➦In 1916...Vic Perrin born (Died of cancer at age 73 – July 4, 1989). He was a radio, film, and television actor, perhaps best remembered for providing the "Control Voice" in the original version of the television series The Outer Limits. He was also a radio scriptwriter as well as a narrator in feature films and for special entertainment and educational projects, such as the original Spaceship Earth ride at Epcot at the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida.
During the 1940s and 1950s, Perrin was a regular performer on many commercial radio programs. In 1941 he became a staff announcer for NBC, staying there for several years before moving to ABC and becoming chief announcer at the Blue Network. His first credited role came in 1943, when he served as the announcer for "The Last Will and Testament Of Tom Smith", a radio episode of Free World Theatre, which was produced and directed by Arch Oboler. He narrated too "A Star With Two Names", part of the segment "Behind The Scenes Hollywood Story" of The Hollywood Music Hall radio program. At the same time, he joined Charles Laughton's theatrical repertory group.Perrin was also a regular guest star on the radio version of Gunsmoke, and he wrote or co-wrote five scripts for that popular Western series between 1959 and 1961. Perrin was a series regular as well on the anthology radio drama Family Theatre, played Ross Farnsworth on One Man's Family, and was featured as cavalry trooper Sergeant Gorse in Fort Laramie in 1956. He performed too as several characters in Escape, Pete Kelly's Blues, Dragnet, Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar, and Have Gun – Will Travel. In an uncredited role, he also impersonated Clyde Beatty on The Clyde Beatty Show.
He played supporting roles on TV, many of them as a voicist on cartoons, for more than 30 years.
➦In 1921…Radio stationWEW was the first to broadcast weather news and forecasts.
Saint Louis University established the station 9YK around 1912, using Morse code to communicate seismological and weather information.
Brother George E. Rueppel, assistant director of the Meteorological Observatory at SLU, worked with 9YK before he founded WEW in 1921.
Audio transmissions began at 10:05 a.m. on April 26, 1921; the first voice heard was SLU president Rev. William Robison. The station received radio license #560 to broadcast on 618.6 kHz (wavelength 485 meters) as WEW on 23 March 1922.
➦In 1924...WHO Des Moines is believed to have signed-on, although the actual on-air start date is in dispute.
A WHO memo from June 14, 1951 states that the first broadcast was on April 10, 1924; this is contradicted by Barry Mishkind Database which states that the First Broadcast License was effective on April 10, 1924 (the FCC's records indicate that the license took effect on April 15, 1924) with the first broadcast on April 26, 1924.
In any event, the station was originally owned by Bankers Life, which is now the Principal Financial Group.
In 1930, B. J. Palmer, owner of WOC, bought WHO, and the two stations operated together as WOC-WHO until a new 50,000-watt transmitter near Mitchellville began operating on November 11, 1933. (WOC ceased broadcasting that day but returned on another frequency a year later.)
WHO moved from 1000 AM to the current 1040 AM on March 29, 1941, as a result of the North American Radio Broadcasting Agreement. Today WHO is one of only two 50,000-watt AM radio stations in Iowa (KXEL in Waterloo is the other, however, it is not on a "1928 Band Plan" clear channel like WHO, but is on a NARBA band plan clear channel, dually allocated to The Bahamas (Class I-A) and to Waterloo, IA (Class I-B)), though WHO's signal is non-directional and KXEL's is directional, as are most, but not all Class I-Bs.
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| Ronald Reagan |
For many years, WHO has used an owl as its mascot—an apparent play on its call letters.
United States President Ronald Reagan worked as a sportscaster with WHO from 1932 to 1937. Among his duties were re-creations of Chicago Cubs baseball games as did many radio stations in those days when sports networks had not yet become widespread.
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| Broadcasting ad 1960 |
Today, WHO is owned by iHeartMedia airing news/talk.
➦In 1931...The radio comedy Lum & Abner aired for the first time on KTHS in hot Spring, Arkansas. The popular program starring Norris Goff and Chester Lauck, began on NBC from Chicago three months later and continued on various networks for 22 years. Lum and Abner and their ‘Jot-em Down Store’ hailed from the fictitious town of Pine Ridge, Arkansas. Fictitious, that is, before 1936, when Waters, Arkansas, changed its name to Pine Ridge.
Over the course of its life, Lum and Abner appeared on all four major radio networks: NBC, Mutual, CBS and ABC (formerly NBC Blue).
➦In 1932...Early radio comedian Ed Wynn made his debut on radio. Wynn began his career in vaudeville in 1903 and was a star of the Ziegfeld Follies starting in 1914.
In the early 1930s Wynn hosted the popular radio show The Fire Chief, heard on Tuesday nights, sponsored by Texaco gasoline.
Like many former vaudeville performers who turned to radio in the same decade, the stage-trained Wynn insisted on playing for a live studio audience, doing each program as an actual stage show, using visual bits to augment his written material, and in his case, wearing a colorful costume with a red fireman's helmet.
