Radio

When it came to life in the early 1920s, radio became a medium for the masses with what is now called “block programming” – specific shows aimed at specific audience segments. For decades, farmers were a huge block, and two men in St. Louis became celebrities during their respective reigns on the radio.

Charley Stookey, who was the host of The Farm Folks Hour on KMOX, recalled the tough task of pitching an early program idea: “When I suggested a program starting at 5:30 a.m. to the manager of KMOX in the fall of 1932, he asked if I thought anyone would listen at that unearthly hour.”

Writing for The Greater St. Louis Magazine in 1969, Stookey told of a program that first aired October 3, 1932. It lasted 90 minutes a day, from 5:30 – 7:00 a.m. and was beamed to farmers. Music was provided by station organist Ken Wright and the Ozark Mountaineers. The rural audience was quick to respond, and they remained loyal. “During December 1934,” he wrote, “[the show] drew 50,282 pieces of mail, an all-time record for KMOX.”

Charley Stookey took himself seriously as a radio personality, and he bounced among several stations here, including KXOK, KWK and KSTL. His focus was entertainment, and wherever he worked, he was quick to generate publicity for himself and his program. But he would also maintain a high visibility in the farming community, and his work was often heard on the Columbia Country Journal, which was broadcast by the CBS Network.

Unlike Stookey, Ted Mangner knew a lot about farming. His 24-year career as KMOX Farm Director began in 1944, and there was less emphasis on entertainment and more emphasis on reporting farm news and information. Under his oversight, the early morning program became known as the Country Journal.

He owned a farm near Salem, Il., and a press release from the station said he “tries many of the newest methods on his own acreage.”

Mangner was truly a hands-on farm broadcast, reportedly traveling over 25,000 miles some years to seek out and report stories of interest to farmers. Kay Marshall, who was his assistant at one point, remembers returning from her lunch breaks and finding Mangner napping in the office to catch up on sleep after hosting the early morning show. By the time she returned he was ready to go back to work planning the next day’s program.

Farm programming has faded from the major stations, but in its heyday, it was a major producer of advertiser income.

(Reprinted with permission of the St. Louis Journalism Review. Originally published 03/10)

The days of the large, live hillbilly radio shows are long gone, but these shows, which had their formatic roots in Vaudeville, were the true forerunners of television’s variety programs.

As early as 1931, KMOX had a regular, early morning program, full of talented people and led by Harry “Pappy” Cheshire. For 90 minutes each week, different acts paraded before the microphone in the cavernous KMOX studios. Each musician or group had a different sound, and Pappy, as the emcee, would weave it all together joking with members of the acts.

At least one of those acts was unique because of the age, and the experience, of the star. Little Georgie Goebel had come to St. Louis as a teenager after appearing for several years on the WLS National Barn Dance in Chicago. As was the case with all performers, Little Georgie was working on his image as he gained show business experience.

In a later interview, he credited his work at KMOX with helping his with his comedic timing.

He didn’t really hit the “big time” until after the end of World War II, and he dropped a letter in his surname along the way.

Gobel’s guitar remained an integral part of his act, but he is remembered for his stand-up comedy.

Between the hours of 3 and 7 p.m. and again between 10 and 11 p.m., Ed Bonner’s voice reaches out to five million people in seven states. To say the least, he’s very grateful for their loyalty and for the confidence that his listeners have placed in him.

States Ed in his own words: – “Having gained their confidence they are not afraid to speak their minds to me, telling me what they like or dislike, telling me what they would like to hear and that which they do not like. I have always tried to program with one thing in my mind. Give the listeners the music they like without getting on their nerves. Now you may say, what about the sponsors? I believe that the sponsor is interested in reaching a contented audience, an audience receptive to his message. Thus his message, like the music, should not get on the listeners’ nerves. I think that I have found a middle of the road, where the two parties concerned are happy. The reason I think that way is that I am booked solid commercially and that my listening audience is still growing!”

