Radio History: June 15

➦In 1910...David Rose born in London (Died at age 80 – August 23, 1990). He was a songwriter, composer, arranger, pianist, and orchestra leader. His best known compositions were "The Stripper", "Holiday for Strings", and "Calypso Melody".

David Rose

He also wrote music for many television series, including It's a Great Life, The Tony Martin Show, Little House on the Prairie, Highway to Heaven, Bonanza, and Highway Patrol under the pseudonym "Ray Llewellyn." Rose's work as a composer for television programs earned him four Emmys.  In addition, he was musical director for The Red Skelton Show during its 21-year run on the CBS and NBC networks.

In Hollywood, Rose formed his orchestra, doing a twice-weekly radio show for Mutual Broadcasting System called California Melodies, writing all the broadcast arrangements. He worked his way up to becoming music director of the Mutual network. Rose's first try at composing was his hit song "Holiday for Strings". During World War II, Rose entered the Army first meeting Red Skelton while both were enlisted. Skelton asked Rose to become the conductor for his Raleigh Cigarette Program. Rose joined the cast in 1948 and worked with Skelton on his television show for over 20 years.

➦In 1917...Blind Country musician and songwriter Leon Payne was born in Alba Texas.

Leon Payne

He is perhaps best known for his hits “I Love You Because,” and “You’ve Still Got A Place In My Heart.”   He began his music career in the mid-1930s, playing a variety of musical instruments in public, and later performing on KWET radio in Palestine, Texas, starting in 1935.

He also had a stint playing with Bob Wills' Texas Playboys in 1938. Payne was a regular working musician at Jerry Irby’s nightclub in Houston, Texas. He joined his stepbrother, famed songwriter Jack Rhodes, and formed Jack Rhodes and The Lone Star Buddies in 1949. They performed regularly on the Louisiana Hayride show in Shreveport, Louisiana. He was later on the Grand Ole Opry.

He died from a heart attack Sep 11, 1969 at age 52.

➦In 1923...Erroll Garner born (Died at age 53 – January 2, 1977) He was a jazz pianist and composer known for his swing playing and ballads. His best-known composition, the ballad "Misty", has become a jazz standard. Scott Yanow of Allmusic calls him "one of the most distinctive of all pianists" and a "brilliant virtuoso."  He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6363 Hollywood Blvd.

Erroll Garner

Garner began playing piano at the age of three. His elder siblings were taught piano by Miss Bowman. From an early age, Erroll would sit down and play anything she had demonstrated, just like Miss Bowman, his eldest sister Martha said.  Garner was self-taught and remained an "ear player" all his life, never learning to read music.

At age seven, he began appearing on the radio station KDKA in Pittsburgh with a group called the Candy Kids. By age 11, he was playing on the Allegheny riverboats. At 14 in 1937, he joined local saxophonist Leroy Brown.

He played locally in the shadow of his older pianist brother Linton Garner. Garner moved to New York City in 1944.

➦In 1945...NBC Blue Network becomes the American Broadcasting Company.

The company’s history traces to 1926, when the Radio Corporation of America (now RCA Corporation) and two other firms founded the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) to operate a nationwide radio broadcasting network.

NBC expanded so rapidly that by 1927 it found itself with an excess of affiliates in the same cities, so it split its programming into two separate networks, called the Red and the Blue networks.

After the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) declared in 1941 that no company could own more than one radio network, NBC in 1943 sold the less-lucrative Blue Network to Edward J. Noble, the millionaire maker of Life Savers candy, who initially renamed it the American Broadcasting System before settling on the name the American Broadcasting Company, Inc. (ABC).

ABC was the smallest of the major radio networks and distinguished itself by hiring popular singer Bing Crosby to perform on a weekly variety series. As a precondition for his employment, Crosby required that he be allowed to prerecord the program for later broadcast; as a result, ABC became a pioneer in the field of magnetic recording.

➦In 1966...Capitol released the Beatles' newest US album, a compilation of sorts entitled Yesterday and Today, featuring a bizarre cover by arty photographer Robert Whitaker where the group, dressed in butcher smocks, is surrounded by decapitated baby dolls and raw meat.

For the shoot, Whitaker took a series of pictures of the group dressed in butcher smocks and draped with pieces of meat and body parts from plastic baby dolls. The group played along, as they were tired of the usual photo shoots; Lennon recalled the band's "boredom and resentment at having to do another photo session and another Beatles thing". Although not originally intended as an album cover, the Beatles submitted photographs from the session for their promotional materials. According to a 2002 interview published in Mojo, former Capitol president Alan W. Livingston stated that it was Paul McCartney who pushed strongly for the photo's inclusion as the album cover, and that McCartney reportedly described it as "our comment on the [Vietnam] war".