Wynn was offered the title role in MGM's 1939 screen adaptation of The Wizard of Oz, but turned it down, as did his Ziegfeld contemporary W. C. Fields. The part went to Frank Morgan
➦In 1952...The radio series Gunsmoke first aired on CBS with the episode "Billy the Kid", written by Walter Newman, and ended on June 18, 1961. Matt Dillon was played on radio by William Conrad and on TV by James Arness. Two versions of the same pilot episode titled "Mark Dillon Goes to Gouge Eye" are in the archives with two different actors, Rye Billsbury and Howard Culver, playing Marshal "Mark" Dillon as the lead, not yet played by Conrad. Conrad was one of the last actors to audition for the role of Marshal Dillon.
➦In 1976…CBS Radio newsman Allan Jackson died at the age of 60. For over 25 years he was the head anchor at CBS Radio News in New York, reading the 6:00 PM (Eastern) national evening news (then the network’s main news program) and anchoring coverage on much of their “Breaking News” events of the times. He presided over CBS coverage of the D-Day invasion on June 6, 1944, of the joining of US and Soviet forces in April of 1945, and of V-E Day in May of that year.
➦In 1982...the CBS Radio Network launched its youth-oriented network “Radio Radio“.
➦In 1995...NYC Radio personality Bob Dayton died.
Hired from WIL in St. Louis where he had worked under the air name of "Rockin' Robin Scott", Bob arrived at WABC in 1963. According to the tribute website musicradio77.com, He was known for his acerbic wit which ultimately resulted in his firing on August 6, 1965 after his "Happy Birthday Hiroshima" introduction to the Crests "16 Candles".
Dayton might have gotten away with that comment had not the wife of ABC Chairman Leonard Goldenson been listening while she was in her office receiving the "Hiroshima Maidens" who were ladies horribly burned in the bombing. She was furious and that was it for Bob Dayton on WABC; he was fired immediately after his show that day.
He shifted to Los Angeles' KRLA. Bob later returned to New York and worked at two New York radio stations; WPIX-FM and WCBS-FM.
➦In 2005...Radio, TV actor and voiceover artist Mason Adams died at age 86. Adams was heard on many radio programs during Radio's Golden Age. A notable recurring role was that of Pepper Young in Pepper Young's Family, which aired from 1947 to 1959. He also portrayed the deadly Nazi Atom Man in a classic 1945 serial on the radio version of The Adventures of Superman.
Besides his best known role as Charlie Hume in TV’s Lou Grant series. In the TV era his voice was heard on commercials all over the dial, notably for Chiffon margarine, Crest toothpaste & Smucker’s preserves.
➦In 2012...Peter "Pete" Fornatale died at age 66. (Born -August 23, 1945). He was a New York City radio personality and author of numerous books on rock and roll.
He is considered a "pioneer of FM rock," who played an important role in the progressive rock era of FM broadcasting. He was the first person to host a rock music show on New York City's FM band, commencing November 21, 1964 on WFUV.
By broadcasting progressive rock and long album tracks, he was noted for introducing a musical alternative to Top 40 AM radio in New York in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Billboard called his station "a legend, affecting and inspiring people throughout the industry."
He gave early exposure to country-rock bands like Buffalo Springfield and Poco, and did one of the first American interviews with Elton John. In 1991 he was co-host of "Paul Simon Live in Central Park" and was often called to be an expert guest commentator on PBS specials, including those featuring Bob Dylan, John Fogerty, The Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix, Roy Orbison, Peter, Paul and Mary, Simon & Garfunkel, James Taylor and others.
➦In 2014…Lee Marshall died at age 67 (Born Marshall Aaron Mayer; November 28, 1949). He was an American professional wrestling announcer formerly of the American Wrestling Association (AWA), World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and Women of Wrestling (WOW!)
Marshall was also a longtime radio announcer, working at such stations as KABC and KGFJ (now KYPA) and KBLA and KHJ in Los Angeles, KRIZ in Phoenix and CKLW in Windsor, Ontario, Canada (Detroit).
At CKLW, he was one of the anchors for the station's "20/20 News" updates. Marshall can be heard at 1:31 on this terrific CKLW Radio News video.
Marshall was also the voice of Tony The Tiger between 2005 and 2014.
TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS
➦In 1931...The radio comedy Lum & Abner aired for the first time on KTHS in hot Spring, Arkansas. The popular program starring Norris Goff and Chester Lauck, began on NBC from Chicago three months later and continued on various networks for 22 years. Lum and Abner and their ‘Jot-em Down Store’ hailed from the fictitious town of Pine Ridge, Arkansas. Fictitious, that is, before 1936, when Waters, Arkansas, changed its name to Pine Ridge.
Over the course of its life, Lum and Abner appeared on all four major radio networks: NBC, Mutual, CBS and ABC (formerly NBC Blue).
 |
| Ed Wynn |
In the early 1930s Wynn hosted the popular radio show The Fire Chief, heard on Tuesday nights, sponsored by Texaco gasoline.
Like many former vaudeville performers who turned to radio in the same decade, the stage-trained Wynn insisted on playing for a live studio audience, doing each program as an actual stage show, using visual bits to augment his written material, and in his case, wearing a colorful costume with a red fireman's helmet.
