Radio History: August 25

➦In 1921...Radio-TV host Monty Hall was born in Winnipeg.  He began his career at local radio station CKRC while still in school, then moved to Toronto in 1946, where at CHUM he hosted the nationally syndicated quiz Who Am I.   Moving to New York he guest hosted several TV game shows, hosted the Saturday night portion of NBC Radio’s Monitor, and was hockey radio analyst for the N.Y. Rangers. Then off to L.A. where he co-created & hosted the flamboyant TV game with which he will forever be identified, the original Let’s Make a Deal (1963-91.)   He suffered heart failure and died Sept. 30 2017 at age 96.

➦In 1949…NBC Radio debuted the sitcom "Father Knows Best."  The series was set in the Midwest, it starred Robert Young as the General Insurance agent Jim Anderson. His wife Margaret was first portrayed by June Whitley and later by Jean Vander Pyl. The Anderson children were Betty (Rhoda Williams), Bud (Ted Donaldson), and Kathy (Norma Jean Nilsson). Others in the cast were Eleanor Audley, Herb Vigran, and Sam Edwards. Sponsored through most of its run by General Foods, the series was heard Thursday evenings on NBC until March 25, 1954.

The Father Knows Best TV series premiered on October 3, 1954 and starred Young, Jane Wyatt, Elinor Donahue, Billy Gray, and Lauren Chapin.

Dick Clark

➦In 1962...The radio bug bit Dick Clark again - as he announced plans to syndicate a radio series for Top-40 stations.

The two-hour program would be broadcast five days a week and would be produced and distributed by Dick Clark Radio Productions and Mars Broadcasting Inc.

Dick Clark says the show will feature artist interviews and records and will be taped at Mars Broadcasting in Stamford, Conn. Clark was a Disc Jockey at WFIL 560 AM in Philadelphia when he landed the job as host  of TV's “American Bandstand.

Fred Wolf

➦In 1962...Detroit radio personality Fred Wolf celebrated 12 years as the morning man on WXYZ 1270 AM.

He started with the station in 1950 and stayed until 1965 when he left the after refusing to play some rock and roll records.

➦In 1962...Paul Sherman, 1010 WINS, New York replaced Bob (Bob-A-Loo) Lewis on its Saturday and Sunday “Freedomland” remote broadcasts. He would soon join rival 77WABC.

➦In 1966...WNBC 660 AM New York canceled the syndicated “Joe Pyne Show” after debuting last March. WNBC gives no reason for the cancellation. Discharged from the Marines at the end of World War II, Pyne attended a local drama school to correct a speech impediment. While studying there, he decided to try radio. He worked briefly in Lumberton, North Carolina, before he was hired at a new station, WPWA, in Brookhaven, PA.

However, he argued with the owner and was fired. Next, he got a job at WILM (AM) in Wilmington, Delaware, the first of three times he would work at that station. He moved to WVCH, a new station in Chester, which went on the air in March 1948. Seeing little chance to advance his career in Chester, Pyne left after a year and a half. He moved to Kenosha, Wisconsin, where he was hired at WLIP, owned by local station owner William Lipman (hence the call letters). After six months of hosting innocuous programs such as Meet Your Neighbor from various grocery stores, he quit during a confrontation with WLIP management in which he threw Lipman's typewriter against a wall. Pyne worked at several stations in Atlantic City, NJ, and began to change his style of broadcasting.

Pyne gradually tired of being a disc jockey who made comments about politics and current events. He developed his on-air persona as an opinionated host who knew something about everything. He returned to WILM, where he debuted as a talk show host in 1950.

By the early 1950s, television was replacing radio as America's main medium. In 1954, Pyne moved to television with The Joe Pyne Show, broadcast by WDEL-TV in Wilmington. In 1957, he moved to Los Angeles. His initial show was unsuccessful, and he returned to Wilmington. He hosted a TV talk show on WVUE, which was also seen in Philadelphia, and received positive reviews from critics. In the late 1950s the local black press generally praised him for inviting black newsmakers on his show to discuss issues of concern to their community. By 1960, he was hosting a radio show on KABC (AM). The acerbic Bob Grant took over Pyne's show in 1964, and Pyne continued on KLAC. This led to a television show on KTTV.

R Peter Strauss

➦In 1966...R. Peter Straus, president of  WMCA 570 AM New York - appeared on a program on rival station - WNEW 1130 AM. He was interviewed by Richard Doan on a weekly series titled “The Truth About Radio.”

Straus was told that he probably was one of those broadcasters “who peddles rock ‘n’ roll all day and who refuses to call it by that name,” that maybe he was ashamed of the practice. Straus denied he was ashamed and asserted that WMCA programmed for the largest possible audience so that its commercials and community messages of substantive content would be exposed to the largest number of people.

➦In 1971....Former 93 KHJ Los Angeles night DJ Humble Harve Miller, who affirmed his guilt in court, was sentenced for a term of five years to life for killing his wife, Mary.

