Radio History: March 16

Mercedes McCamdridge

➦In 1916...Mercedes McCambridge born (Died at age 87 - March 2, 2004). She was an American actress of radio, stage, film, and television. Orson Welles called her "the world's greatest living radio actress."She won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for All the King's Men (1949) and was nominated in the same category for Giant (1956). She also provided the voice of Pazuzu (the demon) in The Exorcist (1973)

She had lead roles in many of his Mercury Theatre broadcasts in the 1930’s while starring on Broadway.  She guested on numerous radio dramas (Lights Out, Inner Sanctum, Studio One, Bulldog Drummond, Ford Theatre, Gang Busters, Abie’s Irish Rose, etc.) and had lead roles in both East and West Coast originations of I Love a Mystery. 

Later she had a healthy career in TV, and won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for All the King’s Men.

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➦In 1922...WKY AM, Oklahoma City, OK signed-on.

"5XT" became the 87th licensed station in the United States on March 16, 1922. It was owned by the Oklahoma Radio Shop (Earl C. Hull & H.S. Richards). The station was assigned the WKY call letters and began broadcasting weekdays from noon to 1:00 P.M. and from 7:30 to 9:30 P.M. On Sundays, WKY was on the air from 3 to 4 P.M. and 7:30 to 9:30 P.M.

On November 1922, WKY announced a "silent night" policy, meaning the station would broadcast only four, and later three nights a week. This was so listeners could have a chance to tune into other stations in neighboring states.

Richards and Hull struggled to keep WKY on the air. In late 1925, Richards left the radio business, but Hull continued to keep WKY on the air by selling shares of the station to radio dealers in Oklahoma City. The dealers paid Hull a small salary to keep the station broadcasting; however they decided the financial drain had become too much. In 1928, WKY was purchased by the Oklahoma Publishing Company, publishers of the Daily Oklahoman for the hefty sum of $5,000 (over $63,000 in 2010 dollars).

The formal opening of the new WKY was set for November 11, 1928, but the station went on the air several days earlier to carry the presidential election returns as Herbert Hoover won in a Republican landslide.

By the following year, WKY was attempting to operate like the powerhouse stations in the east. Aside from the programming from NBC, everything broadcast by WKY originated locally.

In 1958, WKY became the second Top-40 formatted station in Oklahoma City, behind KOCY, (now KEBC). During the 1960s and 70's WKY fended off serious challenges from 50,000 watt rival KOMA 1520 AM.

Although KOMA was very famous outside Oklahoma City, due to its large nighttime signal (like WABC in New York), WKY was usually the ratings leader in the city itself (as WMCA won New York City ratings books from 1963–1966); WKY continued to top many Arbitron ratings sweeps into the 1970s.

Ironically, WKY mainstays during that time—Danny Williams, Ronnie Kaye and Fred Hendrickson—would go on to become "KOMA Good Guys" when the station flipped from a standards to an oldies format.

Today, WKY is owned by Cumulus and simulcasts it's sister station WWLS.

➦In 1926...Joseph Levitch aka Jerry Lewis was born (Died – August 20, 2017). He was a comedian, actor, singer, director, producer, screenwriter and humanitarian, whose career spanned eight decades and was nicknamed "The King of Comedy". He was known for his partnership with Dean Martin as the groundbreaking act of Martin and Lewis.

Lewis went on to star in, write, produce and direct many motion pictures, such as The Delicate Delinquent, The Sad Sack, Rock-A-Bye Baby, The Geisha Boy, Don't Give Up The Ship, Visit to a Small Planet, Cinderfella, The Bellboy, The Ladies' Man, The Errand Boy, It's Only Money, The Nutty Professor, Who's Minding the Store?, The Patsy, The Disorderly Orderly and The Family Jewels. He would also appear in concert stages, nightclubs, music recordings and television.

Martin & Lewis

Outside of his career, Lewis supported fundraising for muscular dystrophy research, during 60 years as national chairman of the Muscular Dystrophy Association and 44 years hosting The Jerry Lewis MDA Labor Day Telethon every Labor Day weekend. In 1977, he was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for his work.

Lewis initially gained attention as part of a double act with singer Dean Martin, who served as straight man to Lewis' zany antics as the Martin and Lewis comedy team. They were different from other duo acts of the time because they played to each other and had ad-libbed improvisational segments within their planned routines.

