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Before entering radio, Neil Norman lived a lifetime of theatrical experience with some of America’s leading stock companies as leading man and director. He enjoyed long engagements in New York, Chicago and on the West Coast [and] was featured in productions of “Buddies,” “The Noose,” “Tommy” and other well-known Broadway successes.

Mr. Norman first entered radio way back in 1922 but didn’t take it too seriously, thinking its possibilities too limited. He returned to the stage but re-entered the radio field in earnest a few years ago as both artist and announcer. [He] has worked NBC on [the] West Coast and more recently over the Midwest Columbia Network. In a few short months [he has] gained the distinction of being generally known as the premier announcer of the Middle West.

Mr. Neil Norman is known for his versatility. He can handle any type of program with ease and finesse. Long stage experience has given him almost flawless diction and an excellent speaking voice. He has had an interesting career as actor, entertainer, cartoonist, reporter, author and announcer and looks forward to the coming television with lively anticipation.

Norman came to WIL as an announcer at the suggestion of Franklyn MacCormack, program director, with whom he was once associated in the theatrical field, and later, in radio. He is a distinct radio type, keenly interested in sporting events, and will no doubt be heard in the capacity of sports announcer at various times.

(Originally published in Radio and Entertainment 2/20/1932).

WIL Wanted A Program Director With Ideas
P.S. Neil Norman Got the Job
Introducing the new program director at WIL – Neil Norman. He’s really just an old friend in a new role.
Since coming here early last January, Neil has won real popularity with local listeners, therefore his appointment to succeed Franklyn MacCormack, who has gone to Chicago, isn’t surprising.
Neil, too, considers his association here an extremely pleasant one. The new job is just the icing on the cake for him. No important changes are anticipated by the new director, he plans to continue the present policy of emphasizing local interest.

In addition to the general run of commercial and other programs Norman has been specializing in sports announcing. His daily feature- Sports Highlights – will be continued and additional sports and news broadcasts are possibilities for the near future.
All of which lies back of the young man’s pre-radio career. He worked as a reporter, cartoonist and sports editor on the Cedar Rapids Gazette in Iowa after graduation from Coe College there and newspaper work was to be his life job.

Unless he developed his talent for drawing, to do big things in the art world. A precocious youngster, he got his first recognition as an artist at the age of thirteen when his design for a Liberty Loan poster was accepted. Contributions to Life and Judge followed.

Then his family stepped in. Stage people for three generations, they couldn’t see a slim young man of 22, with expressive blue-gray eyes and a pleasant baritone voice going to waste in a newspaper office. So Neil decided to carry on the family name and fame. The name, incidentally, is Trousdale, he dropped it when he entered radio and used his first and second names only.

With a Chicago producer for an uncle, he didn’t have much difficulty breaking in. His first part was in “Buddies” followed by the leading roles in “Tommy” and “The Noose.” About this time he investigated radio, singing and announcing occasionally, but seeing few possibilities in the then infant art, turned all of his attention back to the stage.

A full-fledged actor, he decided to get out from under the parental wing and organize a stock company of his own. His company was called the Trousdale Players and was very successful in the West.

He believed it established some sort of record for stock companies with a run of 79 weeks in Billings, Montana. While he was playing in Billings four years ago an ambitious young actress joined the company who wasn’t satisfied with her minor roles. She was pretty and she had charm, but in Neil’s opinion she didn’t have enough real acting ability to merit starring. He didn’t make her his leading lady – he married her.

Shortly after his marriage he tried broadcasting again. This time he took it seriously and before long was announcing NBC network programs on the West Coast. He has been an announcer on both major broadcasting systems, handling Columbia’s Midwestern programs prior to joining the WIL staff. Among the stations he has been associated with are KSL, Salt Lake City, WMT, Waterloo, Iowa, and two Montana stations – KFBP, Great Falls and KGHL, Billings.

(Originally published in Radio and Entertainment 12/17/1932).

