Columbia Broadcasting Company Shifts Network Control To St. Louis
(Unsigned article) Radio & Entertainment 4/24/32
St. Louis last week became the central control point of all East-West radio broadcasting activities of the Columbia Broadcasting Company, according to an announcement from the office of William H. West, director of operations at KMOX.
The new system of controlling programs from St. Louis establishes this city as the focal point of Columbia network programs from coast-to-coast. The broadcasting company also plans to centralize control here of activities in the Southwest.
Until St. Louis became the control point, Chicago had this important place on the Columbia system. Equipment and personnel were moved here from Chicago last week as definite evidence of the favorable location of St. Louis in the radio world.
Through a master control room at KMOX, Hudson Graham, chief dispatcher, relays messages to all the eastern CBS stations in Morse code and sends them westward over a telephone-typewriter service.
All information about national programs is reported at the opening and close of the periods as to air transmissions and reception. Even a second’s delay or time off the air is immediately sent out and an elaborate check is kept. Each station thus knows exactly how the programs were received at each point of the vast chain.
Dispatchers at work in the control room are visible to visitors at the station. The control room is prominently located near the studio entrance in the Mart Building.
Mary and Ruth Miccolis are excellent examples of how good, old-fashioned tenacity could pay off for radio entertainers during the medium’s heyday.
Born in the early ‘20s in the Cook County suburb of Melrose Park, the girls moved to the St. Louis area while in their teens to pursue their dream of breaking into show business. Even now it’s hard to imagine two youngsters making such a break from their parents, but back then, it was almost unheard of for young girls to take such a step. They did, however, have a good reason for taking the chance.
A talent scout for KMOX had heard their work in an audition and offered them a job on the radio. It was 1938, and there was still a lingering economic Depression, so having a job at such a prestigious station made their decision a bit easier.
St. Louis, while not the city Chicago was, offered Mary and Ruth plenty of opportunities. They won a national yodeling competition, which was held at Kiel Auditorium, employing a vocal technique known as triple-tongue yodels. They became part of Pappy Cheshire’s group on KMOX and regularly participated in the Barnyard Follies show and The Old Fashioned Barn Dance show, sponsored by “Uncle” Dick Slack’s furniture stores, endearing them to the rural listeners as well as those in the city. They also were on a Saturday morning show that KMOX fed live to the CBS Network.
Miccolis Sisters
Pappy Cheshire was a promoter, and he schooled the girls in the realities of the radio business for entertainers. He didn’t pay his people as well as one might expect because, he reasoned, the radio exposure created plenty of opportunities for personal appearances, and that’s where the money was. And there was plenty of demand for the Miccolis Sisters.
There were many hillbilly entertainers leading the same sort of life, among them a comic musician named Ambrose Haley. Haley had played the stand-up bass with several groups at KMOX and was kept busy doing the personal appearance circuit too. His infectious comedy, which was a throwback to the days of Vaudeville, made him a popular booking at county fairs throughout the Midwest, and he approached Ruth and Mary about joining his program, which was then being broadcast on KXOK. That station, owned by the St. Louis Star-Times had its studios in the newspaper’s building at 12th and Delmar, just a few blocks north of the KMOX Mart Building studios.
Their work on KXOK also gave the Miccolis Sisters more national exposure, this time on the fledgling ABC Radio Network. Because their change in stations came during World War II, Mary was forced to expand her act a bit. The war had tapped many of radio’s male entertainers for conscription into the service, and Haley’s act needed a straight man. Mary became the “straight woman.”
KXOK was also a conduit for the two women to strike up a professional relationship with one of Hollywood’s most famous cowboy stars, Roy Rogers. He came to town for an extended appearance and visited the station, where he met Mary and Ruth, and he invited them to join him in his visits to local veterans hospitals and military posts and in his act, which was playing at the Fox Theater.
When Ambrose Haley got an offer of a job at WIBW in Topeka, he took it and moved the Miccolis Sisters too. After many years in the broadcast entertainment business, Mary and Ruth Miccolis retired in the Kansas City area with their families.
(Reprinted with permission of the St. Louis Journalism Review. Originally published 07/08)
The heartiest voice of all – that characterizes Harold Bolande’s particular claim to glory and all of you who hear him daily over KMOX will agree.
There is a secret for that particular trait and that lies in his interest in radio and in his unfeigned friendliness for everyone. He is just as friendly and enthusiastic when his voice first comes over the air for the Early Morning Band Wagon as it (sic) is at noon for the Farm Service Hour and later at night when he introduces The Citizen of the Southwest. He lives, thinks and eats radio – eats it, of course, when his many devoted listeners send him samples of their cookery and helpful suggestions.
He’s a Yankee, too, and so disclaims the reserve usually attributed to that Eastern section of the country. He is from Norwich, Connecticut. He early saw the light, however, and came out to the middle west when he was only eighteen.
Harold has held all sorts of colorful jobs in the intervening years until he finally found the niche that suited his many and peculiar talents. He had been talking into a dictaphone for quite awhile until one of the stenographers in a large music house where he was employed remarked one day that she was always happy when she had to type his work for his voice recorded clearly. The idea intrigued him and he decided to make a few records and play them back. He was the only one that was surprised that he sounded so well (sic) for his associates and friends had known it all along!
