May 15 Radio History

➦In 1923...WJZ moves to New York City.

The WJZ call sign was first used on what is now WABC in New York City. The original Westinghouse Electric Corporation, whose broadcasting division is a predecessor to the current broadcasting unit of CBS Corporation, launched WJZ in 1921, located originally in Newark, New Jersey.

WJZ was sold in 1923 to the Radio Corporation of America, who moved its operations to New York, and in 1926 WJZ became the flagship station for the NBC Blue Network.  NBC Blue would become the American Broadcasting Company in 1942. ABC later established WJZ-FM and WJZ-TV at the same time in 1948.

In 1953 ABC merged with United Paramount Theatres, and changed the call letters of their New York area stations to WABC, WABC-FM (now WPLJ) and WABC-TV. Four years later, Westinghouse Broadcasting acquired Baltimore television station WAAM (channel 13) and changed its call letters to WJZ-TV, which remained an ABC affiliate until 1995 when the station switched to CBS.

➦In 1933...the radio serial “Today’s Children” was heard for the first time.  The woman who would soon become a soap opera icon, Irna Phillips, who was an NBC Blue network program-features writer, starred in the role of Mother Moran.  Today’s Children became the #1 radio soap by 1938.

➦In 1961...Peter Tripp of WMGM 1050 AM in NYC found guilty of 35 counts of "commercial bribery".  Tripp was a Top-40 countdown radio personality from the mid-1950s, whose career peaked with his 1959 record breaking 201 hour wakeathon (working on the radio non-stop without sleep to benefit the March of Dimes). For much of the stunt, he sat in a glass booth in Times Square. After a few days he began to hallucinate, and for the last 66 hours the observing scientists and doctors gave him drugs to help him stay awake. Tripp suffered psychologically, after the stunt, he began to think he was an imposter of himself, and kept that thought for some time.



His career soon suffered a massive downturn when he was involved in the payola scandal of 1960. Like several other disc jockeys (including Alan Freed) he had been playing particular records in return for gifts from record companies. Indicted only weeks after his stunt, it emerged that he had accepted $36,050 in bribes. Despite his claim that he "never took a dime from anyone", he was found guilty on a charge of commercial bribery, receiving a $500 fine and a six-month suspended sentence.

Even his wakeathon record did not endure for long. Other DJs had quickly attempted to beat it (such publicity stunts being common in radio broadcasting at the time) and Dave Hunter, in Jacksonville, Florida, soon claimed success (225 hours). Six years after Tripp's record, it was smashed by high school student Randy Gardner, who lasted 11 days.

Peter Tripp- WMGM

After leaving WMGM, Tripp was unable to re-establish himself in the world of radio, drifting from KYA in San Francisco to KGFJ in Los Angeles and finally WOHO in Toledo, Ohio, before quitting the medium in 1967. Returning to L.A., he had more success working in physical fitness sales and marketing. He diversified into freelance motivational speaking, writing and stockbroking before settling into a Palm Springs, California retirement.

Overall he had spent twenty years in broadcasting: he began with WEXL in Royal Oak, Michigan, in 1947 then on to Kansas City, Missouri in 1953 where he worked for KUDL (where he adopted the nickname "The Bald Kid In The Third Row", apparently a description made by a parent upon spotting him among many rows of new-borns in a hospital shortly after his birth) and then WHB (restyling himself as "The Curly-headed Kid In The Third Row"; he was not, in reality, bald) where he was pioneer in the Top-40 format. It was in 1955 that he landed his ill-fated job with WMGM in New York, presenting "Your Hits of the Week".

Tripp died in 2000 at the age of 73 following a stroke, leaving two sons and two daughters. His four marriages all ended in divorce.


➦In 2001...XM Satellite Radio completes satellite system

XM Satellite Radio (XM) is one of two satellite radio (SDARS) services in the United States and Canada, operated by Sirius XM Radio. It provides pay-for-service radio, analogous to cable television. Its service includes 73 different music channels, 39 news, sports, talk and entertainment channels, 21 regional traffic and weather channels and 23 play-by-play sports channels. XM channels are identified by Arbitron with the label "XM" (e.g. "XM32").

From 2008...



The company has its origins in the 1988 formation of the American Mobile Satellite Corporation (AMSC), a consortium of several organizations originally dedicated to satellite broadcasting of telephone, fax, and data signals. In 1992, AMSC established a unit called the American Mobile Radio Corporation dedicated to developing a satellite-based digital radio service; this was spun off as XM Satellite Radio Holdings, Inc. in 1999. The satellite service was officially launched on September 25, 2001.

