KDMX 102.9 NOW announced today that Michelle Boros has joined the station as the new Morning Drive Host. Boros will broadcast weekday mornings from 6 a.m to 10 a.m.
As Morning Drive Host, Boros will wake listeners up each morning by broadcasting the latest hits from top artists including Ed Sheeran, Bruno Mars, Taylor Swift, P!NK and more.
Boros joins the Dallas/Fort Worth market from KAMP-FM in Los Angeles, where she most recently served as an on-air personality/music director. She also served as an on-air host and programmer for XM Satellite Radio. She began her career as a phone screener for the “Kidd Kraddick in the Morning Show” and is a graduate of Southern Methodist University.
“We’re excited to add Michelle to the 102-.9 NOW morning lineup,” said Jay Shannon, 102.9 NOW Program Director. “Her years of experience along with her DFW background and roots make her the perfect fit.”
“I’m very excited to be the new morning drive host and can’t wait to wake up with 102.9 NOW listeners every day!” said Boros. “I love to make people laugh and I want listeners to feel like they’re my friends.”
She replaces Tara Ward, who exited last week for Cumulus Country KPLX 99.5 The Wolf as morning co-host.
CUMULUS MEDIA announces that popular radio personality Brian Zepp returns to Classic Rock KQRS 92.5 FM in Minneapolis, MN, as Co-Host of the KQ Morning Show with Tom Barnard.
Zepp was on-air host at KQRS for 19 years, before heading to Bozeman, MT, where he was Morning Show Host for KBFN-FM/The Eagle for the last three years.
Shelly Malecha Wilkes, Vice President/Market Manager, Cumulus Minneapolis, said: “Brian Zepp is a beloved on-air personality in Minneapolis/St. Paul. We are thrilled to have him return to the KQ Morning Show. Welcome home, Brian.”
Tom Barnard, Host of the KQ Morning Show, added: “Brian Zepp is very well read, a very smart guy and a man driven to win. A longtime friend has come back home.”
Zepp commented: “After having been away from KQ for a couple of years, I’ve come to realize there is just no better experience in my profession than being a part of the KQ Morning Show. It’s great to be reunited with Tom and the crew, but even sweeter being reunited with the KQ listeners.”
Radiodays Europe has for 11 years been the meeting place for the world of radio and audio, for all broadcasters both public and private and for companies from around the world.
Radiodays Europe Steering Board have decided that due to the increasing health risks in many countries associated with Coronavirus COVID-19, Radiodays Europe is postponed until the end of 2020.
This decision comes after extensive consultation to ensure the health and safety of our participants, speakers, commercial partners and staff. As the global Coronavirus crisis escalates and concerns regarding travel, large gatherings etc increase it makes it impossible for Radiodays Europe to hold an event at this time.
We are aware of the impact of this decision and acknowledge and express our thanks for all the support of our participants and partners throughout the years that have made Radiodays Europe the meeting place for the world of radio and audio and the largest event of its kind in Europe.
Further details on the new dates for Radiodays Europe will be released at a later date on the Radiodays Europe website – www.radiodayseurope.com.
The PGA Tour has inked a nine-year media rights package with incumbent broadcasters CBS Sports and NBC Sports, while carving out a new over-the-top package which places streaming exclusivity in the hands of ESPN+, AdAge reports.
Finalized 18 months before the current rights portfolio was set to expire, the agreements will keep the PGA Tour rights sewn up from 2022 through 2030. While financial terms were not disclosed, multiple executives with first-hand knowledge said the PGA was able to command a 70 percent rate increase. As the current CBS and NBC deals are each valued at $400 million per year, that puts the new rate in the neighborhood of $680 million to $700 million annually.
CBS was the first to secure a renewal with the Tour, with NBC falling into step soon thereafter. After fending off incursions by would-be usurpers Fox Sports and AT&T’s Turner Sports division, the two broadcasters effectively closed out their respective TV deals in December 2019. The over-the-top rights called for a bit more in the way of haggling, as the PGA Tour Live digital package shifted from NBC Sports Gold to ESPN+.
