Former Talk Show Host Bill Manders died Monday (May 27).
He was 68.
Born in Detroit and raised in southern California, Bill worked in Bakersfield, in the early 2000s at KMJ in Fresno, and then at KOH 780 AM Reno before returning to Fresno to iHM's PowerTalk 96.7 FM.
The middle of the Obama era gave Bill plenty to talk about. An ardent Second Amendment advocate, Bill vociferously complained he couldn’t bring his beloved guns into California from his last radio gig in Nevada.
➦In 1903...comedian Bob Hope was born Leslie Townes Hope in London Englan (Died – July 27, 2003). He was a British-born American stand-up comedian, vaudevillian, actor, singer, dancer, athlete, and author. With a career that spanned nearly 80 years, Hope appeared in more than 70 short and feature films, with 54 feature films with Hope as star, including a series of seven "Road" musical comedy movies with Bing Crosby as Hope's top-billed partner.
In addition to hosting the Academy Awards show 19 times, more than any other host, he appeared in many stage productions and television roles, and was the author of 14 books. The song "Thanks for the Memory" was his signature tune. Hope was born in the Eltham district of southeast London, UK, arrived in the United States of America with his family at the age of four, and grew up in the Cleveland, Ohio, area.
After a brief career as a boxer in the late 1910s, he began his career in show business in the early 1920s, initially as a comedian and dancer on the vaudeville circuit, before acting on Broadway. Hope began appearing on radio and in films starting in 1934. He was praised for his comedic timing, specializing in one-liners and rapid-fire delivery of jokes which often were self-deprecating. He helped establish modern American stand-up comedy.
Celebrated for his long career performing in United Service Organizations (USO) shows to entertain active duty American military personnel, making 57 tours for the USO between 1941 and 1991, Hope was declared an honorary veteran of the U.S. Armed Forces in 1997 by an act of the United States Congress. He appeared in numerous specials for NBC television starting in 1950, and was one of the first users of cue cards.
He debuted on NBC radio in 1935, and was heard on a weekly basis for the next 23 years, though the last 4 years were repeats. His TV show debuted in 1952, and his final special aired in 1996 when he was 93.
Hope retired in 1997, and died at the age of 100 in 2003, at his home in the Toluca Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles. ➦In 1918...Herbert Arthur "Herb" Shriner born (Died – April 23, 1970). He was a humorist, radio personality and television host. Shriner was known for his homespun monologues, usually about his home state of Indiana. He was frequently compared to humorist Will Rogers.
Herb Shriner - 1949
In 1940, Shriner was hired by NBC for occasional radio appearances, which led to a regular spot in 1942 and 1943 on the comedy-variety program Camel Caravan. During World War II, he served in a United States Army special services unit and performed for two years in USO shows for GIs in Europe. After the war, he appeared on a number of radio shows, including The Philip Morris Follies of 1946 with Johnny Desmond and Margaret Whiting.
In 1947 he appeared in a Broadway musical review called Inside U.S.A. The performances were panned by critics, but Shriner's monologues made it a success and carried the show for over a year. Shriner hosted Herb Shriner Time, a CBS Radio weekday program, in 1948 and 1949 with the Raymond Scott Quintet, singer Dorothy Collins, and announcer Durward Kirby.
Herb Shriner Time evolved into a short-lived, fifteen-minute television show. A half-hour version on ABC ran during the 1951-52 season. Shriner found TV success with Two for the Money, a game show which appeared on NBC in the 1952-53 season, then moved to CBS for three seasons.
He died in an auto accident April 23 1970 at age 51. ➦In 1939…'When a Girl Marries' aired for the first time on CBS Radio. It was a daytime radio drama which was broadcast on three major radio networks from 1939 to 1957. It was the highest rated soap opera during the mid-1940s.
➦In 1941...Robert David "Bob" Simon born (Died in a car accident – February 11, 2015). He was a radio, TV correspondent for CBS News. During his career, he covered crises, war, and unrest in 67 countries. Simon reported the withdrawal of American troops from Vietnam, the Israeli-Lebanese Conflict in 1982, and the student protests in China's Tiananmen Square in 1989. During the Persian Gulf War in 1991, he and four of his TV crew were captured and imprisoned by Iraq for 40 days. He published a book about the experience titled "Forty Days."
