Radio History: Nov 11

In 1954, after having been through both World War II and the Korean War, the 83rd U.S. Congress -- at the urging of the veterans service organizations -- amended the Act of 1938 by striking out the word "Armistice" and inserting the word "Veterans." With the approval of this legislation on June 1, 1954, Nov. 11 became a day to honor American veterans of all wars.

In 1968, the Uniforms Holiday Bill ensured three-day weekends for federal employees by celebrating four national holidays on Mondays: Washington's Birthday, Memorial Day, Veterans Day, and Columbus Day. Under this bill, Veterans Day was moved to the fourth Monday of October. Many states did not agree with this decision and continued to celebrate the holiday on its original date. The first Veterans Day under the new law was observed with much confusion on Oct. 25, 1971.

Finally on September 20, 1975, President Gerald R. Ford signed a law which returned the annual observance of Veterans Day to its original date of Nov. 11, beginning in 1978. Since then, the Veterans Day holiday has been observed on Nov. 11.

➦In 1928...WGL-AM, Fort Wayne, IN signed-on. The station, now 1250 on the AM dial, was the first to broadcast in the city of Fort Wayne. Chester Keen and Lauer Auto founded what was originally called WCWK when it signed on in 1921. Keen bought the Lauer interests in WCWK in 1925. That same year, WOWO was established by the Main Auto Supply Co., with studios above Main Auto's downtown factory.

In 1928, Keen sold WCWK to WOWO owner Fred Zieg, and the call letters were changed to WGL (What God Loves), taking a callsign previously used by the current WADO in New York City.

WOWO and WGL were owned by the Zieg family until WOWO's sale to Westinghouse in 1936. Westinghouse sold WGL to the Farnsworth Television and Radio Corporation in 1945. On September 24, 1947, the station's power was increased from 250 W to 1,000 Watts.

Subsequently it was purchased by the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel. The call letters of WGL were reinterpreted as Wayne's Great Lady, referring to Helene Foelliger, who had markedly improved circulation of the News-Sentinel since becoming publisher less than a decade earlier, when she became the youngest, as well as one of the first female, publishers of a major newspaper. William Kunkle, publisher of the morning Journal-Gazette, followed by establishing WKJG (William Kunkle Journal-Gazette) in 1947, but while WKJG established a television station in 1953, WGL had no television license.

In March 2014, Adams Radio Group, LLC entered an agreement to purchase Summit City's cluster (which includes WGL). Days later, Adams announced they would purchase Oasis Radio Group's stations. To meet ownership limits, Adams will retain WNHT, WGL and WXKE, as well as acquiring Oasis Radio Group's WJFX and WBTU, while selling off WHPP to Fort Wayne Catholic Radio, and selling WGL-FM to Calvary Radio Network. WLYV and two translators (on 96.9 FM and 103.3 FM) will also be acquired by Adams. The transaction, at a price of $6.4 million, was consummated on June 2, 2014. As a result, Adams plans on massive format restructuring. WGL flipped to Fox Sports Radio programming on June 3 after "American Pie" by Don McLean bought a close to WGL and WGL-FM's oldies format.

➦In 1928...WOL-AM, Washington, D.C., signed-on. The station now at 1450 AM is owned by Urban One.

➦In 1928...WMT-AM in Cedar Rapids IA begins radio transmissions

➦In 1928...KXO-AM in El Centro CA signed-on

➦In 1930...NBC made first broadcast from 30 Rockefeller Plaza in NYC.

In a major move in 1931, RCA signed crucial leases with the new Rockefeller Center management that resulted in it becoming the lead tenant of what was to become in 1933 its corporate headquarters, the RCA Building, at 30 Rockefeller Plaza.

Under the terms of the lease arrangement, this included studios for NBC and theaters for the RCA-owned RKO Pictures. The deal was arranged through the Center's founder and financier, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., with the chairman of GE, Owen D. Young, and the president of RCA, David Sarnoff.

In 1934...WOC-AM in Davenport Iowa splits from WHO-WOC.

