October 13 Radio History

 

Bruce Morrow

➦In 1935...Bruce Morrow (born Bruce Meyerowitz) known to many listeners as Cousin Brucie was born.

Morrow's first stint in radio was in Bermuda at ZBM-AM, where he was known as "The Hammer."

Morrow began his stateside career at New York Top 40 station WINS in 1959. In 1960, he moved to Miami for a brief stint before returning to the New York airwaves the following year on powerhouse 77WABC. Morrow's returned to New York City came at the precise moment that rock and roll music was exploding across the Baby Boom demographic and Morrow found himself on the most powerful radio station on the East Coast at the onset of the British Invasion.

"Cousin Brucie" quickly became a success on WABC's teen-oriented evening shift in the 6:15 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. slot. Morrow became a commercial radio powerhouse and household name through his ability to maintain a rapport with his listeners while smoothly mixing the diverse musical genres of the time (Motown soul, pop, hard rock, surf music, novelty records), and then seamlessly segueing into commercials for youth-oriented sponsors like Thom McAn shoes, local clothing outlets in the New York and New Jersey areas, and events such as concerts and drag-strip races.

He served at WABC for 13 years and 4,014 broadcasts until August 1974, when he jumped to rival station WNBC 660 AM; after three years there, he left the airwaves to team with entrepreneur Robert F.X. Sillerman to become the owner of the Sillerman Morrow group of stations, which included WALL; WKGL, now WRRV, in Middletown, New York; WJJB, later WCZX, in Poughkeepsie, New York; WHMP in Northampton, Massachusetts; WOCB in West Yarmouth, Massachusetts; WRAN (now dark) New Jersey 1510 in Randolph, New Jersey; and television station WATL Atlanta. The group later purchased WPLR in New Haven, Connecticut.

In 1982, Morrow returned to the DJ role with New York's WCBS 101.1 FM. Initially, he filled in for Jack Spector every third Saturday evening for the Saturday Night Sock Hop program. Following Spector's resignation in 1985, Morrow took over the show and renamed it the Saturday Night Dance Party. The station also added his nationally syndicated show Cruisin' America. In 1986, he took on the Wednesday evening slot, where he hosted The Top 15 Yesterday and Today Countdown. In 1991, the Wednesday show became The Yearbook, focusing on music from a year between 1955 and 1979. Cousin Brucie was also the "breakfast presenter" on Atlantic 252 from 1992 to 1996.

When Cruisin' America ended its run in December 1992, Morrow continued hosting a WCBS show called Cruising with the Cuz Monday evenings until the end of 1993. After that show ended, he hosted the Saturday night and Wednesday night shows there until the station's change to the adult hits format called Jack FM on June 3, 2005. Shortly thereafter, he signed a multi-year deal to host oldies programming and a weekly talk show on Sirius Satellite Radio.

Morrow recently hosted programs for Sirius XM satellite radio, on the '60s on 6 channel. Today Cousin Brucie is hosting a Saturday evening oldies show on former Musicradio 77WABC in NYC.

➦In 1963...the term 'Beatlemania' was coined, as The Beatles made their first major TV appearance from the London Palladium. The BBC had an audience of 15 million tuned in. Thousands of delirious fans jammed the streets outside the theater to voice their support of the Fab Four. A few months later, Beatlemania would sweep the U.S. as well.

➦In 1967...CBS Radio Network canceled "House Party". Art Linkletter discusses his years in radio.

Sponsored by General Electric, the 25-minute House Party premiered on CBS Radio on January 15, 1945, and ran weekdays at 4 p.m., three days a week, through January 10, 1947. Following a break, it then ran weekdays at 3:30 p.m. from December 1, 1947 to December 31, 1948. It continued to be sponsored by General Electric even as it switched to ABC Radio, where it ran for 30 minutes in the same timeslot from January 3 to July 1, 1949. ABC then aired it as a 25-minute sustained-advertising program weekdays at noon from September 19 to December 30, 1949.

The show returned to CBS Radio only days later, making its longest continued run from January 2, 1950 to October 13, 1967 as a 30-minute show running weekdays at various times. Sponsors included Pillsbury from 1950 to 1952, and Lever Brothers from 1952 to 1956. During its first season, the soundtrack from the TV show was run immediately on radio following the telecast.

➦In 1974...Ed Sullivan died from esophagal cancer at the age of 73 (Born September 28, 1901). He was a TV personality, impresario, sports and entertainment reporter, and syndicated columnist for the New York Daily News and the Chicago Tribune New York News Syndicate. He is principally remembered as the creator and host of the television variety program The Toast of the Town, later popularly—and, eventually, officially—renamed The Ed Sullivan Show. Broadcast for 23 years from 1948 to 1971, it set a record as the longest-running variety show in US broadcast history. "It was, by almost any measure, the last great TV show," said television critic David Hinckley. "It's one of our fondest, dearest pop culture memories."