Wynn was offered the title role in MGM's 1939 screen adaptation of The Wizard of Oz, but turned it down, as did his Ziegfeld contemporary W. C. Fields. The part went to Frank Morgan
➦In 1952...The radio series Gunsmoke first aired on CBS with the episode "Billy the Kid", written by Walter Newman, and ended on June 18, 1961. Matt Dillon was played on radio by William Conrad and on TV by James Arness. Two versions of the same pilot episode titled "Mark Dillon Goes to Gouge Eye" are in the archives with two different actors, Rye Billsbury and Howard Culver, playing Marshal "Mark" Dillon as the lead, not yet played by Conrad. Conrad was one of the last actors to audition for the role of Marshal Dillon.
➦In 1976…CBS Radio newsman Allan Jackson died at the age of 60. For over 25 years he was the head anchor at CBS Radio News in New York, reading the 6:00 PM (Eastern) national evening news (then the network’s main news program) and anchoring coverage on much of their “Breaking News” events of the times. He presided over CBS coverage of the D-Day invasion on June 6, 1944, of the joining of US and Soviet forces in April of 1945, and of V-E Day in May of that year.
➦In 1982...the CBS Radio Network launched its youth-oriented network “Radio Radio“.
➦In 1995...NYC Radio personality Bob Dayton died.
Hired from WIL in St. Louis where he had worked under the air name of "Rockin' Robin Scott", Bob arrived at WABC in 1963. According to the tribute website musicradio77.com, He was known for his acerbic wit which ultimately resulted in his firing on August 6, 1965 after his "Happy Birthday Hiroshima" introduction to the Crests "16 Candles".
Dayton might have gotten away with that comment had not the wife of ABC Chairman Leonard Goldenson been listening while she was in her office receiving the "Hiroshima Maidens" who were ladies horribly burned in the bombing. She was furious and that was it for Bob Dayton on WABC; he was fired immediately after his show that day.
He shifted to Los Angeles' KRLA. Bob later returned to New York and worked at two New York radio stations; WPIX-FM and WCBS-FM.
➦In 2005...Radio, TV actor and voiceover artist Mason Adams died at age 86. Adams was heard on many radio programs during Radio's Golden Age. A notable recurring role was that of Pepper Young in Pepper Young's Family, which aired from 1947 to 1959. He also portrayed the deadly Nazi Atom Man in a classic 1945 serial on the radio version of The Adventures of Superman.
Besides his best known role as Charlie Hume in TV’s Lou Grant series. In the TV era his voice was heard on commercials all over the dial, notably for Chiffon margarine, Crest toothpaste & Smucker’s preserves.
 |
| Pete Fornatale |
He is considered a "pioneer of FM rock," who played an important role in the progressive rock era of FM broadcasting. He was the first person to host a rock music show on New York City's FM band, commencing November 21, 1964 on WFUV.
By broadcasting progressive rock and long album tracks, he was noted for introducing a musical alternative to Top 40 AM radio in New York in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Billboard called his station "a legend, affecting and inspiring people throughout the industry."
He gave early exposure to country-rock bands like Buffalo Springfield and Poco, and did one of the first American interviews with Elton John. In 1991 he was co-host of "Paul Simon Live in Central Park" and was often called to be an expert guest commentator on PBS specials, including those featuring Bob Dylan, John Fogerty, The Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix, Roy Orbison, Peter, Paul and Mary, Simon & Garfunkel, James Taylor and others.
➦In 2014…Lee Marshall died at age 67 (Born Marshall Aaron Mayer; November 28, 1949). He was an American professional wrestling announcer formerly of the American Wrestling Association (AWA), World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and Women of Wrestling (WOW!)
Marshall was also a longtime radio announcer, working at such stations as KABC and KGFJ (now KYPA) and KBLA and KHJ in Los Angeles, KRIZ in Phoenix and CKLW in Windsor, Ontario, Canada (Detroit).
At CKLW, he was one of the anchors for the station's "20/20 News" updates. Marshall can be heard at 1:31 on this terrific CKLW Radio News video.
Marshall was also the voice of Tony The Tiger between 2005 and 2014.
TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS
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| Melania Trump |
- Actress-comedian Carol Burnett (Carol Burnett Show, Mama’s Family, Mad About You) is 87.
- Guitarist-songwriter Duane Eddy is 82.
- Singer Maurice Williams of Maurice and the Zodiacs is 82.
- Singer Bobby Rydell is 78.
- Singer Gary Wright is 77.
- Actor Ron McLarty (Spenser For Hire) is 73.
- Drummer Roger Taylor of Duran Duran is 60.
- Actress Joan Chen (Twin Peaks, Children of the Dragon) is 59.
- Actor-comedian Kevin James (Kevin Can Wait, The King of Queens) is 55.
- Keyboardist Jeff Huskins of Little Texas is 54
- Country bassist Jay DeMarcus of Rascal Flatts is 49.
- Actor/voicist Channing Tatum (Comrade Detective) is 40.
- FLOTUS Melania Trump is 50.