He became a regular correspondent for CBS's 60 Minutes in 1996 and, in 1999, for 60 Minutes II. At the time of his death in an auto accident, he served as 60 Minutes senior foreign correspondent.
Bing Crosby
➦In 1942…Bing Crosby, backed by the Ken Darby Singers and the John Scott Trotter Orchestra, recorded Irving Berlin's "White Christmas." The first public performance of the song was by Bing Crosby, on his NBC radio show The Kraft Music Hall on Christmas Day, 1941; a copy of the recording from the radio program is owned by Crosby's estate and was loaned to CBS News Sunday Morning for their December 25, 2011 program. It was released on July 30 as part of an album of six 78-rpm discs from the musical film Holiday Inn. At first, Crosby did not see anything special about the song.
By the end of October 1942, "White Christmas" topped the Your Hit Parade chart. It remained in that position until well into the new year. It has often been noted that the mix of melancholy—"just like the ones I used to know"—with comforting images of home—"where the treetops glisten"—resonated especially strongly with listeners during World War II. A few weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Crosby introduced "White Christmas" on a Christmas Day broadcast. The Armed Forces Network was flooded with requests for the song. The recording is noted for Crosby's whistling during the second chorus.
In 1942 alone, Crosby's recording spent eleven weeks on top of the Billboard charts. In Holiday Inn, the composition won the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1942.
➦In 1961...Jack Spector began working as a disk jockey in New York in 1961 at radio station WMCA 570 AM, where he was a member of a group of broadcasting personalities called the Good Guys. He labeled himself Your Main Man Jake and usually closed his shows saying, "Look out street, here I come!"
He switched to WHN 1050 AM in 1972, then for nine years was the host of the "Saturday Night Sock Hop" on WCBS 101.1 FM. He also worked for a brief period as the host of a sports talk show for WNBC 660 AM.
Spector broke into broadcasting in Martinsburg, W.Va., in 1955, then worked for stations in Albany, Providence, R.I., and Chicago before returning to New York. Born and raised in Brooklyn, he attended Brooklyn College and had a brief tryout as a minor-league baseball player with the Brooklyn Dodgers organization. He served in the United States Army in Korea.
➦In 1977...the NBC News & Information Service, which was a 24-hour-a-day news service, came to an end.
NBC launched the NBC News and Information Service (NIS) in 1975. According to Faded Signals, it allowed local radio stations to launch all-news formats, providing affiliates with up to 55 minutes of news per hour.
NBC aired the service on its Washington station, WRC. It also added the all-news format on its network-owned FM stations in New York City, Chicago and San Francisco.
Many stations signed on with the service, but by 1976, NBC was not sure if its network would ever become profitable.
➦In 1978...former disc jockey and actor Bob Crane (Donna Reed Show, Hogan in Hogan’s Heroes), died at age 49, the victim of a brutal murder.
Bob Crane
A drummer from age 11, Crane began his career as a radio personality, first in New York City and then Connecticut before moving to Los Angeles, where he hosted the number-one rated morning show. In the early 1960s, he moved into acting, eventually landing the lead role of Colonel Robert E. Hogan in Hogan's Heroes. The series aired from 1965 to 1971, and Crane received two Primetime Emmy Award nominations for his work on the series. After Hogan's Heroes ended, Crane's career declined. He became frustrated with the few roles he was being offered and began doing dinner theater. In 1975, he returned to television in the NBC series The Bob Crane Show. The series received poor ratings and was cancelled after 13 weeks. Afterwards, Crane returned to performing in dinner theaters and also appeared in occasional guest spots on television.
While on tour for his play Beginner's Luck in June 1978, Crane was found bludgeoned to death in his Scottsdale apartment, a murder that remains officially unsolved. This suspicious nature of his death and later revelations about his personal life gradually changed Crane's posthumous image from a cultural icon to a controversial figure.
➦In 1979..."The Source", considered Radio's first rock news network, debuted.
