Radio History: Nov 9

➦In 1895...George Dewey Hay born in Attica, Indiana (Died – May 8, 1968). He was radio personality, announcer and newspaper reporter. He was the founder of the original Grand Ole Opry radio program on WSM-AM in Nashville, Tennessee, from which the country music stage show of the same name evolved.

In Memphis, Tennessee, after World War I, he was a reporter for the Commercial Appeal, and when the newspaper launched its own radio station, WMC-AM, in January 1923, he became a late-night announcer at the station.  His popularity increased and in May 1924 he left for WLS-AM in Chicago, where he served as the announcer on a program that became National Barn Dance.

George D Hay

On November 9, 1925, he moved on to WSM-AM in Nashville. Getting a strong listener reaction to 78-year-old fiddler Uncle Jimmy Thompson that November, Hay announced the following month that WSM would feature "an hour or two" of old-time music every Saturday night. He promoted the music and formed a booking agency.

The show was originally named WSM Barn Dance, and Hay billed himself as "The Solemn Old Judge." The Barn Dance was broadcast after NBC's Music Appreciation Hour, a program featuring classical music and grand opera. One day in December 1927, the final music piece on the Music Appreciation Hour depicted the sound of a rushing locomotive. After the show ended, "Judge Hay" opened the WSM Barn Dance with this announcement:

“ Friends, the program which just came to a close was devoted to the classics. Doctor Damrosch [host of the program] told us that there is no place in the classics for realism. However, from here on out for the next three hours, we will present nothing but realism. It will be down to earth for the 'earthy'. ”

Hay then introduced the man he dubbed "The Harmonica Wizard," DeFord Bailey, who played his classic train song, "The Pan American Blues," named for the crack Louisville and Nashville Railroad passenger train The Pan-American. After Bailey's performance, Hay commented, "For the past hour, we have been listening to music taken largely from Grand Opera. From now on we will present the Grand Ole Opry."

During the 1930s, he was involved with Rural Radio, one of the first magazines about country music, developing the Opry for NBC and working on the movie Grand Ole Opry (1940). He was an announcer with the radio show during the 1940s and toured with Opry acts, including the September 1947 Opry show at Carnegie Hall.

He was featured in Hoosier Holiday, a 1945 film from Republic Pictures, in a cast that also included Dale Evans.  Hay was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame two years before his death in 1968.

➦In 1925...KQP in Portland Oregon signed-on and the station changed its call sign to KOIN on April 12, 1926.

It became an affiliate of the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), now known as the CBS Radio Network, on September 1, 1929.  During the golden years of radio, KOIN was one of Portland's major radio stations, with an extensive array of local programming, including live music from its own studio orchestra.

As a CBS radio affiliate, KOIN was the local home for CBS radio programs such as the CBS World News Roundup, Lux Radio Theater and Suspense. An FM station, KOIN-FM at 101.1, was launched in 1948. Both stations were owned by Field Enterprises, Inc. from 1947 until sold in 1952 to the Mount Hood Radio and Television Broadcasting Corporation.

KOIN and KOIN-FM were sold on May 1, 1977 to the Gaylord Broadcasting Company, and effective May 12, 1977 their call signs changed to KYTE (both AM and FM).  Its affiliation with CBS ended, and the CBS Radio Network's programming in the Portland market moved to KYXI at that time.

The stations using the former KOIN frequencies currently are KUFO (AM) and KXL-FM.

➦In 1925...the three day Fourth National US Radio Conference began in Washington, D.C. During the year since the previous conference, the number of US stations with 500 watts or more had nearly doubled from 115 to 197.

➦In 1930...sportscaster Charlie Jones was born in Fort Smith, Arkansas. For more than 30 years he called NFL football for NBC Sports.  He also broadcast baseball, golf, tennis, track & field at the Olympics, and soccer.  Jones died June 12 2008 at age 77.

➦In 1948...“This is Your Life” debuted on NBC radio. Ralph Edwards hosted the radio show for two years and for nine more (1952-1961) on television.

➦In 1961...Brian Epstein saw the Beatles play for the first time, at one of their lunchtime sessions at the Cavern Club in Liverpool. He became interested in the group after a customer in his record store inquired about a German import single of the Beatles backing singer Tony Sheridan on “My Bonnie.” Epstein soon became the Beatles’ manager, cleaning up their greasy, Teddy Boy image with collarless grey suits and the now familiar Beatle haircuts.

➦In 1965...At dusk on November 9, the biggest power failure in U.S. history occurred as all of New York state, portions of seven neighboring states, and parts of eastern Canada are plunged into darkness. The Great Northeast Blackout began at the height of rush hour, delaying millions of commuters, trapping 800,000 people in New York's subways, and stranding thousands more in office buildings, elevators, and trains. Ten thousand National Guardsmen and 5,000 off-duty policemen were called into service to prevent looting.

Here's how it sounded on 77 WABC with Dan Ingram.  The audio also includes Ingram on November 10...

The blackout was caused by the tripping of a 230-kilovolt transmission line near Ontario, Canada, at 5:16 p.m., which caused several other heavily loaded lines also to fail. This precipitated a surge of power that overwhelmed the transmission lines in western New York, causing a "cascading" tripping of additional lines, resulting in the eventual breakup of the entire Northeastern transmission network.