WOC's history is complex. Effective December 1, 1921, the U.S. government adopted a regulation requiring that stations making broadcasts intended for the public now had to hold a Limited Commercial license. On February 18, 1922 the Karlowa Radio Corporation was issued a new license, for a broadcasting station with the randomly assigned call letters of WOC. Karlowa continued to operate the station for a short time, but the costs had become too great. In March he sold WOC to Col. B. J. Palmer, and on May 9, 1922 a new license was issued for the Palmer School of Chiropractic (later the Palmer College of Chiropractic) in Davenport, Iowa, the start of a family connection that lasted almost 75 years.

WOC initially broadcast on the common Entertainment wavelength of 360 meters (833 kilohertz), and on October 14 was authorized to also broadcast weather reports on 485 meters (619 kilohertz). In October it was upgraded to a state-of-the-art 500 watt Western Electric transmitter, which allowed WOC to move to the more exclusive "Class B" wavelength of 400 meters (750 kilohertz). In May 1923, 620 kilohertz was reserved as a Class B frequency assignment for qualified stations in "Davenport/Des Moines, Iowa", and WOC was authorized to move to this new frequency.

Ronald Reagan

The Federal Radio Commission's General Order 40 reallocated frequencies in 1928, and WOC was reassigned to share time on 1000 kilohertz with the Banker's Life station in Des Moines, Iowa, WHO. In late 1929, the Central Broadcasting Company was formed with B.J. Palmer as chairman. This company purchased both WOC and WHO, which were then synchronized to simultaneously broadcast identical programs on their shared frequency, each using a 5 kilowatt transmitter.

In April 1932, a 50 kilowatt transmitter, located near Mitchellville, Iowa and close to Des Moines, went into service, and the separate transmitters were replaced by this single transmitter, with the two stations now combined under a dual identity as WOC-WHO. That same year Ronald Reagan got his first broadcasting job at WOC as a sportscaster.

WOC was restored as a station separate from WHO in November 1934, when the Palmer School purchased station KICK in Carter Lake, Iowa, which was moved to Davenport, and its call sign changed to WOC. (Because of this, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) records generally list WOC's "first license date" as December 1, 1923, which was when KICK received its initial license.)  In early 1935 the station was assigned to a "local" frequency of 1370 kilohertz, and by 1937 it was operating with 250 watts daytime and 100 watts at night. In 1941, WOC briefly moved to a second local frequency, 1450 kilohertz, and the next year was upgraded to a "regional" frequency, 1420 kilohertz, its current dial position, with a power boost to 5 kilowatts.

Today WOC is owned and operated by iHeartMedia.

Goodman and Jane Ace

➦In 1974…Jane Ace died at age 74 (Born October 12, 1897). She was the high-voiced, malaprop-mastering wife on legendary, low-keyed American radio comedy Easy Aces (1930–45). Playing herself opposite her real-life husband and the show's creator-writer, Goodman Ace (1899–1982), she delivered clever malaprops over the air in each episode of the urbane serial comedy, and many became part of the American vernacular.

Conceived and written by Goodman Ace, Easy Aces graduated within two years from a strictly local show to a network offering (first from Chicago, then from New York). When the program was still at KMBC on a local level, the couple was contacted by a sponsor offering to bring them to Chicago for a network show on a trial basis. If the ratings for the show were good, the sponsor promised to then begin paying them salaries. Ace thought it was a wonderful offer, but Jane did not, saying that if the sponsor considered their show good enough for a network, it was also good enough for a salary. She went on to say that they needed $500 per week for their services and no less; the sponsor honored all of Jane's demands.

Goodman played himself as a put-upon realtor, and Jane played "his awfully-wedded wife" (and used the name Sherwood as her on-air character's maiden name) with an endearing mixture of sweet-natured meddlesomeness and language mangling. Her husband once swore that she was a natural malapropper, but in radio character Jane became the unchallenged mistress of the kind of malaprops that (unlike Gracie Allen's "illogical logic") substituted words in seemingly ordinary phrasing and still made perverse sense, after a fashion. And, after a listener laughed hysterically and invariably. The Aces signed with Educational Pictures to make Easy Aces two reel comedies in 1934. Dumb Luck made its debut January 18, 1935, with the couple on the screen in their radio roles.