For the most part, golf enthusiasts won’t notice a big difference in Tour coverage once the new agreements kick in. Both CBS and NBC will broadcast the same regular-season packages that they currently handle, while the layout of the FedEx Cup Playoffs will be made more uniform. In place of the present format, in which CBS carries the first FedEx Cup event (The Northern Trust) before the series jumps to NBC (BMW Championship and Tour Championship), the three playoff tournaments will remain with one of the two networks before shifting to the other partner the following year.
According to the terms of the new deal, NBC will carry the FedEx Cup matches in five of those nine years, with the remainder going to CBS.
As CBS Sports Chairman Sean McManus notes, the new alternating plan allows for “greater consistency in terms of programming and promotion.” McManus adds that under the terms of the new deal, CBS will remain “the predominate broadcast partner of PGA Tour events.” The network this season is on track to air 18 PGA tournaments plus two of the four majors (April’s Masters Tournament and May’s PGA Championship).
The new PGA Tour contract does not impact the broadcast rights to golf’s four major tournaments, which are treated as their own individual entities. CBS, which has carried the Masters every year going back to 1956, renews those very singular rights on a year-to-year basis; meanwhile, 2020 will mark the 30th straight year in which the network will broadcast the PGA Championship. An 11-year renewal announced in 2018 will keep the championship on CBS through at least 2030.
TV station operator Gray Television Inc has made an offer to acquire larger peer Tegna Inc for approximately $8.5 billion, including debt, Resuter reports citing people familiar with the matter.
A successful bid by Atlanta-based Gray would significantly expand its footprint in several TV markets. It underscores the pressure Gray and other companies in the TV station industry are under to gain scale and pricing power with advertisers and the major networks.
While the sector is benefiting from increased political advertising this year ahead of the U.S. presidential election in November, TV advertising budgets have been in decline as media consumption shifts to the internet and online streaming.
Gray, which has a market capitalization of $1.5 billion, has offered about $20 per share in cash and stock for Tegna, two of the sources said. The acquisition financing would add to Gray’s $3.8 billion debt pile, but the company has a plan to quickly pay down debt should the deal be completed, one of the sources added.
After Reuters reported on Gray’s bid on Friday, private equity firm Apollo Global Management Inc (APO.N) informed Tegna it was also prepared to offer $20 per share to buy the company, but its bid would be all-cash, the sources said.
Apollo made a big bet on the sector last year, acquiring the TV and radio stations of Cox Enterprises Inc for more than $3 billion, including debt.
There is no certainty that Tegna, which has a market capitalization of $3.7 billion and outstanding debt of $4.2 billion, will accept either offer, or that it will successfully negotiate a deal, the sources said. A deal with Gray or Apollo would require divestitures, according to the sources.
The sources asked not to be identified because the matter is confidential. Virginia-based Tegna declined to comment.
Contemporary Christian WPOZ Z88.3 has announced that Vice President and Program Director, Dean O’Neal has accepted the position of Vice President of Operations.
Dean O'Neal
According to a station release, Dean has been with the Z from the beginning and is thrilled to transition into overseeing the growth and expansion of 7 diverse stations within The Z88.3 Family of Christian Radio Stations in his new role.
Therese Romano has accepted the position as our new Z88.3 Program Director.
Therese’s career in radio and music began over 30 years ago. She has served in many various roles at The Z, including On Air as our Z88.3 Weekends host. You may have also heard her on our side station ZRewind.com. A little-known fact, Therese’s voice was actually aired on The Z at sign-on. Therese and Jon Hull were part of the Word in Music Network and The Z used their show before hiring their first local on-air talent.
Jennifer Winborn who has served faithfully as our Assistant Program Director and Music Director for the last 8 years will continue on in a part-time role to afford her more time to spend with her family.
Jimmy Failla” is the newest addition to the Fox News audio platforms, airing live, weekdays 12P to 3P ET on Fox News Radio’s affiliate network.