George Fenneman with Groucho Marx
➦In 1997...Radio, TV announcer George Fenneman died at age 77 (Born - November 10, 1919). He is most remembered as the announcer and good-natured sidekick for Groucho Marx's comedy/quiz show vehicle You Bet Your Life, which began in 1947 on radio and moved to television in 1950, where it remained on NBC for 11 years. Fenneman's mellifluous voice, clean-cut good looks, and gentlemanly manner provided the ideal foil for Marx's zany antics and bawdy ad libs.
Fenneman was one of a pair of announcers on Dragnet; he shared narration duties with Hal Gibney on radio and the original 1951 Dragnet television series, and then with John Stephenson when Dragnet returned to TV in 1967. It was Fenneman's voice which announced, "The story you are about to see is true. The names have been changed to protect the innocent." while Stephenson would be heard at the end of the episode describing the court trials and verdicts.
➦In 2012…Radio actor Dick Beals, for many years the voice of "Speedy" in Alka-Seltzer TV commercials, died at the age of 85.
In January 1949, as a senior at MSU, Beals got a call to do a radio commercial for WXYZ, Detroit. After the show, the director asked him to be on call for all the children's voices as well as those of small, talking animals on all three network radio shows produced by WXYZ - The Lone Ranger, Green Hornet and Challenge of the Yukon.
In 1952, after performing in an episode of The Green Hornet, WXYZ station manager Jack McCarthy referred Beals to Forrest Owen of Wade Advertising. Owen showed Beals a rendering of a proposed product spokesman for their client, Alka-Seltzer and had him record a voice audition. Four months later, Beals was notified that he had been selected as the voice for Speedy Alka-Seltzer as well as the voice of Sticky, the Vaseline mascot.
Standing just 4'7" tall due to a glandular problem that also gave him his youthful voice, Beals provided the voices of 10-year-old boys well into his 70s.
➦In 2014…Former WNEW 102.7 FM NYC personality Dave Herman died of an aneurysm at 78 while in federal custody awaiting trial on charges of attempting to transport a 7-year-old girl from New Jersey to the Virgin Islands for a sexual liaison.
➦In 2014…Kenneth George Schram died at age 66 from kidney failure (Born - December 17, 1947). He was a news and radio broadcaster based in Seattle, Washington and was the former host of local-affairs show Town Meeting and KOMO 4’s evening news segments called "Schram on the Street." For several years he hosted a radio show, The Commentators, on KOMO Newsradio with conservative John Carlson.
That show was discontinued in September 2010. Starting September 20, 2010, Schram and Carlson each began hosting new, separate shows on the same station, with Carlson on from 9:00AM to Noon and Schram from Noon to 3:00PM. Schram is also known for his personal award, the "Schrammie", which he gave out on the air to "underscore what I think are among the worst of bone-headed decision, and/or the most appalling of asinine behavior", usually to local or regional newsmakers.
After a 35-year career, Ken Schram was fired from KOMO 4 and Radio on December 7, 2012, citing cutbacks to full-time employees.
After a total of some 30 years on the air in Washington, DC on WRQX Mix 107.3 FM. AM host Jack Diamond this morning told listeners of the impending demise of the station...but not his show.
The 107.3 FM frequency will be converting from HotAC to be new outlet for K-Love, the Christian Music Format operated by the Educational Media Foundation starting at 7pm this Friday. Back in February, Cumulus Media announced that it has entered into an agreement to sell six radio stations to Educational Media Foundation for $103.5 million in cash. EMF's acquisition means format changes for all these stations. HotAC WPLJ 95.5 FM in New York, Talk WYAY 106.7FM, HotAC WRQX 107.3 FM in Washington, DC, Alternative KFFG 97.7 in San Jose (which simulcasts Cumulus' KFOG in San Francisco), Classic Rock WXTL 105.9 FM in Syracuse, NY and Hot AC WZAT 102.1 in Savannah, GA.
Leading to the switch-over, WRQX will highlight the timeline of WRQX with Diamond hosting the final hour.
Perhaps the biggest news from the video was Diamond's disclosure that his show will migrate to another D-C frequency. The new station has not been unveiled.
