Radio Articles

Just as little boys dream of becoming policemen or engineers, Peter Grant, senior announcer at KMOX, cherished a hope of being a radio announcer.

Finishing his course in law, Grant – Melvin McGinn he was then – planned to open his own law office and wait dignifiedly for clients to rush in. He thought, however, that there might be a period of time before they found the way to his office and he was faced with the necessity of providing himself with a few sustaining funds. Dramatics were his natural bent and his eloquence in law work had been greatly enhanced so he hit upon the idea of convincing KMOX that he would be an excellent announcer for evening programs.

He tried out for this enviable position one night and got himself a contract to appear in dramatic sketches which were being featured over that station about six years ago.

Grant’s father is an instructor in music at Washington University and he tried vainly to make his son’s chubby fingers master the art of playing the piano. Some way, when practice time came, the budding genius was always on the corner lot conducting a circus or improvising some dramatic sketch. It was more to keep domestic peace than anything else that finally made his father give up his determination to make a concert pianist of Grant and let him spend the practicing hours on dramatic creations.

Dramatics bore fruit, however, forming the basis for Grant’s success. He has occupied almost every position from office boy on up. He is now senior announcer in addition to appearing in other sustaining programs at the station and thus is one little boy who had his dream actually realized.

(Originally published in Radio and Entertainment 4/17/1932).

At least most of the Staff members of your radio station live in a big house all together where they cook and sleep and laugh and learn. The house has a big staircase, lots of bathrooms (most of which don’t work) and a restaurant kitchen which is nice to have as there are always 15 to 20 people sitting down to dinner and lots of hungry folks who wander in and out during the day. There is a big signup sheet in the kitchen. It has boxes which say: Thirsty, Refried, Satiated, Saute, and other days of the week. Next to each box someone who feels like doing it signs their name for cooking that particular night and for cleaning up afterwards too.

There are quite a few bedrooms in the house counting the third floor and the living room, which is a bedroom right now. Almost every bedroom has two people living in it; some of them have three. People sleep at different times because of working off hours at KDNA. Lots of times folks will be working all night fixing electronic equipment or making tapes when it is a little quieter at the station and our equipment is in less demand.

Every Tuesday night is clean-up night. We vacuum, and wash woodwork, and scrub the stove and do all of the things we’re really too busy to get done every day. Since we all work together, it doesn’t take long and it feels good. Somehow, even with mostly men in the house, the dishes get done, homemade bread gets baked and the washing machine gets hard use.

Sometimes there are house meetings to discuss things like how we are all getting along and whether we are eating too many eggs, if you know what I mean. But most of the talk in the house is about radio. How do I make it better? What are we doing wrong? What are we doing? Some people in the house are into politics and meditation, but we’re all together on radio.

(Originally published in Fat Chance 2/1972).

When a meteor flashes through the sky leaving a trail of only a few seconds’ duration, we seldom inquire into the cause, but if a brilliant, attractive star were suddenly to take its place in the firmament, we’d all rush about asking why.

But let’s drop the metaphor of the heavens because it would certainly embarrass such a fellow as Gypsy Joe. Despite his recent success over WEW he is just as modest as the Texan people from whom he comes. Though broadcasting in this city only a little over a month, and with fan mail coming in by the basket, he remains simple and sincere.

Perhaps that word “sincere” is one of the reasons for the phenomenal rise of this latest radio star. Sincerity and hard work are the two qualities one finds most outstanding in Gypsy Joe. Long practices, a policy of answering as many requests as possible, and effort to make each program his best, account for the reception accorded Gypsy Joe since his debut in September over WEW.

His weekly number of requests, and they are steadily increasing, now average about 350 separate numbers; it’s quite impossible for him to fill all of them, but he does as many as possible each day at 11:30 a.m. His requests range from that of an estranged husband for a number to be dedicated to his wife, to a birthday song for a child born the day the Cardinals won the 1931 World Series and named Burleigh William in honor of two of the Cardinal pitchers. And still they come.

(Originally published in Radio and Entertainment 10/29/1932).

Gypsy Joe
(By Olga Hugo)
“Gypsy Joe,” or in real life, Joseph David Cline, has gained great popularity with his radio listeners. Joe is 36 years of age, six feet tall, has brown hair and brown eyes and a very pleasant disposition. He is not married but is partial to blondes. He has played a guitar since he was a small boy but has never taken a lesson. He did, however, take one vocal lesson, but when asked to sing the scales, quit. He acquired the name “Gypsy Joe” about four years ago when directing an orchestra under the name “Gypsy Troubadors” – hence the name “Gypsy.”

