Radio History: November 6

➦In 1933...Windsor Ontario radio station CKOK and London, Ontario's CJGC merged to create CKLW. The call letters stood for “London-Windsor”.  CKLW (“The Big 8”) became one of the most influential powerhouses of early Top40 radio, breaking national hits and dominating Detroit ratings for years in the late 1960’s and early ’70’s.

Armstong

➦In 1935…Edwin H. Armstrong announced his development of FM broadcasting after conducting the first large-scale field tests of his new radio technology at RCA's facilities on the 85th floor of the Empire State Building from May 1934 until October 1935.

In 1937, Armstrong financed construction of the first FM radio station, W2XMN, a 40-kilowatt broadcaster in Alpine, New Jersey.

The signal (at 42.8 MHz) could be heard clearly 100 miles (160 km) away, despite the use of less power than an AM radio station.

NYTimes 11/6/21

RCA began to lobby for a change in the law or FCC regulations that would prevent FM radios from becoming dominant (David Sarnoff was looking to protect his stations on the AM band) .

By June 1945, the RCA had pushed the FCC hard on the allocation of electromagnetic frequencies for the fledgling television industry. 

Although they denied wrongdoing, David Sarnoff and RCA managed to get the FCC to move the FM radio spectrum from 42–50 MHz, to 88–108 MHz, while getting new low-powered community television stations allocated to a new Channel 1 in the 44-50 MHz range.

Furthermore, RCA also claimed invention of FM radio and won its own patent on the technology. 

A patent fight between RCA and Armstrong ensued. RCA's momentous victory in the courts left Armstrong unable to claim royalties on any FM receivers, including televisions, which were sold in the United States.

The costly legal battles brought ruin to Armstrong, by then almost penniless and emotionally distraught. Eventually, after Armstrong's death, many of the lawsuits were decided or settled in his favor, greatly enriching his estate and heirs.

But the decisions came too late for Armstrong himself to enjoy his legal vindication.

It took decades following Armstrong's death for FM broadcasting to meet and surpass the saturation of the AM band, and longer still for FM radio to become profitable for broadcasters. Two developments made a difference in the 1960s.

One was the development of true stereophonic broadcasting on FM by General Electric, which resulted in the approval of an FM stereo broadcast standard by the FCC in 1961, and the conversion of hundreds of stations to stereo within a few years.

➦In 1939...the first commercial TV station in the US, General Electric’s WGY-TV Schenectady, NY, began service.

➦In 1947...The weekly show “Meet the Press” started on NBC TV, and it is still running, making it the longest running TV show in U-S broadcast history.  It started as a Mutual radio show in 1945.

➦In 1954…Elvis Presley signed on for the 'Louisiana Hayride; for one year. The Saturday night radio show originated at KWKH, Shreveport, Louisiana.

Nat D Williams

➦In 1957...Elvis visits radio station WDIA in Memphis and meets two of his idols, Little Junior Parker and Bobby Bland.

WDIA went on the air June 7, 1947, from studios on Union Avenue. The owners, John Pepper and Dick Ferguson, were both white and the format was a mix of country and western and light pop. The station did not do well.

Nat D. Williams, a syndicated columnist and high-school teacher, started Tan Town Jubilee in October 1948. This was the first radio program in the United States to specifically target black listeners, and WDIA soon became the number-2 station in Memphis. After a switch to all-black programming, WDIA was the city's top station.

Elvis 1956

In June 1954 WDIA was licensed at 50,000 watts-Day, 5Kw-Night. Its powerful signal reached down into the Mississippi Delta’s dense African-American population and was heard from the Bootheel in SE Missouri to the Gulf coast. As a result WDIA was able to reach 10% of the African-American population in United States.

