Elzey Roberts had every reason to be proud, and a little nervous, on Monday, Sept. 19, 1938. That was the day his new radio station, KXOK, went on the air. It was a long time coming.
The station was officially owned by Roberts’ newspaper, the St. Louis Star-Times. By the time they signed on, three years had been spent fending off challenges of competitors that had been filed with the Federal Communications Commission. Thousands of dollars had been spent building new studios and offices on the second and fourth floors of the Star-Times Building at 800 North 12th Blvd.
The paper touted its studios in an article on Sept. 9, just prior to sign-on: “The studios, three in number, are located on the fourth floor…The reception room will be decorated with a chocolate brown floor trimmed in white, with buff walls and ceiling. Opening from the reception room will be an observation alcove where programs originating in studio ‘C’ may be observed. The studio will be decorated with a jade green floor, sea green walls and a buff ceiling.
“Studio ‘A,’ the largest of the three, will be furnished with varying tones of terra cotta, ranging through three shades from the dark floor to a lighter ceiling…[The] observation room for this studio will have theater seats arranged in tiers for the accommodation of visitors.”
The new station was born near the end of what was called the “press-radio war,” during which the nation’s newspapers flexed their collective muscle in an effort to prevent radio stations from broadcasting news. As it was becoming obvious that the effort was a failure, the Star-Times felt it would be advantageous to promote the working relationship KXOK would have with the newspaper: “As edition after edition rolls off the presses the news will be rushed to the radio newsroom on the second floor of the Star-Times Building, there to be edited and put into the fast, clear bulletins the air requires.
“If news is breaking even faster, if the radio deadline is near, Bruce Barrington, news editor, will dash into the city room to get the stories as they come ‘take by take’ or paragraph by paragraph from the typewriters of the reporters and rewrite men. From the point at which the news breaks to the broadcasting microphone can on occasion be a matter of less than five minutes.”
Management put a lot of thought into the station’s programming. Like other, successful stations, KXOK offered a wide variety of shows. Several singing groups were hired, as were different program hosts for shows featuring advice to women, news analysis, a solver of “life problems” and locally produced dramatic presentations. Weekly live broadcasts of college football games were scheduled, along with wrestling, hockey and boxing matches.
So it was, with sufficient fanfare, that KXOK signed on at 6 a.m. with “Rudy Ramsworth and his ’Sunrise Round-Up,’ a program of music, time and interesting facts for those who must leave their homes for work.” The added gimmick was that the program originated live from the studios of KFRU in Columbia, Mo., a station also owned by the Star-Times.
The readers of the paper were also treated to an interesting demonstration of class in the form of a large ad the day KXOK signed on. The ad copy read, “KMOX and the Columbia Broadcasting System congratulate the St. Louis Star-Times on the opening of Radio Station KXOK.”
(Reprinted with permission of the St.Louis Journalism Review. Originally published 12/07.)
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).
Sheldon Davis and his partners paid too much for his radio station in St. Louis. It had a lousy signal and half the market couldn’t pick it up. But for his employees, it was a helluva ride.
Davis bought a station in 1985 from Robert Skibbe and Janet Gorecki that was licensed to Jerseyville, Ill., so that’s where the broadcast tower was located. Even with licensed power of 50,000 watts WJBM-FM’s broadcasts couldn’t be heard in South St. Louis or Jefferson County.
Davis’ plan was to produce a station, marketed to St. Louis, that played country music. He wanted to give local powerhouse WIL-FM a run for its money, which would be no small feat, given the limits of the broadcast signal.
Thus was born WKKX-FM, “KIX 104.”
But there was a lot about the business that was beyond Davis, so he hired consultant Rusty Walker to put together a staff and guide the operation. Walker’s hire as the local program director was John King.
“John and I ‘imagineered’ KIX at the trivia machine in the bar at Tony Roma’s next to the hotel where we were staying,” Walker says of the station’s beginnings. “Neither of us took any notes – we were just ‘jamming’ and kept it all in our heads.
“The next day at the unfinished studio facility (concrete floors and card tables), we had to recreate everything we’d done the night before. I’m not sure how much we actually retained.”
Buddy Van Arsdale, “Bud Man” on the air, has similar memories.