He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder – the unlawful killing of a human being with malice, but without premeditation on Aug 2. His seven-year marriage was described as “stormy and tempestuous” and Mrs. Miller as “domineering and literally a witch.”

➦In 1977....Record executive Irving Azoff announced he would be serving as executive producer on a movie called “FM.” Azoff coordinated the soundtrack – to include a blend of rock standards, current hits and original compositions written for the movie and take charge of a live rock concert which will be filmed for inclusion in the film.

The movie was to be  about the going’s on  - at a major market FM rock music station and the music business.

➦In 1989...KLOS-FM Los Angeles morning show hosts Mark and Brian aired a no-no. Equipped with hidden mics, they took listeners on an aural Graceland tour for the 12th anniversary of Elvis’ death, but they were caught. Graceland says you’re not supposed to be broadcasting from the premises. They called the duo incredibly rude and distasteful.

➦In 1999...KLOS Los Angeles apologized for a Mark & Brian stunt after they announced plastic gardening tools called “Black Hoes” would be given out.

➦In 2009...Glenn Beck (right) returned to Fox News Channel after a vacation with fewer advertisers, part of the fallout from calling President Barack Obama a racist.

A total of 33 Fox advertisers, including Walmart Stores Inc., CVS Caremark, Clorox and Sprint, directed that their commercials not air on Beck's show, according to the companies and Color of change, a group that promotes political action among blacks and launched a campaign to get advertisers to abandon him. 

That's more than a dozen more than were identified a week ago.

Gene Simmons is 74

🎂HAPPY BIRTHDAYS:

• Actor Tom Skerritt is 90. 
• Singer Walter Williams of The O’Jays is 80. 
• Actor Anthony Heald (“Boston Public”) is 79. 
• Singer Henry Paul of BlackHawk (and Outlaws) is 74. 
• Actor John Savage is 74. 
• Bassist Gene Simmons of Kiss is 74. 
• Singer Rob Halford of Judas Priest is 72. 
• Keyboardist Geoff Downes of Asia is 71. 
• Musician Elvis Costello is 69. 
• Director Tim Burton is 65. 
• Actor Christian LeBlanc (“The Young and the Restless”) is 65. 
• Actor Ashley Crow (“Heroes”) is 63. 
• Country singer-actor Billy Ray Cyrus is 62. 
• Actor Ally Walker (“Profiler”) is 62. 
• Actor Joanne Whalley is 62. 
• Guitarist Vivian Campbell of Def Leppard is 61. 
• Actor Blair Underwood is 59. 
• Actor Robert Maschio (“Scrubs”) is 57. 
• DJ Terminator X of Public Enemy is 57. 
• Singer Jeff Tweedy of Wilco is 56. 
• Actor David Alan Basche (“The Exes”) is 55. 
• TV chef Rachael Ray is 55. 
• Actor Cameron Mathison (“All My Children”) is 54. 
• Country singer Jo Dee Messina is 53. 
• Model Claudia Schiffer is 53. 
• Actor Nathan Page (“Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries”) is 52. 
• Actor Eric Millegan (“Bones”) is 49. 
• Actor Alexander Skarsgard (“Big Little Lies,” ″True Blood”) is 47. 
• Actor Jonathan Togo (“CSI: Miami”) is 46. 
• Actor Kel Mitchell (“Kenan and Kel”) is 45. 
• Actor Rachel Bilson (“Hart of Dixie,” “The O.C.”) is 42. 
• Actor Blake Lively is 36.

✞REMEMBRANCES

• In 1867..Michael Faraday, English scientist discovered electromagnetic induction, invented 1st electric motor, dies at 75
• In 1971..Ted Lewis [Theodore Leopold Friedman], American entertainer, bandleader and musician (Is Everybody Happy?), dies of lung failure at 81
• In 1979..Ray Eberle, American big band vocalist (Glenn Miller; Gene Krupa), and bandleader, dies of a heart attack at 60
• In 1979..Stan Kenton, American musician, jazz pianist, arranger and bandleader (Artistry In Rhythm), dies at 67
• In 1984..Truman Capote, Author (Breakfast At Tiffany's; In Cold Blood), dies of liver cancer at 59
• In 1988..Art Rooney, NFL Pittsburgh Steelers [Pirates] team founder,owner, and chairman, 1933-88, dies at 87
• In 1999..Rob Fisher, British rock keyboardist (Naked Eyes), dies at 42
• In 2000..Jack Nitzsche, American composer, arranger, music producer, keyboardist (Rolling Stones; Neil Young), and songwriter ("Up Where We Belong"), dies at 63
• In 2009..Ted Kennedy, American politician (US Senator (D)-Massachusetts, 1962- 2009), dies of brain cancer at 77
• In 2012..Neil Armstrong, American X-15 pilot and astronaut - 1st man on the Moon (Gemini 8, Apollo 11), dies from heart surgery complications at 82
• In 2018..John McCain, American war hero and Republican politician (Rep-Arizona, 1983-2018, Presidential candidate, 2008), dies of brain cancer at 81