June 16 Radio History

➦In 1934...Radio pioneer Edwin H. Armstrong transmitted FM signal 70 miles from Empire State Building to Long Island.  Armstrong (1890–1954) was an American electrical engineer who invented wideband frequency modulation (FM) radio.  He patented the regenerative circuit in 1914, the superheterodyne receiver in 1918 and the super-regenerative circuit in 1922. Armstrong presented his paper, "A Method of Reducing Disturbances in Radio Signaling by a System of Frequency Modulation", (which first described FM radio) before the New York section of the Institute of Radio Engineers on November 6, 1935. The paper was published in 1936.

As the name implies, wideband FM (WFM) requires a wider signal bandwidth than amplitude modulation by an equivalent modulating signal; this also makes the signal more robust against noise and interference. Frequency modulation is also more robust against signal-amplitude-fading phenomena.


➦In 1941...Front Page Farrell, a radio serial,  first aired on Mutual Broadcasting System from 1941 to March 13, 1942, and on NBC from September 14, 1942, to March 26, 1954. The episodes broadcast on Mutual originated at WOR, making the program the first live serial that Mutual broadcast from New York City.  It was produced by and starred Richard Widmark.

Charles Farrell, Gil Stratton Jr. "Freddie", and Gale Storm

➦In 1952...“My Little Margie” on CBS-TV debuted as a summer replacement for “I Love Lucy” in 1952. The series, starring Gale Storm and Charles Farrell, aired original episodes on CBS Radio concurrently with the TV broadcasts from December 1952 through August 1955.


➦In 1962...Bob Lewis aired his first show on WABC 770 AM, New York. He stayed on for about 8 years.



Lewis died in January 1987 at age 49.

Bob ‘Bobaloo’ Lewis was best known as one of the “All Americans” on 77 WABC. Lesser known was the fact that he was also heard on the FM side. WABC 95.5 FM was a Progressive Rock station.

The format was called “Love” and featured album cuts from Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, The Who, and many more similar artists which would become the staples of AOR and later, Classic Rock stations.

In 1970 he moved to WCBS FM and in `72 to WNEW-FM.


➦In 1968...Jackson Armstrong premiered on CHUM 1050 AM, Toronto.

Jack Armstrong

Big Jack Armstrong, born John Charles Larsh in Durham County, NC, began his radio career at WCHL in Chapel Hill, North Carolina in 1960 at the age of 14 as an after school and weekend job. He also worked at WCDJ in Edenton in the summer when his family would go back home during summer break. At some point, he worked for WSSB in Durham, but the time frame is unclear.

Upon graduating from high school in 1964, Larsh moved to Atlanta, where he got an FCC First Class engineer's license, while working on the radio at WDJK. His parents enrolled him in Guilford College in Greensboro in the pre-med course. Larsh dropped out almost immediately, having gotten a radio job at WCOG.

In early 1966, WAYS-AM in Charlotte had begun 24 hour operations.the FCC required that any station must have an engineer on duty at all times the station was on the air. When Larsh applied for a job there, the station quickly saw an opportunity to fill two sets of shoes with one person, since Larsh already had a First Class license. He was hired to fill the overnight shift.



At WAYS, Larsh met Jack Gale, a seasoned veteran of both the radio and music business who would become his mentor. Larsh later remarked, "Jack (Gale) has forgotten more about the radio business than I've ever known." When asked, he would always cite Gale as one of his major influences.

Larsh's first big break came later in 1966, when he landed a job at WIXY 1260 AM in Cleveland, Ohio. The evening disc jockey at this station was always called 'Jack Armstrong,' after the 1930s radio serial Jack Armstrong the All American Boy. With his fast talking, young, friendly approach, Larsh became a huge hit in Cleveland - so huge that floundering WKYC 1100 AM asked him to break his WIXY contract, and come to work for the 50,000 watt blowtorch in January 1967.

'Jack Armstrong' was a copyrighted moniker in the market, so Larsh adopted the alias 'Big Jack Your Leader', and went to work for WKYC. He also occasionally taunted WIXY by calling himself Jackson W. Armstrong.

Larsh moved on, working at other 50,000 watt stations like WMEX 1510 AM in Boston; CHUM 1050 AM in Toronto, Ontario, Canada; KFI 640 AM in Los Angeles, KTNQ 1020 AM in Los Angeles and WKBW 1520 AM in Buffalo, New York.  Larsh was one of the original disc jockeys hired for the all new 13-Q in Pittsburgh in the early 1970s. Larsh also worked at KFRC, The Big 610 in the early 1980s, dominating the mid-day, late night, and overnight shifts at the station.

Larsh was working for WWKB 1520 in Buffalo, New York when the sudden format change in 2006 to liberal talk put him in the unemployed ranks. He died on March 22, 2008 at High Point Regional Hospital in North Carolina. He died from injuries suffered in a fall down his very steep stairs at his home.

