Radio Articles

In the days when there were creative, talented people in the radio business, there were plenty of “characters” who gravitated to broadcasting. Kitty Fink, as she was known to her listeners, fit that description, even after she got out of the broadcast business.

The daughter of a St. Louis jeweler, she graduated from Soldan High School in 1927 and was a child prodigy of sorts. She had played piano with the St. Louis Symphony when she was 16.

During her college years at Washington University she is reported to have made her St. Louis radio debut, singing in a symphony broadcast on KWK. But Kitty apparently wanted more.

The national publication Radio Stars reported that she snagged a year-long singing contract on KMOX, but her unorthodox method of applying for the job provided insight into her future behavior. According to the article, “She didn’t apply for an audition the regular way, approaching humbly, the way any girl who wanted to get started in a new field would. She just walked up to the secretary of George Junkin, director of the station, and said in her haughtiest manner, ‘You’d better tell Mr. Junkin Miss Thompson is here, and I haven’t much time to give him.’

“Mr. Junkin, amazed, consented to see her. She was ushered in. ‘Oh, hello George Junkin,’ she said brightly.

“Flabbergasted, Mr. Junkin stared at her. ‘Heaven knows who she is,’ he thought. ‘She must have slipped my memory. She seems to know who I am.’ The she explained what she wanted.

“’So you think you can sing,’ Mr. Junkin said weakly.

“’I know I can sing.’” It was this spunk that would bring her much success and also get her into trouble. When Junkin hired her for $25 a week, she told him it wasn’t enough.

“’Keep still or I’ll make it $20,’ he countered.

“’Go ahead,’ said Miss Thompson, as sassy and fresh as they come. ‘I’ll be making more than you will some day.’”

A year later Kitty Fink was fired because she showed up late for a sponsored broadcast. Radio Stars reported, “At a party, 40 miles from the station KMOX in St. Louis, she was having the time of her young life when her escort, Jimmie, tapped her on the arm and reminded her that she was supposed to be on the air in 10 minutes.”

Kay later related “We made 40 miles in 30 minutes doing 80 miles an hour. Sure we got there late, but the broadcast was still on.”

But she’d forgotten her sheet music, so she wrote a note to orchestra leader Michael Charles: “Play ‘Some of These Days’ in G minor.” The band faked its way though, but her performance was, at best, sub par, and the sponsor, who had been listening, demanded that she be fired. Later, she recalled “I was young and foolish. I felt the sponsors were thick as fish. We just went back to the party and had a swell time.”

Movie and television director Sam Irvin is compiling a biography of Kitty/Kay. He says she went to the West Coast in the summer of 1933, but soon returned to St. Louis, taking a job as a singer with Al Lyons’ band, which was often heard in live radio broadcasts from the Coronado Hotel. Within months she received a telegram offering her a job as a staff singer at KHJ, the CBS station in Los Angeles. Less than a year after that she was singing on the Bing Crosby Woodbury Soap show.

But the story doesn’t end there. After numerous network appearances with the bands of Fred Waring and Andre Kostelanetz and a job as a regular cast member on “Your Hit Parade,” Kitty, now known as Kay Thompson, began several new, highly successful careers. She appeared in movies, hosted her own nightclub act, and is also cherished by generations of young female readers of the Eloise book series, which Kay Thompson authored.

(Reprinted with permission of the St. Louis Journalism Review. Originally published 08/07)

Freezing temperatures at the end of December in St. Louis are to be expected. But even though the mercury dropped to 33 degrees the night of Christmas Eve, 1925, a group of engineers apparently had no qualms about trekking to the middle of a field in the (then) far-western suburb of Kirkwood for a special nighttime event.

That was the night KMOX, St. Louis’ “super station” signed on. The inaugural broadcast, which began at 7:00 p.m. and lasted well past midnight, focused the spotlight on those who had worked to make the station a reality, and it meant an unusually large contingent of engineers was stationed at the station’s transmitter building north of Manchester Road near Geyer.

Telephone engineer Ray Elmore recalled just how rural the setting was at the transmitter site: “At the time the location of the two original towers on Geyer Road north of Manchester was a big cow pasture grown up in weeds and brush and there were no circuits out there. It’ll be hard for people who live there now to realize just what I’m talking about. Kirkwood didn’t extend beyond Manchester Road north at all…They had us standing by in case there was trouble on the circuits. And we were standing outside of this little building they had there out in that cow pasture on Christmas Eve.”

The “little building” to which Elmore referred was actually an 11-room stucco structure that housed the huge transmitting equipment for the station. In an on-air interview at KMOX in the ‘70s he remembered a windy night, but he also remembered a sense that the crew of engineers at the transmitter was part of something very special.