After forming in 1946, they quickly rose to national prominence, first with their popular nightclub act, then as stars of The Martin and Lewis Show on the radio NBC Red Network.  The two made appearances on early live television on their June 20, 1948 debut broadcast on Toast of the Town (later renamed as The Ed Sullivan Show on September 25, 1955) on CBS. This was followed on October 3, 1948, by an appearance on NBC's Welcome Aboard.

In 1950, Martin and Lewis signed with NBC to be one of a series of weekly rotating hosts of The Colgate Comedy Hour, a live Sunday evening broadcast. Lewis, writer for the team's nightclub act, hired Norman Lear and Ed Simmons as regular writers for their Comedy Hour material.  Their Comedy Hour shows consisted of stand-up dialogue, song and dance from their nightclub act and movies, backed by Dick Stabile's big band, slapstick and satirical sketch comedy, Martin's solo songs, and Lewis' solo pantomimes or physical numbers.

As one of the most successful performers in show business, with worldwide box office receipts of his films in excess of $800 million, Lewis received global acclaim for his unique ability and style with both comedy and drama. As part of Martin and Lewis and as a solo actor, he was voted Hollywood's top box-office draw from 1951 to 1965, in later years as the sole comedian.

➦In 1927...Richard "Dick" Beals was born (Died at age 85 – May 29, 2012). He was an American actor and voice actor, who performed many voices in his career, which spanned the period from the early 1950s into the 21st century. Beals specialized in doing the voices of young boys, although he was also hired to voice young female children.

Perhaps his most recognizable characterization was the voice of the stop-motion animation figure called "Speedy Alka-Seltzer", featured in television commercials for more than 50

Dick Beals

Beals was born in Detroit, Michigan, and graduated in 1949 from Michigan State University (MSU), where he majored in radio broadcasting and puppetry. He covered intramural sports and performed in weekly radio dramas for the campus radio station WKAR.

In January 1949, as a senior at MSU, Beals got a call to do a radio commercial for WXYZ, Detroit. After the show, the director asked him to be on call for all the children's voices as well as those of small, talking animals on all three network radio shows produced by WXYZ - The Lone Ranger, Green Hornet and Challenge of the Yukon.

In 1952, after performing in an episode of The Green Hornet, WXYZ station manager Jack McCarthy referred Beals to Forrest Owen of Wade Advertising. Owen showed Beals a rendering of a proposed product spokesman for their client, Alka-Seltzer and had him record a voice audition. Four months later, Beals was notified that he had been selected as the voice for Speedy Alka-Seltzer as well as the voice of Sticky, the Vaseline mascot.

Beals moved to Los Angeles where he continued making commercials as Speedy Alka-Seltzer and also provided voices for other commercials, such as Alka-Seltzer, Oscar Mayer, the Campbell Soup Kids, and Bob's Big Boy. Beals recorded his first Speedy Alka-Seltzer television commercial in 1953, doing a total of 225 in his career.

➦In 1929...WHP-AM, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania signed-on.

The origin of WHP actually dates back to 1925, when a small radio station, known then as WHBG signed on at 1300 AM, with a tiny 20 watt transmitter (today it has 5 Kw DA-2).  The station was first owned by Skane Electrical Service, however, it was then sold in early 1927 to Mack’s Battery Service, who changed the name to WMBS, moved its location to Lemoyne, and changed it’s position on the dial to 1280 AM.

The WHP name was crowned to the station in 1929, when the Harrisburg Telegraph Newspaper took over the station, and moved it’s dial position to 1430 AM. The station later moved to 1460 AM, and eventually moved to its well known frequency of 580 AM in 1949.

Today, WHP is owned by iHeartMedia and airs a News/Talk format.

➦In 1983...Arthur Morton Godfrey died (Born - August 31, 1903). He was a radio and television broadcaster and entertainer who was sometimes introduced by his nickname, The Old Redhead. An infamous on-air incident undermined his folksy image and resulted in a marked decline in his popularity. At the peak of his success in the mid-1950s, Godfrey helmed two CBS-TV weekly series and a daily 90-minute television mid-morning show, but, by the early 1960s, his presence had been reduced to hosting the occasional TV special and his daily network radio show, which ended in 1972.

