News from Our Archives

L.A. Benson at 32 is St. Louis’ Pioneer of Radio, Having Made First Broadcast and Installed City’s First Station.

Eleven years ago, L.A. Benson installed a radio receiver in an automobile and amazed the citizenry with a statement that the day would come when policemen would be in continuous communication with headquarters by means of radio.

He demonstrated his portable receiver to Chief of Police Martin O’Brien and a group of skeptics, who saw the device as an impractical and unnecessary invention.

Today, owners of short-wave radio sets are unimpressed when they hear police calls connecting headquarters with radio cars on the streets in all sections of the city. Radio police communication is an accomplished fact today and therefore commonplace.

Benson’s “dream” of eleven years ago is a reality now. But police radio communication is only one of the marvels of the era which has seen broadcasting develop into a major industry. He has been closely allied with every important step in radio broadcasting in this community, dating from the first broadcast sent from the basement in his little radio shop in 1920 – news of Harding’s election.

About a year later he established a record for long-distance radio broadcasting, having been heard as far away as Bristol, Conn. This achievement was flashed throughout the world as important news.

Ten years ago – he was 22 years old then – Benson installed radio station KSD and operated it for several months. That was his first adventure in broadcasting on a large scale. Now he is president of Missouri Broadcasting Corporation, owners of WIL.

Benson was the first St. Louisan to receive a commercial radio license. He began experimenting with wireless telegraphy when he was 14 years old and three years later ran away from home so he could enlarge the scope of his radio experience. He served as Marconi operator on the U.S.S. Arizona, a steamer on the Great Lakes and in 1918 entered military service at Camp Pike, where he became an instructor in wireless and was commissioned a first lieutenant.

Returning to St. Louis at the close of the war, he and W.E. Wood formed the Benwood Company to deal in radio equipment. The store was located at Thirteenth and Olive streets and it was from there that Benson did his first broadcasting. In 1921 the store was moved to 1110 Olive street and the call letters of the Benson station were WEB. Four years later Benson moved his station to the Star building and was assigned the call letters WIL, which still identify his station, now one of the most popular in the city.

(Originally published in Radio and Entertainment 6/11/32).

When Miriam Blue took off her rubber gloves, put down her janitor’s supplies and began talking into a microphone at KMOX radio in 1975, she was following in the footsteps of a man who did the same thing nearly 40 years earlier.

Sol Williams, like Miss Blue, was an African-American (the term in those days was “Negro”) janitor when KMOX occupied studios in the Mart Building in 1938. Co-workers at the station appreciated Sol’s wit and happy banter as he mopped the floors. His advanced age of 70 didn’t stop him from living life to the fullest and loving it.

A debut on KMOX for Sol Williams came at an unexpected moment, a time when sports announcer France Laux suddenly found himself without an expected guest at the beginning of his nightly sports show. Williams had been working as a janitor at KMOX for 10 years, and Laux’s producer knew the man loved sports and had lots of opinions. Larry Neville ran out into the hallway. “Sol,” he shouted.

Drop that mop and come on in here.”

On the air, Laux was stretching, not knowing what was going on. As he saw Sol being escorted into the studio, he didn’t miss a beat. “…and our guest for the evening is the celebrated sports authority, Sol Williams.” There was no evidence of microphone fright, and management quickly found out how listeners felt. Fan mail came pouring in. Sol Williams became a regular guest on the “Hot Stove League” program.

In the late 1930s, almost everything heard on the radio was scripted, but not Sol. Laux reportedly wanted Williams to be himself, and a script would have hampered that. One of the traits that endeared the janitor to the listeners was his humanness. Sol was known for shifting his allegiance if his favorite teams or players let him down. As he once said on the program, “I picks ’em now. There ain’t nothin’ said about me having to stay on a team if it lets me down.”

Miriam Blue’s big break came in October of 1975 as she dusted in the KMOX studios while Jack Carney was on the air. At age 61, Miss Blue, as she was known to the staff, was a welcome sight in the studios at 1 Memorial Drive. Known for her constant upbeat approach to life, Miss Blue rode the bus from her home in East St. Louis each day. When asked how she was doing, her consistent answer was a sincere “All is well.”