When Del King, announcer at KWK, sings the title role as a star of the Metropolitan Opera, then he will be truly happy.

He confided to us that that was his real ambition and the progress he has made in the twenty-four years of his life indicates that he might some day in the not-too-distant future attain that coveted goal.

Del King’s real name is Delmar King (and not an abbreviation of Delmar and Kingshighway nor is he a relative of Jean Paul King as his public often ask him.) He came here from Kansas City two years ago after he by chance, not quite clear to him, got into radio work. Since that time he has been a versatile member of the staff of KWK.
When his low and poetic voice comes over the air on Friday afternoon at 4 o’clock, one can fairly close his eyes and imagine that he is dark with a true romantic feeling for the poetry that glides meditatively from his tongue. Poetry that makes one think and feel deeply is the secret of the tremendous hold that these programs have on the public. He ruefully admitted though that in this time of depression and low feeling that most of the ponderous selections with deep-seated meaning must be discontinued.

One night, after he completed an Old Judge broadcast, one of his admiring public waylaid him and exclaimed in disgust, “Oh, I thought you were a great big man about my size.” The man must have weighed 300 pounds at the least!

People are always dumbfounded when he is doing character parts to find that he is not old and enormous. He usually takes heavy roles such as Old Judge or Dad in the program “Dad and Jean” children’s program. He does a singing program and in the meantime manages to get in a full-time job announcing.

Life is far from dull at [the] radio station, he says, and although he is temporarily marking time in his real ambition, he feels that he is making progress toward it. A radio artist never gets any applause but he does get a great deal of helpful criticism. He bases some of his best work on the helpful hints that he has gotten from his listeners.
False commendation never helped anybody and if people would only tell what they really think, radio would be a school of pleasure.

(Originally published in Radio and Entertainment 4/2/1932).

Dear Mr. Fixit:

I am a girl eighteen years old – a married man with two children – a taxpayer on Newstead – a widow with one child, and I would like to know when the sidewalk is going to be repaired in front of my house – if an Indian penny is worth a dollar – which is the richest Catholic church in St. Louis – if you know of anybody who would like an angora cat – if one can fish with a drop net in the Mississippi river – when are they going to pay the property owners for widening Fifteenth Street – can one get a marriage license in East St. Louis and be married in St. Louis. Please answer this during your program tonight as I will be listening.
Thank you kindly, Most Anybody

Above is a composite letter of typical requests received any day by Ray C. Schroeder, known to the radio audience as “Mr. Fixit,” who broadcasts for fifteen minutes over WIL at 6:45 every evening except Sunday. Every mail delivery to this station brings stacks of letters to Mr. Fixit.

This program is correctly known as the Civic Service Program, was started by Mr. Schroeder in October 1930 as a period for the discussions of civic questions, instructions about the city government, and to provide a medium through which radio listeners could receive advice and information about public affairs. About such subjects the program continued until Christmas of that year.

Just before Christmas, Mr. Fixit during his usual discussion mentioned a family that needed clothing and food. No sooner was the broadcast finished than offers came by all methods of delivery, giving not only sufficient food and clothing for the family mentioned, but enough to insure many others a Merry Christmas. Telling of this instance in later programs opened the door for Mr. Fixit – that of public welfare, and since then this has constituted a major part of the program.

Builds A House
Some of the services that have resulted from a request of Mr. Fixit have been little short of miracles. For instance, one letter he mentioned over the air was from a man in the country who, after starting to build a home, lost all his money. The foundation was built and the siding was on and as the weather was getting cold, to live in such a place was impossible. The day after this letter was read, five union plasterers offered their services to help the cause. So did plumbers, carpenters and even home furnishing stores, and soon not only was the cottage finished, but completely furnished.

Another request much more pathetic was [for] help to cover funeral expenses. Four leading undertakers offered their services and not only was the complete cost covered, but flowers were given, together with music for the service and automobiles to carry the family and their friends to the cemetery.