“When I got there in September of 1985, the office and studio space on the tenth floor of West Port Plaza were pretty empty. John King had us tracking down music from the old Jerseyville station library or buying what we needed from record stores.”
King’s goal was to give country listeners something different. “The point was to be a pop sounding station that happened to be playing country music,” he remembers.
To that end, Van Arsdale recalls increasing the speed of the records slightly to brighten the station’s sound.
The first on-air line-up featured Mark Elliot and Diana Rivers in morning drive with Jack Warnick handling news; Bud Man from 9 – noon; John King 12 – 3; Scott St. John 3 – 7 (whose shift was taken over by King fairly quickly); Michelle Kent 7 – midnight; and Al Richardson overnights.
Staff turnover among sales personnel was so frequent that newsman Warnick said there was no use trying to remember their names until they’d lasted on the job for a minimum of six months.
Even the erection of a new broadcast tower in Godfrey during the station’s first year of operation failed to overcome signal problems. Mike Anderson, a former announcer, remembers a remote broadcast from Arnold in which the station’s broadcast team at the shopping center couldn’t even pick up the station.
After a year of operation, company president Shelly Davis admitted to an Alton Telegraph reporter, “We’re prepared to lose several million dollars and right now we’re doing a good job of it.”
There may not have been a lot of money, but the staff was young and competitive. Michelle Kent has fond memories of a concert sponsored by rival WIL. KIX jocks stood outside the Arena handing out their bumper stickers to ticket holders. When a WIL guy told them to leave, they did, but not before they “papered” the WIL remote van with their stickers.
“We all were working for a common goal,” she says, “the success of this start-up.”
Anderson remembers KIX as “kind of like a thrill ride at an amusement park. It was the station that always seemed to be climbing the hill but never got to the top. Every achievement was made against seemingly impossible odds.”
Commercial success never came. Consultant Walker says the staff experienced late payrolls, and jocks were shorted on talent fees. He himself worked for two years as a consultant without being paid.
Within six years the station was sold to Zimmer Broadcasting for slightly more than the original purchase price. There had been a lot of red ink, and a lot of fun.
Walker looks back on WKKX as “the most successful unsuccessful station in the history of country radio.”
(Reprinted with permission of the St. Louis Journalism Review. Originally published 10/08.)
That was how Marshall True described his economical diet in the early, lean days of starting a radio station in Belleville, Illinois. True, his World War II army buddy Marvin Mollring, and investors John Lewis, Paul Wnorowsky and John Schultz launched WIBV, 1060 AM, on July 13, 1947, at Fischer’s “Dutch Girl” Restaurant, 2100 West Main Street, Belleville. An hour of music that Sunday morning was followed by a remote broadcast of religious services from Signal Hill Lutheran Church at 8100 West Main, Belleville. No doubt the newcomers to the St. Louis radio market prayed along with the broadcast that the peanut butter would hold out.
True sold advertising, Mollring did the radio engineering work, Wnorowsky was General Manager and Paul Rusky served as Station Manager. True’s challenge would be to get WIBV a piece of the Belleville advertising dollar in a town where small businessmen had the habit of spending their money with two daily newspapers. Wnorowsky and Rusky would have to develop programming that would offer something unique for Belleville area listeners.
Paul Wnorowsky
Marvin Mollring
Mollring would keep the transmitter humming and maintain the broadcast equipment. The original broadcast day ran from 6 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. The restaurant/radio combination seemed to work well for both parties: Dutch Girl patrons could watch the announcers as part of their dining experience and the station had an accessible presence in the community.
The Belleville News-Democrat radio listings for October 4, 1948 presented the daily programming for seven AM radio stations: KSD at 550, KXOK at 630, WIBV at 1060, KMOX at 1120, KWK at 1380, WIL at 1430 and WTMV at 1490. Variety seemed to be the strategy at WIBV since the schedule had 15 minute segments of news, sports, farm features, Man on the Street, Good Neighbor, Pumpernickle, Roy Shaffer Show, Tumbleweed Tunes, Polka Time, Myrt and Marg, Victory Quartet, It’s Dancetime, 1060 Supper Club and Golden Bantam.
