Radio History: November 13

Lee de Forest

➦In 1906...Lee de Forest, who coined the term "radio", patented Audion tube.

De Forest was interested in wireless telegraphy and invented the Audion in 1906. He then developed an improved wireless telegraph receiver.

On 25 October 1906, de Forest filed a patent for diode vacuum tube detector, a two-electrode device for detecting electromagnetic waves, a variant of the Fleming valve invented two years earlier.

One year later, he filed a patent for a three-electrode device that was a much more sensitive detector of electromagnetic waves. It was granted US Patent 879,532 in February 1908. The device was also called the de Forest valve, and since 1919 has been known as the triode.

De Forest's innovation was the insertion of a third electrode, the grid, between the cathode (filament) and the anode (plate) of the previously invented diode.

The resulting triode or three-electrode vacuum tube could be used as an amplifier of electrical signals, notably for radio reception. The Audion was the fastest electronic switching element of the time, and was later used in early digital electronics (such as computers). The triode was vital in the development of transcontinental telephone communications, radio, and radar until the 1948 invention of the transistor.

de Forest w/Audion tube

In 1904, a De Forest transmitter and receiver were set up aboard the steamboat Haimun operated on behalf of The Times, the first of its kind.  On July 18, 1907, De Forest broadcast the first ship-to-shore message from the steam yacht Thelma. The communication provided quick, accurate race results of the Annual Inter-Lakes Yachting Association Regatta. The message was received by his assistant, Frank E. Butler of Monroeville, Ohio, in the Pavilion at Fox's Dock located on South Bass Island on Lake Erie. DeForest disliked the term "wireless" and chose a new moniker, "radio."

De Forest is credited with the birth of public radio broadcasting when on January 12, 1910, he conducted experimental broadcast of part of the live performance of Tosca and, the next day, a performance with the participation of Italian tenor Enrico Caruso from the stage of Metropolitan Opera House in New York City.

➦In 1913...Alexander Scourby was born (Died at age 71 – February 22, 1985). He was a film, television, and voice actor known for his deep and resonant voice.  He is best known for his film role as the ruthless mob boss Mike Lagana in Fritz Lang's The Big Heat (1953), and is also particularly well-remembered in the English-speaking world for his landmark recordings of the entire King James Version audio Bible, which have been released in numerous editions. He later recorded the entire Revised Standard Version of the Bible. Scourby recorded 422 audiobooks for the blind which he considered his most important work.

Jack Gale

➦In 1925...Legendary radio broadcaster Jack Gale was born (Died - January 24, 2018) .  During his remarkable career he has been a radio performer, programmer, owner, voice-over talent, music publisher, manager and record producer spans more than 50 years.

Born in Baltimore, Gale started in radio prior to the emergence of rock 'n' roll and the Top 40 format.

He was heard on WSRS in Cleveland, WTMA in Charleston S.C., WITH in Baltimore, and WMEX in Boston before joining Stan Kaplan in 1965 at BIG WAYS in Charlotte, N.C., where the station and "Jack Gale the Morning Glory" achieved #1 ratings in 36 North and South Carolina counties.

➦In 1937...The NBC Symphony Orchestra first performed on radio.  It was established by David Sarnoff, the president of the Radio Corporation of America, especially for the celebrated conductor Arturo Toscanini. It was disbands in 1954.

The orchestra's first broadcast concert aired under the direction of Monteux. Toscanini conducted ten concerts that first season, making his NBC debut on December 25, 1937. In addition to weekly broadcasts on the NBC Red and Blue networks, the NBC Symphony Orchestra made many recordings for RCA Victor. Televised concerts began in March 1948.  During the summer of 1950, NBC converted Studio 8-H into a television studio (the broadcast home of NBC's late-night comedy program Saturday Night Live since 1975) and moved the broadcast concerts to Carnegie Hall, where many of the orchestra's recording sessions and special concerts had already taken place.

Frank Messer

➦In 2001...Sportscaster Wallace Frank Messer  died (Born - August 8, 1925). He was best known for his 18 seasons announcing New York Yankees baseball games, and as the recognizable emcee voice of various Yankee Stadium festivities during a three decade span.