Many other examples of this Good Samaritan relief could be told. Each day brings many letters asking for employment and a countless number of jobs have been secured. Along with these pleas for relief come many offerings. A woman on the South Side wrote a letter telling that she was going to move and wondered if Mr. Fixit knew anyone who would want her piano. This letter was read during the program along with the address and phone number of where the piano could be found. According to reports, the telephone company had to add additional help to handle the calls that immediately came for this South Side number. Needless to say, the piano was not only spoken for but taken away soon after Mr. Fixit had concluded his broadcast, but the phone calls kept on until an announcement was made on this program the next evening telling that an owner had been found.

Finds Home For Dog
An equally interesting instance resulted from reading a letter telling of a family in University City that had a police dog they would give away. The first person that called was told to come for the dog the next day. So many requests immediately followed that the owner changed his mind. The new owner had already started making arrangements for a dog house and had purchased a new collar with his name engraved on it. The next day when he came for the dog the family was not home and so the dog was taken. The story goes that not everything was satisfactory and requests were made for the dog’s return, however Mr. Fixit also fixed this up and the dog remained with its new owner.

According to Mr. Schroeder, his most difficult problem is sorting over the mail he receives and selecting the letters for this program because as is the case in such instances many of the please do not come from the truly deserving.

The mail received is not all confined to letters regarding relief. Subjects of civic interest also bring a large response. A mention on a recent program that women should be required to buy fishing licenses just as men [are] brought a storm of protests from both women and men from all over the city. Because only a small percentage of the mail can be mentioned in the short time allotted to the program, many letters are never answered on the air. All are opened and read by Mr. Schroeder and wherever possible forwarded to other organizations in the city that are equipped to handle them.

(Originally published in Radio and Entertainment 4/9/1932).

KMOX Program Director Feels Listener Pulse

Providing a balanced radio diet of chain and local programs with a dash of humor and seasoned thoroughly with sparkling personalities is the job of Miss Katheryne McIntire, program director at KMOX.

A constant quest for new and interesting entertainment to please a vast and fickle audience is the life that she pursues. She selects the cream of the chain offerings and intersperses it with equally brilliant local talent so that it makes a balanced program for each day of the radio week.

It is her aim (and listeners will agree that she succeeds) to have something of interest to each person throughout the eighteen hours of a day’s broadcasting. Pleasing the individual whims and fancies of every person is as difficult as it is fascinating, she says.

With a speculative finger upon the pulse of public sentiment, she not only is able to decide what the public wishes, but to create new ideas that will catch the fancy and divert, instruct and entertain. Besides this she finds time to have several programs of her own over the air each week. She spent the earliest years of her life in fitting herself as a concert violinist and a singer, so she says she doesn’t want those years to slip away from her while she mounts new heights of accomplishment.

Sometimes she goes into large apartment houses in the different sections of the city where she treads softly up and down the corridors in the evening when radios are turned on full blast. There she is likely to hear cross sections of radio preference. On occasion she will find that her programs predominate, and again, others, but she can tell what kind of entertainment people choose from such rich fields that these programs offer.

From opinions around the studio she is able to detect what is liked and considered clever (radio artists are just like other people, she assured us). She tries to mingle with others without their knowing that she is connected with radio work, and from them she gets some of the most helpful criticisms and suggestions as to what people in general like.

“Although I shouldn’t like to have this mentioned,” she said, “in my opinion, men are the most difficult to please over the radio. This is based upon two factors: that when men really know about some subject or are talented themselves, they are more exacting, and they always think that they know so much more than any artist or speaker that they want first to criticize before praising.”

The morning programs are stressed very hard, she says, for at that time women are alone and are receptive to advice and entertainment and instruction. Between 9:30 and 11:30 a.m., their spirits are often at a very low ebb and the radio offers inspiration and encouragement and by careful presentation of interesting features, a great good can be accomplished. Vivacious, witty and charming, Miss McIntire is interested in every phase of radio work, having been connected with KMOX in almost every capacity. She says that it is interesting to find out what appeals to persons and to be able to present it to them.

