NOVEMBER IN THE GOLDEN AGE
Unless otherwise noted all times are Eastern Time Zone
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NOV 1 1931 NBC acquires 50% of WMAQ/Chicago from The Chicago Daily News for $600,000. The station switches its network affiliation from CBS to NBC.
NOV 1 1931 CBS signs The Chicago Tribune’s WGN as its primary affiliate in the city, guaranteeing first call on the station’s nighttime hours of 7:00 to 10:00 p.m. for a payment of $5,000 per week.
NOV 1 1932 WBBM replaces WGN as Chicago’s primary CBS affiliate and takes 14 programs from the network.
NOV 1 1932 Chrysler Corp. buys 90 minutes of CBS afternoon time for a “radio convention” of its dealers.
NOV 1 1932 Pioneer talent agent William Morris dies of a heart attack at 59.
NOV 1 1933 CBS terminates its partial affiliation agreement with WGN/Chicago as WBBM becomes its fulltime affiliate.
NOV 1 1933 Ed Wynn’s Amalgamated Broadcasting System network folds after five weeks of operation.
NOV 1 1933 NBC moves into its new Radio City headquarters for an annual rent of $1.25 Million.
NOV 1 1933 NBC restores the 10% pay cut imposed on all employees in April.
NOV 1 1934 CBS and NBC report distributing a total of 55,000 free tickets every week for their combined 24 shows welcoming studio audiences.
NOV 1 1934 NBC buys the remaining 50% of WMAQ from The Chicago Daily News for $500,000.
NOV 1 1934 Brothers Leon and I.D. (Ike) Levy, owners of WCAU/Philadelphia and stockholders in CBS, begin managing NBC affiliate KYW, moved to the city from Chicago by Westinghouse and housed in the same building as WCAU.
NOV 1 1934 WOR/Newark becomes the 150th station to buy news service from Transradio Press. (See The Press Radio Bureau.)
NOV 1 1934 New Jersey Governor Arthur Moore prohibits any radio broadcasts from the Flemington courtroom trial of Bruno Hauptmann for the kidnapping/murder of the Lindbergh baby.
NOV 1 1934 WCOA/Pensacola, Florida, joins CBS with $12,000 donated by listeners to cover its first year of telephone line costs to connect to the network.
NOV 1 1935 NBC adopts the CBS system of beginning programs on the hour and ending them at 20 seconds to the hour instead of beginning them 20 seconds after the hour and ending them on the hour.
NOV 1 1935 Mutual announces plans to expand its network to WNAC/Boston, WCAE/ Pittsburgh, WGAR/Cleveland, KWK/St. Louis and KNX/Los Angeles.
NOV 1 1935 FCC examiner recommends the license revocation of KFYR/Bismarck, North Dakota, for transmitting with more power than authorized.
NOV 1 1935 A St. Louiis alderman suggests outlawing car radios so drivers can devote full attention to the city’s traffic.
NOV 1 1936 Ralph Edwards, 23, leaves KFRC/San Francisco to join the announcing staff of CBS. (See Truth Or Consequences and Saturday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 1 1937 Long-running weekday serial Hilltop House begins its first season on CBS and Mutual for Palmolive Soap. (See Soft Soap & Hard Sell.)
NOV 1 1937 Kids’ serial Terry & The Pirates, based on Milton Caniff’s popular comic strip, begins a sporadic, multi-network run on NBC. (See Serials, Cereals & Premiums.)
NOV 1 1937 The Inter-American Radio Conference convenes in Havana with represen-tatives from the United States, Canada, Mexico and Cuba. It will result in The North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement, forcing hundreds of US stations to change frequencies. (See The March of Change.)
NOV 1 1937 NBC begins construction of its new West Coast headquarters at Sunset & Vine in Hollywood.
NOV 1 1937 Chicago AFM local head James Petrillo negotiates a contract with the networks giving musicians the highest wage scale in the history of the labor movement - seven days’ pay for a five day week. (See Petrillo!)
NOV 1 1938 Blue broadcasts “The Match Race of The Century” to an estimated 40 million listeners as once beaten Sea Biscuit upsets undefeated War Admiral by four lengths at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore.
NOV 1 1938 NBC page Dee Englebach, 18, who later becomes a noted Network Radio producer, debuts on Easy Aces as a singing orphan. (See Easy Aces.)
NOV 1 1939 Brown & Williamson Raleigh cigarettes buys 50 stations for Paul Sullivan's 15 min news 6 nights a week on CBS.
NOV 1 1940 Mutual adds the weekend broadcasts of the Chicago Civic Opera and the Philadelphia Orchestra to its schedule of Thursday night Chicago Symphony concerts.
NOV 1 1940 The four networks and AFRA begin a new three year agreement with provisions for increases based on the cost of living index.
NOV 1 1940 KFI and KECA/Los Angeles ban all ASCAP music from the stations’ sustaining remote broadcasts. (See Big Band Remotes.)
NOV 1 1942 The U.S. government leases and assumes control of the nation’s 14 inter-national short-wave stations.
NOV 1 1942 CBS-owned, 50,000 watt KMOX/St. Louis begins 24 hour a day operation for the duration.
NOV 1 1943 Marine Sergeant Roy Maypole, a former CBS producer, covers the American invasion of Bougainville, New Guinea, with a wire recorder, a report later broadcast by the networks.
NOV 1 1943 Lowell Thomas, sponsored on Blue in the East by Sun Oil, adds a nightly newscast to Blue’s Pacific Coast network for Standard Oil. (See Multiple Runs All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 1 1943 The Office of War Information reports that two weeks of radio spots resulted in 1.5 million requests for its booklet Wartime Canning of Fruits & Vegetables.
NOV 1 1943 FCC rule takes effect that all FM stations must replace call signs that mix letters and numbers with call letters only. As a result, New York City station W67NY becomes WCBS-FM and W71NY changes to WOR-FM.
NOV 1 1944 Goodman and Jane Ace celebrate their 15th anniversary on radio. (See Easy Aces.)
NOV 1 1944 The Blue Network orders its announcers to obtain the scripts for their newscasts at least 15 minutes in advance of airtime to avoid mispronunciation of foreign names.
NOV 1 1944 NBC shortwave announcers are instructed to slow their delivery from 120 to 68 words per minute and overemphasize their articulation when Axis jamming attempts are reported.