It occurred to him to go to KMBC and try out and his voice was typified as one having perfect pitch. He became a guest announcer, then a full-time one and then served as program director and chief announcer at the various stations in Kansas City.
When KMOX was putting on a circus program last April, they invited him to come and try out for the place of “barker” – and the rest was easy. He became a regular announcer here specializing on the Farm Service Hour. He used to live on a farm and loves everything connected with it so he has an earnest wish to help and entertain farm folks.
But that isn’t all. One night when my own program ran a bit short, I was amazed to see him dart over to the piano and beautifully “fill” the few seconds before another feature. He is an accomplished pianist, playing both by ear and note. He studied voice at the New England Conservatory of Music. And you should see him take Sad Sam’s accordion and make it do musical flip flops!
He learned to play the accordion when he was in the music business just for the sheer love of learning new things. He does a rollicking good job of wangling tunes out of one too. Recently he has been interested in dramatics and is taking the leading role, and very ably too, in the series of “The Scoop” dramas heard every Tuesday and Thursday on KMOX. That delights him and he is spending long hours on mastering the dramatic art.
About five feet ten, he has almost black curly hair, keen friendly grey-blue eyes and a spontaneity that is impossible to resist. He likes to think up new features and production ideas – in short everything that has any connection with radio work.
Probably his greatest admirer is his own eleven-year-old son Donald whose greatest aspiration is to be a radio announcer. Harold plays football with his youngster, teaches him the diction necessary for the radio and in odd moments teaches him French. “Bolande” came from the French name “Boulande” and Harold’s heritage enables him to speak a good brand of his father’s native tongue. He served with the 35th division in France, and so augmented his knowledge of the language.
Just to give you an idea of his versatility, here are some of the positions that he has held: jewelry salesman; assistant chief clerk, telephone company; shipping clerk; specialty salesman; time keeper, pipeline company; pianist in a theater; hotel bellboy and waiter; stacker during harvest; cowboy riding fences and herding cattle; credit manager; sales promotion man, music company; radio, piano and book salesman; radio work including manager, program director and announcer; also radio salesman; two and one half years USA-AEF 35th Division; plays piano, piano-accordion and mandolin; and his favorite sports are: hockey, tennis, billiards and baseball and swimming.
But fortunately he is here at KMOX making new friends every day in the work that he loves the very most!
(Originally published in Radio and Entertainment 11/26/1932.)
It sounds like a fairy tale…or a Horatio Alger story…and it’s one of those things that, in these days, happen only in radio.
The Columbia Broadcasting System has just announced the election of J. L. Van Volkenburg as President and Member of the Board of Directors of The Voice of St. Louis, Inc., owning and operating company of KMOX, the 50,000 watt station in St. Louis.
Thus far it’s just another announcement, but – Van Volkenburg is only 29 years of age, probably the youngest man in the country holding such a responsible position; he came to KMOX as Sales Manager in October, 1932, was made Director of Operations in January , 1933, and on June 15, 1933 was elected to the position herein announced.
And that isn’t all that is amazing about this young man’s lightning-like strides up the ladder of success. To the “veterans” of radio, Van Volkenburg’s career is parallel to the miraculous growth of the industry itself, which, in only ten years’ time, has taken its place among the leading industries of the country. For KMOX was his first radio station.
Of course he had the kind of background that augured success, if intelligently used…as it was. For five years preceding his affiliation with KMOX, Van Volkenburg was manager of the radio department in the Chicago offices of a national advertising agency, where he had complete charge of the production of both local and network programs. In his earlier days on the Keith circuit, traveling from one end of the country to the other as a single and also part of a singing-playing team, gave him a sound knowledge of what the public wants in entertainment. He is a versatile musician, playing the piano, pipe organ and trombone, as well as the possessor of a fine voice.
(Originally published in Radio & Entertainment 6/25/1933.)
Franklyn MacCormack has joined the staff of WIL as Program Director. Mr. MacCormack is well fitted for the position having had several years’ experience in radio and theatrical work.
He played the lead – “Chico” – in the road production of “Seventh Heaven” and traveled from coast to coast with the show. He can boast of European laurels as well as his American successes. In London he appeared for thirty five weeks in the sensational English play “Journey’s End,” based upon the World War.
Not being content with having gained recognition in theatrical productions, MacCormack turned his attention to the movies and appeared in several successful pictures.
In December of 1928 he visited a radio station with a friend who was interested in becoming an entertainer. After some persuasion MacCormack decided to have an audition. His voice was found so pleasing that he was offered a position as announcer. He accepted and since has been actively connected with radio production. He has also announced over the Columbia Broadcasting System.
In addition to his responsibility as program director he will be featured in his own program, “The Dream Boat” which will be broadcast over WIL nightly at 10:30 o’clock.