If you are left, right, or somewhere in between, you’ll enjoy Jimmy’s unique ability to foster “co-existence through comedy” as he navigates the news of the day. is a great addition to the Fox News audio platforms, airing live, weekdays 12P to 3P ET on Fox News Radio’s affiliate network.
A standup comedian and former head writer for FOX Business Network's "Kennedy," Failla will also utilize his comedic talents to help navigate the partisan divide, providing an honest look at the important issues that affect every American.
In addition to airing weekdays on FNR, the show will also be available for download via FOX News Podcast Network, with full video recordings of each airing streaming exclusively on FOX Nation, FOX News Channel's (FNC) online subscription based streaming service.
Later this month broadcaster Ed Perry is scheduled to revive, legendary WMEX 1510 AM with much of the same music and with some of the same personalities that powered the station in its heyday from the late 1950s through the mid-1970s.
“I grew up with WMEX,” said the 79-year-old Perry, a member of the Massachusetts Radio Holl of Fame told The Patriot-Ledger. “I grew up with (disc jockey) Arnie Ginsburg and the Adventure Car Hop commercials. It was the high school station. It was what you listened to.”
The station is now scheduled to debut on March 23.
Perry is bringing back radio veterans to host the shows, such as Justice, whose “Halls of Justice” was heard on the old WMEX. There’s also Joe McMillan, who has worked for several Boston stations.
Perry said interaction with the audience is the most important thing in radio, and these announcers not only know the business but they know the music. And, they will take requests.
“They have to be friends to the audience,” Perry said. “There has to be an interaction.”
He said that’s something the radio business has lost in recent years as big radio chains built by deregulation and mountains of debt continue to cut costs through automation and syndication.
And while Justice and McMillan will broadcast live, they won’t be broadcasting locally. Both will broadcast out of home studios: Justice in Florida and McMillan in Maine.
The remainder of the programming is a work in progress.
WMEX’s 10,000-watt daytime signal covers much of Eastern Massachusetts. When the power is cut to 200 watts at night, Perry said, listeners will be able to find the station online.
WMEX signed off in 2017 and Perry bought the license and some of the station’s equipment later that year. WMEX, however, had lost its transmitter site. Since then, Perry has been securing approvals for a transmitter site at a tower off West Squantum Street in Quincy — not far from where the original WMEX towers were located. The frequency is now carrying audio from co-oened WATD 95.9 FM in Marshfield, MA programs until the new format debuts.
BIA Advisory Services has raised its Local Political Advertising Forecast to $7.1 billion in 2020 from an earlier estimate of $6.6 billion this past fall.
Of the $500 million increase, an additional $197 million will be spent in online/digital and $171 million on TV OTA (now estimated at $3.3 billion). Estimated spending for radio OTA local political advertising is $337.3 million.
“Our updated forecast reflects the increased spending in the various Presidential primary states. Yet, it is important to remember that a large majority of the total political spending is targeted to the strongly contested gubernatorial, senatorial races, and other local races,” said Mark Fratrik, SVP and Chief Economist, BIA Advisory Services.
Fratrik continued, “This year we can anticipate that candidates will take their messages local by advertising terrestrially and digitally to voters across the country. The four-year-cycle of increased political year advertising will benefit all segments of the entire local advertising market.”
Healthcare businesses are bucking the trend of media spend shifting to digital. Healthcare businesses are sticking with traditional media through 2024, according to BIA Advisory Services
Spend on digital is growing, but at a slower rate than other verticals. “The Healthcare vertical invests and trusts heavily in traditional media to reach and engage their marketplace. And they don’t shift their media mix decisions very much year to year,” writes BIA’s Rick Ducey in a new report on the Healthcare Vertical.
Not including veterinary services, which BIA will examine in a separate report, the Healthcare vertical is forecast to spend $10.6 billion on advertising and promotion in 2020, growing to $12.3 billion in 2024. Despite increased spend on digital and mobile, over-the-air TV and Cable TV hold their own and manage to maintain share from 2020 to 2024. OTA TV will take 14% of Healthcare spend in 2020 and 2024, while Cable TV will take 4%. Radio drops just one percent in share, but will earn more money overall given the overall growth in spend between 2020 and 2024.
