➦In 1900...Walter O'Keefe born (Died – June 26, 1983). He was a songwriter, actor, syndicated columnist, Broadway composer, radio legend, screenwriter, musical arranger and TV host.
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| Walter O'Keefe |
O'Keefe was born in Hartford, CT, he began as a vaudeville performer in the Midwest for several years. In 1925, he went to New York City and became a Broadway performer. By 1937, he wrote a syndicated humor column and filled-in for such radio personalities as Walter Winchell, Edgar Bergen, Don McNeill and Garry Moore. He became the long-time master of ceremonies of the NBC show Double or Nothing and was a regular on that network's Monitor series.
O'Keefe also worked in television, presiding over talk shows and quiz shows for the CBS network. Producers Mark Goodson and Bill Todman hired him for their game show Two for the Money. When the show's usual host Herb Shriner had other commitments during the summer of 1954, O'Keefe took over for three months. He was the host for the first Emmy Awards ceremony, held on January 25, 1949 at the Hollywood Athletic Club.
He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in the category of radio. He died in Torrance, California of congestive heart failure at the age of 82.
➦In 1927...Theodore H. Epp (January 27, 1907 - October 13, 1985) started his 'Back to Bible Broadcasts on radio. The broadcasts were heard worldwide on 800 stations in eight languages, until 1985.
➦In 1937...FCC issued first FM construction permit. W1XOJ/W43B/WGTR, Paxton, Mass. (Yankee Network) W1XOJ went on the air May 27, 1939, with 2000 watts on 43.0 MHz. On July 24, 1939, W1XOJ began operating on a schedule of 16 hours a day on the air (8 a.m. to midnight). Broadcasting magazine on Aug. 1, 1939, listed this as one of the four FM stations "in actual operation."
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| John Sherpard |
W1XOJ was the result of a partnership between Yankee Network owner John Shepard and FM inventor Edwin Howard Armstrong to explore the potential of inter-city FM networking. Programs were fed from the Yankee studios in Boston to Asnebumskit, and were picked up from there at stations on Mount Washington, N.H. and in Meriden, Connecticut. Other programs were picked up at Meriden from Armstrong's W2XMN in Alpine, N.J. and carried through Asnebumskit to Mount Washington.
In 1941, W1XOJ became commercial outlet W43B, with 300 kW ERP (50 Kw TPO) on 44.3, as a sister to Boston's WNAC and WAAB. Two years later, Yankee moved WAAB to Worcester to escape the FCC's new anti-duopoly rule. While WAAB and W43B were nominally sister stations, they were never operated jointly (W43B was treated as a "Boston" station and operated from Yankee's Boston studios), and Yankee soon sold WAAB to new owners.
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| Edwin H Armstrong |
W43B eventually took new calls WGTR, moving to the new FM band on 103.1 and then on 99.1. In October 1948, the Yankee Network moved its FM operations to Boston, on the new WNAC-FM 98.5. WGTR's license was transferred to Eastern Radio, which apparently operated the station with “Transit Radio”, providing programming heard in city buses. The 1951 Broadcasting Yearbook shows WGTR once again under the ownership of the Yankee Network, but operating from the same 34 Mechanic Street address as WAAB, by then under Olin Company ownership.
WGTR faded from the scene completely within a year or two, as WAAB flirted with television. By 1961, WAAB was in the hands of Waterman Broadcasting, and when its new FM signal signed on that fall, it was as a simulcast of the full-service AM station. The simulcast lasted until 1967, when WAAB-FM split off from the AM with a stereo beautiful music format. In 1969, WAAB-FM became WAAF, adopting a freeform rock format at 107.3 FM that later evolved into album rock.
A power increase in 1970, to 16.5 kW at 780 feet above average terrain, gave WAAF a commanding signal that could be heard across most of Massachusetts, as well as large portions of eastern Connecticut, Rhode Island, southern New Hampshire and southern Vermont.
➦In 1961...Dan Daniel started at Top40 WMCA 570 AM.
