Radio History: November 10

Kate Smith

➦In 1938...32-year-old Kate Smith first sang Irving Berlin's 'God Bless America' on her CBS radio network show. Smith was a major star of radio. She began with her twice-a-week NBC series, Kate Smith Sings (quickly expanded to six shows a week), followed by a series of shows for CBS: Kate Smith and Her Swanee Music (1931–33), sponsored by La Palina Cigars; The Kate Smith Matinee (1934–35); The Kate Smith New Star Revue (1934–35); Kate Smith's Coffee Time (1935–36), sponsored by A&P; and The Kate Smith A&P Bandwagon (1936–37).

The Kate Smith Hour was a leading radio variety show, offering comedy, music, and drama with appearances by top personalities of films and theater for eight years (1937–1945). The show's resident comics, Abbott and Costello and Henny Youngman, introduced their comedy to a nationwide radio audience aboard her show, while a series of sketches based on the Broadway production of the same name led to The Aldrich Family as a separate hit series in 1940.

Smith continued on the Mutual Broadcasting System, CBS, ABC, and NBC, doing both music and talk shows on radio until 1960.

"God Bless America" is an American patriotic song written by Irving Berlin in 1918 and revised by him in 1938. The later version has notably been recorded by Kate Smith, becoming her signature song.

Irving Berlin wrote the song in 1918 while serving the U.S. Army at Camp Upton in Yaphank, New York, but decided that it did not fit in a revue called Yip Yip Yaphank, so he set it aside.

In 1938, with the rise of Adolf Hitler, Berlin, who was Jewish and a first-generation Russian immigrant, felt it was time to revive it as a "peace song," and it was introduced on an Armistice Day broadcast in 1938, sung by Kate Smith on her radio show. Berlin had made some minor changes; by this time, "to the right" might have been considered a call to the political right, so he substituted "through the night" instead. He also provided an introduction that is now rarely heard but which Smith always used: "While the storm clouds gather far across the sea / Let us swear allegiance to a land that's free / Let us all be grateful for a land so fair, / As we raise our voices in a solemn prayer." (In her first broadcast of the song, Kate Smith sang "that we're far from there" rather than "for a land so fair".)

➦In 1950...a radio comedy series 'The Magnificent Montague' starring Monty Woolley debuted on NBC. It may rank as radio’s last original sitcom. Ironically, its final airing was exactly one year later, as TV continued to steal the radio audience.

➦In 1956...Billboard magazine's DJ survey reveals that Elvis Presley is the country's number one male artist on both the pop and country charts.

➦In 1966...British newspapers break the news that the Beatles were ending their live concerts.

Struggling to compete with the volume of sound generated by screaming fans, the band had grown increasingly bored with the routine of performing live. Recognizing that their shows were no longer about the music, they decided to make the August 1966 tour their last. The last US concert was at Candlestick Park, San Francisco on August 29, 1966.  A crowd of 25,000 saw the Beatles final concert which began at 8:00 pm.The supporting acts,in order of appearance,were The Remain, Bobby Hebb, the Cyrkle and the Ronettes. The Beatles played from 9:27 pm until precisely 10:00 pm on a stage five feet high surrounded by security and police

The famous and very final Beatles concert would be the famous Rooftop concert January 30, 1969.

➦In 1992...First AM HD Radio broadcast with audio codec.

➦In 2003…Irving "Irv" Kupcinet died at age 91 (Born - July 31, 1912). He was a  newspaper columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times, television talk-show host, and radio personality based in Chicago. He was popularly known by the nickname "Kup".

His daily "Kup's Column" was launched in 1943 and remained a fixture in the Sun-Times for the next six decades.  He also was Chicago Bears radio color commentator.

➦In 2010...David Arnold Niehaus died (Born - February 19, 1935).  He was the lead play-by-play announcer for the MLB's Seattle Mariners from their inaugural season in 1977 until his death after the 2010 season. In 2008, the National Baseball Hall of Fame awarded Niehaus the Ford C. Frick Award, the highest honor for American baseball broadcasters. Among fans nationwide and his peers, Niehaus was considered to be one of the finest sportscasters in history.