From 2005...



On July 29, 2008, XM and former competitor Sirius Satellite Radio formally completed their merger, following U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approval, forming Sirius XM Radio, Inc. with XM Satellite Radio, Inc. as its subsidiary.[1] On November 12, 2008, Sirius and XM began broadcasting with their new, combined channel lineups.[2] On January 13, 2011, XM Satellite Radio, Inc. was dissolved as a separate entity and merged into Sirius XM Radio, Inc.

Fred White

➦In 2013…Longtime Kansas City Royals broadcaster Fred White died of complications from cancer at 76.

White was best known for the 25 years, 1974-98, that he teamed with Denny Matthews in the Royals' radio booth.

White, originally from Homer, Ill., did his first baseball broadcasts calling American League games in Hastings, Neb.

He became the voice of Kansas State University athletics in the 1960s-70s and was sports director of WIBW in Topeka. He was nationally known for his TV basketball coverage, notably in the Big Eight and later the Big 12.

CBS Sues Redstones To Stop Merger Deal

UPDATE 5/14/18 11:15AM:  CBS Corp. has declared war on its controlling shareholder, suing Shari Redstone and her family’s National Amusements Inc. holding company for trying to force CBS to merge with Viacom Inc.

Shari Redstone

According to the Wall Street Journal, the suit is an effort to block National Amusements and its president, Ms. Redstone, from being able to force a recombination of CBS and Viacom, which are both controlled by the Redstones. Ms. Redstone has been advocating a such a combination over the past two years.

The special committee, which was formed to evaluate a potential merger, said it has decided that the proposed Viacom deal isn’t in the best interesting of CBS shareholders and says Ms. Redstone poses “a serious threat of imminent, irreparable harm” to public stockholders.

National Amusements controls CBS through a dual-class stock structure that gives National Amusements 80% voting power despite having a much smaller economic stake. CBS said it has scheduled a board meeting for this Thursday to consider issuing a dividend of voting Class A shares to all stockholders that would reduce National Amusements’ voting power to only 17% from its current 80%.

Les Moonves

“The contemplated dividend would dilute NAI’s voting control so that Ms. Redstone is no longer able to block the CBS Board from considering appropriate corporate strategies in the best interest of all stockholders,” the suit said. Reducing the voting power would also prevent Ms. Redstone from replacing CBS’s independent board members.

CBS is seeking a temporary restraining order to block Ms. Redstone of making any changes to the board before Thursday’s meeting.

Earlier Posting....

CBS Corporation and the Special Committee of its Board of Directors, today filed a lawsuit in Delaware Court of Chancery alleging breaches of fiduciary duty by National Amusements, Inc., and seeking to prevent it from interfering with a special meeting of the Board of Directors, at which meeting the directors will consider declaring a dividend of shares of Class A common stock to all of the Company’s Class A and Class B stockholders, as is permitted under CBS’s charter.

The dividend, if issued, would dilute National Amusements, Inc.’s voting interest from approximately 79% to 17%. The dividend would not dilute the economic interests of any CBS stockholder. The Special Committee has taken this step because it believes it is in the best interests of all CBS stockholders, is necessary to protect stockholders’ interests and would unlock significant stockholder value.

If consummated, the dividend would enable the Company to operate as an independent, non-controlled company and more fully evaluate strategic alternatives. Copies of the filings made today in connection with the pending litigation will be made available at the investor relations section of the CBS website.

Supremes Rule Feds Cannot Bar Sports Gambling

The Supreme Court on Monday struck down a federal law barring sports gambling, in a sweeping decision that could soon lead to legalized sports betting in dozens of states.

According to Fox News, the decision marked a defeat for the federal government and sports organizations who fought to uphold the current ban in most states.

The 1992 Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act had barred gambling on football, basketball, baseball and other sports with some exceptions, like Nevada. The Supreme Court ruling now gives states the go-ahead to legalize sports betting if they want.

"Congress can regulate sports gambling directly, but if it elects not to do so, each State is free to act on its own. Our job is to interpret the law Congress has enacted and decide whether it is consistent with the Constitution,” the ruling said.

One research firm estimated before the ruling that if the Supreme Court were to strike down the law, 32 states would likely offer sports betting within five years.

The court's decision came in a case from New Jersey, which has fought for years to legalize gambling on sports at casinos and racetracks in the state.

Bill Introduced To Thwart And Penalize Radio Pirates

Westword illustration

RadioWorld reports another legislative step has been taken in the effort to fight illegal pirate radio operations.