When it comes to healthcare marketers, selling strategies should lead with traditional media platforms and show how digital can amplify those media investments to better achieve marketing goals helps position media sellers as strong partners.
A video created by the White House social media director and retweeted by Donald Trump is the first to be tagged by Twitter as "manipulated media," reports Engadget.
The video shows Democratic candidate Joe Biden appearing to endorse Trump after the end of his sentence was pruned off. Twitter came up with the guideline last year ahead of the 2020 election to highlight "video that has been significantly altered or fabricated in a way that intends to mislead people or changes its original meaning."
The original video showed Biden saying: "Excuse me. We can only re-elect Donald Trump if in fact we get engaged in this circular firing squad here. It's gotta be a positive campaign." However, White House Media Director Dan Scavino cut off the end of the video so it just said, "Excuse me. We can only re-elect Donald Trump."
The video marks the first time Twitter has used the "manipulated media" tag, according to the Washington Post. The social media company first showed the policy in November 2019, created after consulting with users and experts from institutions like Witness, the Reuters Institute and New York Universities. It's designed to help Twitter crack down on misleading information leading up to the 2020 election. During the 2016 campaign, it was widely blamed for allowing fake news to circulate on the platform.
“Disinformation” is the new disinformation.
We’re seeing an intentional and coordinated effort by established gatekeepers to equate political speech they don’t like with the entirely separate categories of doctored deep fakes, illegal content, and deceptive cheap fakes. https://t.co/mKTf9hzi5O
Scavino claimed on Twitter that the video was "not manipulated," though it was certainly "deceptively edited" which also violates Twitter's rule. Twitter has been reluctant in the past to take action against Trump's tweets, even though they sometimes violate its standards, for reasons of "newsworthiness" and "public interest."
Most Americans feel worn out by the amount of news there is these days – a feeling that has persisted since 2018, based on survey data from the Center's Election News Pathways project.
About two-thirds of Americans (66%) feel worn out by the amount of news there is, while far fewer (32%) say they like the amount of news they are getting, according to the survey conducted Oct. 12-Nov. 11, 2019.
Large shares of Americans in both political parties express news fatigue, but the feeling is more common among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents.
Three-quarters of Republicans say they are worn out by the amount of news there is, compared with 59% of Democrats and Democratic leaners. News fatigue is also more widespread among white Americans and U.S. adults who are less engaged with political news.
Interested in more survey data about news fatigue? Check out Pew's data toolhere.
The NHL plans to close all teams’ locker rooms to media due to coronavirus concens.
As the virus, officially known as COVID-19, continues to spread, the league is expected to send out a memo Monday instructing teams to close their rooms. All media access would be conducted by scrums and news conferences outside the rooms.
According to The Tampa Bay Times, some teams, including the Wild, Hurricanes, Flames and Rangers, closed their locker rooms Saturday in advance of the memo. The league left it up to individual teams for now. Those playing games this weekend need both teams to agree to close their rooms. The Lightning’s and Bruins’ rooms remained open for their game Saturday night.
Closing the locker rooms limits the players’ access to five to 25 members of the media on a given game night, depending on the market. The Lightning have about 10 external media members in their locker room after home games.
Addressing reporters in Sunrise, commissioner Gary Bettman said decisions are currently being made on the team level but the league is looking into a league-wide policy. He also said any changes will be temporary, due only to the coronavirus.
The league has already recommended players avoid physical contact with fans. The NHL has also discontinued work travel outside North America.
Clark Weber was one of the most popular disc jockeys in Chicago during the 1960s and 1970s, first at WLS 890 AM and then at WCFL 1000 AM has died at age 89.
He died Saturday of cancer in hospice care at the Presbyterian Home in Evanston, the suburb in which he had long lived. He was 89 and had lost Joan, his wife of 63 years to cancer in 2018.