NOV 1 1945 The AFM uses its journal, International Musician, to announce the extension of the union’s ban of network AM-FM simulcasts to include those of individual stations. (See Petrillo!)
NOV 1 1946 FCC approves the sale of WHOM/Jersey City from Cowles Communications to Il Progresso Italo-Americano Publishing Company for $450,000 and KJR/Seattle from Fisher Broadcasting to Marshall Field for $700,000.
NOV 1 1946 FCC grants Chicago’s television Channel 9 to the Chicago Tribune for WGN-TV.
NOV 1 1947 NBC’s Grand Ole Opry makes a rare performance outside of Nashville at Constitution Hall in Washington. (See Saturday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 1 1947 WOKO/Albany, New York, is sold to the Governor Dongan Broadcasting Co.
NOV 1 1948 Arthur Godfrey leaves his early morning local programs in New York and Washington - Jack Sterling replaces Godfrey at WCBS/New York and Eddie Gallaher takes over at WTOP/Washington. (See Arthur Godfrey.)
NOV 1 1948 In a reversal of policy, CBS and NBC consider putting their top weekly radio shows on 52 week schedules with transcribed repeats over the summer months. The plan potentially involves 14 CBS shows and 17 on NBC.
NOV 1 1948 The Radio Writers Guild goes on strike against nearly 60 Network Radio shows produced by the ad agencies and independent producers who refuse agreements already signed by the four major networks.
NOV 1 1948 The Republican Party sponsors an election eve campaign broadcast from 9:00 to 10:00 p.m. on the four national networks starring Frank Morgan, Robert Montgomery, Irene Dunne, Abbot & Costello, Jeanette MacDonald, George Murphy and others at a cost of $150,000.
NOV 1 1948 CBS-TV pays $100,000 for the two year broadcast rights to 52 British movies.
NOV 1 1949 A transformer explosion and fire causes $150,000 damage to the Washington headquarters of the FCC.
NOV 1 1949 The eleven stations owned and operated by ABC, CBS and NBC are put on temporary licenses while the FCC decides if they violate chain broadcasting regulations.
NOV 1 1949 FCC’s twelve-month report states that 97 new FM licenses were granted and 209 were deleted.
NOV 1 1949 In an important victory for broadcasters, a U.S. District Court in Philadelphia upholds the contention of five television stations that the state of Pennsylvania has no right to censor their programs.
NOV 1 1949 CBS-TV cancels C.E. Hooper’s television ratings service.
NOV 1 1950 The Radio Writers Guild reaches a new agreement with ABC, CBS and NBC giving network staff news and continuity writers a 28% raise over two years to a minimum of $130 per week.
NOV 1 1950 Jimmy Durante makes his television debut on NBC-TV’s Four Star Review which New York Herald-Tribune critic John Crosby calls, “…the best show I ever saw on television.” (See Goodnight, Mr. Durante...)
NOV 1 1952 Actress Dixie Lee Crosby, 40, wife of Bing Crosby, dies of cancer.
NOV 2 1920 KDKA/Pittsburgh and 8MK/Detroit, (later WWJ) broadcast the Harding-Cox presidential election returns. (See Alchemists of The Air.)
NOV 2 1926 Eddie Cantor is paid $1500 for his 15 minute appearance in National Broadcasting Company’s debut program, The Eveready Hour.
NOV 2 1931 Early soap opera Myrt & Marge begins its eleven season run on CBS.
NOV 2 1933 NBC broadcasts a one hour tribute to “Modern Radio’s 13th Anniversary” from KDKA/Pittsburgh.
NOV 2 1935 CBS and NBC broadcast the hour long Will Rogers Memorial hosted by George M. Cohan and featuring former President Herbert Hoover, Eddie Cantor, Charlie Chaplin, Rudy Vallee and others plus overseas tributes.
NOV 2 1936 Phil Spitalny increases the size of his all-girl orchestra from 30 to 40 members for his new NBC Hour of Charm programs sponsored by General Electric. (See The Hour of Charm.)
NOV 2 1936 CBS signs a rare reciprocal talent agreement with independent WHN/New York City providing new talent to the station for its programs but paid by the network.
NOV 2 1936 Alfred Erickson, Board Chairman of McCann-Erickson Advertising and longtime ad industry figure dies in California at 60.
NOV 2 1939 Chicago Federation of Musicians head James C. Petrillo condemns the placement of commercials between sustaining late night band remotes. (See Petrillo! )
NOV 2 1939 FCC allows watchmaker Arde Bulova to buy WPG/Atlantic City and merge it into his WOV and WBIL/New York City with WOV becoming the surviving call sign. (See Three Letter Calls.)
NOV 2 1939 WWL/New Orleans issues a check for 20 cents to a listener who claimed she burned a can of beans when distracted by one of the station’s soap operas.
NOV 2 1940 Bob Hope climaxes his nine day run at the San Francisco Auto Show by breaking all attendance records at the Civic Auditorium and grossing a total of $49,500.
(See Tuesday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 2 1940 New comedy panel show Can You Top This? is auditioned with an audience at WOR/New York City. (See Can You Top This? and Saturday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 2 1940 WOR/Newark cuts Guy Lombardo’s late night remote broadcast short when his band fails to play the required six non-ASCAP songs within the half hour. The station apologizes when Lombardo complains. (See Guy Lombardo.)
NOV 2 1942 WJR/Detroit begins 24 hour operation to serve factory workers with transcriptions of CBS daytime programs provided by the network by wire from Chicago.
NOV 2 1942 Owners of shortwave station WRUL/Boston resist the Federal government’s leasing the facility for the duration until guarantees are given that its established programs will remain on the air.
NOV 2 1942 The U.S. War Shipping Administration orders 2,600 radios which do not radiate a signal when receiving AM or shortwave transmissions for distribution to the merchant fleet.
NOV 2 1944 FCC Chairman James Fly resigns after 15 years of government service to enter private law practice with no successor immediately named.
NOV 2 1945 New ABC Program Manager Adrian Samish announces a $250,000 budget for the development of new daytime programs for the network, beginning with the half-hour Al Pearce and Bride & Groom shows.
NOV 2 1945 FCC grants 65 new conditional FM licenses, bringing its postwar total up to 129 with another 550 applications pending..
NOV 2 1945 Ezra Stone, 28 and discharged from the Army, resumes his role as teenager Henry Aldrich in The Aldrich Family sitcom. (See The Aldrich Family and Thursday's All Time Top Ten)
NOV 2 1946 NBC owned WEAF/New York City changes its call sign to WNBC and CBS owned WABC/New York City changes its identity to WCBS.