61 years after the founding of Warner Bros. Records, the renowned label is being rebranded as Warner Records across the globe.
This marks the latest step in the company’s evolution, following Aaron Bay-Schuck joining as U.S. Co-Chairman & CEO in October 2018, Tom Corson being appointed U.S. Co-Chairman & COO in January 2018, and Phil Christie being named President of the UK label in 2016. The name change also follows the U.S. company’s recent move to a new, state-of-the-art headquarters in downtown LA’s Arts District.
Warner Records has unveiled a bold new logo, with an artful simplicity and impactful typography that are ideally suited to the digital world. The circular icon – suggesting a record, a sun, and a globe - is a nod to the label’s past, present, and future. The openness of the design gives it the flexibility to embrace all Warner Records artists and all genres of music around the world.
Warner Bros. Records was founded in March 1958 as an arm of Warner Bros. Pictures, whose “shield” logo was adopted by the fledgling label and has been used by the company ever since. In 2004, when Warner Music Group was sold by Time Warner and became the world’s largest independent major music company, it was agreed that Warner Bros. Records would continue to use the Warner Bros. name and logo for 15 years.
“For the first time in the label’s history, we’ve had the opportunity to create a distinct, modern identity entirely of our own,” said Corson and Bay-Schuck. “The timing couldn’t be better, since we all feel the label is at a moment of reinvention that builds on our legacy, while moving into a future driven by fearlessness and creativity. We have a growing roster of world-class artists, a rejuvenated team, and an incredible new location. It’s a new day for Warner Records, an iconic label that was born in the California sun, and is at home everywhere on earth.”
“We’re signing and developing the next generation of British artists to move global culture, so we wanted the Warner Records brand to have the power and freedom to mean different things to different people around the world,” said Christie. “A new logo isn’t meaningful on its own, and our label will always be defined by the originality of our artists, our music, and our people.”
Getting young adults to watch television news has long been a challenge.
But in the past, news directors and station executives could wait until the youngsters got a job, bought a house, got married and had children. Eventually, they’d tune in.
But, reports the Indianapolis Business Journal, with the growth of the digital world and the explosion of mobile technology, that “traditional maturation process in terms of consuming TV news has been interrupted,” said Bruce Bryant, president of locally based Promotus Advertising.
Source: Nielsen IBJ Graphic
While TV news has seen audience declines across many age categories, the biggest losses are with younger viewers. The percentage losses outpace those in the 35-54 and 55-plus age groups—and in some time slots, the percentage decline is twice as steep.
Research shows that young people today are at least as interested as previous generations were in consuming news.
In a recent study by the Media Insight Project, a collaboration between the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and the American Press Institute, 85% of millennials said they keep up with the news and 69% said they consume news daily.
“The stereotype of millennials not being interested in news doesn’t stand,” said Jennifer Benz, principal research scientist and deputy director of the AP-NORC Center at the University of Chicago. “Data shows the opposite. Millennials are interested in the news and across several measures. Millennials are tuned in.”
The bad news for TV executives is, young people aren’t getting that news through their TVs.
A recent study by Deloitte found that people age 14 to 30 spend only 40% of their media-consumption time (including, but not limited to, news) watching television. Meanwhile, Generation Xers use a TV for 70% of media viewing, and baby boomers consume media from a TV almost 80% of the time.
Almost half of adults 22 to 45 years old are watching absolutely no content on traditional TV platforms, according to a new study by Omnicom Media Group agency Hearts & Science.
According to the Media Insight Project research, 83% of millennials are consuming news through YouTube and 50% through Instagram, both formats that just a decade ago were non-factors in generating news.
Advertising sold during local TV newscasts has historically made up 40% to 70% of a station’s revenue, because the station controls all the ad inventory and keeps all the revenue. Much of the revenue from ads run during network or syndicated programming goes to the network or syndicator.
So now, rock music is getting its chance at revolving-door radio frequency WYRG 93.9 FM. 93-9X launched Friday as the successor to Top 40 station Energy 93.9.
