➦In 1880...Sportswriter Grantland Rice was born in Murfreesboro Tennessee. He was with the NY Herald Tribune when he was pressed into service as a broadcaster; he was at the mike for the first World Series game which aired on KDKA in 1921 and the first complete World Series WJZ in 1922. He died July 13 1954 at age 73.
➦In 1894…Billboard Advertising, a 10-cent trade publication dealing with billboard advertising, began publication. After a few years, it started to focus on the entertainment shows advertised by billboards, and by the 1930s Billboard, as it came to be known, was covering radio and sales of a new medium, juke box records.
➦In 1922...KHJ radio, owned and operated by the Los Angeles Times, made its first broadcast with a new Western Electric 500-watt transmitter on 400 meters, equivalent to 750 kilocycles. The 2 hour broadcast from 8 to 10 p.m. took place on Wednesday, November 1, 1922, from KHJ's new $30,000 broadcasting plant, with a new studio and transmitter room.
Harry Chandler, president and general manager of the Times Mirror spoke over the "new KHJ" with 10 times more power than it started with on April 13, 1922. Major J.F. Dillon, Department of Commerce supervisor of the sixth radio district, also spoke after inspecting the station and transmitter. Then, 18 vocal and instrumental artists performed before the KHJ microphone.
After 7 days, the Times and KHJ announced that cards and letters came in from 25 states, reporting they had been able to tune-in the 500-watt KHJ. KFI would go on the air with a new 500-watt transmitter in January of 1923. KHJ would remain a non-commercial radio station until November 1927, when Don Lee bought the station. (H/T:
SoCal Radio People)
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| The Baltimore News 1925 |
➦In 1937..."Hilltop House" first aired on CBS Radio. It's stories centered around Bess Johnson and the struggles that she faced as the person in charge of Hilltop House Orphanage. Children were integral to the plots, and the stories usually dealt with the youngsters' interactions with adults.
Financial problems and conflicts between the staff and members of the orphanage's board of directors also arose frequently. Sponsored by Palmolive soap, this version was broadcast on both CBS and Mutual beginning on November 1, 1937. It left Mutual in 1938 but remained on CBS until March 28, 1941. It was replaced by a spinoff, then was re-launched twice, with its final episode coming on July 30, 1957.
➦In 1937…"Terry and the Pirates," a radio serial based on the popular comic strip, debuted on NBC's Red network.
When the late afternoon series began, it was heard at 5:15pm, three times a week, sponsored by Dari-Rich, airing on NBC Red Network from November 1, 1937 to June 1, 1938. It switched to NBC Blue Network on September 26, 1938, continuing until March 22, 1939. Absent from the airwaves for over two years, it returned shortly before the Attack on Pearl Harbor, heard in the Midwestern United States on the Chicago Tribune's WGN. That series, sponsored by Libby's, aired five days a week from October 16, 1941 to May 29, 1942.
With increasing popularity during the World War II years, the show next took off at a fast pace on Blue Network, airing daily for 15 minutes on weekday afternoons beginning February 1, 1943. The Quaker Puffed Wheat and Puffed Rice "shot from guns" commercials often had a patriotic pitch.
After 1945, with no wartime villains for Terry and his pals to fight, ratings began to drop in the post-World War II period until the final episode on June 30, 1948.
➦In 1946...The following ad appeared November 1 in the NY Times heralding a change in call letters from WEAF to WNBC. Also, WABC became WCBS-AM.
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