Radio History: June 6

➦In 1938...NBC radio introduced two melodramatic soaps to the daytime airwaves, Stella Dallas and Young Widder Brown, both produced by Frank & Anne Hummert.  Stella Dallas, “the true to life story of mother love and sacrifice,” continued in 15 minute radio bursts until 1955.  ‘Brown’ outlasted it by a year.

Radio soap opera titan Frank Hummert became a partner in a Chicago advertising agency, where in 1930 Anne Ashenshurst was hired as a copywriter and assistant to Hummert.  Together, both before and after their 1935 wedding, Anne & Frank developed and supervised the production of early daytime radio dramas Just Plain Bill, Ma Perkins, Skippy, Backstage Wife and Young Widder Brown.  They later produced Amanda of Honeymoon Hill, Front Page Farrell, John’s Other Wife, Little Orphan Annie, Judy and Jane, Mr. Chameleon, and Our Gal Sunday.   The Hummerts also had longrunning prime time success with Mr. Keen, Tracer of Lost Persons, Waltz Time and The American Album of Familiar Music.

Larry Lujack

➦In 1940...Superjock Larry Lee Blankenburg a.k.a Larry Lujack was born in 1940 in Quasqueton, Iowa, and reared in Caldwell, Idaho. At 18 he joined KCID-AM in Caldwell, adopting the surname of his idol, the Chicago Bears quarterback Johnny Lujack.

After working at stations in Idaho and Washington State, Mr. Lujack joined WCFL in 1967 and moved to WLS four months later. Except for a four-year stint back at WCFL, he remained with WLS for the next two decades.

In 1984 WLS gave Lujack a 12-year, $6 million contract, making him one of the country’s highest-paid radio personalities. (“I am not the least bit excited,” he was reported to have said.) But in 1987, amid declining ratings, the station’s corporate parent, Capital Cities-ABC, bought out his contract.

His honors include membership in the Illinois Broadcasters Association Hall of Fame (“It’s not Mount Rushmore,” he said on learning of his induction) and the National Radio Hall of Fame.

He passed away December 18, 2013.

➦In  1944….Radio covered first news of the Allies’ D-Day Invasion…

William Wright Bryan, a former editor of the Atlanta Journal was the first World War II correspondent to broadcast an eyewitness account of D-Day.  He was the newspaper's managing editor, war correspondent and an NBC radio stringer when he became the first newsman to give a report on the D-Day invasion of France on June 6, 1944.

He covered the invasion from a transport plane dropping airborne troops. When the plane flew back to London, Bryan went on the air and made his broadcast immediately after a one-sentence announcement by the Allied command and tape-recorded statements by King George VI and President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

While covering the Allies' further advance across Europe, Bryan was wounded and captured by the Germans and spent six months in hospitals and in a prisoner of war camp in Szubin, Poland. He was freed by Soviet troops in January, 1945.  Bryan died February 15, 1991 of pneumonia at the age of 85.

The Allies had gone to extreme measures to protect the location of the invasion including planting fake documents, fake troop placements, and fake announcements. Germany did all it could to try to find out just where the Allies would land. One tactic was to falsely claim the invasion had begun hoping to fool the Allies into revealing the real location.

So it was no surprise that the news organizations were shy to jump on any announcement of a pending invasion. News reports included flash announcements which were deemed immediate and important information received; the other were bulletins which were also important but not deemed as immediate.

On June 3rd there had been a flash announcement that the invasion was under way but within minutes the announcement was withdrawn as the source, the Associated Press, killed the story as false.

When the first announcements started coming in the early morning of June 6, there were cautions attached to the bulletins. NBC reportedly came on the air with announcements around 12:41 AM EST after waiting at least 3 minutes from the time the AP bulletin was received.

➤The music of Harry James and his Orchestra was broadcasting over WOR (Mutual) from the Hotel Astor in New York. Kitty Kallen had just begun singing ironically "In Times Like These" when her song was interrupted right after 12:45 AM for bulletin.  Listen Here. Ned Calmer with CBS broadcast the bulletin around 12:48 AM. CBS waited until a second source, the Independent News Service, also released a bulletin.

