News from Our Archives

By Bernie Hayes

George Logan on KXLW, 1952

 

Opportunities for African Americans in radio and other media have always been extremely limited, but St. Louis’ black deejays and announcers have played a special part. They were some of the nation’s greatest and most illustrious personalities who provided the area with information and entertainment that led to both social and civic change.

During the ‘40s and ‘50s, African Americans preferred radio over other types of media, except black publications such as the Chicago Defender and the St. Louis American. Black-oriented radio stations provided African Americans with a daily diet of news and factual information essential to the survival of the community.

In the St. Louis metropolitan area, generations of African Americans endured a system of hatred, exclusion and bigotry. However, they used a variety of means to fight segregation and racism, and their primary source was radio. During this period, many whites felt profoundly threatened by increasing demands by African Americans for social equality and economic opportunity.

In addition to creating advocacy organizations such as the Urban League and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), blacks fought their own private battles through the newspapers and over the airways. Black radio had also been summoned by the Civil Rights and Black Power movements.

The African-American pioneers of St. Louis radio were labeled “race” announcers, but to the black community, they were celebrities. The stations they worked for usually devoted only a short segment of their broadcast day to programs designed for the African-American listener or consumer. And the announcers were never paid as much as their white counterparts because the industry was owned and managed exclusively by whites.

The major St. Louis stations that offered programs directed to the “Negro Market” in the early days were: KATZ-AM 1600, which began broadcasting on January 3, 1955; KXLW 1320 AM, which went on the air January 1, 1947; KWK 1380 AM, which began programming to the black community in August, 1969; and KIRL 1460 AM, which went on the air in 1972.

Across the river, in the early ‘50s, there were WTMV 1490 AM, which later became WBBR, WAMV, and WESL.

The first black disc jockey in St. Louis was Wiley Price, who began his broadcasting career in 1945…Price played big band sounds and the jazz music of the day, and he refused to play most secular rhythm and blues music.

In 1947, Jesse “Spider” Burks was hired by KXLW and later moved to KSTL and KATZ. While at KXLW, he was one of the highest-paid African-American disc jockeys in the country.

In 1952, Gabriel, a musician, began broadcasting from a facility in Alton, Ill. He later moved on to KATZ and other stations in the bi-state area, and eventually became known as an authority on the evolution of the blues and Negro folk music.

During this early period of St. Louis radio, Amos “Panyo” Dotson established himself as one of the finest personalities ever to adorn the airways.

On the East Side at WTMV were “Little Ole Young Roscoe” McCrary, Robert “BQ” Burris and Yvonne Daniels, the daughter of singer Billie Daniels was the first African-American female announcer in the bi-state area.

Willie Mae “Gracy” Lowery was the first African-American female deejay on the Missouri side when she began her broadcasting career at KATZ and KXLW in 1960.

These pioneers led the way and opened the doors for others such as Lou “Fatha” Thimes, George “The G” Logan, E. Rodney Jones, Dave and Jerome Dixon, Doug “The Leprechaun” Eason, “Gentleman” Jim Gates, Rod “Jockenstein” King, Curtis “Boogie Man” Brown, Charles “Sweet Charlie” Smith, Albert “Scoop Sanders” Gay, Steve Byrd, Michael Tyrone Key, Donn Johnson, Bill Moore, Alvin John Waples, Buster Jones, Donnie Brooks, Gary “Star” Perks, Otis Thomas, Gary “Tony-Silky” Stittum, Edie “Bee” Boatner, Cheryl Winston, Leo Chears, Dorothy Shelly, Hank Spann, Shelly Pope, Shelly Stewart, Magnificent Montague, Denise Williams, Robin Boyce, Decatur Agnew, Bill Bailey, Jimmy Bishop, Gene Norman, Norman Bradley, Lee “Baby” Michaels, Mark Anthony, Bobby Knight, Bernie Hayes and many, many more.

Each station devoted a portion of its broadcast day to gospel and religious programming, and the personalities who led the way also played a significant role in the development of St. Louis black radio. In the early days, there were Leonard Morris, Wynnetta Lindsey, Columbus Gregory, Zella Jackson Price, Dean Strong, Ruby Summerville-Dickson and Steve Love. They were leaders who supported the genre with the finest presentations of the most popular artists and finest music in the field.