On May 8, Rep. Leonard Lance (R-NJ) and Rep. Paul Tonko (D-NY) formally introduced a bill to Congress designed to thwart and penalize illegal radio operations.

Known as the ‘‘Preventing Illegal Radio Abuse Through Enforcement Act,” the PIRATE Act will increase the ability of the Federal Communications Commission to crack down on pirate activity by increasing fines, streamlining enforcement and placing liability those who facilitate illegal radio broadcasts.

“It is time to take these pirates off the air by hiking the penalties and working with the Federal Communications Commission on enforcement,” Lance said in a statement. Chairman Pai and Commissioner O’Rielly have been able partners in making sure these broadcasts are stopped. This bill will give the FCC even more tools to take down these illegal broadcasts.”

As a commissioner who has long been searching for more Congressional authority to address pirate radio operations, FCC Commissioner Michael O’Rielly commended the effort after the news was announced.

“This bill rightfully increases the penalties, requires regular enforcement sweeps, and augments the tools available to the commission, which are woefully inadequate and outdated, to deal with illegal pirate broadcasters,” O’Rielly said in a statement.

Keep Reading

New Venture To Offer Podcasts Via Paywall

Luminary Media LLC, a venture-backed company, has raised $40 million to join the rapidly expanding realm of podcasting and audio.

Unlike most of its competitors, which support their businesses primarily through advertising, Luminary Media’s business plan includes signing users up for a subscription service granting them access to a portfolio of premium podcasts, according to The Wall Street Journal citing people familiar with the matter.

The venture, which has offices in Chicago and New York, is being led by Matt Sacks, a principal at New Enterprise Associates. NEA has teamed up with other venture and high net-worth investors to back the venture, which is slated to launch some time next year, according to people familiar with the matter.

Matt Sacks

“Luminary intends to be a better Podcommunity for all,” Mr. Sacks said in emailed comments. “We want to be a better answer for creators and a better experience for listeners. We are podcast fans who love podcasts like the creators and listeners do, and our mission is to cultivate, amplify and elevate this special community.”

The company has begun approaching podcast creators including Wondery, PRX, HowStuffWorks and Cadence13 in recent weeks, and has already begun to strike licensing deals, according to people familiar with the matter. Luminary Media is guaranteeing podcast creators revenue up front in exchange for the rights to put their work on its platform, according to people familiar with the matter.

Current plans call for about 75% of Luminary Media’s content to be original within 36 months of launch, according to a person familiar with the matter.

According to WSJ, the company’s philosophy touches on two trendy topics for media investors: audio and subscription-focused media companies. Audio companies such as Gimlet Media, Wondery and 60dB have raised millions from investors in recent years, riding a wave of exploding listenership in the U.S. and beyond. At the same time, subscription-backed media startups such as The Information, Stat and The Athletic have all found their footing in a digital advertising realm dominated by Google and Facebook .

The total audience for podcasting is growing. About 73 million Americans age 12 and up listen to podcasts at least monthly, according to a 2018 survey by Edison Research, up 17% compared with 2015.

Digital TV Threatens Traditional

Advertising on TV has long been the best way for marketers to reach a large number of people at one time. And it is still a formidable medium. But The NYTimes reports cracks are showing.

National TV ad sales peaked in 2016, when they exceeded $43 billion, according to data from Magna, the ad-buying and media intelligence arm of IPG Mediabrands. Sales fell 2.2 percent last year, and the firm estimates that they will fall at least 2 percent each year through 2022.

Some of the decline could be mitigated through new business with platforms like Hulu, but “it’s not yet enough to upset the decrease of traditional sales,” said Vincent Letang, Magna’s executive vice president of global market intelligence. At the same time, he said, while networks have raised the cost of advertising on their airwaves in recent years, ratings have declined sharply, including some in unexpected areas like the National Football League.

TV is still a good value for plenty of advertisers. Mr. Letang said pharmaceuticals and personal care products were increasing their presences on TV. But the combination of rising prices and falling viewership is giving some big brands pause.

The hottest shows on TV networks — which command the highest ad prices — are attracting older viewers, which is a challenge for brands that want to reach millennials and teens. For instance, this season’s top-rated show, the revival of “Roseanne,” has a median viewer age of 52.9 years. The network show with the lowest median age is “Riverdale” on the CW, at 37.2.

Google’s YouTube, on the other hand, is wildly popular with much younger viewers. And the brands are so eager to reach those viewers that they have been willing to continue advertising on YouTube despite the issues it has faced around ads showing up on offensive content, like racist videos.

