June 28 Radio History

➦In 1940...The Quiz Kids was first heard on radio as a summer replacement. Quiz Kids was a radio and TV series of the 1940s and 1950s. Created by Chicago public relations and advertising man Louis G. Cowan, and originally sponsored by Alka-Seltzer, the series was first broadcast on NBC from Chicago  airing as a summer replacement show for Alec Templeton Time.

It continued on radio for the next 13 years. On television, the show was seen on NBC and CBS from July 6, 1949 to July 5, 1953, with Joe Kelly as quizmaster, and again from January 12 to September 27, 1956, with Clifton Fadiman as host.

➦In 1943...the Dreft Star Playhouse debuted on NBC radio. Jane Wyman (the first Mrs. Ronald Reagan) starred in the first broadcast, titled Bachelor Mother. The 21-month series was expensive by radio’s daytime standards, with $3,000 a week budgetted for big name talent.

➦In 1944...The Alan Young Show debuted on NBC radio. It was the summer replacement for the popular Eddie Cantor. The show became a regular in the fall lineup.. on ABC. Young, incidentally, made the switch to TV in 1961. He became a CBS star with a talking horse, of course, of course, named Mister Ed.

➦In 1947…Allen Funt began a lengthy career of catching people in embarassment as “Candid Microphone” began a 15-month run on ABC Radio. It returned to the air on CBS Radio for three months in 1950. The TV version of the concept “Candid Camera” first aired in 1948.

➦In 1951...an old favorite of radio audiences made the switch to TV.  Amos ‘n’ Andy moved to CBS-TV. Two years later, criticism from the NAACP about ‘stereotyping’ forced the network to drop the show.

➦In 1968...Don Imus got his first radio job. Previously, Imus was a brakeman on the Southern Pacific Railroad.

Don Imus

After hearing a morning disc-jockey, he went to the nearby radio station and persuaded the owner to hire him. Thus he began his career as a radio disc jockey on June 28, 1968 at radio station KUTY in Palmdale, California.

He stayed at the station until 1969 when he left for a job at KJOY, a small radio station in Stockton, California. He was later fired for saying "hell" on air.

After being fired in Stockton, he went to KXOA in Sacramento, California. His on-air pranks, such as calling up a restaurant and ordering 1200 hamburgers to go, made his show immensely popular and boosted ratings.

In 1970, Imus left KXOA for WGAR in Cleveland, Ohio for a $50,000 salary. In 1971, he won his second Billboard Award, this time in the major radio market category. On December 2, 1971, less than three years into his radio career, Imus started his morning show at WNBC in New York City, with a $100,000 per year salary.

Rick Barber

➦In 1997...George Harrison secretly undergoes surgery to have a cancerous lump removed from his throat. The ex-Beatle will eventually succumb to the disease in 2001. He publicly blamed years of smoking for the illness.

➦In 2013…Longtime Denver radio talk show host Rick Barber died Denver following complications as a result of ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease. Barber was 67. He began his radio work in the 1960s as a teenager in Rhode Island. Barber first came to Colorado and KWGN in early 1970s with positions to follow at KWBZ and KDEN.

Following stints in Wyoming and New Mexico, Barber came back to Denver in 1982 and took a seat in the overnight chair on KOA. "The Rick Barber Show" aired for an unprecedented thirty years ending on 850 KOA in early 2012.

➦In 2015…Radio personality Grady "Doctor" Brock died at age 66.  He had stints at WCFL Chicago, WNOE New Orleans and KAAY Little Rock.

Mary Stuart Masterson is 57

🎂HAPPY BIRTHDAYS:

• Comedian-director Mel Brooks is 97. 
• Comedian John Byner is 86. 
• Bassist Dave Knights of Procol Harum is 78. 
• Actor Bruce Davison (“X-Men”) is 77. 
• Actor Kathy Bates is 75. 
• Actor Alice Krige is 69. 
• Jazz singer Tierney Sutton is 60. 
• Guitarist-violinist Saul Davies of James is 58. 
• Actor Jessica Hecht (“Friends,” ″The Single Guy”) is 58. 
• Actor John Cusack is 57. 
• Actor Mary Stuart Masterson is 57. 
• Actor Gil Bellows (“Ally McBeal”) is 56. 
• Actor Tichina Arnold (“Everybody Hates Chris”) is 54. 
• Actor-songwriter Danielle Brisebois (“All in the Family”) is 54. 
• Jazz saxophonist Jimmy Sommers is 54. 
• Actor Steve Burton (“The Young and the Restless”) is 53. 
• Bassist Tim Nordwind of OK Go is 47. 
• Bassist Mark Stoermer of The Killers is 46. 
• Singer and former “American Idol” contestant Kellie Pickler is 37.

✞DEATH ANNIVERSARIES

• In 1975..Rod Serling, American screenwriter and TV host (The Twilight Zone; Night Gallery), dies after multiple heart attacks at 50
• In 2009..Billy Mays, American television pitchman (b. 1958)
• In 2009..Fred Travalena, American comedian and impressionist (b. 1942)
• In 2009..Tom Wilkes, American photographer, art director, poster and album cover designer (George Harrison; Rolling Stones; Carpenters, Sir Doug; Janis Joplin; Sandpipers), dies at 69
• In 2014..Meshach Taylor, American actor, dies from colorectal cancer at 67
• In 2015..Jack Carter [Chakrin], American comedian and actor, dies at 93
• In 2016..Scotty Moore, American guitarist (for Elvis), dies at 84