All together, 30 million people in eight U.S. states and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec were affected by the blackout. During the night, power was gradually restored to the blacked-out areas, and by morning power had been restored throughout the Northeast.

➦In 1968...Gerald Mohr died at age 54 (Born - June 11, 1914). He was a radio, film, and television character actor and frequent leading man, who appeared in more than 500 radio plays, 73 films, and over 100 television shows.

Gerald Mohr

Mohr made more than 500 appearances in radio roles throughout the 1930s, '40s, and early '50s. One of his early starring roles on radio was as a replacement for Matt Crowley for a brief interval in Jungle Jim in 1938.  He starred as Raymond Chandler's hardboiled detective, Philip Marlowe 1948–1951, in 119 half-hour radio plays. He also starred in The Adventures of Bill Lance, and as Michael Lanyard in The Lone Wolf.

He was one of the actors who portrayed Archie Goodwin in The New Adventures of Nero Wolfe, frequently starred in The Whistler, and acted in different roles in multiple episodes of Damon Runyon Theater and Frontier Town. He played multiple roles in the anthology series Crime Is My Pastime and was the narrator for the serial Woman from Nowhere.

Other radio appearances include The Jack Benny Program, Our Miss Brooks, The Shadow of Fu Manchu, Box 13, Escape, and Lux Radio Theatre.

In the early 1950s, Mohr made a series of recordings for the Voice of America. Unlike most material for the VOA, these were intended for broadcast by radio stations in the United States, with the goal of debunking propaganda broadcast from behind the Iron Curtain.

➦In 1969..."Bridge over Troubled Water" single recorded by Simon & Garfunkel.  Despite the song's five-minute length, Columbia decided to service "Bridge" to pop radio. Bob Dylan had previously landed a song past the three-minute barrier on AM radio with "Like a Rolling Stone" in 1965, which played into Columbia's decision. It reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart on February 28, 1970, and stayed at the top of the chart for six weeks. It also topped the adult contemporary chart in the US for six weeks. Billboard ranked it as the No. 1 song for 1970.

The song was certified gold for over one million copies in the US by the Recording Industry Association of America, and the song has sold over six million copies worldwide, making it among the best-selling singles

➦In 1999...The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) announces the century's big winners, sales-wise: The Beatles have sold the most albums (106 million), with Garth Brooks and Barbra Streisand the most successful male and female solo artists. Elvis Presley leads the pack on gold and platinum certifications with 77 (singles) and 80 (albums), while Elton John's "Candle In The Wind '97" (rewritten as a tribute to the recently-deceased Princess Diana) is the best-selling single of the century. The best-selling album, suprisingly, is the Eagles' Greatest Hits 1971-1975, which has just overtaken Michael Jackson's Thriller.

Art Carney

➦In 2003...TV/radio/film great Art Carney died in his sleep at 85 years of age. He had been enormously popular as Jackie Gleason’s sewer-worker pal Ed Norton in the TV classic The Honeymooners. He began as a radio actor, appearing regularly on Gangbusters and The March of Time, among many others. Carney also won the Best-Actor Oscar for the film Harry and Tonto (1974).

➦In 2006...Ed Bradley, former CBS newsman and 60 Minutes journalist, died from complications of leukemia at age 66.  Bradley started with CBS News in 1961 and was shipped to the Saigon bureau during the Vietnam War. He joined 60 Minutes in 1981. His distinctive body of work as a broadcast journalist was recognized with 20 Emmys and many other awards.

➦In 2013…longtime Chicago radio deejay Carla Leonardo succumbed to acute myeloid leukemia at age 63. Over 35-years her upbeat personality had been heard over WLUP-FM, WDRV-FM, frequently spotlighting local bands.

Nick Lachey is 51

🎂HAPPY BIRTHDAYS:

• Actor Robert David Hall (“CSI”) is 76. 
• Actor Lou Ferrigno (“The Incredible Hulk”) is 73. 
• Gospel singer Donnie McClurkin is 65. 
• Drummer Dee Plakas of L7 is 64. 
• Rapper Pepa of Salt-N-Pepa is 60. 
• Rapper Scarface of Geto Boys is 54. 
• Musician Susan Tedeschi is 54. 
• Actor Jason Antoon (“NCIS: Hawai’i”) is 53. 
• Actor Eric Dane (“Grey’s Anatomy”) is 52. 
• Singer Nick Lachey of 98 Degrees is 51. 
• Bassist Barry Knox of Parmalee is 47. 
• Singer Sisqo (Dru Hill) is 46. 
• Country singer Chris Lane is 40. 
• Actor Emily Tyra (“Code Black”) is 37. 
• Actor Nikki Blonsky (“Hairspray”) is 36.

✞REMEMBRANCES

• In 1968..Gerald Mohr, American radio and screen actor (The Angry Red Planet; The Sniper; Foreign Intrigue), dies of a heart attack at 54
• In 1970..Charles de Gaulle, French army general and President of France (1958-69), dies at 79
• In 2003..Art Carney, vAmerican Emmy and Oscar winner actor (The Honeymooners - "Ed Norton"; Harry and Tonto -"Harry"), dies of natural causes at 85
• In 2006..Ed Bradley, American journalist and CBS news correspondent (60 Minutes), dies of complications from lymphocytic leukemia at 65
• In 2012..Major Harris, American R&B singer (Love Won't Let Me Wait), dies from congestive heart and lung failure at 65