July 7 Radio History

➦In 1940...Beatle Ringo Starr born.

➦In 194?...Radio personality Joey Reynolds was born.  Joey Reynolds is the pseudonym of Joey Pinto, long-time radio show host and disc jockey. Reynolds' broadcasting career started on TV in Buffalo at WGR TV 2 and he worked at various stations, including at WNBC.

Joey Reynolds

His first radio job was WWOL in Buffalo with Dick Purtan, then WKWK, in Wheeling, WV. After that, he continued at several venerable stations, including WKBW in Buffalo, New York, WNBC and WOR in New York City, KQV in Pittsburgh, KMPC and KRTH in Los Angeles, WDRC in Hartford, WIXY in Cleveland, and WIBG and WFIL in Philadelphia.

He rose to fame as a Top 40 radio personality during the 1960s and 1970s, amassing large audiences in places such as Hartford, Connecticut, Cleveland, Ohio, Detroit, Michigan, and his hometown of Buffalo, New York. Reynolds is often regarded as an early progenitor of "shock talk radio", whose sometimes outlandish on and off-air stunts garnered widespread publicity.

Joey Reynolds was in the category of disc jockey, playing music on music intensive radio stations from the very late 1950s until the mid-1980s during his time on Z100 and WFIL. In 1986, he arrived at the former WNBC in New York City doing the afternoon drive, Howard Stern's previous shift. That station was attempting to move into a more talk intensive full service format with music taking a backseat but still heard. Reynolds was basically playing a mix of oldies and adult contemporary cuts along with comedy and personality, and was most notably on the air when the station's traffic helicopter crashed, killing reporter Jane Dornacker.

He exited WNBC at the end of February 1987 and was replaced by the late Alan Colmes.

His next stations were morning shows and at that point Joey had evolved into more of a talk intensive program. He was less a DJ and more like a talk show host. By 1995, Joey was no longer playing music on his shows and in 1996 he arrived at WOR in New York. He has been a talk show host since.

On March 10, 2010, it was revealed that WOR would pick up Coast to Coast AM from Premiere Radio and would cancel "The Joey Reynolds Show." (Coast to Coast had been heard on crosstown rival WABC for several years, before that station dropped the show in favor of an in-house offering from Doug McIntyre, which led Premiere to seek WOR as the new New York affiliate.) Reynolds' last show, which was segregated into the "Final Gay Hour," the "Final Jewish Hour" and "The Final Hour," aired the morning of April 3, 2010.

610 KFRC · 610 KFRC Bobby Ocean Summer 1986

➦In 1944...legendary radio personality, Bobby Ocean, was born. He worked primarily on the West Coast. As you might expect Bobby Ocean is not his real name.  His real is...Johnny! Johnny Ocean!

However, his first radio job was WDLP, Panama City, FL in 1963 using the name Ray Farrell.

He also used the on-air handles of 'Radio Ray' and 'Captain Turntable'. He first used the name Bobby Ocean at KGB 1360 AM, in San Diego, CA in 1968.

Best known for his work at KFRC 610 AM San Fransisco and KHJ 930 AM Los Angeles.

➦In 1949...the program "Dragnet" debuted on the NBC Radio Network.

Dragnet enacted the cases of a dedicated Los Angeles police detective, Sergeant Joe Friday, and his partners. The show takes its name from the police term "dragnet", meaning a system of coordinated measures for apprehending criminals or suspects.

Dragnet is perhaps the most famous and influential police procedural drama in media history. The series gave audience members a feel for the boredom and drudgery, as well as the danger and heroism, of police work. Dragnet earned praise for improving the public opinion of police officers.

Actor and producer Jack Webb's aims in Dragnet were for realism and unpretentious acting. He achieved both goals, and Dragnet remains a key influence on subsequent police dramas in many media.

The show's cultural impact is such that after seven decades, elements of Dragnet are familiar to those who have never seen or heard the program. The ominous, four-note introduction to the brass and tympani theme music (titled "Danger Ahead"), composed by Walter Schumann, is instantly recognizable.

The radio series was the first entry in a Dragnet media franchise encompassing film, television, books and comics.

➦In 1974...“The Dr. Demento Radio Show” began national syndication, starring Barry Hansen who had created the persona of Dr. Demento in 1970 while working at Pasadena station KPPC-FM.

The positive listener response to the offbeat novelties that Hansen included in his rock oldies show led to his eventually turning it into an all-novelty show. At the end of 1971, he moved to KMET in Los Angeles. From 1972 to 1983, he performed a four-hour live show on KMET. From about 1974 on, the local Los Angeles market was the full 4 hours and the nationally syndicated show was cut to 2 hours. Later, the show would be a two-hour live show on KLSX, and after they converted to a talk-only format in 1995, moved again to KSCA, where it remained until they changed to a Spanish-language broadcast, in February 1997.

