Radio History: December 16

➦In 1898...Bandleader Lud Gluskin was born in NYC.  He became director of music at CBS in 1937, and his work was heard all over the radio dial on programs originating in Hollywood for the next 15 years.  He led the orchestra for a year or two of Amos ‘n’ Andy, Suspense, My Friend Irma, Life with Luigi, My Little Margie, Sweeney & March, The Philip Morris Playhouse, Campana Serenade, and dozens of lesser-known, lower-budget programs. He died Oct. 13 1989 at age 90.

➦In 1901...Guglielmo Marconi was officially notified by the Anglo-American Telegraph Company that it would take legal action against him unless he immediately ceased his wireless experiments and removed his equipment from Newfoundland.

Anglo-American had a fifty-year monopoly on electrical communications in Newfoundland, that began in 1858, and it was determined to hinder radio telegraphy, which was a serious threat to its transatlantic electric telegraph business operated by submarine cables.

Marconi soon decided to move his base of operations to Cape Breton Island, and was welcomed there on Dec. 26 with open arms.

Eugenia H Farrar

➦In 1907...opera star Eugenia H. Farrar became the first singer to broadcast over the radio, courtesy of inventor Lee De Forrest.  Her performance originated from the Brooklyn Navy Yard in New York where she sang.  Farrar performed two selections, including “I Love You Truly.”

➦In 1925...radio listeners would soon be freed from their earphones after the first dynamic loudspeaker was designed by Chester Rice and Edward Kellogg.

➦In 1926...In Omaha, Nebraska, the Woodmen of the World Society changed the call sign of it radio station WOAW to WOW. The call sign had become available with the retirement of the steamship Henry J Bibble.

The original operating power was a maximum of 500 watts, with an increase to 1,000 watts in 1927. Later, on October 1st, WOW became affiliated with the Red network of the National Broadcasting Company

In 1928, WOW was forced to share the 590 frequency with Nebraska Weslayan College station WCAJ. WOW was permitted to use the frequency six-sevenths of the time, with the college using the remaining seventh. In 1930, WOW applied for full time use of the frequency, finally winning its battle in 1933.

In November 1939 saw the Federal Radio Commission grant WOW a full 5,000 watts operating power during the night time hours, giving the station a solid 300 mile radius coverage area.

The summer of 1945 marked the end of a legal battle over the sale of the radio station. After 20 years of success, the station was offered for sale because it was feared the Society's tax-exempt status may be threatened. When a purchaser could not be found, the station was leased in 1943 to Radio Station WOW, Inc., for 15 years and the broadcasting license was transferred to the new operators. However, the lease was challenged in court when the amount of the lease did not compensate the Society for the value of the facility. After months of litigation, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the lease void and returned the property to the Society, but left the license to operate the station in the hands of the lessee.

The Society soon negotiated a 25-year lease with the same company - Radio Station WOW, Inc.--and the deal was closed.  In October 1958, the stock of Radio Station WOW, Inc., was purchased by the Meredith Corporation, which subsequently purchased the property for $1.2 million. Meredith paid a rental fee of $140,000 per year until 1976 as deferred payment of the purchase price.

During the Meredith years, WOW changed with the times, adopting a Top 40 format about 1970. WOW attracted popular DJs well known in the Omaha area. Competing head to head with the Top 40 giant KOIL, WOW proved a worthy challenger, but after only a few years chose to rather "switch than fight" airing Country and Western music, along with farm news, became the niche WOW targeted and succeeded at for the next quarter century.

In 1983, Mike Lynch and Mike Oatman, as "Great Empire" acquired WOW-AM and KYNN-FM. The FM call letters were changed to create the WOW-AM/FM combination.

WOW, along with 12 other Great Empire stations, was sold to Milwaukee-based Journal Broadcast Group on June 14, 1999.

In a surprise move, the historic call letters of WOW-AM were then surrendered and the station became KOMJ "Magic 590" on November 22, 1999, with the format switching from Country to Adult Standards. WOW-FM became KYSS-FM. KOMJ has since moved to 1490 and currently airs sports talk at KXSP, owned by Summit Media.

