➦In 1918...David Opatoshu (January 30, 1918 – April 30, 1996) was born in New York City. His father was the Yiddish writer Joseph Opatoshu. He delivered the evening news in Yiddish on New York radio during the World War II years on WEVD. In a span of 40 years guesting on TV he appeared repeatedly in Philco Playhouse, Studio One, Dr. Kildare, The FBI & Medical Center. He died April 30 1996 at age 78
➦In 1927...WADO 1280 AM in NYC signed on as WGL.
This station was owned by the International Broadcasting Corporation. WGL president Colonel Lewis Landes stated on the inaugural broadcast, "The International Broadcasting Corporation's aim is to adhere to truth, to be free of partisanship, religious or political."
WGL was the first station to protest the frequency allocations of the Federal Radio Commission in May 1927. WGL was authorized to move to 1170 AM, but wanted to go to 720, occupied by WOR. When WOR was awarded the 710 frequency, both stations went to court, with WOR eventually winning the case. Finally in June 1927, WGL moved to 1020 AM and shared time with Paterson station, WODA.
In August 1927, studio manager Charles Isaacson announced one of the city's first attempts at local news coverage. WGL was organizing listeners to volunteer as radio reporters and call the station with breaking news stories.
WOV's initial programming was aimed at a general audience, but by the mid-1930s, it strengthened its ethnic ties and expanded its Italian-language programming to fill the daytime hours. WOV soon became the dominant Italian voice in the Northeast through its affiliation with share-time station WBIL and Iraci's WPEN in Philadelphia.
The station was owned by WOV Broadcasting until 1959, when it was sold to Bartel Broadcasters, at which time the station was renamed WADO. During the day, WADO broadcast R&B music. At night, they ran Italian programming. By 1962, some Spanish programming was run on weekends. By 1963, the only English programming found on WADO was in Sunday religious broadcasts.
In 1964, WADO began broadcasting completely in Spanish from 5 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Italian from 8 p.m. to Midnight. Overnight, Asian programming was run. By 1970, Spanish had replaced the Asian format.
➦In 1933..."The Lone Ranger" was first heard on WXYZ radio in Detroit. The radio show conceived either by WXYZ (Detroit) radio station owner George W. Trendle or by Fran Striker, the show's writer.
The radio series proved to be a hit and spawned a series of books (largely written by Striker), an equally popular television show that ran from 1949 to 1957, comic books, and several movies.
The title character was played on the radio show by George Seaton, Earle Graser, and Brace Beemer. Clayton Moore portrayed the Lone Ranger on television, although during a contract dispute, Moore was replaced temporarily by John Hart, who wore a different style of mask. On the radio, Tonto was played by, among others, John Todd and Roland Parker; and in the television series, by Jay Silverheels, who was a Mohawk from the Six Nations Indian Reserve in Ontario, Canada.
The show was picked up by the Mutual Broadcasting System radio network, and on May 2, 1942 by NBC's Blue Network, which soon became ABC. The last new episode was broadcast September 3, 1954. Recorded repeats of the 1952–53 episodes continued to be aired on ABC until June 24, 1955. George Seaton was the first voice of the Lone Ranger. Jack Deeds and Earle Graser followed in the role.
However, it was Brace Beemer who is best remembered as former Texas Ranger, John Reid. On radio he played the part of the black-masked Ranger, fighting for frontier justice, for thirteen consecutive years. The program ran for 2,956 episodes and finished in 1955.
➦In 1969...Their rooftop concert was the final public performance of the English rock band The Beatles. The band, with keyboardist Billy Preston, surprised a central London office and fashion district with an impromptu concert from the roof of the headquarters of the band's multimedia corporation Apple Corps at 3 Savile Row. In a 42-minute set, the Beatles played nine takes of five songs before the Metropolitan Police asked them to reduce the volume.