NOV 2 1946 WNBC/New York City offers a $100 reward for any of its announcers who can make it to January 1st without identifying the station as “WEAF.”
NOV 2 1948 The four national radio networks sell their Election Night coverage to sponsors for the first time - ABC to Kaiser-Frazer Autos, CBS to Nash Motors, Mutual to Curtis Publishing and NBC to Chevrolet.
NOV 2 1948 Election coverage on the four national networks results in a combined 48.3 Hooperating from 8:00 to 11:00 p.m. local time with NBC leading the four chains at 15.8.
See Radio's Rulers: Crossley, Hooper & Nielsen.)
NOV 2 1948 Twenty East Coast network television stations, 14 network affiliated TV stations in the Midwest and eight stations without network ties broadcast election returns to an estimated five to six million viewers.
NOV 2 1949 Gillette and Mutual pay Major League Baseball $1.0 Million to buy radio rights for the World Series and annual All-Star Game for the next seven years. The contract includes first refusal to television rights.
NOV 2 1949 Bob Hope burns NBC brass by appearing on Bing Crosby’s CBS show and helping raise it to a time period winning 15.6 rating over Mr. District Attorney.
NOV 2 1950 The networks pay tribute to George Bernard Shaw who died in Great Britain at 94 from complications after a fall and subsequent operation.
NOV 2 1951 Ralph Edwards signs an exclusive five year radio and television contract with NBC valued at $6.5 Million. (See Truth Or Consequences.)
NOV 2 1951 Jimmy Durante sues Paramount Pictures, producer Hal Wallis and comics Martin & Lewis for $350,000 for using his expression, “That’s my boy,” as the title of their recent film. (See Goodnight, Mr. Durante...)
NOV 2 1951 WWJ/Detroit cuts into NBC radio and television programs including Your Hit Parade to censor the songs I Get Ideas and Sweet Violets.
NOV 2 1951 NBC-TV Vice President Sylvester (Pat) Weaver, 42, is elected to NBC’s Board of Directors.
NOV 3, 1931 Walter Winchell becomes the first radio personality to appear for two sponsors on the same night - at 8:45 p.m. on CBS for LaGerardine hair tonic and at 10:00 for American Tobacco's Lucky Strike cigarettes. (See Walter Winchell and Sunday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 3 1933 The FRC authorizes clear channel stations WGN/Chicago, WBZ/Boston and WHAM/Rochester to increase their transmitting power from 25,000 to 50,000 watts.
NOV 3 1933 MGM releases The Chief starring Ed Wynn, based on his weekly NBC show as the Texaco Fire Chief. (See Tuesday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 3 1935 Detroit priest Charles Coughlin expands his Sunday program’s network to the West Coast and a total of 33 stations but cuts his costs by reducing the program’s length to 45 minutes. (See Father Coughlin.)
NOV 3 1936 Chicago voters decide to return the city to Central Time after eight months on Eastern Time.
NOV 3 1939 BMI files its registration with the Securities & Exchange Commission stating that the proposed music source has the backing of both NBC and CBS.
NOV 3 1939 KDKA/Pittsburgh personality Dave Garroway, 26, wins The H.P. Davis annual award and $100 as the city’s best announcer.
NOV 3 1940 Most of the announcers and engineers at Bulova’s WOV/New York City walk off their jobs in a union contract dispute forcing the station off the air for 24 hours.
NOV 3 1941 England’s Poet Laureate, John Masefield, reads selections from his works via shortwave from London on the NBC serial Against The Storm.
NOV 3 1941 Coca Cola’s Spotlight Bands begins its six night a week run on 125 Mutual stations representing the largest single advertising buy in the network’s history. (See Spotlight Bands.)
NOV 3 1942 WJW/Akron, already authorized to increase its power from 250 to 5,000 watts and shift frequency from 1240 to 850 kilocycles applies with the FCC to transfer its city of license to Cleveland.
NOV 3 1943 Lever Brothers tests commercial television with a weekly 15-minute program, The Face of War, on DuMont’s W2XWV(TV)/New York City, to advertise several of its products. (See Dr. DuMont’s Predictions.)
NOV 3 1944 Ed Wynn drops the fantasy characters on Blue’s Happy Island but remains King Bubbles with announcer, (and future movie star), Paul Douglas playing his straight man.
NOV 3 1944 AFRA and the networks agree on a two year contract granting on-air talent a 10% raise.
NOV 3 1944 Music license group SESAC produces and distributes transcriptions of its music in an effort to get it more widely played by stations.
NOV 3 1945 Networks and stations begin celebration of National Radio Week com-memorating its 25th anniversary.
NOV 3 1946 WSB/Atlanta launches a new public service program, The Harbor We Seek, which is directed against The Columbians, a new fascist movement preaching hate of Negroes, Jews and Catholics.
NOV 3 1946 Arlene Wilkins Rogers, 32, wife of cowboy star Roy Rogers, dies of an embolism following the birth of their son.
NOV 3 1946 The New York Giants at Philadelphia Eagles NFL game becomes television’s first “network” sports event - fed from WPTZ(TV)/Philadelphia to WNBT(TV)/New York City.
NOV 3 1947 President Truman names FCC Commissioner Paul Walker Acting Chairman of the Commission to replace Charles Denney who resigned to join NBC as general counsel.
NOV 3 1947 Faced with the threatened musicians union ban against recording on December 31, Bing Crosby increases the recording schedule of his Philco Radio Time to two programs per week.
NOV 3 1947 Station group owner Harry Wilder sells WSYR/Syracuse to Newhouse Newspapers, owner of The Syracuse Herald Journal and Post Standard, for $1.2 Million.
NOV 3 1948 The four radio networks finally conclude their continuous reporting of the Truman-Dewey Presidential election after a combined total of over 52 hours of coverage.
NOV 3 1948 CBS announces lifting its ban against transcribed programs to allow recorded repeats of its popular shows during summer vacation periods. NBC is expected to follow suite.
NOV 3 1949 Chicago radio and TV personality Dave Garroway, 36, signs a five year contract with NBC.
NOV 3 1949 Al Jolson leaves NBC and signs an exclusive radio and television contract with CBS. He dies eleven months later.
NOV 3 1950 NBC introduces its Operation Tandem, combining spot advertising in The Big Show, Screen Directors’ Playhouse, Duffy’s Tavern, The Man Called X and NBC Symphony broadcasts for an estimated 59 cents per 1,000 listeners.
