January 17 Radio History

➦In 1903...Radio game show host and actor Warren Hull was born in Gasport NY.

A movie actor in the 30’s, he turned to radio in the 40’s with announcer/host roles on such shows as Your Hit Parade and Vox Pop. Hull was also the emcee of Spin To Win, only the second game show created by the team of Mark Goodson and Bill Todman.

The next two decades he hosted TV game shows Strike It Rich, Top Dollar, Who In the World and Beat the Odds.

“Strike It Rich” was a wildly successful CBS radio‐television show of the 1950s that ‘was part quiz and part give‐away and offered the public the spectacle of often despondent people relating their hard‐luck stories to Mr. Hull.

Participants were able to win a few hundred dollars by correctly answering a few questions, in addition to which the program featured a “heart line” through which pitying viewers could telephone offers of cash, clothing, merchandise and jobs.

He died of heart failure Sept 14 1974 at age 71.

Betty White 1953 and 2019

➦In 1922...Comedic Actress Betty White was born.  A pioneer of early television, with a career spanning over eight decades, White was noted for her vast work in the entertainment industry and being one of the first women to work both in front of and behind the camera. She was the first woman to produce a sitcom (Life with Elizabeth) in the United States, which contributed to her being named honorary Mayor of Hollywood in 1955. White is often referred to as the "First Lady of Television", a title used for a 2018 documentary detailing her life and career.

After World War 2, her first radio jobs included reading commercials and playing bit parts, and sometimes even doing crowd noises.  She made about five dollars a show. She would do just about anything, like singing on a show for no pay.  She appeared on shows such as Blondie, The Great Gildersleeve, and This Is Your FBI. She was then offered her own radio show, called The Betty White Show.  In 1949, she began appearing as co-host with Al Jarvis on his daily live television variety show Hollywood on Television, originally called Make Believe Ballroom, on KFWB and on then KLAC-TV (now KCOP-TV) in Los Angeles.

After making the transition to television from radio, White became a staple panelist of American game shows, including Password, Match Game, Tattletales, To Tell the Truth, The Hollywood Squares, and The $25,000 Pyramid; dubbed "the first lady of game shows", White became the first woman to receive the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Game Show Host for the show Just Men! in 1983. She was also known for her appearances on The Bold and the Beautiful, Boston Legal, and The Carol Burnett Show. Her biggest roles include Sue Ann Nivens on the CBS sitcom The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1973–1977), Rose Nylund on the NBC sitcom The Golden Girls (1985–1992), and Elka Ostrovsky on the TV Land sitcom Hot in Cleveland (2010–2015). She gained renewed popularity after her appearance in the 2009 romantic comedy film The Proposal (2009), and was subsequently the subject of a successful Facebook-based campaign to host Saturday Night Live in 2010, garnering her a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series.

White earned a Guinness World Record for "Longest TV career by an entertainer (female)" in 2014 and in 2018 for her lengthy work in television. White received eight Emmy Awards in various categories, three American Comedy Awards, three Screen Actors Guild Awards, and a Grammy Award. She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and was a 1995 Television Hall of Fame inductee.  White died December 31, 2021, six days after suffering a stroke.

➦In 1949... after 18 years on radio, “The Goldbergs” starring Gertrude Berg, began its seven-year run on TV.

➦In 1964...the No. 1 Billboard Pop Hit was “There! I’ve Said It Again” by Bobby Vinton. This song was the last No. 1 song before the British invasion. After four weeks at No. 1, Vinton gave way to the Beatles and their first U.S. hit, “I Want to Hold Your Hand.”

➦In 1986...Longtime Chicago radio personality Joel Sebastian died at age 53. He began his radio career in his native Detroit at station WXYZ, moved to Chicago in 1966, after working at stations in Dallas, New Haven, Conn., and Los Angeles.

Over the last 20 years, he had been a disc jockey and morning on-air personality at eight Chicago radio stations, including WCFL, WLS, WGN, WMAQ and, most recently, WJMK-FM (104).

He began his Chicago career at WCFL as a talkative morning disc jockey. He would open each show with the greeting ''Good morning Chicago, baby,'' while playing Jack Jones` rendition of ''My Kind of Town.''