As she told it later in her career, Miriam Blue was dusting in Carney’s studio and he began asking her questions. She answered in her usual upbeat manner, not knowing the microphones were on. The reaction from the audience was immediate, just as it had been with Sol Williams, and Carney created a regular slot twice a week at 10:15 on his program for her. She had advice for callers who phoned the program with their problems, and she was later incorporated into Carney’s wildly popular “As the Stomach Turns” skits. She joined the broadcasters’ union, AFTRA, and was paid for her broadcast appearances.

After he got finished on the air each evening, Sol. Williams returned to his cleaning chores around the KMOX studios, and Miss Blue did too, even though a national spotlight began to shine her way. The Associated Press ran a feature article about her broadcast success, which led to an article in People magazine and another on CBS-TV. The game show “To Tell the Truth” flew her to New York to appear as a guest star and she was featured in “The David Susskind Show” on CBS Radio. The New York trip was not only her first time on a plane. It was also her first visit to Lambert Field in St. Louis.
She continued on Carney’s show, as well as in her job as KMOX janitor until she was hospitalized in the early ’80s suffering from a stroke. She passed away in the hospital.

Miriam Blue was once asked by a reporter whether she was making a lot more money in her new status as a KMOX celebrity. Her response was vintage Miriam Blue: “I just couldn’t be happy as the idle rich.”

(Reprinted with permission of the “St. Louis Journalism Review.” Originally published 11/00)

1280 Kilocycles – – – 234.2 Meters

KWK which until a month ago carried the call letters KFVE is now in its tenth month of operation in its present home and under its present ownership and management, the station having officially opened bearing the name of the International Life Insurance Company on March 17th, 1927.

It is generally conceded that KWK now ranks as St. Louis’ most progressive station. Its rapid rise to recognition started in April, 1927, when it scooped all other local stations and was first to present a play-by-play account of both the Cardinal and Brown Baseball Games (Ed. note: Some dispute this claim.) This feature won for the station thousands of followers. Through the broadcasting of nationally known orchestras from the Palm Room of the Hotel Chase it developed a large number of listeners who tuned in nightly to enjoy the music of the best orchestras in the St. Louis district.

Through its morning shoppers’ program another large following was developed, as it was the first station to present morning programs which were enjoyed.

In the month of October, the station gained a splendid reputation through its untiring efforts and successful work during the tornado disaster. It was the first station on the air with the news.

The Shut-In-Fund through which the station provides radio sets for the unfortunates who are shut in has been another nice feature that has won public favor and brought joy and happiness to many of the unfortunate in the St. Louis district.

The station’s standing in the community was most conclusively proven when more than twelve thousand listeners cast a vote by letter requesting the Federal Radio Commission to grant the station full time on its wave length while only forty-one voted against full time; and, though it is true full time was not granted by the commission, the station was only asked to give up two hours on Sunday to two other stations, namely WMAY and KFQA.

On December the first the station acquired the Blue Network programs from the National Broadcasting Company, and now broadcasts daily many national features, namely: Roxy and His Gang, Rise and Shine, Stromberg-Carlson Orchestra and Quintettes, The Sixty Continentals, The Torrid Tots, The Armand Company Girls, The Variety Hour, The Mediterranean Dance Band, The Ampico Hour, The Chicago Civic Opera Company’s Balkite Program, The Wrigley Wrigamarole, The Victor Hour, Collier’s Hour, Thomas Cook & Son Travelogue and a program by Montgomery Ward & Co., and the White Rock Mineral Springs Co. which starts next week.

On Sunday in each week, the station has also added the broadcast of a Little Symphony Concert with soloists from 12:00 to 2:00 P. M. followed by the St. Louis Symphony Pop Concerts through the courtesy of the Laclede Gas Light Company from 3:00 to 5:00 P. M.

Many new features and additional programs are being developed  and the most promising future appears to be in store for the station. It is the ambition of the entire staff and all those affiliated with the station that KWK  rank with the best in the west on or before the first birthday of the station which will be March 17th, 1928.

(Originally published in the International Life Broadcaster January 1928).