News from Our Archives

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].

Ron Morgan – 2004

​Ron Morgan came to St. Louis in 1973, taking an on-air position on Pulitzer powerhouse KSD. It was the beginning of a stay in St. Louis radio that would span nearly twenty years.

Known as “Morgan in the Morning,” he peppered his programs with droll humor supplemented with an infectious laugh and gave his program team plenty of opportunities to share the spotlight.

He also did mornings at KSD-FM and KLOU, as well as other shifts at KMOX and KHTR.

Morgan was also program director at CBS-owned KLOU when it hit the air with an oldies format, giving the station a strong group of personalities to complement the music, and he served as operations director at KSD-FM.

Ron Morgan was visible in the community as a long-time supporter of the Easter Seals Society.

Sheldon Grafman – 2004

​Sheldon “Shelley” Grafman was the driving force behind the success of KSHE from 1967 thru February 1984.

​Hired in late 1967 in sales he eventually rose to the position of General Manager. At one time he was in charge of running stations for Century Broadcasting in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Detroit from his home base in Crestwood.

​Known for his devotion to the Album Oriented Rock format of the 70’s he was instrumental in creating the “free form” sound that made KSHE an institution not only in St. Louis but on a national level.

​Throughout his 17 years at KSHE, Grafman was involved in all aspects of the station, operating out of his office, a 12×12 room in the cinder block building located at 9434 Watson Road.

​Grafman also took an occasional air-shift using the on-air name of Shelley Graham. ​Hundreds of bands that went on to achieve superstar status were given their first break by playing a KSHE-sponsored concert.

​Eventually Shelley was promoted to national programming director and executive vice-president of Century Broadcasting, KSHE’s parent company.