January 17 Radio History

                                    
➦In 1903...Radio game show host and actor Warren Hull was born in Gasport NY.

A movie actor in the 30’s, he turned to radio in the 40’s with announcer/host roles on such shows as Your Hit Parade and Vox Pop. Hull was also the emcee of Spin To Win, only the second game show created by the team of Mark Goodson and Bill Todman.

The next two decades he hosted TV game shows Strike It Rich, Top Dollar, Who In the World and Beat the Odds.

“Strike It Rich” was a wildly successful CBS radio‐television show of the 1950s that ‘was part quiz and part give‐away and offered the public the spectacle of often despondent people relating their hard‐luck stories to Mr. Hull.

Participants were able to win a few hundred dollars by correctly answering a few questions, in addition to which the program featured a “heart line” through which pitying viewers could telephone offers of cash, clothing, merchandise and jobs.

He died of heart failure Sept 14 1974 at age 71.

➦In 1949... after 18 years on radio, “The Goldbergs” starring Gertrude Berg, began its seven-year run on TV.



➦In 1964...the No. 1 Billboard Pop Hit was “There! I’ve Said It Again” by Bobby Vinton. This song was the last No. 1 song before the British invasion. After four weeks at No. 1, Vinton gave way to the Beatles and their first U.S. hit, “I Want to Hold Your Hand.”

➦In 1986...Longtime Chicago radio personality Joel Sebastian died at age 53. He began his radio career in his native Detroit at station WXYZ, moved to Chicago in 1966, after working at stations in Dallas, New Haven, Conn., and Los Angeles.

Over the last 20 years, he had been a disc jockey and morning on-air personality at eight Chicago radio stations, including WCFL, WLS, WGN, WMAQ and, most recently, WJMK-FM (104).

He began his Chicago career at WCFL as a talkative morning disc jockey. He would open each show with the greeting ''Good morning Chicago, baby,'' while playing Jack Jones` rendition of ''My Kind of Town.''

Sebastian performed a variety of radio roles, reflecting both the wide range of his abilities and the whimsical nature of the business. He was program director at WCFL, rock DJ at several stations and, in the late 1970s, an all-night classical music show host at WGN.

He survived a purge at WMAQ when the station switched to country music in 1975. Most of the on-air staff, including Mr. Sebastian, was fired. But he was rehired a short time later as production chief and weekend personality.

He also worked at WNEW, WKHK, WHN and WNBC in New York City, returning to Chicago in June 1983 to WJMX




➦In 1989...Scott Shannon last show at WHTZ Z100 NYC.  Shannon founded the "Z Morning Zoo" concept and he was the driving force in helping Z100 become the top-rated FM station in New York City within a mere 74 days of signing on the air.

In 1989, Shannon left Z100 for Los Angeles to start up Pirate Radio, KQLZ. Pirate Radio employed a similar Top 40 concept. As the 1990s began, Top 40 radio experienced a decline, and eventually Pirate Radio struggled as well, leading to Shannon's departure.

In 1991 he returned to New York and resurfaced on Z100's biggest rival, WPLJ.  He is now hosting mornings on Entercom's Classic Hits WCBS 101.1 FM NYC.

➦In 2004...TV talk show host, Jerry Springer, began a new radio show on WCKY-AM, Cincinnati, the city where he once had been mayor.



➦In 2012...Johnny Otis, a bandleader and songwriter often called the “Godfather of R & B,” died at home in L.A. at age 90. Best-known for writing “Willie And The Hand Jive,” Otis helped pave the way for Rock & Roll in the early ‘50s.