The Dutch Girl Restaurant
Country music was popular in the post World War II years and in 1950 country singer Johnny Rion joined the WIBV staff for two years as a live performer and record spinner. WIBV programming in the early 50’s featured Cactus Joe, Buy in Belleville, Dr. Crane, Country Preacher, plenty of local news and sports and Bill Bailey, who had compiled an impressive resume. Bailey advanced into the Program Manager and Station Manager positions and represented the radio station in the business and civic communities during that period. He later hosted the Downtown Club show from Schlosser’s Restaurant on East Main Street.
Bill Bailey
By the mid 1950’s peanut butter was still on the menu at the True household. The Federal Communications Commission allowed WIBV to move to 1260 AM at 1,000 watts of power. The increased power meant the broadcast tower would have to be lengthened. To save the expense of contracting the work, Marshall True fashioned a chair on a hoist and extended the tower himself, according to Terry True, Marshall’s son.
In the mid 1950’s Lee Pennock was cuing up the records and Reverend Ed Oxendine was a regular feature. Other programs included Hillbilly Hoedown, Wagner’s Wagon, Just Call Joe, Joe and Paul, and a new announcer who would prove to be very popular with Belleville’s sizable German audience. He spoke with a stereotypical German accent, told jokes, played records and touted himself as Otto Schultz, “the man with the sauerkraut head.”
Eddie George, also known as Otto Schultz, held a daily fifteen minute late afternoon slot and a half hour Saturday afternoon time period for the next twenty five years, introducing polka tunes and getting chuckles from his audience while relating the imaginary lives of “Fritz, Lena and the whole schmier.”
Norm Greenberg
Bob Hardy, who later became synonymous with KMOX, St. Louis, started at WIBV in 1955 and performed the usual chores of running the control board, playing records and reading news stories and commercials. Norm Greenberg began a 22 year career with WIBV in 1958. Greenberg debuted as a newsman-announcer, moved to advertising sales and eventually Program Manager, Assistant Manager and General Manager.
Moe Harvey
Lloyd “Moe” Harvey and Ron “Uncle Buck” Lipe joined the Belleville radio team in the 50’s. Moe spent about 30 years at WIBV. Part of his on-air shift included the “Stop the Housework” program and the annual “Let’s Talk Turkey” phone contests. Lipe became a “rocker” in the 60’s on KSHE-FM, St. Louis, assuming the moniker “Prince Knight.” Lee Coffee, WIBV Program Director in the late 50’s and early 60’s , left WIBV and enjoyed a long career at several St. Louis radio stations.
Bob Armstrong worked vacation relief in 1957 and recalls running the control board on Sunday mornings “for the live religious programs in the big studio. There was a gospel group from East St. Louis that had the place totally rocking!” Armstrong also remembers running the board for Otto Schultz with his trademark intro to polka songs, “You watch me Fritz, and I count ‘em off…ein…zwei…drei…schpiel’” Armstrong was promoted to the Program Director’s position and worked with News Director Al Schmidt, a retired Belleville newspaper reporter. In 1960, WIBV moved its broadcast operations from Fischer’s Restaurant to a new building at 3199 South Illinois Street, a mile and a half south of Belleville on Route 159.
WIBV Good Neighbor ad
Roger Gafke was hired full time in the news department in 1965. He wrote editorials for GM Glen “Skip” Deffendall, who had succeeded John Lewis. WIBV began identifying itself as “The Voice of Metro East.” Gafke remembered fellow announcers Tom Ryther, Charles Napier, and Jeff Hendricks, who WIBV sent to Viet Nam to interview area soldiers. Hendricks finished out his radio career with Chicago radio giant WLS. Roger Downey worked at WIBV in 1969 and 1970. Terry Ganey worked in the 1260 newsroom from 1968-1972, when Frank Walters held down the morning shift.
Late 1960’s photo of Pete Maer at the wheel,
Terry Gainey riding shotgun and SIU Edwardsville
Professor Harry Thiel standing outside the WIBV News Scout.
Note the broadcast antennae mounted on the
left rear bumper for covering live events.