Joe began his radio career about ten months ago at WEW where he was given an audition on a Sunday afternoon and on the following Monday morning started his regular daily program and has been with that station ever since. He likes radio and puts his whole heart and soul into his work with the resultant feeling that he is right in the home with you and you and you when conducting his airings.

The programs are made up entirely of the many requests sent in by the vast dialing audience. And talk about fan mail! When asked to give an estimate of the amount of letters received during his career you should have seen the mountain of mail he exhibited. Just recently he received a letter from Craft Yard, Honolulu, Hawaii.
Joe has certainly enjoyed being with WEW these past months and is especially fond of the young gentleman who has been announcing his programs, meaning none other than Bill Durney, the old Mike-master. Joe contends he’d be lost without Bill to utter the mutterings.

He confesses that there isn’t anything he’d rather do than stick to radio and make good. That is his highest ambition. As evidence of his mounting popularity, “Gypsy Joe” has left WEW to join the staff of KMOX. He is featured on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings and also appears each Saturday evening on the celebrated “County Fair.” We are sure that the entire WEW staff joins us in wishing Joe the best of luck in this new and more advantageous position and as evidence of our appreciation of his past performances, we’ll be listening.

(Originally published in Radio and Entertainment 4/22/1933).

The purchase of the highest radio tower in St. Louis, and an FM transmitter radiating more power than any now in use in the area, has been announced by C.L. (Chet) Thomas, General Manager of KXOK and KXOK-FM, St. Louis Star-Times radio stations. Thomas said the tower, which is located atop the Boatmen’s Bank Building in downtown St. Louis, will also be used for television transmission when the Federal Communications Commission approves the pending application.

The tower, transmitter and equipment were purchased from station KWK St. Louis and includes a long-term lease on the entire 21st floor of the bank building, which has long been a familiar landmark on the Mississippi riverfront skyline. The tower atop the 23 story building is 574 feet above street level.

The eight-way antenna, fed by a 10 kilowatt Western Electric transmitter, will radiate 70-thousand watts. It will assure a clear, strong signal in a 17,500 square mile area.

Present transmitter operations of KXOK-FM are located in the Continental Building in mid-town St. Louis. The antenna there is 387 feet above street level and it was here that the St. Louis Star-Times pioneered in experimental ultra-high frequency broadcasts through W9XOK more than a decade ago.

The purchase of the new transmitter is subject to FCC approval and KXOK will take occupancy of the new headquarters as soon as approval is received.

Studios of both KXOK and KXOK-FM will remain in the Star-Times building in downtown St. Louis.

KXOK-FM is associated with Transit Radio, and according to Thomas, who is president of Transit Radio, Inc., the station, in addition to being received in thousands of homes throughout the area, sends its programs of music, news, sports, weather reports, time signals and announcements to 1,000 radio-equipped vehicles of the St. Louis Public Service Company.

The negotiations for the sale of the transmitter, tower, equipment and lease were handled by Thomas and Ray Dady, vice-president of KWK. No sale price was announced. Dady said the newly acquired facilities will give the Star-Times station the most powerful FM signal in the area. “It is a splendid plant,” Dady continued, “and the tower on the Boatmen’s Bank Building is the tallest structure in St. Louis. The Star-Times is fortunate in having acquired this excellent property,” he said.

(Originally published in the St. Louis Advertising Club Weekly 12/26/1949).

(By Nancy Frazer)
Getting Henry, Zeb and Otto all rounded-up for an interview requires so much effort that I was exhausted when I finally got them cornered. Gasping for breath, I, by degrees, managed to get this much information out of them.

They are quite as aimless off the air and the stage as they are on – even after I got them all together, they sat on the edges of their chairs and wanted to know after each question whether or not that was all and they could go. How they ever all get into a studio at once remains a miracle but we have their daily programs over KMOX as positive evidence of their one-purposeness when it comes to music.

They were all born in Topeka, Kansas, and all came to radio by devious routes. Being all born in one place is about the only unified thing about them except their programs and so we’ll have to take them singly.

Henry – the first in point of name of the trio – is Merle Hausch and plays the guitar as well as sings with Zeb. Some years ago, a paper hanger in Topeka had a dream of being on the radio in an act named Henry and Hiram. He had never been on the air in his life but the dream was so impelling that he took the name Henry and started out to find himself a partner. Two weeks later, he was on the stage in Topeka doing the act of which he had dreamed (This is a true story. All three of them swear to it).