As TV ad spending has begun to drop, marketers have been diverting more money to tech giants like Google and Facebook, which have increasingly focused on expanding their video — and video ad — business.

Companies love digital advertising because it gives them the ability to target ads based on their own lists of customers — like holders of store loyalty cards — and profiles like “first-time car buyers” or “people who like foreign travel.”

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Tidal Streaming Numbers Questioned

Streaming numbers of Beyonce and Kanye West's respective albums on rap mogul Jay Z's music platform Tidal have been manipulated, allowing the stars excessive royalty payouts, a Norwegian newspaper reported last Wednesday.

According to AFP, the financial daily Dagens Naeringsliv (DN) claimed the streaming numbers for Kanye West's "The Life of Pablo" and Beyonce's "Lemonade" were inflated through manipulated user play counts on Tidal.

Jay Z bought the online service, which has its roots and significant activities in Oslo, through his holding Project Panther for $56 million in March 2015.

His wife Beyonce and his former protege West both launched their albums exclusively on the streaming platform in 2016.

DN's revelations suggest that West and Beyonce, along with their record companies, received a disproportionate share of royalty payouts at the expense of other artists on Tidal.

This could put the service in a tricky situation, as it has promised to pay rights holders more money than its other streaming rivals including Spotify, Apple Music, and Deezer.

Based on an analysis provided by the Norwegian Center for Cyber and Information Security (CCIS), DN reported more than 320 million false plays of songs from the two albums over short periods, a manipulation which affected more than 1.7 million users.

User accounts and play counts obtained by the newspaper revealed suspicious listening patterns, such as simultaneous playbacks of multiple songs by the same user or repeated playbacks of the same song at regular intervals.

For example, the tracks were restarted every six minutes at the same second and millisecond.

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Industry Voting Begins For National Radio Hall of Fame

Voting for the 2018 National Radio Hall of Fame Inductees begins today.

The 24 nominations in six categories were determined by the organization’s Nominating Committee.  Four of those categories will be voted on by a voting participant panel comprised of nearly 1,000 industry professionals.  They’ll receive confidential ballots from the online voting service, Votem, which is also used by the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame.  Votes will be tallied by certified public accounting firm Miller Kaplan Arase, LLP.

The other two categories will be voted on by the public, also via Votem.  Public voting commences June 4 for eight nominations for Music Format On-Air Personality and Spoken Word On-Air Personality.

National Radio Hall of Fame Chairman Kraig Kitchin says, “I personally appreciate the challenging task that our Nominating Committee accepts each year to officially nominate talent from an infinite list of deserving individuals.  Congratulations to this year’s nominees, an excellent selection of our industry’s finest.”

Inductees will be announced June 25.  The induction ceremony will be held Thursday, Nov. 15 for the first time at New York City landmark Guastavino’s located in midtown Manhattan.

WWO Presents: “1968: The Year That Shook America”

Westwood One News host Michael Toscano interviews Pat Buchanan about his time working for candidate and then President-elect Richard Nixon

In 1968, conflict and confusion reigned across America. The Vietnam War raged at full throttle. The assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King and Senator Robert Kennedy stunned the nation. Inner city riots erupted. Young people were making their voices heard in protest on college campuses. New leaders emerged and the culture changed forever.

Westwood One News presents a Memorial Day weekend special broadcast -- 1968: The Year That Shook America. Hosted by Westwood One News correspondent Michael Toscano, this special explores that turbulent time when the nation was changed forever and how the world today is shaped by the twists and turns from 50 years ago.

Westwood One News takes you on a journey back to 1968, with historic sound and new reflections on a year full of tragedy and triumph.  A year when leaders were struck down and a new generation found their voices and re-shaped politics. A year when we finally left the confines of earth and reached for the moon. When we found ourselves mired in Vietnam.  Our cities burned in riots, even as the civil rights movement empowered millions. And while a new kind of comedy came to television, the nightly news brought a bloody war into our living rooms.

1968: The Year That Shook America is available to all Westwood One News affiliates and will replace the program The Week in Review during Memorial Day weekend, May 26-27, 2018.

For more information, contact Jim Jones at jimjones@westwoodone.com or (202) 840-7933.

Indy Radio: Former WZPL Personality Faces DUI Sentencing

Zachary Babb

Nine months and two canceled jury trials later, a former Indianapolis radio personality accused of hitting five cars while driving drunk may plead guilty to the crimes.

