Radio

Nance and Clif St. James – 2004

​Clif and Nance St. James began their husband/wife radio show at WTMA in Charleston, SC, coming to St. Louis in 1952 when Clif landed a job at KWK. ​After several months, he began concentrating on free-lance work while serving as KWK’s movie reporter. ​Within two years opportunity knocked when Laclede Gas bought sponsorship for the “Clif and Nancy” Show on KSD Radio and the married couple became a part of St. Louis radio history. ​Theirs is believed to be the first regular local program featuring a married couple as co-hosts. ​The program was eventually taken off the air in favor of the then wildly popular “Liberace” show from NBC, but Clif maintained a presence on KSD as a disc jockey in both the jazz and middle-of-the-road genres. ​He also had a long career in television and Nance continued her presence in the media as talent in many local radio and television commercials.

Lester Arthur Benson – Legacy

​Lester Arthur “Eddie” Benson was literally a part of the radio business in St. Louis at its inception.

In 1920 he was commissioned by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch to build a transmitter at its downtown headquarters. In 1922, KSD, the city’s first commercial station, began its experimental broadcasts with this transmitter.

But he had preceded that accomplishment on November 2, 1920, when he and partner William E. Wood teamed to broadcast the results of the Harding-Cox presidential election, using transmitters they had built.

Benson was 20 years old at the time, having entered Washington University to study electrical engineering at 16. His obituary in the local paper said he had first begun broadcasting from the basement of his home when he was only 14 years old.

He put his own station, WEB [later to be WIL] on the air in 1922, eventually running it from his radio store. Two years later he built a transmitter for KFVE [which later became KWK].

Buddy Blattner – Legacy

​Buddy Blattner made a very big impression on basketball fans with his play-by-play work for the St. Louis Hawks professional basketball team, but he had begun his broadcasting career in the late 1940s and did 26 years of baseball broadcasts. He covered the St. Louis Browns and Cardinals, the Kansas City Royals and California Angels.

He was also a television pioneer, having worked in the booth with Dizzy Dean in the early 1950s for the first 8 years of the nationally televised “Baseball Game of the Week.” He and Dean also paired for radio’s “Game of the Day,” and he did baseball recreations on the Gordon McLendon Radio Network.

Blattner was the lead announcer on the first 800 games for the St. Louis Hawks, becoming the first announcer to travel with his team and broadcast home and away games. He was twice elected to the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame and received the St. Louis Browns Historical Society Award for Distinguished Broadcasting in 1989.

Nellie Booth – Legacy

​While Nellie Booth was working as an actress in St. Louis in 1937, a group of people in New York was organizing AFRA, the American Federation of Radio Artists (later to include television by becoming AFTRA). As the organizational activity spread west, Nellie was contacted by one of the people organizing the Chicago local.

She agreed to be one of the founders in St. Louis, and she and six other people organized the St. Louis AFRA. Nellie Booth became the first president and executive secretary in 1937, and she served as the executive director until the 1960s.

In 1968, Ms. Booth received the George Heller Memorial Award, AFTRA’s top honor. She had been recording secretary of the national office since 1937, and the St. Louis local of AFTRA established an annual award in her honor following her death.

Robert BQ (Burris)- Legacy

Robert BQ (Burris) came to St. Louis from a radio job in Jacksonville, Florida, and stayed in the market for over 20 years.

He was the morning disc jockey at KATZ in 1964 when he was promoted to the job of program director. In that position he hired and supervised some of the station’s most popular personalities, gaining a national reputation for KATZ as a power in Black radio.

His radio career here began at the short-lived WBBR in East St. Louis, where he worked as an engineer. It was that talent that led him to his later innovations in multiple track audio recordings, which he used to record some of the area’s most popular R&B groups.

He was the owner of a record store in East St. Louis and, along with his wife Shirley, he promoted local R & B concerts.​

Jack Buck – Legacy

For several generations of baseball fans, Jack Buck’s voice was permanently linked to the St. Louis Cardinals. He came to St. Louis to be a play-by-play announcer for the team in 1954.

While working in the booth for the Redbirds, he held many more radio jobs. At KMOX, listeners heard him doing play-by-play for St. Louis Cardinals football, University of Missouri basketball and football, and, for a short time, St. Louis Blues hockey.

He also did Monday Night Football for CBS Radio and broadcast numerous Superbowls and World Series games. For several years in succession, he logged over 200,000 air miles annually. He is a member of the broadcast wing of the Baseball Hall of Fame and was given the Pete Rozelle Award by the National Football League.

Jack Buck also established himself as a strong team member at KMOX. He was a disc jockey in the late 50s, and was the host of the first “At Your Service” program February 29, 1960. He hosted Christmas morning programs from his home every year, and, in the ultimate indication of community involvement, was known to host up to 250 civic and charitable events a year. ​

Jack Buck montage