DJ’s Responsibilities
And Ed Bonner has much more to say: – “But there is much more to it than that. A disc jockey as well as a radio station has community responsibilities and those that neglect that responsibility are failing their job. A DJ who believes his job is finished as soon as he gets off the air is missing the boat. He must remember that his audience, at one time or another, would like to meet him, talk with him and promote with him. He is the voice that is closest to young America and a naturally strong voice to them and in their behalf.

“During my five years in this area I have made hundreds of appearances. I have become a lecturer, master of ceremonies, talent judge and so on. To say the least, I am very proud because of the honors the community has bestowed upon me.”
E.B. was born in Roxbury, Massachusetts, and his career had taken him from coast to coast when he landed in St. Louis on April 30, 1951. In a short span of five years, he has endeared himself to legions of listeners in the KXOK area, not only with his music shows over KXOK, but also his never-failing effort to take an active part in the community he serves. Attending banquets, proms, crowning high school and college queens and assisting in community fund drives are only a part of his daily routine.
Bonner’s shows are heard over KXOK Monday through Saturday, with a special Saturday stanza from 9 a.m. to noon, and are rated among the high spots of the KXOK broadcast day.

The Beginning
How did E.B. get his start? When he first got out of high school in Burbank, California, he wanted to be a fireman. So after taking the fire department’s examination and making the highest grade in his group, Ed did become a fireman. Of course, he slept through his first alarm and didn’t even realize it until the next morning when the Captain told him, but that didn’t cool his enthusiasm. Ed continued to put out fires and fall off roofs and even now, years later, when he hears a fire siren, he still has to hold onto his desk to keep from chasing the engines, in little-boy style.

While a fireman, Ed Bonner studied radio in his spare time. He attended radio school in Beverly Hills, liked it, quit his fire department and got his first radio job in Idaho Falls, Idaho. But having been raised in California, Ed didn’t like the cold climate that Idaho offered. So he left for warmer climates and to pursue another dream – pro baseball. Playing shortstop for a Chicago Cubs farm team that season was “great fun but no future” and he soon realized that his “first love” really was radio – so back he went to stay! The only interruption since that time was the 27 months E.B. spent on active overseas duty in the Navy.
Spells Block

Ed recently did a pinch-hit for Martin Block over WABC Radio, New York for a week which started July 15. He was chosen to replace the vacationing Block from among the top flight disc jockeys throughout the nation. Following the stint on the Martin Block “Make Believe Ballroom” Bonner stayed in New York to film a sequence in a movie dealing with music, records and modern music.

When radio and public permit. E.B. spends what spare time that is allotted him with his lovely wife Jean and their two youngsters Debbie and Rick at their home in Kirkwood, Missouri.

(Originally published in Deejay Magazine, September 1957)

​Licensed initially to the Junior College District of St. Louis in 1972, the student station was assigned a frequency of 89.5 mHz.

Studios were at Florissant Valley Community College. Licensee’s official name was subsequently changed to St. Louis Community College.

The best part of being an avid radio listener in the 50s and 60s was the accessibility of people on your favorite stations. Many listeners felt as though they “knew” the folks they heard on the radio. A few made the effort to get to know a lot of radio people at a lot of stations.

Take Jerry Mitchell, for example. In 1947, at the ripe old age of 10, Jerry would hike from his home at 18th and Russell northward to the Mart Building, which was then the home of KMOX. “I would go up and sometimes they would take me back into the studios. There was a musical show then featuring Russ Brown and the KMOX Orchestra, and they’d let me watch the broadcast.”

Mitchell continued his radio visits, even through his adult life when he worked delivering mail for the Post Office. “In most of the stations the people were friendly. At KATZ in the Arcade Building they were particularly friendly. I am white and their on-air staff was all black, but that didn’t matter. Gracy was very gracious to me, and Dave Dixon, of course. I knew Jerome Dixon from the Post Office, and he did some on-air work. Out at the old KXLW in Brentwood I met E. Rodney Jones. I’d go into the studios and talk to all those guys.

