Radio History: December 21

➦In 1988...95.5 FM NYC switched call letters back to WPLJ. The WPLJ call-sign returned after one year as WWPR, on December 21, 1988, when research indicated that listeners still identified the station as WPLJ.

➦In 1996...Barry Gray died (Born July 2, 1916). He was an influential radio personality, often labeled as "The Father of Talk Radio".

Barry Gray

Initially a disc jockey, Gray was working for New York's WMCA 570 AM in 1945 when he, bored one evening with simply spinning music, decided to put the telephone receiver up to his microphone and share his conversation with the listening audience. The caller that evening just happened to be bandleader Woody Herman, one of the most popular celebrities of the day. This spontaneous live interview was such a hit with both his listeners as well as station bosses, that the talk radio format resulted. Gray subsequently began doing listener call-ins as well.

Rival station WOR also saw the attraction of the talk format, and Gray worked an overnight shift there from 1945 to 1948 or 1949, interviewing everyone from Al Jolson to Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. He also broadcast for WMGM from the Copacabana night club in the late 1940s. In addition during 1947 he hosted the New York-based show Scout About Town for the Mutual Broadcasting System, during which he would present an Award of the Week to popular stars of the stage such as Mitzi Green and Morey Amsterdam.

Gray broadcast on WMIE-AM radio from three Miami Beach nightclubs, the Copa Lounge, Danny and Doc's Jewel Box and the Martha Ray Club nightly in the fall of 1948 and into 1949 before he left the Miami area under some pressure. Gray bopped someone from his audience with his microphone,and this happened on the air. The impact was audible and the impact had been preceded by hot words of anger.

Barry Gray WMCA

Barry Gray returned to WMCA in 1950, and stayed there for 39 years, refining the talk show format still utilized today. During the 1960s, he was in the odd position of having an 11 p.m.-1 a.m. late night talk show on a station otherwise dominated by Top 40 music and the youth-targeted "Good Guys" disc jockey campaign.

After WMCA changed to an all-talk format in 1970, Gray was again fully in his element.  By the 1980s he had shifted from a late-night to a mid-day slot at the station.

Gray left WMCA in 1989 when it dropped its talk format, and went to work slightly up the dial for a return to WOR where he enjoyed national syndication. By the time of his death, his show was considered to be politically conservative.

➦In 2017...Sportscaster Dick Enberg, whose “Oh my!” calls rang familiar with so many sports fans,  suffered a fatal heart attack at age 82.  During the course of his 60 year career he called games and matches for CBS, NBC, ESPN, as well as UCLA Bruins basketball, Los Angeles Rams football, and California Angels and San Diego Padres baseball.

Phil Donahue is 88

🎂HAPPY BIRTHDAYS:

• Talk show host Phil Donahue is 88. 
• Actor Jane Fonda is 86. 
• Actor Larry Bryggman (TV’s “As The World Turns,” “film’s ”Die Hard: With a Vengeance”) is 85. 
• Singer Carla Thomas is 81. 
• Guitarist Albert Lee is 80. 
• Actor Josh Mostel (“Billy Madison,” “Big Daddy”) is 77. 
• Actor Samuel L. Jackson is 75. 
• Singer Nick Gilder is 73. 
• Actor Dennis Boutsikaris (“Better Call Saul”) is 71. 
• Actor Jane Kaczmarek (“Malcolm in the Middle”) is 68. 
• Country singer Lee Roy Parnell is 67. 
• Entertainer Jim Rose of The Jim Rose Circus Sideshow is 67. 
• Former child actor Lisa Gerritsen (“Phyllis,” ″The Mary Tyler Moore Show”) is 66. 
• Actor-comedian Ray Romano (“Everybody Loves Raymond”) is 66. 
• Country singer Christy Forester of the Forester Sisters is 61. 
• Drummer Murph of Dinosaur Jr. is 59. 
• Guitarist Gabrielle Glaser (Luscious Jackson) is 58. 
• Actor-comedian Andy Dick is 58. 
• Actor Michelle Hurd (“Law and Order: Special Victims Unit’) is 57. 
• Actor Kiefer Sutherland is 57. 
• Actor Karri Turner (“JAG”) is 57. 
• Actor Khrystyne Haje (“Head of the Class”) is 55. 
• Country singer Brad Warren of The Warren Brothers is 55. 
• Actor Julie Delpy is 54. 
• Contemporary Christian singer Natalie Grant is 52. 
• Singer-guitarist Brett Scallions (Fuel) is 52. 
• Singer Lukas Rossi (TV: “Rock Star: Supernova”) is 47. 
• Actor Rutina Wesley (“Queen Sugar,” “True Blood”) is 45. 
• Keyboardist Anna Bulbrook of Airborne Toxic Event is 41. 
• Actor Steven Yeun (“The Walking Dead”) is 40. 
• Actor Kaitlyn Dever (“Last Man Standing”) is 27.

✞REMEMBRANCES

• In 1945..George S. Patton, American WWII general (Sicily, Italy and Normandy) known as "Old Blood & Guts", dies of congestive heart failure at 60
• In 1996..Barry Gray [Bernard Yaroslaw], American radio personality and interviewer (started call-in radio), dies at 80
• In 2017..Richard "Dick" Enberg, American sportscaster (NBC, CBS, ESPN), dies of a heart attack at 82
• In 2020..K. T. Oslin, American country singer (80's Ladies), dies at 78