For KMOX ownership and management, that inaugural broadcast had to be noteworthy. Three nights of dress rehearsals were scheduled at the studios in the Mayfair Hotel. Station music director Elizabeth Cuney was in charge of coordinating several large ensembles which were appearing on the program, including the Little Symphony, the vested choir of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church and Gene Rodermich’s Jazz Orchestra. It was even more of a challenge because of the limited floor space available – the station had only two studios at the time, and there was a large assemblage of dignitaries who were all planning to speak over the air as well.

Engineering studies showed that the station would achieve maximum geographical coverage by broadcasting the event at night, and radio fans across the nation were alerted in advance. An article in the Christian Science Monitor dubbed the coming Christmas Eve broadcast a Christmas gift to the nation. “’The Voice of St. Louis’ as it already is known due to the fact that it has been heralded throughout the country by the big civic and industrial enterprises in represents, will perform a territorial service in the main and a national service incidentally in making millions better acquainted with St. Louis and the greater southwest trade territory of which St. Louis is logically the gateway.”

Who better to extol the virtues of St. Louis than Mayor Victor Miller? He began to speakers’ portion of the broadcast describing KMOX as “our candle on a candlestick through which we shall reach the farther-most corners of this great country of ours and advise them of our ambition, our achievements, and our desire for service.”

The speakers droned on, with representatives from each corporate member of the “Voice of St. Louis, Inc.” being given mike time. At 10:15, KMOX relinquished the airwaves for 15 minutes to a St. Louis station that had had already been on the air for two years. KFUO, which shared a frequency with KSD and which was owned by the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod, used its allotted time to begin the religiously oriented portion of the KMOX show. This led to Christmas carols by the St. Peter’s choir and then a broadcast of a full Communion service, which led to the stroke of midnight.

Christmas Day 1925 officially dawned on KMOX with the music of the Gene Rodermich Jazz Orchestra. This was followed with more sharing of time with existing stations, WIL and WSBF.

Of all the civic and corporate leaders who addressed the vast, unseen audience over KMOX that night, the man who represented one of the city’s newspapers seemed to have the best grasp of the potential of this radio station. The Globe-Democrat was one of the Voice of St. Louis shareholders. President and editor E. Lansing Ray said of the station, “…we hope to reflect the advantages of a great city and its market – the commercial, industrial, the civic and the cultural assets of St. Louis…Think, then, of the Voice of St. Louis as a community gift.”

(Reprinted with permission of the St. Louis Journalism Review. Originally published 1/08)

Many St. Louisans remember the classic battle between WIL and KXOK to dominate the market’s young listening audience in the late ‘50s and early ‘60s, but the city’s first deejay war took place a decade earlier.

In the late ‘40s, the concept of a disc jockey was just beginning to take hold. Radio stations which were network affiliates relied on the nets to fill the day with programming, which ranged from news to soap operas to comedies, dramas and kids’ shows. A new invention – television – was slowly making inroads, and the networks were beginning to raid their stables of radio stars to provide programming for the new medium.

Independent radio stations provided many of the same types of shows as did their net-affiliated brethren, but the shows were locally produced. Those programs that relied on “transcribed music” were completely scripted, and the announcers seldom projected any of their own personalities.

But in 1947, St. Louisans got their first taste of disc jockey competition. The situation is described in Arnold Passman’s book, “The Deejays.” Two men who had already established themselves in the market suddenly became competitors for the ears of the music-loving masses.

Rush Hughes had made a name for himself nationally as announcer/host for the NBC game show “Pot O’ Gold,” and in news, delivering commentaries even before he came to St. Louis. This had led to a syndication deal in which his commentaries were distributed to subscribing stations on disc.

Gil Newsome also had done national work as the announcer on “Coca-Cola’s Victory Parade of Spotlight Bands,” heard on the Blue Network and Mutual. In St. Louis, he took his show to where the teen audience was, doing remotes and personal appearances constantly.

As Passman described it in his book, Hughes was working at KXOK in the spring of 1947. “By late spring KWK had brought in the rapid-fire, hard-selling Newsome, with his record shop surveys. And it wasn’t long after the fall semester was underway that he topped the ratings.”

Besides his work as a local deejay, Hughes had some additional responsibilities. He was on the road frequently promoting his syndicated show, but he managed to corner celebrities while he was traveling and return with interviews he could broadcast on KXOK. Newsome soon went on the road on weekends to do the same thing.
The two would also battle using record promoters, jockeying to be the first in the market to air a new release. When successful, each jock would make sure his listeners knew he had bested the competitor at the other station. Passman wrote, “Nowhere was the battle more frenzied than in St. Louis.”