“Clark was Clark—on and off the air,” said retired radio newsman Lyle Dean, who was a colleague of Weber’s and a friend for decades told The Chicago Tribune. “He was easy to be friends with, as so many thousands heard on and off the air. And he never acted his age. An endearing quality that probably rubbed off on those who knew him.”
He was both program director and deejay at WLS, and along with Dick Biondi, Clark was one of the best known disc jockeys in America.
Weber, who started in Wisconsin, enjoyed a career that spanned more than 50-years. He also ran his own radio advertising consultancy, Clark Weber Associates.
On-air, he always referred to himself as "Mother Weber's Oldest Son". Weber's first radio job was at WAUX in Waukesha, Wisconsin. He also worked at WBKV in West Bend, Wisconsin and WRIT in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
He moved to Chicago in 1961 where he joined the staff of WLS, initially working as a graveyard shift DJ and climbing to program director. This is where Weber became well known spinning Top 40 records. Weber worked in Chicago for WCFL, WMAQ, WIND, WJJD, and WAIT, where he did a Friday morning show for a time.
Weber was often asked to recall what it was like for him to introduce the Beatles at Comiskey Park on Aug. 20, 1965.
He would say a variation of what he once told a reporter: “The crowd went crazy because they knew what was coming. There were about 38,000 screaming teenage girls and the sound was indescribable. I could feel the vibration in my fingers. I don’t think anyone in the ballpark heard a single second of the show. I was standing right next to the stage and I didn’t hear it.”
That story and many others are between the covers of the autobiography he published in 2008, “Clark Weber’s Rock and Roll Radio: The Fun Years, 1955-1975” (Chicago’s Books Press).
Weber promoted A Senior Moment with Clark Weber, a pre-recorded program series for radio stations targeting senior health issues. He was zealous in that mission, saying during a speech in the mid-1990s, “There are a number of erroneous stereotypes about older consumers. It’s made us a wide-open market that’s hardly being touched.” And telling a reporter, “The older audience is being shunted aside by the time buyers at the advertising agencies who only think in terms of 18-to-34 listeners. But that’s a shrinking audience. And here I have an audience that is growing as the whole country is getting older.”
In 2015, Weber made the decision to retire from broadcasting; he was 84 at the time. Just prior to his retirement, Weber was named to the Illinois Broadcasters' Hall of Fame.
According to John Schneider at The Radio Historian: KJR, begun by amateur radio operator Vincent I. Kraft, was the first radio station to be licensed in the Pacific Northwest.
Vincent I. Kraft
After World War I, the civilian radio stations that had been ordered closed during the war were allowed to reopen. One was Vincent I. Kraft’s amateur station 7AC in Seattle. Kraft operated a small radio parts store in downtown Seattle, and in his spare time played with a small 5 Watt deForest Wireless telephone transmitter, transmitting from his home at E. 68th Street and 19th NE. An antenna hung from a 90 foot tower in the back yard.
He soon applied for and received the experimental license 7XC for “wireless telephone” transmission. He moved a phonograph and a piano into the garage adjoining his home, and tacked carpeting on the walls to improve the acoustics. 7XC went on the air on 1110 kc. starting in 1919, transmitting voice and music programs. He played phonograph records, coaxed a local piano teacher into performing, and asked a neighbor boy to play the violin. There was no regular schedule. Every so often he would get a call from one of the few people that had a crystal radio set in Seattle, and he would turn on the transmitter and broadcast so they could demonstrate the new "wireless" to their friends.
In 1921, the U.S. Department of Commerce created a new class of license for radio broadcasting stations. At the same time, a new law was issued that prohibited amateur stations from broadcasting music. So Kraft immediately applied for and received the license KJR, and transferred his 7XC operations to this new license. Unlike its amateur station predecessor, KJR operated on a regular schedule of several hours per day, 3 days a week.
Beginning in the 1950s and lasting until 1982, KJR was a pioneer Top 40 radio station owned by entertainer Danny Kaye and Lester Smith, "Kaye/Smith Enterprises".