He took guitar lessons from the time he was twelve years old and the first tune he learned was “Gates Ajar.” So it was with guitar playing that he essayed to make his radio fame – and he has. He went from Topeka triumphs to Chicago and then to the Dixie Columbia Chain. When his act with Hiram was broken up, he found Zeb and then they set for Otto. They had never met before – although they grew up in the same town!

Then there’s Zeb, whose real name is Rene Hartley. He always smokes a big, black “seegar” and notoriously never talks on the air. He is reticent about himself but this we managed to elicit from him.

He took his first violin lessons from a Negro who was in jail – no Zeb wasn’t in jail but the Negro was and he was the best violinist in Topeka. So every day the little lad trudged down to the jail to learn to “fiddle.” Since that time he studied two years with Bissing in Chicago.

He has had two orchestras all his own in Topeka and Kansas City where he violined and led and has composed several song hits. He does all of the arranging for the three as he did for his orchestra. He is tall and slender and has gloriously wavy hair. He is not sure where he got the name Zeb except that youngsters always called him that.

Making personal appearances lately, he has gone back to stage work from whence he came but he likes radio work best of all. “More interesting,” he says, with Calvin Coolidge brevity.

Last, but in no way least, is jovial Otto who was christened Ted Morse. He played a bugle much to the delight of all his neighbors and had a band all his own when he was a youngster. His family bought him and trumpet and a trumpeter he has been ever since. He started in stage work at a very early age and appeared here with the “Six Brown Brothers.”

He was the leader of the 139th Infantry Band in France and graduated from the American Band Leaders’ School in Chaumont, France. He sings second tenor with Henry when their voices come over the air. He is jovial and as much like the title “Otto” as anyone could possibly be. The others gave him that name when he joined them in Chicago.

Otto’s favorite tune to sing is “Ach die Lieber Augustine” and by some amazing manner he has managed to grow one hair on his head that has attained the length of four inches!

They have a collection of more than 700 songs that they sing including ballads, hymns and hillbilly music and they nearly always play with their music perched in front of them. The only tune that they could all agree on as being their favorite was the “Naughty Waltz.”

Zeb supplies the arrangements. Henry has amassed the words for their songs and Otto is the droll wit. They all contribute real musical training and experience to make them the popular trio that they are.

There they are – at least those are the last words that I managed to get as they rushed off in three directions. All born in Topeka – got together to make radio fame in Chicago and came to KMOX where they have made it.

And that’s Henry, Zeb and Otto when they whale into their rollicking melodies with “Let ‘er go, Zeb – Let ‘er go.”

(Originally published in Radio and Entertainment 10/29/1932).

Georgia Erwin, who is regularly heard as a soloist over KMOX, is one of the real pioneers in the artistic side of radio.
Her very first radio appearance was when station WSBF was still in its infancy and since that time she has sung over KSD, WIL and KMOX. She has been on the station regularly since last summer when she appeared with Ted Straeter with whom she studies. She was a member of the Three Best Girls trio and since the first of the year has been featured in the Don and Georgia sweetheart duo and as a soloist.

Georgia’s real career began much longer ago than that. When she was quite a tiny youngster, her father had great aspirations for her singing ability and essayed to have her learn to sing with him. He laboriously repeated the lyrics of the songs and she would obediently say or sing them after him. Try as he would, she could not get sufficient courage to sing with him. But she was quite docile and enthusiastic so long as he sang them first.

One day he was seized with an inspiration and brought home a cylindrical recording of “Willie, Willie, Why Are You So Bashful” (or something like that) and played it on the “gramophone.” Little Georgia was simply intrigued and delighted with the tune and lay fascinatedly on the floor while that record played over and over. It so pleased her that she forgot herself and started singing the catchy lines with the record. Her father was enthralled – he’d achieved success!

From then on she sang lustily at the top of her voice all of the time and was featured in school entertainments, school what-nots and the like that were held in Granite City. She won contests in high school for the best voice, learned to play the piano and generally delighted her music-loving father.

When radio became a field for vocal endeavor, she was among the first to offer her services and has become correlatively successful and interested in its possibilities as radio has grown.

Her radio success, however, is attributed to her training with Ted Straeter of the Hasgall-Straeter studios who taught her the essential elements of radio technique.

Like most radio artists, her greatest ambition is to be a chain artist someday and she says in a happy-go-lucky semi-serious manner that she feels convinced that if she works hard enough and lives long enough she will some day attain her aim.
Georgia is blond and blue-eyed, pretty and vivacious and with the most irrepressible collection of humor possible in one person. She is optimistic about everything, completely enraptured with radio work and singing, to the exclusion of all else. Listen to her on KMOX.

(Originally published in Radio and Entertainment 4/1/33).