To the casual observer, all this competition would seem to be beneficial to listeners. The city’s top two radio personalities working so hard to be best would certainly result in a better radio product. It did, but there was an interesting bit of fallout.

Passman notes that other deejays at lesser stations here were left in the dust, but they were smart enough to know their limits “…lesser announcers would reluctantly turn down advance men for entertainers. Not only did they acknowledge the power of a Hughes or a Newsome…they feared their possible air venom. By letting the press agents off the hook in this way, the other deejays shrugged their shoulders and tried to make the best of a sticky situation.”

This opening salvo in St. Louis’ deejay wars came to an end in 1948 when Hughes took a job in Chicago, but it wasn’t peaceful for long. A young jock named Ed Bonner soon hit town on KXOK, giving Newsome another foe to battle over the airwaves.

(Reprinted with permission of the St. Louis Journalism Review. Originally published 4/2008.)

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 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).

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)

By Nancy Frazer

Invisible To Their Audience, These Modern Master Showmen Must Use Their Descriptive Powers And Vocal Tricks With Split Second Efficiency

Circus ringmasters without the whips – and without silk hats; [this] describes announcers as I see it.

Without the blare of the circus top and the rollicking music which would make anything colorful, these subtle-toned masters of ceremonies get the listener in the proper mood to accept and appreciate each separate program. The can conjure up a picture as impelling as ever, these figures of another era, through tinsel, gay moving crowds and stentorian tones which exhorted each and every one to “see the daredevil defy death for your amusement” ever got.

Through intonations and facile voice shadings, announcers in charge of programs visualize the act about to go on in their minds and then parade it over the ether waves with all the reality of a real show. It’s a gift and it is a new school of showmanship that radio has brought about.

When radio was young, entertainers were put on the air to put themselves across but that was a long time ago. The program which does not have an announcer to prepare the public for it is a rarity in these days. In fact, the manner in which a program gets over is largely due to how the announcer handles it and the mood into which he gets his listeners to experience it.

Perhaps when television gets into full swing they will go back to the colorful garb which so characterized their forebears in the field, but that is only a conjecture, for who could imagine six-foot-two Billy Lang, announcer at WIL in swashbuckling garb and a shiny top hat!

In addition to being on regular schedule to take charge of programs, most of them at the different stations have special programs or take part in different features presented throughout the day. It isn’t exactly an easy life to be constantly on call with split second precision nor is it exciting but these men have larger followings and greater possibility for popularity than real ringmasters ever had.

There are four at each, KMOX, KWK and WIL who divide up the eighteen hours of the broadcasting day.

France Laux, senior announcer at KMOX, handles all the baseball broadcasts as well as the sports announcements, and does straight announcing for part of the evening broadcasts.

Holland Engle’s voice is heard from remote control and he splits the evening announcements with France Laux. He is Uncle Jim on the Pet Koko program, sings as Dr. Coocoo several times a week and is one of the continuity writers in his spare moments.

Bob Holt is regular announcer in the afternoon and at night and conducts the daily “Farm and Home Hour.”

Harold Bolande (accent on the last syllable) is a recent acquisition from WDAF Kansas City, and is the first voice heard on the station in the morning. He announces what programs there are in the morning before eight o’clock, reads the news flashes and conducts the Public Interest program each Monday.

Ray Schmidt assists France Laux at the baseball broadcasts and relates the thrilling events at all boxing and wrestling matches.

At KWK, Bob Thomas is the Senior announcer and is in charge of the sports broadcasts as well as being vice-president of the station. He helps prepare the stunts that are provided daily during the Frank and Ernest program as well as being Ernest of the team.

John Harrington, powerful and six feet in height, does some of the sports reviews and is on schedule in the night and afternoon as is Del King. Del King does two vocal broadcasts each week and is on the Dad and Jean and Helen and Henry programs each morning. Bill Vincent, who is in reality Bill Hirth, continuity writer, serves as pinch-hitter when someone doesn’t show up at the proper moment or fills out when the others are taking their vacations.

Franklyn MacCormack, beloved as the Old Captain of the Dream Boat program at WIL, is also program director at the station. He announces the features in the morning and splits the work at night.

Neil Norman has appeal as a commercial announcer and is on duty in the afternoon and at night as is Billy Lang, who also handles the remote control broadcasts and is heard nightly on the Night Watchman program.

Garnett Marks, who has recently come to the station starts off the broadcasting day at seven o’clock and announces until nine. He is the news announcer during the morning.

Throughout the day when the minute shows are paraded these men figuratively crack the whip for each ring presentation.

(Originally published in Radio and Entertainment 6/25/32).