According to The Indy Star, 30-year-old Zachary Babb has been facing charges of operating a vehicle while intoxicated while endangering a person and operating a vehicle with an alcohol concentration equivalent of 0.15 or more with a prior conviction since August 2017.

After entering a plea of not guilty, the man previously known as by listeners as "Zakk On Air" on WZPL 99.5 FM had jury trial set for Dec. 20, 2017. That was cancelled and replaced by a jury trial slated for February of this year. But the February trial was canceled just a week before it was supposed to begin.

Online court records show that early last week, a change of plea hearing was scheduled for the afternoon for June 4.

It remains unclear what chagres Babb may plead guilty to.

Police said Babb was driving his 2016 Chevrolet Equinox in the wrong direction down the one-way Shelby Street. Babb slammed his vehicle into five parked cars.

When police arrived at the scene, they approached Babb and smelled alcohol on his breath. Police then took Babb into custody. Court documents said that is when Babb "became belligerent toward officers." He told investigators that he was a radio DJ and said that he was being treated unfairly.

He then refused to take sobriety tests both at the scene and at the hospital, court documents said.

May 14 Radio History

➦In 1910...actor Paul Sutton was born in Albuquerque.  He played Sgt. Preston on Mutual radio’s ‘Challenge of the Yukon’ from about 1943 (when he replaced the original Preston, Jay Michael) until 1954, when he abandoned acting and ran unsuccessfully for congress.  The show’s title had changed to ‘Sgt. Preston of the Yukon’ in 1951.  He died of muscular dystrophy Jan. 31 1970 at age 59.

➦In 1916...musician/bandleader Skip (Lloyd) Martin was born in Robinson Ill. He began on staff at radio station WLW in Cincinnati, before playing alto and baritone sax for a series of big bands, including Charlie Barnett, Jan Savitt, Glenn Miller, and Benny Goodman. He had stints with NBC & CBS radio in New York before arranging the theme and incidental music for the 1958-59 TV series, “Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer.”  He died in Feb 1976 at age 59.

➦In 1970..actress/comedienne Billie Burke, best remembered as Glinda the Good Witch in The Wizard of Oz, who had her own Saturday morning CBS radio sitcom (1943-46), died of heart failure at age 85.

➦In 1976...Lowell Thomas ended a 46-year career as a network radio reporter.

Lowell Thomas

In 1930, he became a broadcaster with the CBS Radio network, delivering a nightly news and commentary program. After two years, he switched to the NBC Radio network but returned to CBS in 1947. In contrast to today's practices, Thomas was not an employee of either NBC News or CBS News. Prior to 1947 he was employed by the broadcast's sponsor, Sunoco. When he returned to CBS to take advantage of lower capital-gains tax rates, he established an independent company to produce the broadcast which he sold to CBS.

He hosted the first-ever television-news broadcast in 1939 and the first regularly scheduled television news broadcast (even though it was just a simulcast of his radio broadcast), beginning on February 21, 1940, on NBC Television. While W2XBS New York carried every TV/radio simulcast, it is not known if the two other stations capable of being fed programs by W2XBS, W2XB Schenectady and/or W3XE Philadelphia carried all or some of the simulcasts.

In the Summer of 1940, Thomas anchored the first live telecast of a political convention, the 1940 Republican National Convention, which was fed from Philadelphia to W2XBS and on to W2XB. Reportedly, Thomas wasn't even in Philadelphia, instead anchoring the broadcast from a New York studio and merely identifying speakers who were about to or who had just addressed the convention.

However, the television news simulcast was a short-lived venture for him, and he favored radio. Indeed, it was over radio that he presented and commented upon the news for four decades until his retirement in 1976, the longest radio career of anyone in his day (a record later surpassed by Paul Harvey).  His signature sign-on was "Good evening, everybody" and his sign-off "So long, until tomorrow," phrases he would use in titling his two volumes of memoirs.

➦In 1984...Ron Lundy started at WCBS 101.1 FM



➦In 2006...Lew Anderson, the Howdy Doody Show's final Clarabell the Clown, died at the age of 84. Earlier in his career, he sang on radio with a group known as the Honey Dreamers.

Lew Anderson as Clarabell The Clown

➦In 2015…Blues singer/guitarist (The Thrill Is Gone, I Like To Live The Love, Rock Me Baby, 3 O'Clock Blues)/nightclub owner/former radio disc jockey (WDIA-Memphis)/Blues Hall of Famer/Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Riley "B.B." King died of complications from Alzheimer's disease and diabetes at 89. Circa 1950, his nickname on the radio was Beale Street Blues Boy, which was later shortened to Blues Boy, then B.B.