NOV 3 1950 NBC-TV purchases the television rights to 54 Hopalong Cassidy feature films.
NOV 3 1952 The Democratic National Committee complains to ABC and the FCC that the previous night’s Walter Winchell radio and television commentaries were endorse-ments for General Dwight Eisenhower for President. (See Walter Winchell and Sunday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 3 1952 Mutual sets a new record by offering 31 shows a week to its affiliates for co-op sales. (See Mutual Led The Way.)
NOV 3 1952 KSFO/San Francisco joins the growing trend and announces one rate from 6:00 a.m. to Midnight.
NOV 3 1952 Citizens For Eisenhower presidential campaign committee buys the 11:00 p.m. hour on election eve on all radio and television networks.
NOV 4 1930 "Goat Gland Doctor" John Brinkley, licensee of KFKB/Milford, Kansas, receives 183,278 write-in votes in the Kansas gubernatorial election, 34,000 short of winning.
NOV 4 1932 Jehovah Witness evangelist “Judge” Franklin Rutherford adds Chicago stations KYW, WCFL, WJJD and WHFC to his roster of 300 stations nationwide that carry his weekly transcribed sermons.
NOV 4 1933 A Federal judge names Irving Bank & Trust Company receiver in the bankruptcy of Ed Wynn’s Amalgamated Broadcasting System network.
NOV 4 1935 The Don Lee network of West Coast stations extends its affiliation contract with CBS until January 1, 1937. (See The 1936-37 Season.)
NOV 4 1935 FCC engineers recommend dividing the 40 U.S. regional AM radio channels into three classes: The seven channels from 590 kilocycles to 950 kc, boosted to a night-time power of 5,000 watts, the 17 channels from 1010 kc. to 1390 kc. remaining at 1,000 watts at night, and the remaining 16 channels considered on a case by case basis.
NOV 4 1935 A rare Category Two hurricane strikes south Florida from the northeast, cuts network service for two days and destroys the transmitter towers of Miami stations WIOD and WQAM.
NOV 4 1935 General Motors sponsors a 15 minute weeknight newscast on WJR/Detroit with no commercials, just the opening and closing credit, “…brought to you courtesy of General Motors.”
NOV 4 1935 A&P Stores throws a private party for 13,000 employees, vendors and guests at Philadelphia’s Convention Hall starring Kate Smith.
NOV 4 1937 General Foods’ replaces its Maxwell House Showboat with Good News of 1938, an elaborate 60 minute, Thursday night NBC variety show featuring MGM movie stars. (See Good News and Thursday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 4 1937 Allis-Chalmers sponsors The National Cornhusking Contest from a farm in Marshall, Missouri, on a special 14 station Midwest network anchored by WLS/Chicago and WHO/Des Moines.
NOV 4 1938 FDR’s mid-term election political address on CBS, NBC and Mutual receives a 23.6 Crossley/CAB rating.
NOV 4 1940 The Democratic National Committee buys the 11:00 p.m. to 12:00 a.m. slot on all four networks, assuring President Roosevelt of the last word in his bid for re-election.
NOV 4 1941 NBC adopts a one month admission policy of 55 cents to $1.65, to cover rental of the Cosmopolitan Opera House for its November Blue Network broadcasts of the NBC Symphony conducted by Leopold Stowkowski.
NOV 4 1942 AFRA union representatives meet with the Office of Economic Stabilization to protest the exclusion of agency fees, commissions and expenses from “allowable” deductions in calculating performers’ wages.
NOV 4 1943 NBC and Blue ban the hit song Pistol Packin’ Mama because of the lyric, “…drinkin’ beer in a cabaret.”
NOV 4 1943 Comics Bud Abbott & Lou Costello return to their NBC series after a nine month layoff due to Costello’s rheumatic fever. Costello was notified shortly before the broadcast of his year-old son’s drowning death in the family‘s pool.
NOV 4 1944 FCC concludes five weeks of its allocation hearings to determine postwar frequencies available for AM, FM, TV, Facsimile, Amateur Radio, Government and Relay Systems.
NOV 4 1946 Edgar Bergen floats the idea of alternating weekly NBC shows with Fred Allen to avoid overexposure. (See Sunday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 4 1946 NBC expresses concern over suggestive lines getting into the new family-oriented Phil Harris & Alice Faye Show.
NOV 4 1946 RCA’s first postwar television sets go on sale - the ten inch screen 630-TS, ($435), and its seven-inch companion 621-TS, ($350), plus a $50 installation fee. The first week’s total sales are estimated at $2.0 Million.
NOV 4 1947 FCC grants New York City FM licenses to ABC, WMCA, WPAT, the ILGW and Methodist Church, but denies the applications from The New York Post and The New York Daily News.
NOV 4 1947 FCC issues its 112 page Economic Study of Standard Broadcasting which predicts problems for 724 new stations in 287 “oversaturated” markets of five or more stations with the expected arrival of 1,000 FM and 100 TV stations.
NOV 4 1949 Gulf Oil moves its radio and television simulcast of We The People from CBS to NBC.
NOV 4 1949 The television adaptation of One Man’s Family debuts on NBC-TV.
NOV 4 1949 The Korn Kobblers hillbilly band is exonerated of disturbing the peace for performing while riding down New York’s Broadway on a hay wagon to publicize a personal appearance. (See Fred Ziv - King of Syndication.)
NOV 4 1949 The Chicago Cubs increase local television rights to their 1950 games from $20,000 to $60,000.
NOV 4 1950 Frank Sinatra’s temper outburst after his Saturday night CBS-TV show causes producer Irving Mansfield to walk out and leave the program.
NOV 4 1951 Jack Benny begins a half hour television series on CBS-TV, scheduled once every five Sundays at 7:30 p.m. immediately following his CBS radio program.
NOV 4 1951 Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis appear on NBC-TV’s Colgate Comedy Hour which the network will later claim was seen by one of every five Americans for a total audience of 28.98 Million persons.
NOV 4 1953 FCC finalizes its rule extending television station licenses from one to three years, the same length as radio station licenses.
NOV 5 1933 Ruth Cambridge, secretary to Walter Winchell, substitutes for the ill commentator on his Sunday night Jergens Journal broadcast. (See Walter Winchell and Sunday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 5 1934 Weekday comedy serial Vic & Sade begins its ten year multi-network run for Procter & Gamble on Blue and NBC. (See Vic & Sade.)
