June 7 Radio History

Martin & Lewis

➦In 1917...singer/comedian/actor Dean Martin was born in Steubenville Ohio.

He was one of the most famous music artists in the 1950s and 1960s. Playboy magazine later called Martin “the coolest man who ever lived.” He & Jerry Lewis began as a team in movies & on NBC radio in the late ’40’s, and did TV together in the early 50’s, but split in 1956.  He became a big TV star with NBC’s Dean Martin Show (1965-74) and his Celebrity Roasts (’73-’84.)

He succumbed to lung cancer Christmas Day 1995 at age 78.

➦In 1932..WLW 700 AM Cincinnati was authorized to experiment with a power of 500,000 watts at 700 khz.  In January 1934, WLW began broadcasting with 500,000 watts after midnight under the experimental call sign W8XO. In April 1934 the station was authorized to operate at 500,000 watts during regular hours using the WLW call letters. On May 2, 1934, President Franklin D. Roosevelt ceremonially pressed the same golden telegraph key that Wilson had used to open the Panama Canal, officially launching WLW's 500-kilowatt signal.

As the first station in the world to broadcast at this strength, WLW received numerous complaints from around the United States and Canada that it was interfering with other stations, most notably from CFRB, then on 690 kHz, in Toronto, Ontario. In December 1934, WLW was instructed to cut back to 50 kilowatts at night until it had eliminated the interference. The station began construction of two shorter towers 1850 feet southwest from the main tower in order to create a directional antenna, which successfully reduced the signal broadcast towards Canada. With these antenna towers in place, full-time broadcasting at 500 kilowatts resumed in early 1935. However, WLW was continuing to operate under special temporary authority that had to be renewed every six months; each renewal brought complaints about interference, and undue domination of the market, by such a high-power station.

After complaints of signal interference and years of controversy the extra power was rescinded in 1939.

➦In 1945...an NBC radio summer replacement show The Adventures of Topper aired for the first time. Roland Young reprised his title role from the 1937 movie of the same name. Eight years later the program would move to TV with a different cast and become a big hit.

➦In 1955...NBC radio presented The Lux Radio Theatre for the final time. The program had aired for 21 years, most of them on CBS.

➦In 1959…KLX-AM, Oakland, California changed its call letters to KEWB-AM (now KNEW 960 AM).

➦In 1965... KNX 1070 AM personality Bob Crane told his L-A audience he was leaving the show to star in a new TV series “Hogan’s Heroes.” Crane said he had been considering offers for years.

Most recently, he co-starred on “The Donna Reed Show” while still doing mornings on KNX. He was to begin shooting for the new series in two weeks. He was replaced by Pittsburgh’s Rege Cordic.

Bob Crane came to KNX in 1956 from WICC in Bridgeport, CT. He got his job in Los Angeles, when someone at another station sent KNX a tape of Crane, to get him out of town (Crane had huge ratings at WICC).

➦In 1986...In Los Angeles, KFI-in-the-sky traffic reporter Bruce Wayne was killed after his small plane, which  was taking off in Orange County. crashed. Wayne was about to file his first traffic report of the day when the crash occurred.

Several of the reports of the crash came from Wayne’s wife of 21 years, Lois, who was a reporter for KFI. She spent more than two hours calmly doing news reports about the accident and interviews on KFI.  “I am at the crash site of a (Cessna) Cardinal,” Lois Wayne said, as her first interview was broadcast live. “There is no paint or a number on the aircraft. The aircraft did have an explosion on impact.”

Although officials were not immediately certain that the wreckage was of her husband’s plane, Lois Wayne said she knew right away that it was.

In two weeks, Wayne would have celebrated his 25th anniversary on the job.

➦In 1986...Wally Clark announced he would resign his post as president/general manager of Gannett powerhouse KIIS-AM/FM in L-A on September to form his own consultancy. All outlets in the growing Gannett chain were his first clients. Clark joined KIIS in 1982 when the station had a 2.2 share and charged $37.50 per spot. When Clark departed KIIS commanded $2.500 per spot and was a top billing radio station.

➦In 2002…Longtime Seattle KIRO radio, TV sportscaster Wayne Cody died after a heart attack at age 65.

He was Nicknamed the "Mound of Sound" by Brent Musburger of CBS Sports, because of both his rich voice and his large size. The bearded and rotund Cody, who estimated his own weight at 325 pounds, dominated the sports scene in Western Washington for more than 20 years.

He was well known for his on-camera antics and his entertaining style of broadcasting. In the 1980s, KIRO TV ran a promotion called "Watch Wayne Disappear." The sportscaster was to lose 100 pounds over nine months and collect a $25,000 bonus. He was 25 pounds too heavy by deadline day.

Cody is best known for being the sports anchor on KIRO-Channel 7 TV and hosting KIRO 710 AM "Sportsline", a weeknight sports radio talk show that was the only one of its kind at the time in Seattle. He was also the original sideline reporter for the Seattle Seahawks radio network. Cody's other play-by-play experience in the Pacific Northwest included the Seattle SuperSonics (NBA) during the late 1970s thru the mid-1980s, Seattle Sounders of the North American Soccer League and University of Washington Huskies college football games. Earlier in his career, he also was the sideline reporter for the Seattle SuperSonics (NBA).

Tom Jones is 83

🎂HAPPY BIRTHDAYS:

• Actor Virginia McKenna (“Born Free”) is 92. 
• Singer Tom Jones is 83. 
• Talk show host Jenny Jones is 77. 
• Actor Liam Neeson is 71. 
• Actor Colleen Camp (“Die Hard: With A Vengeance”) is 70. 
• Actor William Forsythe is 68. 
• Record producer L.A. Reid is 67. 
• Latin pop singer Juan Luis Guerra is 66. 
• Singer-guitarist Gordon Gano of Violent Femmes is 60. 
• Drummer Eric Kretz of Stone Temple Pilots is 57. 
• Guitarist Dave Navarro is 56. 
• Actor Helen Baxendale (“Friends”) is 53. 
• Actor Karl Urban (2009′s “Star Trek”) is 51. 
• TV personality Bear Grylls (“Man Vs. Wild”) is 49. 
• Guitarist-keyboardist Eric Johnson of The Shins is 47. 
• Actor Adrienne Frantz (“The Bold and the Beautiful,” “The Young and the Restless”) is 45. 
• Comedian Bill Hader (“The Mindy Project,” ″Saturday Night Live”) is 45. 
• Actor Anna Torv (“Fringe”) is 44. 
• Actor Larisa Oleynik (“3rd Rock From The Sun,” ″Boy Meets World) is 42. 
• Actor Michael Cera (“Juno,” ″Arrested Development”) is 35. 
• Actor Shelley Buckner (“Summerland”) is 34. 
• Rapper Iggy Azalea is 33. 
• Model-actress Emily Ratajkowski (“Gone Girl”) is 32. 
• Rapper and convicted Drug dealer Fetty Wap is 32.

✞DEATH ANNIVERSARIES

• In 1976..Bobby Hackett, Jazz cornetist, trumpeter (Glenn Miller; Benny Goodman; Jackie Gleason), and orchestra leader (Air Time '57), dies at 61
• In 2008..Jim McKay, Sportscaster (ABC's Wide World of Sports; American Sportscasters Association HOF), dies at 86
• in 2012..Bob Welch, American musician (Fleetwood Mac), commits suicide by gunshot at 66