“I remember Spider Burks when KXLW was in Clayton. It was so novel in those days to have a black man on the air, especially on an otherwise all-white station. It was Spider Burk and his ‘House of Joy’ program. Later on he had a coffee house at Gaslight Square. There was a place called ‘The Dark Side’ and Spider had a coffee house in back of that called ‘The Other Side.’ They had a great jazz combo in there.”

In the late 1950s, there was a classic battle among this city’s popular music stations. KXOK suddenly faced a challenge from an upstart at the right end of the AM dial. “WIL came on with Color Radio and knocked them out of the box. They had such a stable of jocks: Jack Carney, Bob Osborne, Gary Owens, Bob Hardy with ‘Action Central News,’ Ron Lundy, Dan Ingram, Dick Clayton – what a droll, funny guy he was.”

It wasn’ t just a matter of being able to walk into the studios to talk with the jocks. “WIL was in the old Coronado Hotel, and some of the secretaries there really thought they were gatekeepers, and I guess with their teenage audience they had to be. The studios were in the basement, and you entered off a patio just to the west of the hotel entrance. Things were sort of cramped.”

Meanwhile, at KXOK, “Radio Park was a dandy facility. I think they bought it in anticipation of getting a TV license. North Kingshighway was a good neighborhood. They had a Parkmoor and the station facilities were just great.

“I remember KWK from the forties. Ed Wilson was always one of my favorites, and Gil Newsome, or course. Ed was probably one of the better salesmen in the history of radio. Any commercial he ever read sounded like a personal endorsement. It wasn’t ‘Go to Central Hardware.’ It was ‘Mom and I went to Central Hardware last night.’”

KSD moved out of the Post-Dispatch Building and into new studios at 1111 Olive. “I remember they always sounded so dignified. They had some guys with some great pipes: Walt Williams, Bob Ingham, Howard DeMere. Later on they had the guy I considered to have the best voice in St. Louis radio history, Harry Gunther. I got to sit in with him a few times. Bill Calder would rag Harry on the air because he preceded him. Harry was doing a jock show from like 7 to midnight, and Calder would spend about half of his time using old Jack Carney material and giving Harry a hard time because of his great pipes.”

When WEW was sold to Bruce Barrington by St. Louis University the format was changed. “They played country music for awhile. They were in the Landreth Building down on North Fourth Street.

“KMOX also moved around. They moved out of the Mart Building, but their new building wasn’t ready, so they went to Ninth and Sidney. I remember seeing Harry Caray there. He was a dresser, the epitome of sartorial splendor. They had a very nice facility in what was the previous office of Bank Building Corporation. I remember delivering mail to the new studios on Hampton. Jack Buck would always speak to me. You know, he never meets a stranger. I always thought KMOX was the greatest station I had ever heard. I remember they used to do a quiz show on Sunday nights called ‘Quiz of Two Cities.’ They would have teams from each town, and Jack Sexton, who later became Jack Sterling, and Al Bland were the quiz masters.”

Even for a little kid radio could be fun. “I remember going over to WTMV when I was real little and talking to Santa Claus. It was in the Broadview Hotel in East St. Louis, and I never actually got to see Santa. His voice came through a speaker. That way they didn’t have to spring for a costume.”

Ask Jerry Mitchell who stood out more than anyone else in all his years of radio listening and the answer comes quickly: “Jack Carney. When Carney left WIL and went to New York. I missed him – I missed him like one of the family. And it seemed like he was gone for so long, but it was only about six years before Mr. Hyland brought him back to town. My brother used to listen to him in San Francisco, and he remembered him as a great salesman on the radio.”

Today the personal aspects, as well as much of the personality, are gone from radio. But those of us who lived through the earlier times remember them with fondness, even if we never did get to visit the studios.

(Reprinted with permission of the St. Louis Journalism Review. Originally published 12/1999)

​The 97.1 FM frequency has been home to many different formats and call letters over the years. Prior to the assignment of the KFTK call letters in 2000, the station was KXOK-FM, playing a classic rock format. It began its existence as an FM talk station under the ownership of Emmis Broadcasting, relying mostly on nationally syndicated programming in its early days.