In the United States, Capitol Records printed approximately 750,000 copies of Yesterday and Today with this so-called 'butcher cover'.  Reaction was immediate, as Capitol received complaints from some dealers. The record was immediately recalled under orders from Sir Joseph Lockwood, chairman of Capitol's parent company EMI, and all copies were ordered shipped back to the record label, leading to its rarity and popularity among collectors.  The cover photo was replaced with a picture of the four band members posed around an open trunk.

At the time, some of the Beatles defended the use of the 'butcher' photograph. Lennon said that it was "as relevant as Vietnam" and McCartney said that their critics were "soft". However, this opinion was not shared by all band members. George Harrison said in The Beatles Anthology that he thought the whole idea "was gross, and I also thought it was stupid. Sometimes we all did stupid things thinking it was cool and hip when it was naïve and dumb; and that was one of them." In 2007 George Martin, the Beatles' producer, recalled that the cover had been the cause of his first strong disagreement with the band. He added: "I thought it was disgusting and in poor taste … It suggested that they were madmen. Which they were, but not in that way."

A youthful Sandy Beach

➦In 1968...Sandy Beach did his last show on WDRC, Hartford, Connecticut before moving to WKBW, Buffalo, NY.

Sandy Beach is a WKBW Radio legend and one of the most recognized names in Buffalo Radio history. Throughout his career he has worked in Buffalo, Hartford, Dallas, San Francisco, and Milwaukee as an on-air talent.

He was also program director for NBC and Capital Cities/ABC. His most recent success has been the #1 PM Drive personality on Newsradio 930 WBEN.

Beach is a three time nominee for Billboard Magazine Personality of the Year. In May of 2003, Sandy was inducted into the Buffalo Broadcasters Hall of Fame. He retired in July 2020 from WBEN-AM Buffalo.

➦In 2014...Iconic radio personality (American Top 40)/cartoon voicist Casey Kasem died of complications from Lewy body dementia at the age of 82. His remains were laid to rest six months later in Oslo, Norway. (See original posting: Click Here)

Russell Hitchcock is 75

🎂HAPPY BIRTHDAYS:

• Singer Ruby Nash Garnett of Ruby and the Romantics is 90. 
• Guitarist Leo Nocentelli of The Meters is 78. 
• Actor Simon Callow (“Amadeus,” ″Shakespeare in Love”) is 75. 
• Singer Russell Hitchcock of Air Supply is 75. 
• Singer Steve Walsh (Kansas) is 73. 
• Actor Jim Belushi is 70. 
• Country singer Terri Gibbs is 70. 
• Actor Julie Hagerty (“Airplane,” “Marriage Story”) is 69. 
• Actor Polly Draper (“thirtysomething”) is 69. 
• Guitarist Brad Gillis of Night Ranger is 67. 
• Actor Eileen Davidson (“The Young and the Restless,” “Days of Our Lives”) is 65. 
• Actor Helen Hunt is 61. 
• Drummer Scott Rockenfield of Queensryche is 61. 
• Guitarist Tony Ardoin of River Road is 60. 
• Actor Courteney Cox (“Friends”) is 60. 
• Guitarist Michael Britt of Lonestar is 58. 
• Drummer Rob Mitchell of Sixpence None The Richer is 58. 
• Rapper-actor Ice Cube is 55. 
• Actor Leah Remini (“King of Queens”) is 54. 
• Actor Jake Busey (“Starship Troopers”) is 53. 
• Trombone player T-Bone Willy of Save Ferris is 52. 
• Actor Neil Patrick Harris (“How I Met Your Mother,” ″Doogie Howser, M.D.”) is 51. 
• Actor Greg Vaughan (“Days of Our Lives,” “General Hospital”) is 51. 
• Actor Elizabeth Reaser (“Twilight”) is 49. 
• Singer Dryden Mitchell of Alien Ant Farm is 48. 
• Former child actor Christopher Castile (“Step By Step,” ″Beethoven” films) is 44. 
• Guitarist Billy Martin of Good Charlotte is 43. 
• Actor Jordi Vilasuso (“The Young and the Restless”) is 43. 
• Guitarist Wayne Sermon of Imagine Dragons is 40. 
• Actor Denzel Whitaker is 34. 
• Actor Sterling Jerins (“The Conjuring” films) is 20.

✞REMEMBRANCES:

• In 1984..Meredith Willson, American composer for stage (The Music Man), and screen (The Great Dictator; Little Foxes), dies at 82
• In 1989..Victor French, Actor (Get Smart -"44"; Highway to Heaven), dies at 54
• In 1996..Ella Fitzgerald, American jazz, swing, pop, and blues singer, known as "The First Lady of Song" (Verve "Songbook" series), dies from a stroke at 78
• In 2014..Casey Kasem, Radio personality (creator of American Top 40) and the voice of Shaggy on Scooby-Doo, dies from Lewy body dementia at 82