➤Later repeats of the bulletins appeared over both networks. Irwin Darlington with CBS broadcast the breaking news. Listen Here.   Over at NBC this bulletin was aired.  Listen Here.

Click Here for much more.

CBS reporter Darlington was very cautionary in his bulletin announcement reminding listeners of Winston Churchill's warnings of Allied feints and the expected invasion story from the Germans. He also carefully identifies where the information is coming from as well as the actual quotes. They also provide reports from the German DNB and German radio broadcasts.

NBC's bulletin was very formal and straight-forward with little warning that the information could be false. Later cautions came from the summary of news reports they broadcast later. (H/T: Radio Days)

➦In 1955…Bill Haley & Comets', "Rock Around the Clock" hit #1 on radio.

➦In 1962...The Beatles meet their producer George Martin for the first time and record "Besame Mucho" with Pete Best on drums

➦In 1986...1050 CHUM Toronto, the station with North America’s longest-running hit record chart, abandoned its Top-40 format for a mixture of soft rock and oldies. CHUM adopted the Top40 format in 1957 and published its chart for 1,512 consecutive weeks.

Gary U-S Bonds is 85

🎂HAPPY BIRTHDAYS:

• Singer-songwriter Gary “U.S.” Bonds is 85. 
• Country singer Joe Stampley is 81. 
• Jazz pianist Monty Alexander is 80. 
• Actor Robert Englund (Freddie Krueger) is 77. 
• Playwright-actor Harvey Fierstein is 72. 
• Actor-comedian Sandra Bernhard is 69. 
• Record producer and musician Jimmy Jam (The Time) is 65. 
• Actor Amanda Pays is 65. 
• Comedian Colin Quinn is 65. 
• Guitarist Steve Vai is 64. 
• Singer-bassist Tom Araya of Slayer is 63. 
• Actor Jason Isaacs (“Harry Potter” films) is 61. 
• Bassist Sean Ysealt (White Zombie) is 58. 
• Actor Max Casella (“Analyze This,” ″Doogie Howser, M.D.”) is 57. 
• Actor Paul Giamatti is 57. 
• Singer Damion Hall of Guy is 56. 
• Guitarist James “Munky” Shaffer of Korn is 55. 
• Country singer Lisa Brokop is 51. 
• Singer Uncle Kracker is 50. 
• Actor Sonya Walger (“Lost”) is 50. 
• Actor Staci Keanan (“Step By Step,” ″My Two Dads”) is 49. 
• Jazz singer Somi is 48. 
• Actor Aubrey Anderson-Emmons (“Modern Family”) is 17.

✞REMEMBRANCES

• In 1966..Claudette Orbison, wife of singer Roy, dies in a motorcycle crash at 27
• In 1968..Robert F. Kennedy, American politician (D-Sen-NY, US Attorney General), assassinated in Los Angeles by Sirhan Sirhan at 42
• In 1991..Stan Getz [Stanley Gayetski], American big band, bebop, cool jazz, and bossa nova tenor saxophonist (Woody Herman; Getz/Gilberto), dies of liver cancer at 64
• In 1994..Peter Graves, British actor (Paradise Lagoon, Admirable Crichton), dies at 82
• In 2005..Anne Bancroft, American stage and screen Emmy, Oscar, and Tony Award-winning actress (The Graduate; The Miracle Worker), director, and screenwriter, dies from uterine cancer at 73
• In 2006..Billy Preston, Soul organist, singer-songwriter, piano player ("Nothing From Nothing"; "You Are So Beautiful"), and '5th Beatle' ("Get Back"), dies following long-term health issues at 59
• In 2013..Esther Williams, American swimmer and actress (Dangerous When Wet), dies from natural causes at 91
• In 2019..Dr. John, American singer and piano player ("Right Place, Wrong Time"), dies at 77
• In 2022..Jim Seals, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and fiddler (Seals & Crofts - "Summer Breeze"; "Diamond Girl"), dies at 79