(Originally published in Radio and Entertainment 4/9/32).

A mobile transmitter mounted on a light truck from which can be broadcast movement-by-movement events over short waves, was inaugurated by station WIL last week during the NRA parade here.

The device, which was introduced as one of the greatest surprises in radio for some time, attracted wide attention as an announcer told of the movements of the parade and gave glimpses from the sidelines to an audience who received the news by means of a rebroadcast through WIL’s regular transmitter atop the Melbourne Hotel.

The equipment, installed in a Ford V-8 panel truck, weighs only 150 pounds and is operated by storage batteries. A horizontal aerial strung across the top of the truck carries the ether impulse to the main transmitter.

The station, which was especially licensed, is the first short wave transmitter in St. Louis. The call letters KIFF have been assigned to the station.

“The short wave transmitter will enable us to do unusual things,” L.A. Benson, president of the Missouri Broadcasting Company, said. “We can cover practically any news or sports event movement by movement. We expect to place it in use whenever civic or emergency events occur.”

Each time the transmitter is placed in operation a permit must be obtained from the Federal Radio Commission, Mr. Benson said.

The station operates on 128 meters or 2342 kilocycles and requires a crew of three men when it is in operation – a chauffeur, an engineer and an announcer. Benson plans to use a corps of announcers in special events, each giving his own interpretation of what is going on.

There are only several of such short wave stations in operation and all are in the East, Benson stated.

(Originally published in Radio and Entertainment 8/27/1933)

One of the biggest gripes among broadcast historians is the amount of misinformation being passed off as fact in the field of radio history. KDKA in Pittsburgh is regularly credited with many “firsts,” yet historians have found other stations accomplished the same “firsts” earlier. The explanation, it seems, is the public relations machine of Westinghouse, which owned KDKA.

So it is assumed that such claims are to be taken with a grain of salt when the information is published by ownership of the station in question. That said, it’s interesting to look at the history of WEW, which signed on under the ownership of St. Louis University. In 1951, an article in The Alumni News of St. Louis University said WEW was the second radio station to operate in the United States and the first in the world operated by a university. It also claimed WEW was the first station west of the Mississippi River.

The key to deciphering the validity of these claims lies in the definition of “radio station.” It is known that station 9YK, WEW’s experimental predecessor, was active as early as 1912, originating wireless Morse Code broadcasts of weather reports to agricultural interests from St. Louis U’s observatory. The government shut the station down in 1917 because of the war, but two years later, the transmitter was humming again, this time under government control, sending out weather, grain and livestock reports.

9YK became a university station again later that year. As the industry evolved, experimenters sent sound, instead of code, through the air. Westinghouse engineer Frank Conrad broadcast concerts from his garage over 8XK, and in October of 1920, the government approved changing that license to KDKA. That station’s first broadcast as a licensed commercial operation was on November 2, 1920. At the St. Louis University radio station, the inaugural broadcast came April 21, 1921.

That morning at 10:05, University President Reverend William F. Robison read the weather forecast over the airwaves. Regular service continued with livestock and grain market activities being reported to farmers during the week. July 16, 1921 was the date of the first musical broadcast on WEW. Religious and educational programs followed. The station, since its first broadcast, had been under the watchful eye of Brother George Rueppel, S.J.

A listing of shows heard on WEW in 1928 indicates that the station stayed with that programming philosophy, with shows like: The United States Farm School Program; Students Hour (music and fifteen minutes of interesting reading); Music of High Mass; and the Question Box Hour (with answers to listeners’ mailed-in questions.)

An article published at WEW’s 10-year anniversary, quoted University President Reverend Robert Johnston, S.J. as saying “WEW is not a commercial station and sees no time for advertising purposes, hence has no fixed income…The money necessary for improvements…has been furnished by a Catholic benefactor of St. Louis who realizes the great good and advantage that such a station can do for the community.”

(Reprinted with permission of the St. Louis Journalism Review. Originally published 03/2001)