Sebastian performed a variety of radio roles, reflecting both the wide range of his abilities and the whimsical nature of the business. He was program director at WCFL, rock DJ at several stations and, in the late 1970s, an all-night classical music show host at WGN.

He survived a purge at WMAQ when the station switched to country music in 1975. Most of the on-air staff, including Mr. Sebastian, was fired. But he was rehired a short time later as production chief and weekend personality.

He also worked at WNEW, WKHK, WHN and WNBC in New York City, returning to Chicago in June 1983 to WJMX.

➦In 1989...Scott Shannon last show at WHTZ Z100 NYC.  Shannon founded the "Z Morning Zoo" concept and he was the driving force in helping Z100 become the top-rated FM station in New York City within a mere 74 days of signing on the air.

In 1989, Shannon left Z100 for Los Angeles to start up Pirate Radio, KQLZ. Pirate Radio employed a similar Top 40 concept. As the 1990s began, Top 40 radio experienced a decline, and eventually Pirate Radio struggled as well, leading to Shannon's departure.

In 1991 he returned to New York and resurfaced on Z100's biggest rival, WPLJ.  He is now hosting mornings on Entercom's Classic Hits WCBS 101.1 FM NYC.

➦In 2004...TV talk show host, Jerry Springer, began a new radio show on WCKY-AM, Cincinnati, the city where he once had been mayor.

➦In 2012...Johnny Otis, a bandleader and songwriter often called the “Godfather of R & B,” died at home in L.A. at age 90. Best-known for writing “Willie And The Hand Jive,” Otis helped pave the way for Rock & Roll in the early ‘50s.

Mick Taylor is 75

🎂HAPPY BIRTHDAYS:

• Actor James Earl Jones is 92. 
• Talk show host Maury Povich is 84. 
• Singer Chris Montez is 81. 
• Actor Joanna David (“Downton Abbey”) is 76. 
• Actor Jane Elliott (“General Hospital”) is 76. 
• Former Rolling Stones guitarist Mick Taylor is 75. 
• Singer Sheila Hutchinson of The Emotions is 70. 
• Singer Steve Earle is 68. 
• Singer Paul Young is 67. 
• Actor-comedian Steve Harvey is 66. 
• Singer Susanna Hoffs of The Bangles is 64. 
• Writer-Director Brian Helgeland (“42,” ″Mystic River,” ″L.A. Confidential”) is 62. 
• Actor Jim Carrey is 61. Actor Denis O’Hare (“The Good Wife,” ″True Blood”) is 61. 
• Actor Joshua Malina (“The West Wing,” ″Sports Night”) is 57. 
• Singer Shabba Ranks is 57. 
• Actor Naveen Andrews (“Instinct,” “Lost”) is 54. 
• Electronic musician DJ Tiesto is 54. 
• Musician Kid Rock is 52. 
• Actor Freddy Rodriguez (“The Night Shift,” ″Six Feet Under”) is 48. 
• Actor-writer Leigh Whannel (“Saw” and “Insidious” movies) is 46. 
• Actor-singer Zooey Deschanel (“New Girl”) is 43. 
• Singer Ray J is 42. 
• Country singer Amanda Wilkinson of The Wilkinsons is 41. 
• Actor Ryan Gage (“The Hobbit”) is 40. 
• DJ Calvin Harris is 39. 
• Drummer Jeremiah Fraites of The Lumineers is 37. 
• Actor Jonathan Keltz (“Reign,” ″Entourage”) is 35. 
• Actor Kelly Marie Tran (“Star Wars: The Last Jedi”) is 34. 
• Actor Kathrine Herzer (“Madame Secretary”) is 26.

✞DEATH ANNIVERSARIES:

• In 1970..Billy Stewart, Singer ("I Do Love You"), dies in auto-accident at 32
• In 2007..Art Buchwald, Columnist and author (The Washington Post), dies at 81
• In 2022.. Yvette Mimieux, Actress (Time Machine; Where the Boys Are; Light in the Piazza), dies at 80