Many years after Easy Aces ended, Goodman Ace revealed his wife had never had acting experience before the show. The Aces tried a short-lived, expanded revival on CBS Radio in 1948, known as mr. ace and JANE, before trying a television version of the original Easy Aces style on the DuMont Television Network from December 1949 to June 1950.

While doing Easy Aces, Jane was offered other radio roles in addition to the one on the couple's show. A radio producer wanted her to play the lead in a production of Dulcy, but she declined, reportedly believing she was unable to play other roles, because she did not consider the radio work she did as acting. Jane Ace sought no further acting work after the show ended at last, mostly retiring to a quiet life, except for a brief spell as what her husband described (in a 1952 essay) as "a comedienne now making her come-down as a disc jockey."Jane came out of retirement to join her husband as an NBC Radio Monitor "Communicator" when the show premiered in 1955.

The couple was also part of the NBC Radio Weekday show which made its debut not long after Monitor. It aired Monday through Friday, and was intended to reach female radio listeners. They also began writing and performing in commercials. Husband Goodman continued a second career as a radio and television writer and regular essayist for Saturday Review, and his writings for that magazine frequently referenced Jane's doings, undoings, sayings, and unsayings.

George Ansbro

➦In 2011...Radio announcer George Ansbro died at age 96. Ansbro was a radio announcer for NBC and ABC for six decades, working with soap operas, big bands, quiz shows and other programs.

He began at NBC in 1928 as a boy soprano on Milton Cross’ Sunday show, Children’s Hour. Three years later, he was hired as an NBC page in 1931, but he was soon employed as an announcer at NBC.

On Friday, May 18, 1934, radio columns in New York newspapers noted that Bert Parks of CBS would be “relinquishing his status as New York’s youngest network staff announcer to the newly appointed George Ansbro on the NBC announcing staff.”  His career also included a stint at staff announcer at 77WABC NYC.

Calista Flockhart is 60

🎂HAPPY BIRTHDAYS:

• Country singer Narvel Felts is 86. 
• Guitarist Vince Martell of Vanilla Fudge is 79. 
• Singer-keyboardist Jim Peterik of The Ides of March (and Survivor) is 74. 
• Singer-keyboardist Paul Cowsill of The Cowsills is 73. 
• Singer Marshall Crenshaw is 71. 
• Singer-guitarist Andy Partridge of XTC is 71. 
• Singer Dave Alvin is 69. 
• Synthesizer player Ian Craig Marsh (Human League, Heaven 17) is 68. 
• Actor Stanley Tucci is 64. 
• Actor Demi Moore is 62. 
• Actor Calista Flockhart (“Brothers and Sisters,” ″Ally McBeal”) is 60. 
• Actor Frank John Hughes (“24″) is 57. 
• TV personality Carson Kressley (“Queer Eye For The Straight Guy”) is 55. 
• Actor David DeLuise (“Wizards of Waverly Place”) is 53. 
• Actor Leonardo DiCaprio is 50. 
• Actor Scoot McNairy (“Argo”) is 47. 
• Musician Jon Batiste is 38. 
• Actor Christa B. Allen (“Revenge”) is 33. 
• Actor Tye Sheridan (“X-Men” movies) is 28.

✞REMEMBRANCES

• In 1945..Jerome Kern, American composer (Sally; Leave It To Jane), dies at 60
• In 1993..H. R. Haldeman, Nixon's White House Chief of Staff during Watergate, dies at 67
• In 2004..Yasser Arafat, Chairman of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, 1st President of the Palestinian National Authority (1994-2004) and 1994 Nobel peace prize winner, dies in Paris at 75
• In 2005..Peter Drucker, Austrian-American management theorist, dies at 95
• In 2016..Robert Vaughn, American actor (The Man from U.N.C.L.E. - "Napoleon Solo"; The Young Philadelphians; S.O.B.), dies of leukemia at 83
• In 2021..Graeme Edge, British rock drummer, and poet (Moody Blues - "The Dream"; "Morning Glory"), dies at 80
• In 2022.. (Julian) Keith Levene, British rock guitarist (The Clash, 1976; Public Image Ltd, 1978-83), dies of liver cancer at 65