An Asheville, North Carolina native, Messer was a member of the Marines during World War II in the South Pacific. After the war, he worked as a broadcaster in minor league baseball in the 1950s.

He got his major-league break when he joined the Baltimore Orioles and worked alongside their noted longtime voice, Chuck Thompson. In 1966, the year Bill O’Donnell also joined the broadcast crew, the O’s won their first world championship. Messer also called Baltimore Colts football during the 1960s.

Messer’s next major-league break came after the 1967 season, when Joe Garagiola left the Yankees broadcast crew to concentrate on the network jobs he also had at NBC Sports and NBC News. Messer took Garagiola’s place for 1968, working with ex-Yankees Jerry Coleman and Phil Rizzuto.

Jerry Coleman, Frank Messer, Phil Rizzuto

The Yankees’ longtime public-relations director Bob Fishel had urged team management to approve a traditional play-by-play sportscaster, which the Yanks had not had since the firing of Red Barber after the 1966 season.

Messer's great Yankee moments included his 1978 call of Bucky Dent’s dramatic three-run homer in the American League East Championship Game against the host Boston Red Sox; and his 1980 call of Reggie Jackson’s 400th home run ("There she goes! Might be upper deck!"), both on WINS radio.

WPIX and its usual Rizzuto-Messer-White broadcast trifecta also carried the ALCS in 1976, 1977, 1978, 1980 and 1981, providing New York viewers a local alternative to the nationally broadcast telecasts. Messer handled the post-game clubhouse celebration after the Chris Chambliss home run that won the 1976 ALCS.

Jimmy Hawkins is 82

🎂HAPPY BIRTHDAYS:

• Actor Jimmy Hawkins (“It’s A Wonderful Life”) is 82. 
• Blues singer John Hammond is 81. 
• Country singer-songwriter Ray Wylie Hubbard is 77. 
• Actor Joe Mantegna is 76. 
• Actor Sheila Frazier (“Superfly”) is 75. 
• Actor Tracy Scoggins (“The Colbys,” “Lois and Clark”) is 70. 
• Actor Chris Noth (“Law & Order: Criminal Intent,” ″Sex and the City”) is 69. 
• Actor Whoopi Goldberg is 68. 
• Actor Rex Linn (“Young Sheldon,” “CSI: Miami”) is 67. 
• Actor Caroline Goodall (“The Princess Diaries,” ″Schindler’s List”) is 64. 
• Actor Neil Flynn (“The Middle,” “Scrubs”) is 63. 
• Trumpeter Walter Kibby of Fishbone is 59. 
• Comedian Jimmy Kimmel is 56. 
• Actor Steve Zahn (“Happy, Texas,” ″That Thing You Do!”) is 56. 
• Actor Gerard Butler (“Machine Gun Preacher,” ″The Phantom of the Opera”) is 54. 
• Actor Jordan Bridges (“Rizzoli and Isles”) is 50. 
• Actor Aisha Hinds (“Under the Dome,” ″True Blood”) is 48. 
• Bassist Nikolai Fraiture of The Strokes is 45. 
• Actor Monique Coleman (“High School Musical”) is 43. 
• Actor Devon Bostick (“The 100,” ″Diary of a Wimpy Kid”) is 32.

✞REMEMBRANCES

• In 1996..Bill Doggett, American jazz and blues Hammond B-3 organist ("Honky Tonk"; "Funky Whistler"), pianist and arranger (The Inkspots; Ella Fitzgerald), dies of a heart attack at 80
• In 2013..Todd Christensen, American football tight end (Super Bowl XV, XVIII; First-team All-Pro 1983, 85, 86; 5 × Pro Bowl; Oakland/LA Raiders) and sportscaster (NBC Sports, ESPN, CBS Sports Network), dies from complications during liver transplant surgery at 57
• In 2020..Paul Hornung, American College Football Hall of Fame halfback (Heisman Trophy 1956, Notre Dame; Pro Bowl 1959, 60; Green Bay Packers), dies from dementia complications at 84
• In 2021..Sam Huff, American College / Pro Football Hall of Fame linebacker (5 x Pro Bowl; First-team All-Pro 1958, 59; NY Giants, Washington Redskins), dies from dementia complications at 87