In the 1960s, under the programming guidance of Pat O'Day, the station was top rated in Seattle and well known for introducing the Pacific Northwest to many recording stars such as Jimi Hendrix, the Beatles, Merrilee Rush & The Turnabouts and the Ventures. Today, the call letters are used by KJR-FM, which broadcasts a format that includes many of the songs and shows (including original American Top 40 shows from the 1970s) from that era.
Gary Lockwood was THE big morning show on Seattle radio in the 1980's as AM radio was fading out in Seattle. KJR was playing Oldies then.
KJR would switch to soft adult contemporary in 1982. In 1988, the station shifted to oldies, playing the music that had made the station famous throughout the 1960s and 1970s.
KJR's shift to sports programming was a gradual evolution starting in 1989, when the station added some sports-themed shows in mid-days and afternoons. The rest of the music programming would be phased out in September 1991.
On November 4, 2011, at 7 AM, KJR began simulcasting on 102.9 FM, replacing country-formatted KNBQ. This ended on June 13, 2013, when KNBQ (now KYNW) reverted to an Adult top 40 format. During this time, Clear Channel did not transfer the KJR-FM calls from 95.7 to 102.9, instead co-branding the station as "Sports Radio 950 AM and 102.9 FM KJR".
A collection of some of the country's greatest air personalities entertained Seattle listeners like Larry Lujack, Scotty Brink, Norm Gregory, Burl Barer, Pat O'Day, Eric Chase, Bob Shannon, "World Famous" Tom Murphy, Bobby Simon, Jerry Kaye, "Emperor" Lee Smith, Lan Roberts, Robert O. Smith, Charlie Brown, Bwana Johnny, Matt Riedy, Marion Seymour, Sky Walker, Tracy Mitchell, and Bob Brooks. Gary "Lockjock" Lockwood, a.k.a. L.J., was the disk jockey who had the longest tenure on the "Mighty Channel 95," from 1976-1991.
➦In 1925....WHBC Canton, OH signed-on. The original license for the station was granted on February 13, 1925 to Father Edward P. Graham and the St. John Catholic Church. WHBC began broadcasting at 1180 kHz with 100 watts. It was the first Catholic radio station on the air in the U.S., as WLWL in New York was not licensed until August 1925. By the middle of 1927 the station had moved to 1270 kHz. Broadcasting had moved to 1200 kHz by the middle of 1930.
In 1936 the station was sold to secular interests, when it was purchased by Brush-Moore Newspapers, then owners of Canton's newspaper, The Repository. The station was sold in 1939 to a business group consisting of the Vodrey family of East Liverpool and the Boyd family of Portsmouth. The families organized ownership of the station under the name of the Ohio Broadcasting Company. They obtained approval to increase power to 250 watts daytime, while maintaining 100 watts at night.
On March 29, 1941, when most stations in the U.S. changed frequencies due to the NARBA, WHBC moved from 1200 to 1230 kHz. It moved to its present frequency of 1480 kHz on June 4, 1944, when WGAR AM in Cleveland moved from 1480 to 1220. The station obtained an FM license in 1948 and established WHBC-FM on 94.1 MHz which still operates using those call letters.
In September 1947, WHBC's power increased from 1 kW to 5 kW. today, the station powers at 15 Kw-D and 5 Kw-N.
On September 26, 1967, the ownership was reorganized as WHBC, Inc., which changed its name to Beaverkettle Company on September 13, 1972. The Vodreys purchased WFIR in Roanoke, Virginia in 1969; they sold the station eight years later. In June 2000, the family-owned Beaverkettle Company sold WHBC and WHBC-FM to NextMedia for more than $42M ending 61 years of Vodrey family ownership of the stations.
On March 26, 2007, WHBC ended its long-running Full Service format in favor of a full-time news/talk format, eliminating its remaining oldies-formatted dayparts. The station also broadcasts a show resurrected, a staple from the '60s and '70s called Tradio, where listeners can call in and sell items for sale.