(Originally published in Radio and Entertainment 1/16/1932).</p/>
Franklyn MacCormack, program director and production manager of WIL is heard nightly over that station as the “Old Captain” of “The Dream Boat,” one of the most popular presentations on the air. He came to WIL early this year with an excellent background of theatrical and radio experience as an announcer on the Columbia Broadcasting System.
He played the lead – “Chico” in the road production of “Seventh Heaven” and traveled from coast to coast with the show. He can boast of European laurels as well as his American successes. In London he appeared for thirty five weeks in the sensational English play “Journey’s End,” based upon the World War.
MacCormack has an excellent singing voice and is heard with “Sunshine Serenaders” on WIL at 9 a.m. each morning except Sunday.
(Originally published in Radio & Entertainment 9/25/1933.)
MacCormack Is New Announcer On Easy Aces Skit
Franklyn MacCormack, former Program Director of WIL, is now with the Columbia Broadcasting System as announcer for the Lavoris Easy Aces program heard every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday at 7 p.m. over KMOX.
Competing with twenty-eight other announcers for the program, MacCormack secured the appointment. Jane and Goodman Ace are under contract for four years to the sponsors and he will continue to be the announcer for the skit of American home life.
While Franklyn was at WIL, he was program director, announcer, soloist, and became famed for his Dream Boat, a group of poetical readings each evening. He came to St. Louis a year ago from Denver where he had been in radio work, and previous to that had been widely experienced in stage and dramatic work. Neil Norman is his successor as program director of WIL.
(Originally published in Radio and Entertainment 3/11/1933)
Billy Lang, senior announcer at WIL, began his professional career with Paul Whiteman in Denver, their home town. Lang was one of the original rhythm boys in Whiteman’s orchestra.
It was back in the pre-jazz age. The two young men stood at the crossroads. One of them, a fiddler in the local orchestra, later became “The King of Jazz.” The other went on the stage and then into radio as the “Radio Joy Boy.”
Billy Lang
Billy Lang wanted to be an actor. His parents wanted him to study electrical engineering. They triumphed for a while, but Billy had his way later. He is glad now that he found out something about electricity because it has helped him in his studio work.
As early as 1918 the young man was giving a lot of his time to the Little Theatre movement in Denver and that year was awarded the trophy for the best work on the local stage.
After his appearance with Whiteman’s orchestra, he trouped around the country with the Bohemian Bandits, a musical organization, appearing in theatres and the Orpheum circuit.
In his theatrical trouping, Lang occasionally sang over the radio as a ballyhoo for the show. In this way he drifted from the stage to the field of radio and in 1929 came to St. Louis to join the staff of WIL, first as a singer an later as an announcer. In the three years he has been attached to the popular station, Billy has developed a radio personality known wherever WIL broadcasts are heard.
(Originally published in Radio & Entertainment 5/1/1932.)
Billy Lang, “six feet of personality,” came to radio from the stage. In fact one might say Billy grew up on the stage, starting at an early age, as call-boy in a Denver theater.
During his early and interesting stage and back stage career Billy “worked” such shows – with the original New York companies – as “Ben Hur,” “Within the Law,” “The Merry Widow,” “The Firefly,” “Peter Pan” with Maude Adams, “The Return of Peter Grimm,” and the original “Bird of Paradise.”
Billy recalls one of the outstanding shows of that time, the name of the production is forgotten, but the staging, costuming and effects never, because of the ingenious desert sand storm which was represented by the use of an airplane propeller and powdered cork.
Billy’s opportunity to become the “actor” came with Carter, “The Great” – master magician, who at that time was listed as one of the big time illusionists. Billy’s was an important part – he carried a spear – but it started him on a long and varied career behind the footlights and took him to nearly every state in the Union.
We learned that one of his first vocal ventures with a vocal trio, which was made up of Harry Barnes, who is known as one of the original Paul Whiteman Rhythm Boys, and Al Roberts, who is now master of ceremonies in a large Los Angeles theatre.
Billy worked with the now famous King of Jazz, who was at that time just “Paul,” a struggling fiddle player at the Broadway Theatre in Denver. Incidentally Billy received his vocal training from Professor Whiteman, Paul’s dad, in whose choir Billy sang.
The dynamic friendly voice of Billy Lang, the announcer, was acquired through training in the Little Theatre. Billy was an active member, at one time holding the position of assistant director and production manager; in 1920 he represented the group, having the distinction of producing the winning play of the Little Theatre Tournament and being chosen the best non-professional male actor in the entire contest. This brought Billy his opportunity in drama, he next played two successful seasons with a David Belasco show company on the west coast. This was followed by other successes, and from drama, Lang turned his attention to vaudeville and toured with a band. Radio attracted his attention and his clever songs and bright patter won for him the title of “Radio Joy Boy.” It was in the capacity of entertainer that Billy came to Radio Station WIL. His friendly voice soon won the radio fans and Billy was made Junior Announcer. Later he earned the title of Senior Announcer, which he still holds.
Not only does he announce but every afternoon this “Radio Joy Boy” sings the same dear old love songs that made Billy Lang the senior announcer at Station WIL. He is accompanied by Jimmie Masters.
(Originally published in Radio and Entertainment 2/6/1932).