Niehaus graduated from Indiana University in 1957, entered the military, and began his broadcasting career with Armed Forces Radio. He became a partner of Dick Enberg on the broadcast team of the California Angels in 1969. Niehaus also broadcast the Los Angeles Rams of the NFL and UCLA Bruins football and basketball during this period.

Bobby Rush is 89

🎂HAPPY BIRTHDAYS:

• Blues singer Bobby Rush is 89. 
• Actor Albert Hall (“Ally McBeal,” ″Beloved”) is 86. 
• Country singer Donna Fargo is 82. 
• Lyricist Tim Rice is 79. 
• Actor Jack Scalia is 73. 
• Actor-comedian Sinbad is 67. 
• Actor Mackenzie Phillips (“One Day at a Time”) is 64. 
• Actor Vanessa Angel (“Kingpin”) is 60. 
• Actor Hugh Bonneville (“Downton Abbey”) is 60. 
• Comedian Tommy Davidson (“In Living Color”) is 60. 
• Actor Michael Jai White is 59. 
• Country singer Chris Cagle is 55. 
• Comedian Tracy Morgan (“30 Rock”) is 55. 
• Actor Ellen Pompeo (“Grey’s Anatomy”) is 54. 
• Actor Orny Adams (TV’s “Teen Wolf”) is 53. 
• Rapper U-God of Wu-Tang Clan is 53. 
• Rapper Warren G is 53. 
• Actor Walton Goggins (“Invincible,” “The Shield”) is 52. 
• Contemporary Christian singer Matt Maher is 49. 
• Singer-guitarist Jim Adkins of Jimmy Eat World is 48. 
• Rapper-actor Eve is 45. 
• Bassist Chris Joannou of Silverchair is 44. 
• Actor Heather Matarazzo is 41. 
• Country singer Miranda Lambert is 40. 
• Actor Josh Peck (“Drake and Josh”) is 37. 
• Singer Vinz Dery of Nico and Vinz is 33. 
• Actor Genevieve Buechner (“UnREAL”) is 32. 
• Actor Zoey Deutch (“Vampire Academy”) is 29. 
• Actor Kiernan Shipka (“Mad Men”) is 24. 
• Actor Mackenzie Foy (“Twilight”) is 23.

✞REMEMBRANCES

• In 1964..Jimmie Dodd, American actor (The Mickey Mouse Club; Thundering Trails; Riders of the Rio Grande), and singer-songwriter, dies of cancer at 54
• In 1973..Stringbean [David Akeman], American country singer, comedian, and banjo player (Hee Haw), murdered by burglars at his home at 58
• In 1990..Ronnie Dyson, American stage actor (Hair - "Aquarius"; Salvation), and soul singer ("(If You Let Me Make Love to You Then) Why Can't I Touch You?"; "I Don't Wanna Cry"), dies of heart failure at 40
• In 1992..Chuck Connors, American author, actor (The Rifleman, Branded, Cowboy in Africa), professional basketball and baseball player, dies at 71
• In 2003..Irv Kupcinet "Kup" , American columnist and television personality (Kup's Column), dies at 91
• In 2006..Gerald Levert, American singer (In My Songs), dies of acute narcotic intoxication at 40
• In 2006..Jack Palance [Vladimir Palahniuk], American actor (City Slickers, Contempt, Batman), dies of natural causes at 87
• In 2007..Norman Mailer, American novelist (Naked & the Dead, The Executioner's Song), dies at 84
• In 2008..Miriam Makeba, South African singer and civil rights activist (Grammy for Pata Pata, Best Ethnic or Traditional Folk Recording, 1965), dies of a heart attack at 76
• In 2015..Allen Toussaint, American pianist, songwriter and producer ("Mother-In-Law"; "Working In A Coal Mine"; "Southern Nights"), dies of a heart attack at 77