The Indy Star notes the change is the latest in a parade of formats at 93.9. Between 1993 and Energy's arrival in 2017, station executives tried easy listening, "urban oldies," smooth jazz, country, '80s hits, contemporary Christian, news/talk, adult contemporary and classic hip-hop.
Former Call Signs For 93.9 FM:
WXTZ 1992-1996
WGLD 1996-1997
WGRL 1997-2004
WISG 2004-2006
WWFT 2006-2008
WRWM 2008-2017
WYRG 2017-2019
Billing itself as "Indy's Rock Station," 93-9X played the following acts and songs in succession Saturday morning: Beastie Boys, “(You’ve Gotta) Fight for Your Right (to Party!)”; Five Finger Death Punch, “Gone Away”; Guns N’ Roses, “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door”; Seven Mary Three, “Cumbersome”; Nine Inch Nails, “Closer”; Skid Row, “18 and Life”; and Puddle of Mudd, “Blurry.”
93-9X is owned by Cumulus Media, which acquired three Indianapolis stations from Philadelphia-based Entercom Communications in February.
WZPL 99.5 FM, the standout among the Entercom (now Cumulus) stations, plays Top 40 songs similar to what Energy 93.9 listeners heard — clearing the way for Cumulus to switch its approach at 93.9.
Anchored by the "Smiley Morning Show," WZPL ranked No. 6 in audience size according to April rankings by Nielsen Audio. Energy 93.9 was tied at No. 19 with religious station WGNR-FM (97.9).
Cumulus now owns six Indianapolis radio stations — the most of any company in the city.
Nielsen: April 2019 6+
"The Bert Show," a morning program that originates in Atlanta, migrates from 93.9 FM to WNTR 107.9 The Mix.
Entercom has announced the promotion of Andrea Hansen to Station Manager and Director of Sales for Entercom Madison.
In this role, Hansen will oversee sales efforts for WMMM 105.5 TripleM , WOLX 94.9 FM and WMHZ MIX 105.1. Hansen was previously General Sales Manager for the market, a role she held since 2015.
“Andrea has done a tremendous job leading our sales team and is an invaluable resource to the culture of our company,” said Chuck Sullivan, Senior Vice President and Market Manager, Entercom Madison. “She has been instrumental in the growth of our client base and the training of the team.”
“I am proud to be part of a company that allows us to be true solution providers for our clients," said Hansen. “I look forward to expanding on our growth.”
Hansen joined Entercom in 2015 as a Local Sales Manager before assuming the role of General Sales Manager. Prior to joining Entercom, she served as a sales manager for the Wisconsin State Journal.
105.5 Triple M, 94.9 WOLX and MIX 105.1 are RADIO.COM stations.
Media company Meredith Corp said on Monday it has agreed to sell Sports Illustrated to U.S-based entertainment company Authentic Brands Group LLC for $110 million, as it looks to scale its digital media business.
Reuters reports the companies also formed a strategic partnership to build a global media platform and develop broad-based licensing programs under the Sports Illustrated brand that will include product, original content and live events.
The purchase includes New York-headquartered Authentic Brands getting the intellectual property of the iconic magazine that will comprise of Sports Illustrated, Sports Illustrated Kids, Sportsperson of the Year, Sports Illustrated Swimsuit, SI and SI TV, the companies said in a statement.
“As one of the most iconic brands in sports media, SI is a cultural centerpiece with massive opportunities for growth across its burgeoning digital, TV and social platforms and industry-leading print magazine,” Authentic Brands Chief Executive Jamie Salter said in the statement.
Authentic Brands would take on the marketing, business development and licensing functions for the Sports Illustrated intellectual property and brand, which has over 120 million consumers, while the print magazine and SI.com would continue to function independently under Meredith and Editor-in-Chief Chris Stone and Publisher Danny Lee, the companies said.
The term "fake news" is relatively new to our vocabulary, but what's real and what's not are becoming big concerns for media brands. Including radio stations.
Today's blog post from Fred Jacobs take a look at the expanding world of fakery, providing ideas about how public and commercial radio brands can build and retain their cred in a "fake news" world.