Circumstances for blacks in the radio industry have somewhat improved, because mainstream or white-programmed stations understand that reaching diverse communities has become increasingly important in today’s expanding marketplace. But equal opportunities and equal pay still do not exist in the industry.

Black men and women need to have leadership positions in order to create a medium that is truly free and democratic. Giving blacks equal power in media affects society in general. Perhaps someday, the playing field will become nearly level. Even then, we will need to thank and remember those pioneers who made so many sacrifices in the early years.

(Reprinted with permission of the author. Originally published in the St. Louis American 2/24/05.)

In 1931, a young radio announcer named Woody Klose was sent on assignment to Lambert Field where his job was to be part of the first three-way conversation between pilots in flight and an observer on the ground. In a way, the broadcast was symbolic of the ups and downs of Woody’s career.

He came to St. Louis at age 16 with his family, and, seeking work to help pay for his education at Washington University, he ended up as an usher at the Missouri Theater. From that position he was promoted to doorman at the new Ambassador Theater, which was also owned by the Skouras Brothers.

His university work was aimed at his professional goal, which was print journalism, but Woody freely admitted that he wanted to be a professional singer. The problem was that no one thought he had enough musical talent. That didn’t stop him from trying, though. He spent most of his $12 weekly income on voice lessons, and the idea of becoming a print journalist never got off the ground. He dropped out of Washington University.

One July morning he went to the KMOX studios, which were located in the Mayfair Hotel, and actually auditioned for a singing job. The station’s director of programming, Katheryne McIntire, was in charge of the auditions, and she wasn’t impressed. Neither was station manager George Junkin, and Woody’s radio singing future crashed. A Globe-Democrat account of that day, published later, quoted Woody: “But just as I was leaving the room, Miss McIntire called me. She told me that, although she couldn’t do much for me as a singer, she thought I had possibilities as a radio announcer…I suppose I should have been deeply gratified. Instead, I was just a bit piqued that my talent as a vocalist had not been recognized.”

He went to work on the air at KMOX at the age of 18. Within a couple days, he was assigned to cover an endurance flight at what was then called Lambert St. Louis Flying Field. Sometimes there was nothing to relate, he told the Globe reporter, “too frequently nothing but the bare recital that the boys were floating around in the heavens.” At the end of the flight, he did a live report on the CBS network. It was a perfect way to celebrate his 19th birthday. Management was pleased with his work and gave him a regular, entry level shift of early morning announcing chores, which included a daily exercise program.

Within a few months he had been promoted to other shifts and was voted the most popular radio announcer in St. Louis in one newspaper’s poll. He was still convinced that he was a singer, though, and he explained to the Globe reporter how he saw a chance to impress the station’s listeners. The story bears a faint resemblance to the work habits of a future station manager, Robert Hyland.

“One night,” said Klose, “we were running late, 1 to 1:30. Local artists were the performers. It was my idea that Mr. Junkin would be in bed at that time, so I decided to slip in a song of my own. I was singing quite nobly when I happened to look out the window of the studio into the auditorium. There sat Mr. Junkin. Apparently he was not yet convinced that he had found a boy wonder. He simply grunted and told me to stick with announcing, which I did.”

Woody Klose left KMOX at the age of 22 to join a local ad agency. He continued to search for the magic career, working briefly at KSD as program director and taking the job of assistant manager of WTMV when he was 25. The latter part of his career was spent in advertising.

And that big broadcast involving the pilots and ground communication – it was a bust. All the listeners heard were repeated efforts to establish radio contact: “Come in, Woody.” “Can you hear me, Phil?”

(Reprinted with permission of the St. Louis Journalism Review. Originally published 5/2003)

Sheila Moseley had a long career in broadcasting, and she can thank the Philomathians for getting her started.

Working under the various names of Shila (pronounced SHY la) Shelp, Sheila Graham, Sheila Moseley, Nancy Willard and Nancy Dixon, her work in St. Louis covered many duties on several radio and television stations and hundreds of broadcast advertisements.

