It sounds like a fairy tale…or a Horatio Alger story…and it’s one of those things that, in these days, happen only in radio.
The Columbia Broadcasting System has just announced the election of J. L. Van Volkenburg as President and Member of the Board of Directors of The Voice of St. Louis, Inc., owning and operating company of KMOX, the 50,000 watt station in St. Louis.
Thus far it’s just another announcement, but – Van Volkenburg is only 29 years of age, probably the youngest man in the country holding such a responsible position; he came to KMOX as Sales Manager in October, 1932, was made Director of Operations in January , 1933, and on June 15, 1933 was elected to the position herein announced.
And that isn’t all that is amazing about this young man’s lightning-like strides up the ladder of success. To the “veterans” of radio, Van Volkenburg’s career is parallel to the miraculous growth of the industry itself, which, in only ten years’ time, has taken its place among the leading industries of the country. For KMOX was his first radio station.
Of course he had the kind of background that augured success, if intelligently used…as it was. For five years preceding his affiliation with KMOX, Van Volkenburg was manager of the radio department in the Chicago offices of a national advertising agency, where he had complete charge of the production of both local and network programs. In his earlier days on the Keith circuit, traveling from one end of the country to the other as a single and also part of a singing-playing team, gave him a sound knowledge of what the public wants in entertainment. He is a versatile musician, playing the piano, pipe organ and trombone, as well as the possessor of a fine voice.
(Originally published in Radio & Entertainment 6/25/1933.)