➦In 1951...Dragnet made it to TV, in a special preview, on ‘Chesterfield Sound Off Time’. The Jack Webb (Sgt. Joe Friday) police drama, which had already been on NBC Radio for two years, opened its official TV run on January 3, 1952 and continued until August 1959, then returned from 1967 to 1970. The radio show aired from June 3, 1949 to September 20, 1955.

➦In 2005...Howard Stern aired his last terrestrial radio show for Infinity Broadcasting's WXRK-FM NYC before moving on to Sirius Satellite Radio.

➦In 2007...Singer/songwriter Dan Fogelberg died at his home in Maine. He was 56 years old and had been battling prostate cancer since 2004. His hits ‘Leader of the Band’ and ‘Same Old Lang Syne’ helped define the ‘soft-rock’ era.

➦In 2010...The final edition of Larry King Live aired on CNN, after a quarter-century. The show concluded with his last thoughts and a thank you to his audience for watching and supporting him over the years. The concluding words of Larry King on the show were, "I... I, I don't know what to say except to you, my audience, thank you. And instead of goodbye, how about so long."

➦In 2018...TV personality Lee Leonard, the first voice ever heard on ESPN (1979), died at his New Jersey home at age 89.  He moved to CNN in 1980 as an L.A.-based entertainment reporter.   In 1964 he had been a talk radio host on New York’s WNBC. He moved on as a TV sportscaster with first CBS and then NBC.

Liv Ullman is 85

🎂HAPPY BIRTHDAYS:

• Actor Joyce Bulifant (“The Mary Tyler Moore Show”) is 86. 
• Actor Liv Ullman is 85. 
• Journalist Lesley Stahl (“60 Minutes”) is 82. 
• Guitarist Tony Hicks of The Hollies is 78. 
• Singer Benny Anderson of ABBA is 78. 
• Singer-guitarist Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top is 74. 
• Actor Xander Berkeley (“The Walking Dead”) is 68. 
• Actor Alison LaPlaca (“The John Larroquette Show”) is 64. 
• Actor Sam Robards is 62. 
• Actor Jon Tenney (“The Closer,” ″Brooklyn South”) is 62. 
• Actor Benjamin Bratt (“Private Practice,” ″Law & Order”) is 60. 
• Comedian JB Smoove (“The Millers,” ″Curb Your Enthusiasm”) is 58. 
• Actor Miranda Otto (“Lord of the Rings” films) is 56. 
• Actor Daniel Cosgrove (“Van Wilder”) is 53. 
• Singer Michael McCary (Boyz II Men) is 52. 
• Actor Krysten Ritter (“Jessica Jones,” ″Breaking Bad”) is 42. 
• Actor Zoe Jarman (“The Mindy Project”) is 41. 
• Actor Theo James (“Insurgent,” “Divergent”) is 39. 
• Actor Amanda Setton (“The Mindy Project,” ”Gossip Girl”) is 38. 
• Bassist Dave Rublin of American Authors is 37. 
• Actor Hallee Hirsh (“JAG,” “ER”) is 36. 
• Actor Anna Popplewell (“The Chronicles of Narnia” films) is 35. 
• Actor Stephan James (“Race,” ″Selma”) is 30.

✞REMEMBRANCES

• In 1980..Colonel Sanders, American founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken, dies at 90
• In 1988..Sylvester James Jr., American singer-songwriter (Do Ya Wanna Funk), dies of complications from HIV/AIDS at 41
• In 1993..Moses Gunn, American actor (Amityville II, Good Times, Shaft) who co-founded the Negro Ensemble Company (The Blacks, The Poison Tree), dies of asthma at 64
• In 2007..Dan Fogelberg, American singer (Same Old Lang Syne), dies at 56
• In 2009..Roy E. Disney, American businessman (b. 1930)
• In 2013..Ray Price, American singer, dies from pancreatic cancer at 87
• In 2017..Keely Smith [Dorothy Keely], American jazz and pop singer (w/ husband Louis Prima -"That Old Black Magic"; "I Wish You Love"), dies from heart failure at 89
• In 2018..Lee Leonard, American television personality (ESPN, CNN), dies at 89
• In2022..Charlie Gracie [Graci], American rock pioneer, rhythm and blues singer, and guitarist ("Butterfly"; "Fabulous"), dies of complications following COVID-19 at 86
• In 2022..Rick Anderson, American actor and rock bassist (Tubes - "I'll Talk To You Later"), dies at 75