NOV 5 1935 True Story magazine sends a mass mailing of penny postcards to business executives promoting its NBC Court of Human Relations episodes dealing with the consequences of office romances.
NOV 5 1939 Garry Moore, 24, (aka Gary Morfit), begins the hour long Hit Tunes six nights a week at 10:00 p.m. and Sundays at noon on WENR/Chicago sponsored by Walgreen Drug Stores.
NOV 5 1939 A special program on Blue climaxes the two day dedication celebrating KDKA/Pittsburgh’s new 50,000 watt transmitter and 718 foot tower.
NOV 5 1940 A St. Louis woman is awarded a $100 consolation prize after she complains that her telephone wasn’t busy as claimed by NBC’s Pot O Gold show when it called.
NOV 5 1940 NBC's W2XBS(TV) and DuMont’s W2XWV(TV) provide the first television coverage of an election to New York City viewers while the four radio networks remain on the air past midnight until FDR’s re-election is confirmed.
NOV 5 1940 NBC’s first television election reporting staff includes Leo Rosenberg who had read returns on KDKA/Pittsburgh’s historic Harding vs. Cox presidential election broadcast of November 2, 1920.
NOV 5 1942 Show business great and early radio performer George M. Cohan dies of cancer in New York City at age 64.
NOV 5 1942 The U.S. Office of War Information leases Boston-based international shortwave stations WRUS and WRUW.
NOV 5 1942 With AFM permission, Coca Cola and Blue transcribe an “emergency” episode of Spotlight Bands with Xavier Cugat’s orchestra for use if its lines to a live broadcast fail. (See Spotlight Bands.)
NOV 5 1943 WBCA(FM)/Schenectady becomes the first FM station to affiliate with a national network, Mutual.
NOV 5 1944 Air Force veteran Larry Stevens, 22, joins Jack Benny’s cast as featured vocalist while Dennis Day serves in the Navy.
NOV 5 1945 The AFM forces the Cleveland School Board’s WBOE-FM to cancel its daily rebroadcast of the CBS School of The Air because the number of musicians on the AM program aren’t matched by union musicians paid by the non-commercial FM station. (See Petrillo!)
NOV 5 1945 Film director William Keighley, 56, wins out over 17 candidates and becomes the fulltime host of Lux Radio Theater succeeding Cecil B. DeMille. (See Lux…Presents Hollywood! and Monday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 5 1945 CBS salutes radio’s 25th anniversary by repeating Norman Corwin’s Seems Radio Is Here To Stay which it first broadcast in 1939.
NOV 5 1945 WMCA/New York joins the fledgling Associated Broadcasting Corporation network based in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
NOV 5 1946 NBC’s Fibber McGee & Molly originates from Racine, Wisconsin, home of sponsor Johnson Wax, to celebrate the company’s 60th anniversary. (See Fibber McGee Minus Molly and Tuesday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 5 1947 Eversharp Pens deals a blow to ABC’s highly promoted Wednesday lineup by canceling the low-rated Henry Morgan Show.
NOV 5 1947 Colgate-Palmalove-Peet joins Bristol-Myers and Sterling Drug by adver-tising three separate products in its 30 minute programs.
NOV 5 1947 Philco inserts commercials for its television sets in its ABC Bing Crosby Show broadcasts heard in New York City and Philadelphia while the rest of the country receives commercials for its radios and phonographs. (See Wednesday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 5 1948 The Radio Writers Guild ends its short strike against advertising agencies as contract negotiations resume.
NOV 5 1948 Bob Hope, Dick Powell and Bert Lahr are listed as investors in Earl (Madman) Muntz’s nationwide rollout of low cost television receivers.
NOV 5 1949 A.C. Nielsen Network Radio ratings for the last half of October give CBS a sweep of the Top Ten positions. (See The 1949-50 Season.)
NOV 5 1950 The Big Show, regarded as Network Radio’s most expensive failure, begins its two season run on NBC. (See Tallulah’s Big Show.)
NOV 5 1950 Minneapolis based evangelist Billy Graham, 31, begins the half-century run of his weekly Hour of Decision on ABC
NOV 5 1951 NBC Radio releases its revised Economic Plan rate structure - based on a formula involving market by market population, retail sales, affiliate coverage and television penetration
NOV 5 1951 Ralph Edwards signs a five year, $6.5 Million contract with NBC radio and television. (See Truth Or Consequences and Saturday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 5 1951 KQV/Pittsburgh shuts down its FM station after two years.
NOV 5 1952 Cowboy star Gene Autry, principal owner of KOOL/Phoenix and KOPO/Tucson, leads the group agreeing to buy KMPC/Los Angeles for $800,000. (See Saturday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 5 1952 ABC, CBS and NBC report a combined $2.5 Million loss in their radio and television political campaign coverage from the party conventions through election night. Mutual posts a $50,000 profit.
NOV 5 1953 Dinah Shore, stricken with laryngitis, performs her entire NBC-TV show in pantomime.
NOV 6 1932 Frank & Anne Hummert’s Manhattan Merry Go Round begins on Blue’s Sunday afternoon schedule for its first five months before moving to NBC where it remained on Sundays at 9:00 until 1949. (See Top 40 Radio’s Roots and Sunday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 6 1933 The New York City musicians union bills Ed Wynn $9,400 for the month’s worth of pay owed by the defunct Amalgamated Broadcasting System.
NOV 6 1933 CKLW/Windsor, Ontario, the CBS affiliate for the Detroit area, moves from 540 kilocycles to 840 kc., because 540 was outside the United States frequency band on American radios which starts at 550 kc.
NOV 6 1938 Detroit priest Charles Coughlin returns to the air with an hour long Sunday afternoon program broadcast on an independent chain of 44 stations. (See Father Coughlin.)
NOV 6 1939 The U.S. Supreme Court refuses to review a lower court decision in favor of the FCC in denying an extension of the 500,000 watt experimental operation of WLW/ Cincinnati.
NOV 6 1939 Hollywood columnist Hedda Hopper begins her twelve year, sporadic, multi-network career.
NOV 6 1939 Sponsor Ralston Purina orders Mutual to cease identifying actor Russell Thorson as the voice of Tom Mix on the daily kids’ serial because, “…it spoils the illusion that it isn’t the original Tom Mix.” (See Serials, Cereals & Premiums.)