➦In 1989...Compact discs started to outsell vinyl record albums for the first time. The dominance of CDs practically wiped out the 45 RPM single format since nothing came along to replace it.

➦In 1990...radio/TV game show host & panelist Bill Cullen died from lung cancer at age 70.

Bill Cullen

Cullen's broadcasting career began in 1939 in Pittsburgh at WWSW radio, where he worked as a disc jockey and play-by-play announcer or color commentator for Pittsburgh Steelers and Pittsburgh Hornets games. In 1943, Cullen left WWSW to briefly work at rival station KDKA before leaving Pittsburgh a year later to try his luck in New York. A week after arriving in New York, he was hired as a staff announcer at CBS.

To supplement his then-meager income, he became a freelance joke writer for some of the top radio stars of the day, including Arthur Godfrey, Danny Kaye, and Jack Benny; he also worked as a staff writer for the Easy Aces radio show.

Between 1946 and 1953, he worked as announcer for various other local and network shows, including the radio version of Mark Goodson and Bill Todman's first game show, Winner Take All, hosted by Ward Wilson; Cullen took over as host four months later when Wilson left. After a brief stint at WNEW in 1951, he hosted a popular morning show at WRCA radio from 1955 to 1961. His last regular radio job was as one of the hosts of NBC Radio's Monitor from 1971–73.

He was a longtime panel member on 'I’ve Got a Secret' & then 'To Tell the Truth' on TV.

➦In 2015…Longtime Chicago WVON radio personality/executive Moses "Lucky" Cordell died of injuries suffered in a fire at his home. He was 86.

Cordell had a long career in Chicago radio. After starting as a DJ at WGES in Chicago in 1952, Cordell moved to WGRY in Gary before working at WVON in Chicago.

He became the station's program and music director in 1965 and went on to become WVON's general manager in 1970.

Tom Marr

➦In 2016…Veteran Baltimore radio personality Tom Marr died at age 73.

Marr, who has been one of the more recognizable figures in Baltimore radio, began his career in 1967 with WFBR-AM where he started as a reporter and then served as the station’s news director. He was also the weekend sports anchor at WMAR-TV.

He joined WCBM in 1988 where he was both a reporter and political commentator and later became a talk show host.  Marr also hosted his own nationally broadcast talk show on the WOR Radio Network and spent eight seasons as the radio play-by-play announcer for the Baltimore Orioles.

Ringo Starr Then & Now

🎂HAPPY BIRTHDAYS:

• Bandleader Doc Severinsen is 95. 
• Drummer Ringo Starr is 82. 
• Singer-guitarist Warren Entner of the Grass Roots is 79. 
• Actor Joe Spano is 76. 
• Singer David Hodo (the construction worker) of The Village People is 75. 
• Country singer Linda Williams is 75. 

• 

  Maddie Marlow is 27

  Actor Shelley Duvall is 73. 
• Actor Roz Ryan (“Amen”) is 71. 
• Actor Billy Campbell (“Once and Again”) is 63. 
• Bassist Mark White of the Spin Doctors is 60. 
• Singer-songwriter Vonda Shepard (“Ally McBeal”) is 59. 
• Comedian Jim Gaffigan is 56. 
• Bassist Ricky Kinchen of Mint Condition is 56. 
• Actor Amy Carlson (“Blue Bloods”) is 54. 
• Actor Jorja Fox (“CSI”) is 54. 
• Actor Cree Summer (“A Different World”) is 53. 
• Actor Robin Weigert (“Deadwood,” “Sons of Anarchy”) is 53. 
• Actor Kirsten Vangsness (“Criminal Minds”) is 50. 
• Actor Troy Garity (“Barbershop”) is 49. 
• Actor Berenice Bejo (“The Artist”) is 46. 
• Actor Hamish Linklater (“The New Adventures of Old Christine”) is 46. 
• Rapper Cassidy is 40. Actor Ross Malinger (“Sleepless in Seattle”) is 38. 
• Comedian Luke Null (“Saturday Night Live”) is 32. 
• Singer Ally Hernandez of Fifth Harmony (“The X Factor”) is 29. 
• Drummer Ashton Irwin of 5 Seconds Of Summer is 28. 
• Country singer Maddie Font of Maddie and Tae is 27.

🕇DEATH ANNIVERSARIES

• Novelist Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, died on this day in 1930. He was 71.
• Gone with the Wind actress Vivien Leigh died on this day in 1967. She was 53.