Her first appearance on radio here came after a series of developments that appeared on the surface to be unrelated. She came home in the summer of 1941 after her freshman year at Smith College, where they were building a radio station. Her mother, who had been taking a writing course here at Washington University, had written a 15 minute play that was to be broadcast on KFUO. Sheila’s father decided she wouldn’t be going back to school in the Fall because he believed the United States would soon be involved in war.

So Sheila went to the Concordia campus, which was the home of KFUO. New studios were being built, and the play was being broadcast from the robbing room of the chapel. After hearing her performance, station manager Rev. Elmer Knoernschild asked her to join the Philomathians, his radio drama group. It was a large group of actors and actresses who did dramas on KFUO each Saturday evening. “One time we ran out of material, so the station held a competition for writers,” Mrs. Moseley recalls “The top three submissions would be performed by the group. The winner was a young man named Rod Serling.

“Elmer later asked me to do the ‘Little Red Schoolhouse’ show for him, and I got paid for that. I also did ‘Through the Museum Doors’ which I had to write as well. I remember the day Pearl Harbor was attacked. I made my way to KFUO to see what I could do to help. Elmer was doing the announcing and getting information from wire copy. I answered phones.”

Her first job that really paid was a direct outgrowth of the Philomathians. She worked as an actress on a couple episodes of the “Land We Live In,” the Union Electric weekly drama on KMOX. (In the 1950s, she was a regular actress on the program on KSD.) She also did voice work on WEW and the “Mary Lee Taylor Show,” a national production of Gardner Advertising for their client, Pet Milk.

Behind the scenes, Sheila was making things happen too. At WEW in the early ‘40s, she was paid a starting salary of $15 a week as music director, choosing the selections to be played on the air. Unable to get a pay increase there, she moved to KXOK, where manager Chet Thomas paid her $22.50 to write scripts in the continuity department. She remembers “There were lots of complaints there from advertisers about Harry Caray’s reading of commercials. He was not an easy man to work with.

“In 1943, Harry wanted to get rid of France Laux, another sports voice on KXOK, so he went to Chet Thomas and persuaded him to broadcast Harry’s ticker tape broadcasts of the out-of-town games. Harry would really dress these up and France, whose personality wasn’t that appealing, finally left. I don’t think he ever knew how Harry set that up.”

The KXOK studios were on the mezzanine level of the Star-Times Building, and working conditions in the summer were very uncomfortable. “It was extremely hot. Back then, every word that was uttered on the air had to be written by the continuity department. We worked with the windows open and electric fans blowing, and if we didn’t put something down to anchor the paper, scripts would go flying out the window.”

The chance for upward mobility came in the form of a job offer – news writer and reader – from news director Harry Renfro. She turned it down at the insistence of her father. “He didn’t like the idea of me working with the newsmen.” Later she did combine with Jerry Burns for a daily sports show using the name Shila Shelp. In 1949 she returned to KXOK after an absence of several years and became the music director for popular disc jockey Hal Fredricks. “I worked with him for six months getting his music together and writing all his intros and ad libs.”

Along the way Sheila married Harman Moseley. Between 1951 and 1956 she was the host of “The Nancy Dixon Show,” a national franchise program on KSD sponsored by Cluett-Peabody’s “Sanforized” division. The program, she says, was a 15 minute commercial for the process that prevented clothes from shrinking, and it gave her a chance to spotlight local stores and do features.

Sheila and her husband moved out of the market then to pursue a business venture in Arkansas. When they returned she began a 15 year stint in the local Pulitzer broadcast operation doing vacation fill-in, which gave her a chance to do just about every job in the building, including producing Russ David’s “Playhouse Party” There was also a five-year run at WIL during that same time in which she was “Nancy Willard” doing several women’s programs on the air.

Sheila Moseley capped her broadcast career here with a short appearance on KADY, a station partly owned by her husband, and several years working as free-lance commercial voiceover talent.

(Reprinted with permission of the St. Louis Journalism Review. Originally published 02/2004)