Future WJLB strong jock herself, Martha Jean “The Queen” Steinberg became Princess Premium Stuff. Ernest Brazzell gave crop advice and Robert Thomas became a DJ named “Honeyboy” after he won a city-wide amateur competition. Among other notable personalities were Maurice "Hot Rod" Hulbert, Theo "Bless My Bones" Wade, and Ford Nelson, who remains an active gospel DJ on WDIA in 2013.

Many music legends got their start at WDIA, including B.B. King and Rufus Thomas. Elvis Presley was greatly influenced by the station.

➦In 2007…Radio personality Jim P. Stagg died of complications from esophageal cancer at age 72. 

Stagg's radio career began in Birmingham (on WYDE AM). From there, it was on to Philadelphia (on WIBG), San Francisco (on KYA), and Milwaukee (on WOKY) before his stint at KYW, Cleveland.

Jim Stagg

In 1965, KYW program director Ken Draper moved to WCFL to assume the same duties. Stagg and many other station employees, both on and off air, including Dick Orkin, Jim Runyon and Jerry G. (Bishop) eagerly moved from KYW in Cleveland to WCFL in Chicago.

As his radio career wound down, Stagg hosted innovative talk and music shows on WMAQ-AM.

At WCFL, the "Voice of Labor",  Stagg did the afternoon drive shift. He referred to the studio call-in line as the "Stagg Line" and produced a feature titled "Stagg's Starbeat" – in-depth, provocative, and insightful interviews with local, national and international music celebrities. Staggs interviewed nearly every major rock star of the 1960s, including Neil Diamond, Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra, The Rolling Stones, the Supremes, The Monkees, and Simon & Garfunkel.

Jim became the Chicago chairman of Let Us Vote (LUV), a youth campaign which began in late 1968 to establish the minimum voting age as 18 in all states. Joey Bishop was honorary national chairman and songwriters Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart contributed a campaign song. Everyone's efforts resulted in the Twenty-sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution being ratified in 1971.

Stagg eschewed the flashy theatrics of other Top-40 radio hosts in favor a straightforward rock and roll show that kept the focus on the music. His close-of-program line echos that: "Music is my business. I hope my business was your pleasure."

Sally Field is 77

🎂HAPPY BIRTHDAYS:

• Actor June Squibb (“Nebraska”) is 94. 
• Singer P.J. Proby is 85. 
• Actor Sally Field is 77. 
• Jazz trumpeter Arturo Sandoval is 74. 
• TV host Catherine Crier is 69. 
• Former news correspondent Maria Shriver is 68. 
• Actor Lori Singer (“Fame,” ″Footloose”) is 66. 
• Actor Lance Kerwin is 63. 
• Bassist Paul Brindley of The Sundays is 60. 
• Singer Corey Glover of Living Colour is 59. 
• Actor Peter DeLuise (“seaQuest DSV,” ″21 Jump Street”) is 57. 
• Actor Kelly Rutherford (“Melrose Place”) is 55. 
• Actor Ethan Hawke is 53. 
• Celebrity chef Marcus Samuelsson (“The Taste,” ″Chopped”) is 53. 
• Actor Thandiwe Newton is 51. 
• Model-actor Rebecca Romijn is 51.
•  Actor Zoe McLellan (“NCIS: New Orleans”) is 49. 
• Actor Nicole Dubuc (“Major Dad”) is 45. 
• Actor Taryn Manning is 45. 
• Actor Patina Miller (“Madam Secretary”) is 39. 
• Singer-songwriter Ben Rector is 37. 
• Actor Emma Stone is 35.

✞REMEMBRANCES

• In 1989..Dickie Goodman, American parody singer and producer ("The Flying Saucer"; "Energy Crisis '74"; "Mr. Jaws"), dies from a self-inflicted gunshot wound at 55
• In 1991..Gene Tierney, American actress (Laura, Leave Her to Heaven, The Razor's Edge), dies of emphysema at 70
• In 2021..Peter Aykroyd, Canadian actor, comedian, and writer (SNL, 1980; PSI Factor), dies of septicemia caused by an untreated abdominal hernia at 65