Facebook’s move last year to discourage passive consumption of content, especially videos, has impacted engagement. Average daily time spent on the platform by US adult users fell by 3 minutes in 2018.
And that time will remain unchanged this year, per the latest eMarketer forecast on US time spent with media. In fact, eMarketer has reduced its forecast for Facebook compared with the previous figures released in Q3 2018.
This year, US adult Facebook users will spend an average of 38 minutes per day on the platform (on all devices), down 2 minutes from our previous forecast. In 2020, average daily time will drop to 37 minutes.
“Facebook’s continued loss of younger adult users, along with its focus on downranking clickbait posts and videos in favor of those that create ‘time well spent,’ resulted in less daily time spent on the platform in 2018 than we had previously expected,” eMarketer principal analyst Debra Aho Williamson said.
Meanwhile, average daily usage of Instagram is seen reaching 27 minutes this year among U.S. adult users, climbing by one minute each year through 2021.
During the just complete 2018-19 TV season, only 10 percent (10 of 102) of veteran series increased or held steady with their same-day adults 18-49 rating from the 2017-18 season. The Hollywood Reporter's comparison includes same-day ratings for all original episodes of series that aired more than one episode in the 2018-19 season, including those coded as specials.
Only episodes that aired within the boundaries of the Nielsen-measured season (Sept. 24, 2018-May 22, 2019) are counted, which leaves out a handful of early-September football games and the odd early premiere.
That leaves 92 shows— just over 90 percent — that declined year to year in the key ad demographic. The declines range from minuscule (four hundredths of a point for top-rated Sunday Night Football) to huge (a 0.75-point drop for Will & Grace, which was off by half vs. its first revival season). A heavy majority of those declined by more than 10 percent.
A few more veteran shows, 18 in all, were able to increase their total audiences over 2017-18. Chicago Fire posted the biggest gains, growing by 2.12 million viewers while surrounded by its franchise mates on NBC. CBS' Bull (-3.91 million viewers) suffered the largest fall after moving to Mondays from the safe harbor of Tuesdays following NCIS (yet still improved its time period year to year). ABC's The Good Doctor also bled more than 3 million viewers.
Fox's The Masked Singer was the top-rated new show in adults 18-49 with a 2.59 rating. NBC's America's Got Talent: The Champions led newcomers in total viewers with 10.12 million, ahead of the 9.07 million for CBS' FBI.
“60 Minutes” correspondent Scott Pelley on Sunday attributed his ouster at “CBS Evening News” to his series of complaints about a “hostile” work environment at CBS.
The Hill reports Pelley, speaking on CNN’s “Reliable Sources,” said he was forced out of as anchor of the network’s flagship evening news program in 2017 because he continued to alert higher-ups of the problematic environment. Pelley was the anchor of the evening news for six years before his exit.
“We’ve been through a dark period of the last several years of incompetent management and sort of a hostile work environment within the news division,” Pelley said. “I lost my job at the evening news because I wouldn’t stop complaining to management about the hostile work environment.”
He said that he took his complaints directly to the president of the news division at CBS, who told him if he continued complaining he would lose his job.
“Having exhausted the possibilities in the news division, I went to the chairman of the CBS Corporation who listened to me very concerned for an hour, asked me some penetrating questions about what was going on,” Pelley said. “I didn’t hear back from him, but in the next opportunity in my contract I was let go from the evening news.”
He went on to applaud the turnaround the network has made with new leadership and executives in place.
CBS has experienced a major overhaul in both the news department and company as a whole.
Former Chairman and CEO Les Moonves resigned from CBS in September amid multiple accusations of sexual misconduct towards women.
Other top names to exit the company include former longtime “CBS This Morning” co-host Charlie Rose and former “60 Minutes” executive producer Jeff Fager, who worked alongside Pelley.
Rod Bramblett, the “Radio Voice of the Auburn Tigers,” and his wife Paula both died from their injuries in a two-vehicle accident Saturday evening in Auburn.
According to oanow.com, the accident involved the SUV driven by the Brambletts and an SUV driven by a 16-year-old driver who also was injured in the accident.