NextMedia sold WHBC and their 32 other radio stations to Digity, LLC for $85 million; the transaction was consummated on February 10, 2014. Effective February 25, 2016, Digity and its 124 radio stations were acquired by Alpha Media for $264 million.
As of 2015, the majority of WHBC's schedule has shifted to sports oriented programming, though on weekdays there is still general news/talk programming, including a local morning drive show hosted by longtime WHBC personality Pam Cook.
The station is one of about 40 stations in the country that have split site transmitters—one site for daytime broadcasting and a different site for nighttime broadcasting. WHBC's daytime transmitter is located northeast of Canton off Diamond Street near Middlebranch Road. WHBC's night-time transmitter is located southwest of Canton off Gooding Street near the intersection of Sherman Church Avenue and Fohl Street.
➦In 1945...'Those Websters' debuted. It was a CBS Radio sit comedy series starring Willard Waterman and Constance Crowder as George and Jane Webster. The program was launched in New York and then moved to Chicago for a short spell before finishing its run from Hollywood.
The series replaced That Brewster Boy (1941–45), which starred a teenaged Dick York. Several Brewster cast members continued on with Those Websters, and the two situation comedies were quite similar. Those riotous Websters were heard Friday evenings at 9:30pm on CBS from March 9, 1945 to February 22, 1946 with Quaker Oats as the sponsor. On March 3, 1946, the series moved to Mutual where it aired Sundays at 6pm until August 22, 1948.
➦In 1982...Rex Marshall died from an apparent heart attack at age 64 (Born Marshall Bingeman Shantz, Jr. January 10, 1919). He was an actor, television announcer, and a radio personality for 46 years. His career began in Boston, Massachusetts as a reporter for a radio station and ended in White River Junction as the owner of his own radio station.
Marshall started his career as an announcer for a Boston radio station in 1937.
Marshall's most memorable role was as the host and announcer of the anthology television drama series Suspense from 1949–1954. He was also remembered as an announcer on the radio, spokesman for the Reynolds Aluminum Company for 25 years and as the spokesman for the Maxwell House coffee brand. In 1948, Marshall was the first staff announcer for WPIX-TV NYC.
➦In 1996...George Burns died at age 100 (Born Nathan Birnbaum January 20, 1896). He was a comedian, actor, singer, and writer. He was one of the few entertainers whose career successfully spanned vaudeville, radio, film and television. His arched eyebrow and cigar-smoke punctuation became familiar trademarks for over three quarters of a century. He and his wife, Gracie Allen, appeared on radio, television, and film as the comedy duo Burns and Allen.
At age 79, Burns had a sudden career revival as an amiable, beloved and unusually active comedy elder statesman in the 1975 film The Sunshine Boys, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Burns, who became a centenarian in 1996, continued to work until just weeks before his death of cardiac arrest at his home in Beverly Hills.
Burns and Allen first made it to radio as the comedy relief for bandleader Guy Lombardo, which did not always sit well with Lombardo's home audience. In his later memoir, The Third Time Around, Burns revealed a college fraternity's protest letter, complaining that they resented their weekly dance parties with their girl friends listening to "Thirty Minutes of the Sweetest Music This Side of Heaven" had to be broken into by the droll vaudeville team.
In time, though, Burns and Allen found their own show and radio audience, first airing on February 15, 1932 and concentrating on their classic stage routines plus sketch comedy in which the Burns and Allen style was woven into different little scenes, not unlike the short films they made in Hollywood. They were also good for a clever publicity stunt, none more so than the hunt for Gracie's missing brother, a hunt that included Gracie turning up on other radio shows searching for him as well
➦In 2005...Final "Dan Rather Reporting" radio segment aired on the CBS News Radio Network. He also left as anchor of TV’s CBS Evening News on the same date in 1981 Dan Rather became primary anchorman of CBS-TV News.
➦In 2012...Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band performed a special concert at Harlem’s Apollo Theater to celebrate the ten-year anniversary of satellite radio. The show aired live on Sirius XM’s all-Springsteen channel E Street Radio.