His column, "Little Old New York" for the New York Daily News, concentrated on Broadway shows and gossip. Sullivan soon became a powerful starmaker in the entertainment world himself, becoming one of Walter Winchell's main rivals. Sullivan continued writing for The News throughout his broadcasting career.

Throughout his career as a columnist, Sullivan had dabbled in entertainment—producing vaudeville shows with which he appeared as master of ceremonies in the 1920s and 1930s, directing a radio program over the original WABC (now WCBS) and organizing benefit reviews for various causes.

In 1941, Sullivan was host of the Summer Silver Theater, a variety program on CBS, with Will Bradley as bandleader and a guest star featured each week

He introduced numerous acts to audiences and the show featuring the Beatles on February 9, 1964 is one of the milestones in popular culture, viewed by 73 million people.

➦In 1990...News anchor Douglas Edwards died of cancer at the age of 73. He anchored CBS's first network nightly television news broadcast from 1946–1962, which was later to be titled CBS Evening News.

A native of Oklahoma, Edwards grew up in Birmingham, Alabama. Edwards joined CBS Radio in 1942, eventually becoming anchor for the regular evening newscast The World Today as well as World News Today on Sunday afternoons. Edwards came to CBS, after stints as a newscaster and announcer at WSB in Atlanta, Georgia and WXYZ in Detroit, Michigan.

In the mid-1940s, Edwards was host of the radio program Behind the Scenes at CBS Radio.

In 1946, Edwards was chosen to present regular CBS television news programs and to host CBS's television coverage of the 1948 Democratic and Republican conventions. The term "anchor" would not be used until 1952, when CBS News chief Sig Mikelson would use it to describe Walter Cronkite's role in the network's political convention coverage.

At first, Edwards would be eclipsed by John Cameron Swayze of NBC News's Camel News Caravan, but he would eventually regain his ratings lead. By the mid-1950s, the nightly 15-minute newscast Douglas Edwards with the News was watched by nearly 30 million viewers.

Edwards' last newscast on the evening news was on April 13, 1962. On April 16, 1962, Edwards was replaced by Walter Cronkite, and the program became Walter Cronkite with the News. On September 2, 1963, the program was retitled CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite and became the first half-hour weeknight news broadcast of network television and was moved to 6:30 p.m. .

For several years, both during his time as network anchor and after leaving the CBS anchor chair, Edwards anchored the local late news team on WCBS-TV, channel 2, the network's flagship television station in New York City.

Edwards subsequently moved back to CBS Radio, where he delivered the network's flagship evening newscasts The World Tonight for many years. Until his retirement on April 1, 1988, he maintained a daily midday role within CBS television news, anchoring a five-minute newsbreak known successively as CBS Afternoon News with Douglas Edwards (April 1962-Feb. 1968), The CBS Midday News with Douglas Edwards (Feb. 1968-April 20, 1979) at 11:55am Eastern time and The CBS Mid-Morning News with Douglas Edwards (April 23, 1979 – May 30, 1980) at 10:55am Eastern.[4] He also served, for a time, as a co-anchor of the CBS Morning News. His last radio newscast included a report of the death of singer Andy Gibb.[5]

Beginning June 2, 1980, Douglas Edwards anchored a daily one-minute-fourteen-second edition of Newsbreak at 11:57 a.m. Eastern Time.

➦In 1992...Hughes Rudd died at age 71 (Born September 14, 1921). He was a television journalist and CBS News and ABC News correspondent. Rudd was known for his folksy style, gravelly voice, and unimposing sense of humor, often ending his newscasts with human interest stories that sometimes made him break into a chuckle on camera.

➦In 2002...former Los Angeles morning man Al Lohman, who teamed for years with the late Roger Barkley to dominate the wake-up radio ratings at KFWB and later KFI, died of bladder cancer at age 69

Jerry Marshall

➦In 2010…New York City radio personality Jerry Marshall died at age 91.   During more than 30 years on the air, Marshall hosted hit shows like “Music Hall” and “The Make-Believe Ballroom” on WNEW and “Record Room” on WMGM, as well as shows on WINS, WNBC and WCBS. His “Jerry Marshall Show” was eventually syndicated in cities along the East Coast.

In 1948, while hosting “Music Hall,” Mr. Marshall gave a major boost to the career of Nat King Cole when he was the first D.J. to play Cole’s version of “Nature Boy,” with its eerie minor melody about a “strange enchanted boy” whose wandering led him to conclude that “the greatest thing you’ll ever learn/Is just to love and be loved in return.” The song was an overnight sensation.