Arthur Godfrey

One of the medium's early master commercial pitchmen, he was strongly identified with many of his sponsors, especially Chesterfield cigarettes and Lipton Tea. Having advertised Chesterfield for many years, during which time he devised the slogan "Buy 'em by the carton", Godfrey terminated his relationship with the company after he quit smoking, five years before he was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1959. Subsequently, he became a prominent spokesman for anti-smoking education.

Godfrey served in the United States Navy from 1920 to 1924 as a radio operator on naval destroyers, but returned home to care for the family after his father's death. Additional radio training came during Godfrey's service in the Coast Guard from 1927 to 1930. It was during a Coast Guard stint in Baltimore that he appeared on a local talent show and became popular enough to land his own brief weekly program.

On leaving the Coast Guard, Godfrey became a radio announcer for the Baltimore station WFBR (now WJZ (AM) and moved the short distance to Washington, D.C. to become a staff announcer for NBC-owned station WRC the same year and remained there until 1934.

1948

Recovering from a near-fatal automobile accident en route to a flying lesson in 1931 (by which time he was already an avid flyer), he decided to listen closely to the radio and realized that the stiff, formal style then used by announcers could not connect with the average radio listener; the announcers spoke in stentorian tones, as if giving a formal speech to a crowd and not communicating on a personal level. Godfrey vowed that when he returned to the airwaves, he would affect a relaxed, informal style as if he were talking to just one person. He also used that style to do his own commercials and became a regional star.

In addition to announcing, Godfrey sang and played the ukulele. In 1934 he became a freelance entertainer, but eventually based himself on a daily show titled Sundial on CBS-owned station WJSV (now WFED) in Washington. Godfrey was the station's morning disc jockey, playing records, delivering commercials (often with tongue in cheek; a classic example had him referring to Bayer Aspirin as "bare ass prin"), interviewing guests, and even reading news reports during his three-hour shift. Godfrey loved to sing, and would frequently sing random verses during the "talk" portions of his program. In 1937, he was a host on Professor Quiz, radio's first successful quiz program.

Godfrey became nationally known in April 1945 when, as CBS's morning-radio man in Washington, he took the microphone for a live, firsthand account of President Roosevelt's funeral procession. The entire CBS network picked up the broadcast, later preserved in the Edward R. Murrow and Fred W. Friendly record series, I Can Hear it Now. Unlike the tight-lipped news reporters and commentators of the day, who delivered breaking stories in an earnest, businesslike manner, Arthur Godfrey's tone was sympathetic and neighborly, lending immediacy and intimacy to his words. When describing new President Harry S. Truman's car in the procession, Godfrey fervently said, in a choked voice, "God bless him, President Truman." Godfrey broke down in tears and cued the listeners back to the studio. The entire nation was moved by his emotional outburst.

Godfrey made such an impression on the air that CBS gave him his own morning time slot on the nationwide network. Arthur Godfrey Time was a Monday-Friday show that featured his monologues, interviews with various stars, music from his own in-house combo and regular vocalists. Godfrey's monologues and discussions were usually unscripted, and went wherever he chose.

"Arthur Godfrey Time" remained a late morning staple on the CBS Radio Network schedule until 1972.

B Mitchel Reed

➦In 1983...B. Mitchel Reed died at age 56 (Born Burton Mitchel Goldberg - June 10, 1926). He was a successful radio personality and worked inNew York and Los Angeles during his 25-year career.

After serving in the U.S. Air Force, he entered the world of radio while teaching political science at his alma mater.

Reed hosted the all-night Birdland Jazz Show at WOR (AM) in New York in 1956. A year later, he landed a job at KFWB in Los Angeles.

On January 2, 1958, KFWB became a Top 40 station known as "Coloradio Channel 98," and the DJ's were known as "The Seven Swinging Gentlemen." 

The lineup included Bruce Hayes, Al Jarvis, Joe Yocam, Elliot Field, Bill Ballance, and Ted Quillan. Reed held the 6-9 P.M time slot. Under Program Director Chuck Blore, KFWB became the number one radio station in LA.

He was known as "The Fastest Tongue in the West," for the speed in which he spoke to his audience. He left KFWB for WMCA in his home state of New York on February 7, 1963. He soon became part of a team of disc jockeys known as "The Good Guys," among them Jack Spector.

