April 22 Radio History

➦In 1920...Hal March was born in San Francisco (Died at age 49 from lung cancer – January 19, 1970).  In 1944, March first came to note as part of a comedy team with Bob Sweeney. The duo had their own radio show for a time and performed, in the early 1950s, as "Sweeney & March" on CBS Radio.   He also partnered with actor/comic Tom D'Andrea in the early years of television in a series entitled The Soldiers.

He alao appeared on Burns and Allen, The Imogene Coca Show and I Love Lucy. He was best known as the host of CBS TV’s $64,000 Question from 1955 to 1958. As a result of the quiz show scandals, the show was canceled and March was out of a job for nearly a decade. He started hosting another show, It’s Your Bet in 1969.

NY Times Radio Listing 4/22/1946

➦In 1946...Tex McCrary and (wife) Jinx Falkenburg debuted an morning show on WEAF 660 AM. The show was called, Hi, Jinx, which evolved into The Tex & Jinx Show.

The McCrary's radio show was broadcast five mornings a week on New York radio station WEAF, and became a hit with critics and the public for tackling controversial issues like the A-Bomb, the United Nations and venereal disease along with talk about theatre openings and New York nightlife. Their guests would be a mix of popular entertainers such as Mary Martin, Ethel Waters and Esther Williams and public figures such as Bernard Baruch, Eleanor Roosevelt, Margaret Truman, industrialist Igor Sikorsky and Indian statesman Krishna Menon.

McCrary wrote the scripts and taught Falkenburg the art of interviewing and the basics of broadcast journalism. Over time she was considered the better interviewer, eliciting candid responses, often from the show's more intellectual guests. Her technique was to ask questions until she understood the answer and so presumably, did all the housewives at home listening to her.  "They developed an audience that was ready to start thinking at breakfast," wrote New York Times columnist William Safire who as a teenager was hired by McCrary to do pre-show interviews of guests.

WEAF later became WNBC and now Sports WFAN.


➦In 1985...Comedian Soupy Sales started at WNBC 660 AM. His program was between the drive time shifts of Don Imus (morning) and Howard Stern (afternoon), with whom Sales had an acrimonious relationship.




An example of this was an incident involving Stern telling listeners that he was cutting the strings in Sales' in-studio piano at 4:05 p.m. on May 1, 1985. On December 21, 2007, Stern revealed this was a stunt staged for "theater of the mind" and to torture Sales; in truth, the piano was never harmed.  Sales' on-air crew included his producer, Ray D'Ariano, newscaster Judy DeAngelis, and pianist Paul Dver, who was also Soupy's manager.

➦In 1996...Paul 'Cubby' Bryant started at WHTZ 100.3 FM Z100 NYC.

Paul "Cubby" Bryant

Bryant began his radio career in his hometown of Virginia Beach, VA at WGH-FM (97 Star) in 1988, there was where he inherited his current radio name Cubby (a name given to him by WGH DJ's Tony Macrini and Jeff Moreau) for being so young (at the time 16) and in radio.

Then, Bryant joined 104.1 KRBE in Houston, TX as Night Host and Music Director from 1990-1996.

In 1996, Bryant began his tenure at WHTZ (Z100) in New York as Afternoon Drive Host and Music Director.

In mid-2006, Bryant announced he would be leaving WHTZ after a ten-year run with the station to co-host 'Wake Up With Whoopi' on WKTU. the show was in November 2007.

In January 2008, Bryant returned to WKTU, this time as the station's morning host.

Today, he is hosting mornings on iHeartMedia's WLTW 106.7 FM

➦In 2019...Jim Dunbar, a newstalk radio pioneer who dominated the San Francisco morning ratings for more than three decades on KGO AM 810, died at age 89.

Amber Heard

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS

• TV host, comedian, media mogul Byron Allen is 59.
• Actress Amber Heard turns 34. 
• Grey's Anatomy and The Walking Dead actor Jeffrey Dean Morgan turns 54.
• Academy Award-winning actor Jack Nicholson is 83.
• Sherri Shepherd, a former co-host of The View, turns 53.
• Director John Waters, who's known for his campy and sometimes controversial films, including Hairspray, Cry-Baby and Pink Flamingos, turns 74.
• Singer Mel Carter is 77.
• Singer Peter Frampton is 70.
• Singer Paul Carrack (Squeeze, Mike and the Mechanics) is 69.
• Country singer Heath Wright of Ricochet is 53.