Monday, June 12, 2017

June 12 Radio History


➦In 1851...early Radio pioneer, Oliver Joseph Lodge, was born in England.

John Lodge
He was a British physicist and writer involved in the development of key patents in wireless telegraphy.

On 14 August 1894, at a meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science at Oxford University, Lodge gave a lecture on the work of Hertz (recently deceased). 

There he conducted a demonstration of Hertzian (radio) based wireless telegraphy, transmitting messages between two buildings, showing their potential for communication.   

This was one year before Marconi demonstrated his system for radio wireless telegraphy.


➦In 1911...the consummate radio actress Claudia Morgan was born in Brooklyn.
Throughout the 1940’s she played Nora Charles opposite Les Tremayne in The Adventures of the Thin Man. She was married to radio announcer and actor Ernest Chappell, and performed with him on the late ’40s horror show, “Quiet Please.” She was also a regular on The O’Neills, David Harum, Ford Theatre, Joyce Jordan, M.D., The Right to Happiness, Grand Central Station, Inner Sanctum Mysteries, On Stage and Dimension X.  In the early ’70s, Morgan was heard on Himan Brown‘s CBS Mystery Theater.

She died Sept. 17 1974 at age 63, cause undisclosed.


➦In 1914....actor William Lundigan was born in Syracuse NY.

He began as an adolescent announcer for a hometown radio station in a building owned by his father. He spent thirteen years as announcer before being discovered by a Universal film executive in 1937.  When bigscreen roles dried up in the mid-50′s he returned to announcing as host of TV’s dramatic anthology Climax, and Shower of Stars, on which he did commercials for the sponsor Chrysler. He also starred in the 1959 TV series Men into Space.

He died of heart failure Dec 20, 1975 at age 61.


➦In 1947…After nine years as a 15-minute radio serial on WXYZ-Detroit, "Challenge of the Yukon" expanded to a 30-minute format and began its 11-year network run, eight years on radio – first on ABC, then on the Mutual Broadcasting System – followed by three years on CBS-TV, with episodes mostly filmed in Ashcroft, Colorado. In 1951, the show was re-named "Sergeant Preston of the Yukon."


➦In 1955...the first network show to be produced with no script, The University of Chicago Round Table, was heard for the final time after 24 years on NBC radio. The program was the first network radio program to win the coveted George Foster Peabody Award.


➦In 1955Monitor debuts on the NBC Radio Network. The weekend program "Monitor," the brainchild of NBC radio and television network president Sylvester "Pat" Weaver, began its 19½-year run on NBC Radio. The initial broadcast lasted eight hours. After an introduction by Weaver, news headlines from Dave Garroway and a routine by Bob and Ray, Garroway cued a music remote featuring live jazz by Howard Rumsey and the Lighthouse All-Stars at the Lighthouse Café in Hermosa Beach, California.



➦In 1972...the Sound Broadcasting Act was passed in the UK, providing for 21 new commercial radio stations, the very first legal competition for the state-owned BBC.


➦In 1989…Former disc jockey Vivian Carter, co-founder with Jimmy Bracken (later her husband) of Vee-Jay Records (the label name formed from their initials) died following a stroke and complications from diabetes at the age of 69. Vee-Jay was the largest black-owned label of the 1950s and over its 13-year lifespan had a talent roster that included the Spaniels, the Dells, Jimmy Reed, Rosie & The Originals, John Lee Hooker, Hank Ballard & The Midnighters, Betty Everett, Gene Chandler, Jerry Butler, the 4 Seasons and, briefly, the Beatles. Vee-Jay went bankrupt in 1966.


➦In 1989...Memphis radio station WHBQ, the first to air an Elvis record, announced it was banning all Presley music. As program director Ron Jordan put it, “we overdo the Elvis bit here.” Jordan rescinded the order two days later after hundreds of Elvis fans called to protest. Presley’s first single, “That’s All Right,” made its debut on WHBQ in 1954.


➦In 2007…Citadel took  control of Disney/ABC radio stations


➦In 2013…Veteran radio personality/programmer (WLS-Chicago, WDRQ-Detroit, WXTR-Washington, WIZF-Cincinnati, WLHT, WTRV and WGVU-Grand Rapids) Bill Bailey died of a heart attack at age 66.

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