Rod Bramblett, 53, was airlifted with life-threatening injuries to the UAB Hospital in Birmingham, where he later Saturday night died from those injuries, according to multiple sources.
His wife Paula, 52, was rushed to East Alabama Medical Center in Opelika but died earlier in the evening from her injuries.
The teen injured was in serious condition and also taken to East Alabama Medical Center. His name was not being released by police Saturday night, as the investigation into the accident continued.
"A 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee (driven by the teen) struck the rear of a 2017 Toyota Highlander," (driven by the Brambletts), police reported.
Alcohol was not a factor in the accident, which remains under investigation by the Lee County Coroner’s Office and the Auburn Police Division, Harris said.
Bramblett was on-air anchor of the Auburn University sports broadcast network for nearly 30 years.
He graduated from Auburn in 1988. He began his broadcast career in Lanett working part-time with the WZZZ/WCJM radio stations during his time in school at Auburn.
Bramblett was named National Broadcaster of the Year by Sports Illustrated in 2013, after his famous calls for Auburn football’s thrilling wins over Alabama and Georgia that fall.
➦In 1955…Elvis Presley made his first appearance on the "Big D Jamboree" radio program, broadcast from the Dallas Sportatorium by local radio station KRLD.
➦In 1957....The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS) is established, leading to the creation of the annual Grammy Awards. ➦In 1958….Top40 1010WINS pranked rival WMGM 1050 AM with a Charles DeGaulle phone call..
Before the era of radio shock jocks and tv prank-yankers,
there was the infamous Charles de Gaulle Hoax of 1958, when DeGaulle was President of France.
It was the first truly great prank call in the history of
radio--a doozy of a sting. Broadcast live throughout the Northeast, the faux
phone call left one station supremely humiliated, leaving the other--the
perpetrator of this mad hoax--basking in smug glory.
According to an aerticle Ken Brooks which appeared in Plus! magazine, in the spring of 1958, New York City radio stations were
waging a fierce war for listeners. The combination of rock-and-roll and the
transistor radio had made Elvis the King, and AM radio stations--at least those
with their ears to the asphalt--were hastily switching formats.
One of the first stations to make the switch--in 1956, in
fact--was WINS. By 1958, WINS had assembled a legendary line-up of disc jockeys
that including Alan Freed, the former Cleveland jock credited with coining the
term "rock and roll."
WINS's large news department was impressive as well; indeed,
station call letters stood for International News Service, a division of the
powerful Hearst Corporation.
Struggling in the shadow of WINS was low-rated WMGM. The
station had once been the proud home of Brooklyn Dodger broadcasts, but the
team was gone now, transplanted to Los Angeles that very spring. WMGM's tepid
music format combined a bit of rock with easy-listening.
The station was not exactly a strong news-gathering force,
either. Without a large news staff, WMGM execs outfitted an old panel truck and
assigned two reporters to cruise the streets looking for "scoops."
The reporters were dubbed the Minute Men; presumably they would be on the scene
of a breaking story in a matter of minutes.
Headlines on the morning of Tuesday, May 28, 1958, concerned
big news overseas: The imminent collapse of the French government, and the
possibility that Gen. Charles De Gaulle--the popular World War II hero--would
seize control of the republic.In the WMGM newsroom, executives decided on a
bold move that would prove to New Yorkers that WMGM could be taken seriously as
a news-gathering operation.
At 10:30 am, newscaster Bill Edmunds interrupted with this
announcement:
"French President Coty is conferring with political
leaders after receiving the resignation of Premier Pflimlin. A new government
may be created today with General de Gaulle at the helm. WMGM has a call in,
long-distance, overseas to General De Gaulle to bring you a direct
interview...As soon as that call is completed, we'll put that call right on the
air."
Monitoring rival stations' broadcasts is standard practice
in the radio business. WMGM's plan to call de Gaulle caused no panic in the
WINS newsroom, where it was seen as a desperate act on the part of WMGM. The
idea that General de Gaulle would actually return a call to a local New York
City radio station was outlandish.
Unless...
At noon the phone rang at WMGM studios. On the line was an
overseas operator--or so she claimed. "Your trans- atlantic call is ready,
sir," she said.