NOV 6 1939 The CBS studios at KNX/Los Angeles originates a record 44 programs for its nationwide and West Coast networks, led by ten episodes of Amos & Andy and six of Lum & Abner.
NOV 6 1940 The FCC Engineering Department proposes a new system of call signs for FM stations combining two letters followed by two numbers identifying the station’s frequency.
NOV 6 1940 The four networks report a total of $1.6 Million in political advertising revenues from the 1940 elections.
NOV 6 1941 A small studio fire triggering sprinklers that left three inches of water soaking floor cables disables Philco’s experimental W3XEU(TV)/Philadelphia for 24 hours.
NOV 6 1942 FCC orders all stations to cut transmitter power by one decibel for the duration of World War II.
NOV 6 1942 Bandleader-comedian Phil Harris and his entire orchestra from NBC’s Jack Benny Program join the U.S. Merchant Marines.
NOV 6 1942 NBC’s country themed Plantation Party is cut to 23 minutes by sponsor Brown & Williamson’s Kool cigarettes, the remaining seven minutes given to vocalist Mary Ann Mercer’s Pipe Dreams sponsored by the company’s Sir Walter Raleigh pipe tobacco.
NOV 6 1942 American Tobacco launches its Lucky Strike Green Has Gone To War ad campaign then abruptly drops it two weeks later when the need for green ink is debunked by the War Production Board. (See Smoke Gets In Your Ears.)
NOV 6 1942 KNX/Los Angeles sells $25,000 in War Bonds and Stamps when it parks a Lockheed P-38 Interceptor fighter in its courtyard for a week and allows citizens to auto-graph the plane when purchasing war bonds and stamps.
NOV 6 1942 The U.S. Treasury War Savings staff announces a plan for stations to recycle transcription discs of its programs to save the Vinylite used in making them.
NOV 6 1944 Blue’s Breakfast Club adds 39 Canadian stations to its roster, giving it 240 stations carrying the show every morning.
NOV 6 1944 President Roosevelt, Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra, Ethel Merman and Humphrey Bogart headline a Democrat party election eve campaign program from 10:00 to 11:00 p.m. on all networks.
NOV 6 1946 Bing Crosby’s transcribed Philco Radio Time on ABC plummets after four weeks from an initial 24.0 Hooperating to 12.2. (See Wednesday’s All Time Top Ten)
NOV 6 1948 NBC President Niles Trammell leaves New York for Los Angeles in a last-ditch attempt to keep Jack Benny and Edgar Bergen from jumping to CBS. (See Network Jumpers.)
NOV 6 1948 NBC, moves its Chesterfield Supper Club to secondary affiliate KMPC/Los Angeles when KFI pre-empts the show for its nightly frost warnings to farmers,
NOV 6 1950 Bob Hope returns from a 42 performance USO tour of the Korean battlefront in which he and actress Marilyn Maxwell, singer Jimmy Wakely, Judy Kelly and the Les Brown band appeared before thousands of Allied troops. (See Hope From Home.)
NOV 6 1950 Veteran newsman Raymond Gram Swing begins nightly commentaries on the Liberty network.
NOV 6 1950 Curt Gowdy, 31, is signed by WHDH/Boston to become the play-by-play voice of the Red Sox.
NOV 6 1950 New York Governor Thomas Dewey puts in an 18½ hour day in the studios of WOR-TV in a marathon radio and television re-election campaign simulcast seen and heard throughout the state.
NOV 6 1951 C.E. Hooper announces his company’s new system of measuring the car radio audiences by employing interviewers at traffic signals to survey drivers in cars stopped for red lights. (See Radio's Rulers: Crossley, Hooper & Nielsen.)
NOV 7 1932 Amos & Andy and The Rise of The Goldbergs become Monday through Friday shows on NBC as sponsor Pepsodent cancels their Saturday broadcasts.
NOV 7 1932 Bandleaders protest NBC’s rules prohibiting any song to be repeated between 6:00 p.m. and 1:00 a.m. as limiting their repertoire late at night. (See Big Band Remotes.)
NOV 7 1932 Buck Rogers In The 25th Century begins its first four year run on CBS, followed by a number of shorter runs on Mutual until 1947. (See Serials, Cereals & Premiums.)
NOV 7 1933 CBS censors ban the lyrics of Coffee In The Morning from the film Moulin Rouge.
NOV 7 1936 Militant priest Charles Coughlin announces the cancellation of his controversial five year radio series blaming lack of support for his anti-administration National Union For Social Justice. (See Father Coughlin.)
NOV 7 1937 Danish actor Jean Hersholt, 51, debuts as Dr. Christian on CBS where his program will remain under Vaseline sponsorship for 17 seasons. (See Dr. Christian and Wednesday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 7 1938 Writers Carl Bixby & Don Becker introduce their new serial This Day Is Ours on CBS for a 14 month multi-network run. (See Soft Soap & Hard Sell.)
NOV 7 1938 Paramount Pictures announces plans to build a television station in Hollywood, “…to function closely with its film production.”
NOV 7 1938 NBC begins a series of winter-long tests of television broadcasts from the grounds of the New York World Fair to determine the best locations for signals when the exposition opens.
NOV 7 1940 KIRO/Seattle provides spot coverage for CBS at the collapse of the huge, four month old Tacoma Narrows suspension bridge into Puget Sound.
NOV 7 1941 KDKA/Pittsburgh demonstrates an aerial system for enclosures that solves the problem of autos losing AM signals in long tunnels.
NOV 7 1942 CBS is first to broadcast the news of the Allied invasion of North Africa with a 9:02 p.m. interruption of Your Hit Parade.
NOV 7 1942 The OWI and FCC announce that they have seized WRUL/Boston when negotiations with the station’s ownership break down but the government needing it to bring all U.S. shortwave stations under its control.
NOV 7 1944 Boasting, “The most perfect television picture yet shown,” RCA demonstrates a new 18x24 inch projection set during NBC’s Election Night coverage at Radio City.
NOV 7 1944 A first time news cooperative links the election coverage staffs of The New York Daily News, WNEW Radio and WABD(TV).
NOV 7 1944 KSD/St. Louis, owned by The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, suspends most programs as staff members continuously read the contents of the newspaper during a 24 hour paper handlers’ strike.
NOV 7 1945 President Truman opens the new U.S. Senate radio gallery in a two hour ceremony.
