December 19 Radio History

➦In 1932... the British Broadcasting Corp began transmitting overseas via shortwave radio; it soon became the highly regarded BBC World Service.

➦In 1944...ABC took over ownership of WJZ 770 AM.  The WJZ call sign was used in NYC from 1921 to 1953.

➦In 1956...Elvis Presley scored six different songs on Billboard's listing of the most popular songs of the day  They were: Don't Be Cruel, Hound Dog, Blue Moon, Love Me Tender, Anyway You Want Me and Love Me.   That was the most singles ever charted at same time.  That recorded lasted until The Beatles came along with seven singles 1964.

➦In 1958...the first radio broadcast from space occurred when President Dwight D. Eisenhower said "To all mankind, America's wish for Peace on Earth & Good Will to Men Everywhere".

The following words were President Eisenhower’s full remarks to the country:

"This is the President of the United States speaking. Through the marvels of scientific advance, my voice is coming to you from a satellite circling in outer space. My message is a simple one. Though this unique means, I convey to you and all mankind, America’s wish for peace on earth and good will to men everywhere."

 ➦In 1980...Mutual Broadcasting cancels Sears Radio Theater

➦In 1985...ABC Sports announced that it was severing ties with   Howard Cosell and dismissed “The Mouth” from all TV assignments. But “Humble” Howard continued with his daily broadcasts on ABC Radio for another five years.

➦In 1997...the founder of Sony Corp., Masaru Ibuka died at the age of 89 from heart failure. Ibuka, one of the leading engineer-entrepreneurs of post-World War II Japan, helped transform modern culture with the world’s first pocket transistor radio.

Les Tremayne

➦In 2003...Les Tremayne died at age 90. Tremayne was a leading man during Radio's Golden Era.   It is estimated that Les worked on more than 30,000 broadcasts, with as many as 45 radio shows a week in the 30s and 40s.  Replacing Don Ameche, he starred in The First Nighter Program from 1936 to 1942.

He starred in The Adventures of the Thin Man and The Romance of Helen Trent during the 1940s. He also starred in the title role in The Falcon, and played detective Pat Abbott in The Abbott Mysteries in 1946–47.

➤AUDIO: Click Here

Tremayne was married four times. He did a morning talk show: The Tremaynes with his second wife, Alice Reinhardt. When Tremayne died, he was married to his fourth wife, Joan.  Tremayne was once named one of the three most distinctive voices on American radio. The other two were Bing Crosby and President Franklin D. Roosevelt. 

➦In 2004...A single-engine Cessna 182 crashed into the KFI 640 AM radio tower in Los Angeles knocking the station off-the-air for an hour and killing the two people in the plane.

On December 19, 2004 at 9:45 am Pacific Standard Time, Jim and Mary Ghosoph were killed when their rented Cessna 182P single engine airplane, travelling from the El Monte Airport to Fullerton Municipal Airport, struck KFI's transmission tower, located in the City of La Mirada.

The solid steel truss, originally built in 1948, collapsed upon itself, mostly landing in a parking lot to the north of the site (KFI was relatively late to convert from a horizontal to a vertical antenna—same-market Class A KNX converted to a vertical in 1938, and same-state Class As KGO and KPO (now KNBR) converted to verticals in 1941 and 1949, respectively). KFI's signal was knocked off the air for approximately one hour.

Pilots had complained for years to KFI management that it needed to put strobe lights on the tower and highly reflective balls on the guy wire. KFI and Clear Channel Communications management responded by saying the tower was in compliance with Federal Communications Commission and Federal Aviation Administration regulations and that it did not need to make any changes. Until a replacement was successfully erected, the station transmitted from a 200-foot auxiliary tower at a power of 25,000 watts.

On Tuesday, March 18, 2008 at 2:30 pm PST the replacement tower collapsed while under construction.  The tower was about 300 feet tall (the final height was to be 684 feet) when a guy wire support failed, causing the tower to tip over the opposite direction. There were no major injuries, and only limited collateral damage.

A new tower began construction at the end of July 2008 and was completed on August 14, 2008. The station returned to full power (50,000 watts) on September 25, 2008.

The new tower has a 50-foot-wide top-loading "capacitance hat", which electrically extends the tower's height another seventy-five feet, effectively, without actually needing more tower sections (the local regulation authorities in apparent defiance of electrical engineering principles, and communications law, demanded "a 10 percent reduction in overall height", otherwise the necessary permits would be refused, not withstanding the federal government's primary authority over radio communications, and KFI's strategic role as an Emergency Alert System station for the western U.S. region).

The new tower is also equipped with high intensity strobe lights due to its proximity to the Fullerton Municipal Airport, and additional safety upgrades because of the previous plane crash. The new tower has torque arms which limit the twisting of the tower in high winds. The tower has been dedicated to the memory of John Paoli, KFI Chief Engineer from 2000 to 2008, who died suddenly from a previously unknown genetic heart condition soon after overseeing the construction of the new tower.

Tim Reid is 78

🎂HAPPY BIRTHDAYS:

• Actor Elaine Joyce is 79. 
• Actor Tim Reid is 78. 
• Musician John McEuen (Nitty Gritty Dirt Band) is 77. 
• Country singer Janie Fricke is 75. 
• Jazz drummer Lenny White of Return to Forever is 73. 
• Actor Mike Lookinland (“The Brady Bunch”) is 62. 
• Actor Scott Cohen (“Gilmore Girls”) is 61. 
• Actor Jennifer Beals is 59. 
• Actor Robert MacNaughton (“E.T.”) is 56. 
• Magician Criss Angel is 55. 
• Guitarist Klaus Eichstadt of Ugly Kid Joe is 55. 
• Actor Kristy Swanson is 53. 
• Model Tyson Beckford is 52. 
• Actor Rosa Blasi (“Strong Medicine”) is 50. 
• Actor Alyssa Milano is 50. 
• Actor Tara Summers (“Mercy Street,” “Boston Legal”) is 43. 
• Actor Jake Gyllenhaal is 42. 
• Actor Marla Sokoloff (“The Practice”) is 42. 
• Actor Nik Dodani (“Murphy Brown”) is 29.

✞DEATH ANNIVERSARIES

• In 1959..Walter Williams, claimed to be last survivor of Civil War, dies at 117
• In 2000.. (Roebuck) "Pops" Staples, American gospel singer (The Staple Singers), dies at 85