Reed went to London, England in pursuit of a band making headlines in hopes of breaking them in New York. The band was none other than The Beatles. His persistence paid off as it led to advance record pressings and exclusive interviews. This helped usher in "Beatlemania" in early 1964.

By 1965, Reed decided to return to Los Angeles. His last show at WMCA was on March 20. Thousands of his fans cheered him at the airport upon his departure. Many fans who were thrilled of his return greeted him when he arrived in LA. This ushered in his second stint at KFWB and The Wide Wide Weird World of BMR.

After attending the Monterey Pop Festival in June 1967, Reed realized he wanted to go in another direction music-wise. He met with San Francisco based DJ Tom Donahue over the frustrations of radio music restrictions. Donahue was a Program Director for underground station KMPX (FM). With no such music station in LA, Reed left KFWB and founded KPPC-FM in Pasadena. Both stations achieved more success than anticipated with the popularity of AOR programming.

Both stations ran into a conflict with their respective owners thus resulting in a strike. After the strike ended in June 1968, Donahue, got Metromedia to take on the AOR format at KMET (FM). Reed programmed what would become one of the first 24 hour automated music stations. It would go live in the summer of 1969. He left KMET for one year in 1971 to work at KRLA. He returned to KMET in 1972 where he stayed the next six years.

In 1978, Reed underwent coronary bypass surgery. He would leave KMET for KLOS (FM) in 1979. His lingering heart condition caught up with him on March 16, 1983. He died in his West Los Angeles home at the age of 56.

➦In 2012...Bell Canada, that country's biggest telecommunications company, announced it was going to acquire Montreal-based Astral Media Inc. for $3.38B.  The deal gave the company more control over content for its cellphone, Internet and land-line services. The deal included acquisition of Astral's 84 commercial radio stations, 22 English-language specialty television channels, and 13 French channels.

Chuck Woolery is 83

🎂HAPPY BIRTHDAYS:

• Game show host Chuck Woolery is 83. 
• Actor Erik Estrada is 75. 
• Actor Victor Garber (“DC’s Legends of Tomorrow,” “Alias”) is 75. 
• Singer Ray Benson of Asleep at the Wheel is 73. 
• Bluegrass musician Tim O’Brien (Hot Rize, Earls of Leicester) is 70. 
• Guitarist Nancy Wilson of Heart is 70. 
• Actor Clifton Powell (“Ray,” ″Norbit”) is 68. 
• Rapper Flavor Flav of Public Enemy is 65. 
• Actor Jerome Flynn (“Game of Thrones”) is 61. 
• Folk singer Patty Griffin is 60. 
• Singer Tracy Bonham is 57. 
• Actor Lauren Graham (“Parenthood,” ″Gilmore Girls”) is 57. 
• Actor Judah Friedlander (“30 Rock”) is 55. 
• Alan Tudyk (“Suburgatory”) is 53. 
• Actor Tim Kang (“The Mentalist”) is 51. 
• Singer Blu Cantrell is 48. 
• Actor Brooke Burns (“Baywatch”) is 46. 
• Actor Kimrie Lewis (“Single Parents,” ″Scandal”) is 42. 
• Actor Brett Davern (“Awkward”) is 41. 
• Actor Alexandria Daddario (“True Detective”) is 38. 
• Singer Jhene Aiko is 36. 
• Bassist Wolfgang Van Halen of Mammoth WVH is 33.

✞REMEMBRANCES

• In 1970..Tammi Terrell, Soul singer (You're All I Need; with Marvin Gaye - Ain't No Mountain High Enough), dies of a brain tumor at 24
• In 1980..Arthur Godfrey, Radio and TV host (Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scout), dies at 79
• In 1991..7 members of Reba McIntire's band, killed in a plane crash
• In 2001..Norma MacMillan, Canadian voice actress (Casper the Ghost), dies at 79
• In 2008..Ivan Dixon, Actor, director and civil rights activist (Car Wash, Hogan's Heroes, The Final War of Olly Winter), dies of renal failure at 76
• In 2013..Bobby Smith, R&B singer (The Spinners), dies from complications of influenza and pneumonia at 76
• In 2015..Andy Fraser, English bass guitarist (Free), dies at 62
• In 2016..Frank Sinatra, Jr., Singer and bandleaderr, dies at 72
• In 2019..Dick Dale [Richard Anthony Mansour], Guitarist, dies at 81