NOV 7 1945 ABC broadcasts The First Twenty Five, a half-hour program featuring Paul Whiteman, Milton Cross, George Hicks and network president Mark Woods to celebrate radio’s 25th anniversary.
NOV 7 1947 Eddie Cantor emcees the gala radio and television sendoff given The Friendship Food Train on its eleven day trip across the U.S. collecting an eventual 700 cars of food for Europe valued at $40.0 Million.
NOV 7 1947 WSAY/Rochester, New York, wins a temporary injunction to prevent ABC and Mutual from canceling their affiliation with the station.
NOV 7 1947 FCC data reveals the seven cities it considers “over-radioed”: Washington, Seattle, Spokane, Oklahoma City, Chattanooga, Richmond and Portland, Oregon.
NOV 7 1947 FCC grants an FM license to The Providence Journal over the protests of the Rhode Island House of Representatives and the mayors of Providence, Pawtucket and Woonsocket who argue it will create a news monopoly.
NOV 7 1947 Meat packer Swift & Co. becomes the first network television sponsor with The Swift Home Service Club, a Friday afternoon half hour on NBC-TV seen in New York City, Philadelphia, Washington and Schenectady.
NOV 7 1948 Edward Arnold is awarded a, “…half-hour of the best time available,” per week on his “hometown station,” KITO/San Bernardino, which he promises to donate to charitable causes. (See Mr. President.)
NOV 7 1948 CBS introduces its legendary Studio One series of dramas to television.
NOV 7 1949 ABC Radio’s Monday night Kate Smith Calls giveaway show is reduced from an hour, forty-five minutes to one hour. (See Kate’s Great Song.)
NOV 7 1949 KHJ/Los Angeles drops its ban against disc jockey programs.
NOV 7 1949 Gillette and Mutual sign a seven year contract with Major League Baseball estimated at $1.1 Million for radio rights to the World Series and for first refusal of television rights.
NOV 7 1949 ABC’s WJZ-TV/New York City suspends all Monday and Tuesday broad-casts as part of the company’s temporary budget cutting maneuvers.
NOV 7 1951 The Green Hornet returns to Mutual for a final season on late Wednesday and Friday afternoons after a twelve year run on Blue/ABC. (See The Green Hornet.)
NOV 7 1951 A breakdown at Chicago master control blacks out the first 17 minutes of Don McNeill’s Wednesday night show on ABC-TV.
NOV 8 1932 Both CBS and NBC take advantage of the Associated Press offer to give them free AP wire reports of the presidential and congressional elections. (See The Press-Radio Bureau.)
NOV 8 1932 "Goat Gland" Doctor John Brinkley, licensee of KFKB/Milford, Kansas, loses the Kansas gubernatorial election to Republican Alf Landon, 278,581 votes to 244,607.
NOV 8 1935 Local radio stations protest the Chicago City Council approving an ordinance that will shift the city to the Eastern Time Zone on March 1, 1936 - one hour ahead of its neighboring suburbs and the rest of Illinois.
NOV 8 1935 A Federal Court rules the Washington state tax of 1.5% on radio station gross revenues to be invalid and unconstitutional.
NOV 8 1936 RCA demonstrates television to owners and managers of 60 NBC affiliated radio stations as part of the network’s tenth anniversary celebration in New York City.
NOV 8 1937 Hearst dissolves its partnership with McClatchy newspapers in the operation of the California Radio System network.
NOV 8 1940 An Illinois appellate court decides that WGN is the owner of the early soap opera Painted Dreams, not writer Irna Phillips who was an employee of the station at the time. (See Soft Soap & Hard Sell.)
NOV 8 1940 Four 500 watt stations sharing the 1400 kilocycle frequency in New York City - WARD, WBBC, WLTH and WVFW - announce plans to merge and apply for 5,000 watts.
NOV 8 1940 NBC approves the construction of a new $1.2 Million building in San Francisco to house its stations KPO and KGO. (See Three Letter Calls.)
NOV 8 1942 CBS correctly predicts the location of the Allied invasion of Morocco and Algeria.
NOV 8 1942 NBC relaxes its ban on recorded programs to broadcast President Roosevelt’s remarks in French coincidental with the Allied invasion of North Africa.
NOV 8 1944 NBC cites C.E. Hooper figures from Election Night which give its coverage “…the largest sustained audience in radio history, 55% greater than a normal Tuesday evening.” (See Radio's Rulers: Crossley, Hooper & Nielsen.)
NOV 8 1946 The New York AFRA local’s largest meeting in history, 1,200 members, joins the Los Angeles and Chicago locals in voting to authorize a strike against the networks.
NOV 8 1946 Rochester, New York, stations WHAM, WHEC, WRNY and WSAY enjoy an advertising windfall as strikes shut down the two local newspapers for three months.
NOV 8 1947 General Electric transmits the telecast of Notre Dame vs. Army football game via microwave from South Bend, Indiana, to Chicago for broadcast on WBKB(TV).
NOV 8 1948 Milton Berle’s Texaco Star Theater on NBC-TV scores another record high Hooperating of 86.7.
NOV 8 1948 RCA, Philco and General Electric all introduce television sets with ten-inch screens for the Christmas season priced around $350.
NOV 8 1949 Fanny Brice returns to Network Radio on NBC as Baby Snooks after a year’s sabbatical. (See Baby Snooks and Thursday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 8 1949 Variety reports that C.E. Hooper's five highest rated network attractions of November, 1939 - Bing Crosby, Edgar Bergen & Charlie McCarthy, Fibber McGee & Molly, Jack Benny and Lux Radio Theater - also make up the Top Five ten years later in November, 1949. (See The 1949-50 Season on this site.)
NOV 8 1953 Arturo Toscanini,87, begins his “farewell” series of 14 NBC Symphony concerts on Sunday evenings from 6:30 to 7:30.
NOV 9 1921 Westinghouse establishes KYW/Chicago.
NOV 9 1925 Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover convenes the three-day, Fourth National Radio Conference in Washington, D.C. with 500 delegates addressing the subjects of frequency allocation, advertising, station licensing, operating regulations and miscellaneous problems.
NOV 9, 1926 RCA establishes The National Broadcasting Company and purchases WEAF/New York City and WCAP/Washington, D.C. from AT&T for $1.0 Million. (See Alchemists of The Air.)
NOV 9 1936 A formal banquet for 1,400 invited guests at New York City’s Waldorf Astoria celebrates the 10th Anniversary of NBC.