Mel Allen

➦In 1996...Mel Allen died at age 83 (Born Melvin Allen Israel; February 14, 1913). He was a radio, TV sportscaster, best known for his long tenure as the primary play-by-play announcer for the New York Yankees. During the peak of his career in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, Allen was arguably the most prominent member of his profession, his voice familiar to millions. Years after his death, he is still promoted as having been "The Voice of the Yankees."

In perhaps the most notable moment of his distinguished career, Allen called Game 7 of the 1960 World Series, in which Bill Mazeroski hit a walk-off home run off Ralph Terry to win the fall classic for the Pittsburgh Pirates. This is the only walk-off home run ever to occur in a Game 7 of a World Series.

Allen attended the University of Alabama, where he served as the public address announcer for Alabama Crimson Tide football games. In 1933, when the station manager or sports director of Birmingham's radio station WBRC asked Alabama coach Frank Thomas to recommend a new play-by-play announcer, he suggested Allen.

Shortly after graduating, auditioned for a staff announcer's position at the CBS Radio Network. CBS executives already knew of Allen; the network's top sportscaster, Ted Husing, had heard many of his Crimson Tide broadcasts. He was hired at $45 ($796 in 2019) a week.

Allen was used as a color commentator for CBS's radio broadcast of the 1938 World Series. This led Wheaties to tap him to replace Arch McDonald as the voice of the Washington Senators for the 1939 season.

In June 1939, Garnett Marks, McDonald's partner on Yankee broadcasts, twice mispronounced Ivory Soap, the Yankees' sponsor at the time, as "Ovary Soap." He was fired, and Allen was tapped to replace him. McDonald himself went back to Washington after only one season, and Allen became the Yankees' and Giants' lead announcer, doing double duty for both teams because only their home games were broadcast at that time.

He periodically recounted an anecdote that occurred during his first full season (1940) as Yankee play-by-play man. Hall of Fame first baseman Lou Gehrig had been forced to retire the year before after having been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a fatal illness. Speaking with Allen in the Yankee dugout, Gehrig told him "Mel, I never got a chance to listen to your games before because I was playing every day. But I want you to know they're the only thing that keeps me going." Allen broke down in tears.

➦In 2015…Longtime Detroit personality Alan Almond died from a heart attacked at age 67.  He was host of 'Pillow Talk' from the 1970’s to the ’90’s. Almond never allowed himself to be photographed to enhance the effect of Pillow Talk’s ‘theater of the mind.'

Gino Vannelli is 71

🎂HAPPY BIRTHDAYS

•  Actor Eileen Atkins (“The Crown,” ″Doc Martin”) is 89. 
• Actor Bill Cobbs is 89. 
• Country singer Billy “Crash” Craddock is 85. 
• Singer Eddie Levert of The O’Jays is 81. 
• Actor Joan Van Ark is 80. 
• Actor Geoff Pierson (“Splitting Up Together,” “Designated Survivor”) is 74. 
• Singer James Smith (The Stylistics) is 73. 
• Singer Gino Vannelli is 71. 
• Actor Laurie Metcalf (“Roseanne,” ″Norm”) is 68. 
• Actor Arnold Vosloo (“The Mummy”) is 61. 
• Actor Danny Burstein (“Boardwalk Empire”) is 59. 
• Model-actor Jenny Shimizu is 56. 
• Actor James Patrick Stuart (TV’s “The Closer”) is 55. 
• Rapper MC Ren of N.W.A is 54. 
• Actor Clifton Collins Jr. (“Westworld”) is 53. 
• Actor John Cho (2009′s “Star Trek,” ″Harold and Kumar” movies) is 51. 
• Actor Eddie Cibrian (“Third Watch”) is 50. 
• Actor Fred Koehler (“Kate and Allie”) is 48. 
• Actor China Shavers (“Boston Public”) is 46. 
• Actor Daniel Bruhl (“Captain America: Civil War”) is 45. 
• Actor Sibel Kekilli (“Game of Thrones”) is 43.
• Actor Missy Peregrym (“Rookie Blue”) is 41. 
• Actor Olivia Hack is 40. 
• “American Idol” runner-up Diana DeGarmo is 36. 
• Bassist Ian Keaggy of Hot Chelle Rae is 36. 
• Broadway actor Ali Stroker is 36.

✞DEATH ANNIVERSARIES

• In 1959..George Reeves, Actor (Adventures of Superman; Gone With The Wind), commits suicide by shooting himself in the head at 45
• In 1970..Brian Piccolo, NFL football running back, 1965-69 (Chicago Bears), and subject of the 1971 TV movie "Brian's Song", dies of cancer at 26
• In 1977..Wernher von Braun, German-American rocket scientist (Germany - V1 and V2, US -Saturn V, NASA), and Disney space consultant, dies of pancreatic cancer at 65