Bill Edmunds hustled to a mic."General? General de
Gaulle?"
"Yas?" The response sounded static-y and far-away.
"General de Gaulle, this is WMGM in New York
City." One could feel the adrenaline in Edmund's voice; they gave out
awards for scoops like this. "I would like to know if you would care to
make a statement to the American people at this time."
"Yas, I certainly would," said de Gaulle in a
heavily French-accented English. "Are we on zee air now?" he asked.
"No sir, we are making a tape to play later, throughout
the day and on our newscasts," Edmunds said.
"Well..." There was a pause as the General mulled
this over. "No," he said finally, "I would not like to be
recorded, as I have not yet granted the French press any of thees
informay-shee-own. But I will agree to be broadcast."
"Will you hold, please, and we'll put you directly on
the air? Can you do that?" Edmunds was practically begging.
"Yas, but make it very fast as I must go to ze
Na-shee-a-nal Assem-blee."
"Just as soon as they give me the go-ahead,
General..." In the thirteen seconds of dead-air that followed--an eternity
in radio-time--one could hear the engineers scrambling to punch the right
buttons.
Then, live, in stentorian tones, Edmunds announced: "I
am on the phone with General Charles De Gaulle in France. General de Gaulle,
would you care to make a statement about the crisis in France?"
"Thank you Mr. Edmunds," the General began.
"I would like to make clear that when I assume pow-air I weel not do so by
any dictatorial means. I am too much of an old soldier...and I weel give to the
pee-pull of France the government they should have had ever since the
war."
Edmunds wasn't about to let the General go just yet. A few
more questions. Then de Gaulle broke in: "...Monseuir, can you tell me
again whom I am speaking to?"
"Bill Edmunds, General. I'm one of the WMGM Minute
Men." Surprisingly, de Gaulle sounded not the least bit impressed.
"WMGM?" the General repeated. "Why, everybody
knows the best radio station in New York is WINS." Then he screamed:
"Viva la France!"
In the second-and-a-half before the line went dead, in the
background, one could hear the unmistakable sounds of hysterical laughter.
Poor Bill Edmunds: Totally nonplussed, unsure what had
transpired, unwilling to let go of that award he'd surely have received.
Here's what he said next: "Uh...ladies and
gentlemen...we've, uh, been talking to, uh..."--Edmunds drew a
blank..."General Charles de Gaulle!"
Mercifully, someone at the studio had the presence to kill
Edmunds' mike.
By the time New York's afternoon newspapers hit the streets,
the incident was front page news. The World-Telegram headline read: "WHO
HAD DE GALL TO CALL WMGM?"
"Switchboards at WMGM and WINS were as hot as the
French crisis today," the paper declared, " and General Charles de
Gaulle was at least partially responsible..." Executives at WMGM, the
paper reported, are demanding an immediate investigation by the Federal
Communications Commission.
When asked by the World-Telegram for comment, WINS general
manager Herb Fearnhead responded blankly, "I don't know a thing about
it." Not that WINS was adverse to rubbing it in: The rest of Tuesday
afternoon their announcers broadcast the time in French.
Then, on Wednesday morning, a final insult. A telegram
arrived at WMGM. Sent from Paris, it read: "I was cut off. What happened?
--Charles de Gaulle."
Twenty-six years would pass before anyone fessed up. That's
when an assistant program director for WINS admitted that the entire episode,
complete with pre-recorded "transatlantic static," was the brainchild
of WINS news director Tom O'Brien. And it was O'Brien's fiancee--a stewardess
for British Overseas Airlines, stationed in Paris--who authored the bogus
telegram.
➦In 1962…"Wide World of Sports with Chris Schenkel"
debuted on the CBS Radio Network.
➦In 1998…actor/comedian, Phil Hartman, was shot to death
while asleep by his wife. He was 49. Hartman starred in the TV sitcom,
"NewsRadio"
➦In 2017...Radio personality & news anchor Ken Ackerman of KCBS Radio San Francisco for parts of 5 decades, died at age 95. From 1958-70 he hosted American Airlines’ Music til Dawn.