NOV 9 1937 General Hugh M. Johnson’s planned address warning of the dangers of venereal disease is barred by NBC.
NOV 9 1938 Amos & Andy announcer Bill Hay sues Lum & Abner’s Chet Lauck and Norris Goff for reneging on their 1931 management agreement giving Hay 10% of the team’s earnings for five years.
NOV 9 1938 Actress Sara Collins files a $60,000 damages claim against CBS for “frazzled nerves” suffered from the Orson Welles War of The Worlds broadcast. (See War of The Worlds.)
NOV 9 1941 The U.S. Office of Emergency Management begins a weekly all-star half hour show on Mutual, Keep ‘Em Rolling, hosted by Clifton Fadiman, designed to present the needs to defend America.
NOV 9 1942 Orson Welles hosts Ceiling Unlimited, a new weekly 15-minute program on CBS tracing the history of American aviation.
NOV 9 1942 CBS debuts Daytime Showcase, a 13 week series of prime time half hour shows featuring samples of its weekday programs.
NOV 9 1944 Bing Crosby returns to NBC’s Kraft Music Hall after a 13 week USO tour and eliminates all comedy and non-musical elements from the show including audience applause except at the beginning and end of the program. (See The 1944-45 Season.)
NOV 9 1945 FCC Chairman Paul Porter advises FM broadcasters that the Commission can’t force the AFM to back down on its ban of network programs being broadcast on FM stations without double pay to musicians. (See Petrillo!)
NOV 9 1945 FCC denies Zenith Radio Corporation’s assertion that more power will be required by FM stations to operate in the new proposed higher frequencies than in the lower bands.
NOV 9 1948 Ralph Edwards introduces his new Truth Or Consequences spinoff, This Is Your Life, on NBC Radio. (See Truth Or Consequences.)
NOV 9 1948 KFMV(FM)/Los Angeles, owned by the ILGW, begins operations.
NOV 9 1949 The U.S. Supreme Court upholds the Little Rock, Arkansas, $250 annual tax on the city’s radio stations for "generating radio waves,” and the $50 tax on their “solicitors” (salesmen).
NOV 9 1951 CBS celebrates Jack Benny’s 20th anniversary in Network Radio with a special half hour broadcast featuring Milton Berle, Ethel Merman and Ronald & Benita Colman. (See Sunday At Seven and Your Money Or Your Life.)
NOV 9 1951 WMCA/New York City introduces a new music format in which two-thirds of the music played is among the city’s Top 30 popular records. (See Top 40 Radio's Roots.)
NOV 9 1951 Romantic composer and longtime radio conductor Sigmund Romberg, 64, dies of a cerebral hemorrhage.
NOV 9 1952 Freeman Gosden & Charles Correll celebrate the 10,000th broadcast of Amos & Andy. (See Multiple Runs All Time Top Ten and Sunday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 9 1953 Singer Julius LaRosa, publicly fired by Arthur Godfrey three weeks earlier, begins a series of ten minute shows three nights a week on CBS. (See Arthur Godfrey.)
NOV 9 1953 A group of 33 songwriters and composers of “serious” music file a $150,000 anti-trust suit to divest BMI from the broadcast industry.
NOV 10 1932 CBS accepts Ex-Lax Laxative as sponsor of The Magic Voice with the provision that the contract will be cancelled if 2,000 letters protesting the commercials are received by the network.
NOV 10 1933 CBS establishes a talent rate for “mob extras” used for crowd sound effects used on its Friday night March of Time and All American Football Show: $5, including eight hours rehearsal time.
NOV 10 1937 Chicago musicians union local president James C. Petrillo threatens a strike against NBC if the network doesn’t agree to a new contract within two months. (See Petrillo!)
NOV 10 1937 Bell Laboratories demonstrates the use of coaxial cable to transmit 240-line television images of a Paramount newsreel from New York to a seven by eight inch screen in Philadelphia.
NOV 10 1938 FCC suddenly fires its Chief Examiner, his assistant and the commission’s Information Director without explanation.
NOV 10 1938 Kate Smith introduces Irving Berlin’s God Bless America on her CBS program on the eve of the 20th anniversary of Armistice Day. (See Kate’s Great Song.)
NOV 10 1939 WMCA/New York City negotiates a trade with the area’s appliance dealer association, giving the stores a half-hour program every Saturday night in exchange for a pre-set tab on all the new push-button radios they sell.
NOV 10 1940 Katherine Cornell makes her radio debut with a dramatic reading on the Sunday afternoon Red Cross Roll Call program, broadcast simultaneously by CBS, Mutual and NBC.
NOV 10 1941 FCC files an appeal with a New York court to dismiss the NBC and CBS suits resulting from the Commission’s pending Network-Monopoly regulations.
NOV 10 1941 The American Radio Relay League of 55,000 amateur radio operators and U.S. Army morale officers plan a system of allowing Armed Forces personnel in the United States and overseas to converse with their families.
NOV 10 1944 FCC proposes to revoke the license of WOKO/Albany, New York, because of hidden ownership issues.
NOV 10 1944 The War Labor Board sides with KSTP/Minneapolis-St. Paul in rejecting the AFM’s demand that the station employ eight union musicians or that its music librarian and three record handlers be AFM members. (See Petrillo!)
NOV 10 1945 After 13 years on the air Don McNeill’s Breakfast Club makes its final Saturday morning broadcast on ABC and becomes a Monday through Friday program.
NOV 10 1945 Counsel for the U.S. House Un-American Activities Committee reveals proposed legislation to the press which is designed to tightly control news and political commentators.
NOV 10 1945 Walter Winchell, Hildegarde, Ray Bolger, George Jessel and other show business luminaries participate in NBC’s memorial program to legendary producer Gus Edwards who died on November 7th.
NOV 10 1947 A.C. Nielsen releases its first Top 20 Programs list, recognizing Lux Radio Theater as prime time’s leading program and Our Gal Sunday first in daytime listening. (See Lux…Presents Hollywood! and Soft Soap & Hard Sell.)
NOV 10 1947 Information Please producer Don Golenpaul files a National Labor Rela-tions Board complaint against the AFM for the union’s refusal to allow a pianist to play on the program after its move to Mutual as a co-op program available for local sponsorship. (See Information Please.)
NOV 10 1947 FCC authorizes the Governor Dongan Broadcasting Corp. to take control of WOKO/Albany, New York.
NOV 10 1947 WORL/Boston files an appeal in U.S. