 8 as the main sports anchor. He was awarded four Cleveland Emmy Awards while at WJW.

Following the death of Browns play-by-play voice Nev Chandler, Coleman became the team's main announcer in 1994, and held that job for the final two seasons of the Art Modell era before Modell moved the team to Baltimore in 1996 and renamed them the Ravens.

Coleman joined WTAM 1100 AM in July 1997, and became a part of the morning talk show "Wills, Webster and Coleman in the Morning" in October 1998.

After the Cleveland Browns returned to the NFL in 1999 as a new expansion franchise, Coleman served as radio sideline reporter for WMJI (and WTAM's coverage of the its games until 2005, when he began showing signs of the illness which would ultimately cause his premature death.