Joe May estimates he has called between 3,000 and 4,000 high school, college and minor league games since he began at WIBV in 1970. Other staffers on the air included Pete Basch, Ron Jacober, Harry Swift, Joel Myers, Bob Agne, Frank Joachimsthaler, Tom Calhoun, Wil Jackson, Les Weatherford, Bill Cook, J.C. Hall, Ray Brammer, Mark Langston, Mary Ann Faulbaum, Mac Chamblin [and long time news director Jack LeChien].
Marshall True and Marvin Mollring retired and sold their interests in WIBV in the late 1980’s. The station was sold several more times before the year 2000 and each of those owners attempted to create a “regional” radio station that would attract more listeners and more advertising income. The WIBV call letters were quietly, unceremoniously retired when Disney Radio adopted WSDZ in late 2002.
(Excerpted and reprinted with permission of the St. Clair County Historical Society. Originally published in the Journal of St. Clair County, 2003.)
When KSD signed on in 1922, the Pulitzer family proudly touted their new radio station in the pages of their newspaper, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Then other stations signed on in St. Louis, and other newspapers gave them plenty of publicity. By the time KSD affiliated with the NBC Radio Network, the local station had assumed a low profile, from which it would not emerge for several years. What happened?
There is no actual documentation available to explain what happened, but scattered newspaper accounts and a first-person memoir of engineer Robert Coe shed light on the subject.
Coe was instrumental in putting several St. Louis stations on the air. He credits the uniqueness factor with creating the early excitement among the public when WEW and KSD, the city’s first two stations, signed on. In 1921 that anticipation and excitement helped him get a job hosting public demonstrations of radio, picking up amateur broadcasts. “It is no real mystery the radio audience grew so rapidly even before there was much attempt at regular planned programming,” he wrote.
So when KSD began its experimental broadcasts they were trumpeted in advance in the paper. As soon as the station was licensed it began regularly scheduled programming, which was arranged by the station’s program manager, Virginia Jones. Since there were only three or four stations in St. Louis at the time, listeners were very interested in knowing when broadcasts were available. During KSD’s first few years, radio stations came and went in St. Louis. The station’s paid staff consisted of three engineer/announcers, one program director/announcer, a secretary and an office boy.
Then late in 1925, the city’s power brokers built a powerhouse station, KMOX. The only real competition among the stations was for broadcast time, since frequencies were often shared and only one station could use the frequency at a time.
But on Nov. 15, 1926, something major happened that changed the local broadcast landscape. The National Broadcasting Company, NBC, debuted, and KSD was on the list of 24 initial affiliates.
Before the network came into being, KSD’s programs were much like those on other stations: Live music concerts, dramatic presentations and lectures, all featuring local talent. The NBC affiliation allowed the St. Louis station to offer much more variety and big-name stars because most of the shows originated from New York.
Robert Coe wrote: “The mystery and fascination of just hearing a voice or a phonograph record over the air was not enough to sustain audience interest…Amateur talent and production was not enough and, more and more, the professionals demanded pay.”
Now KSD was carrying live broadcasts of the Rose Bowl, the Metropolitan Opera and the National Farm and Home Hour. While this was celebrated for its uniqueness, there were soon two other networks doing the same thing on local stations, and KSD fell into a rut. They had closed their local studio operation in 1926, employing only two engineer/announcers and one office girl.
Throughout the late ‘20s, network programming accounted for virtually all of KSD’s airtime. A change came only after the newspaper’s business manager was visited by a committee from the American Federation of Musicians. They pointed out the fact that all other local stations had contracts with AFM and had musicians on their staffs. The AFM reps told Pulitzer that, if a contract was not signed, pickets would go up outside the newspaper offices.
A signature was forthcoming, and musicians were hired. So were more staffers to handle the responsibilities of locally originated music shows. The three-piece band evolved into a twelve-piece orchestra with vocalists, new announcers, news and sports broadcasters followed, and KSD was back in the business of producing programs in its studios at 12th and Olive.
The local publication, Radio and Entertainment, hailed the change in its issue of Nov. 26, 1932. Columnist Fleet Smith wrote “KSD is giving more attention to local programs.” That was it – one line.
(Reprinted with permission of the St. Louis Journalism Review. Originally published 7/09).