➦In 2012…Washington DC Radio talk show host Bernie McCain died of renal failure at 75. McCain had worked in radio for more than 15 years when WOL 1450 AM hired him away from the Washington AM station WRC in 1981. Today, WOL is owned by Radio One, a media company that serves a largely African American and urban market.

He quickly became one of the station’s flagship personalities and a daily presence known to listeners of his call-in show as “Uncle Bernie.” In an interview, Radio One founder Cathy Hughes described him as “a black version of Mister Rogers.”

➦In 2013…Veteran radio personality Bob Sanders, half of the husband-and-wife broadcast duo Bob & Betty Sanders, died at the age of 89.

Although the couple worked in other markets, they were best known in Chicago, where Bob and Betty Sanders' show aired on WBBM-AM 1972 through 1983. The midday show mixed news and information with interviews with visiting actors, authors and other celebrities.

Robert W. Sanders grew up in Tuscumbia, Ala. His studies at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa were interrupted in 1942 when he was drafted into the Army. He became ill with pleurisy while serving in Europe and was sent to a hospital in Louisiana to recover. A buddy there suggested that because he liked to talk so much, he should go into radio.

Bob & Betty

He began his radio career with a small station in Florence, Ala. He also worked at stations in Birmingham, Ala.; Kansas City, Mo.; St. Louis; and Wichita, Kan., before coming to Chicago. It was in St. Louis that he met a young actress named Betty Kwitzky, who was working in commercials. The two married in 1954.

By 1972, Mr. Sanders and his wife were working together at WBBM-AM in Chicago. Their show ran weekdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and included news, entertainment and interviews.  Later, they  moved to another Chicago station, then WCFL-AM, now WMVP.

"You felt good after listening to Bob and Betty," said Steve Dale, the producer of the show after it moved to WCFL.

"You were informed, you were entertained, but you felt like you were sitting with them having a chat," said Dale, now the host of the weekly "Steve Dale's Pet World" on WGN-AM, a station owned by Tribune Co.

In late 1985, the couple began a two-year stint at WMCA in New York, doing a morning show that blended talk, news, weather and interviews.

When the station was sold, they returned to the Midwest, where Mr. Sanders began working at WISN in Milwaukee. His wife later joined him on air there. He retired in the late 1980s.

Paul Simon is 80

🎂HAPPY BIRTHDAYS:

• Gospel singer Shirley Caesar is 84.
• Actor Melinda Dillon (“A Christmas Story”) is 82. 
• Musician Paul Simon is 80. 
• Keyboardist Robert Lamm of Chicago is 77. 
• Country singer Lacy J. Dalton is 75. 
• Actor Demond Wilson (“Sanford and Son”) is 75. 
• Singer Sammy Hagar is 74. 
• Singer John Ford Coley of England Dan and John Ford Coley is 73. 
• Actor John Lone (“Rush Hour 2″) is 69. 
• Model Beverly Johnson is 69. 
• “The X-Files” creator Chris Carter is 65. 
• Singer Cherrelle is 62. 

• 

  Marie Osmond is 62

  Singer-actor-talk show host Marie Osmond is 62. 
• Singer Joey Belladonna of Anthrax is 61. 
• Actor T’Keyah Crystal Keymah (“That’s So Raven”) is 59. 
• Country singer John Wiggins is 59. 
• Actor Christopher Judge (TV’s “Stargate SG-1”) is 57. 
• Actor Matt Walsh (“Veep”) is 57. 
• Actor Reginald Ballard (“Martin,” ″The Bernie Mac Show”) is 56. 
• Actor Kate Walsh (“Private Practice,” ″Grey’s Anatomy”) is 54. 
• Musician Jeff Allen of Mint Condition is 53. 
• Actor Tisha Campbell-Martin (“My Wife and Kids,” ″Martin”) is 53. 
• Singer Carlos Marin of Il Divo is 53. 
• Country singer Rhett Akins is 52. 
• TV personality Billy Bush is 50. 
• Actor Sacha Baron Cohen (“Borat,” ″Da Ali G Show”) is 50. 
• Guitarist Jan Van Sichem Jr. of K’s Choice is 49. 
• Singers Brandon and Brian Casey of Jagged Edge are 46. 
• Actor Kiele Sanchez (“Lost”) is 45. 
• Singer Ashanti is 41. 
• Singer-rapper Lumidee is 41. 
• Contemporary Christian singer Jon Micah Sumrall of Kutless is 41. 
• Actor Caleb McLaughlin (“Stranger Things”) is 20.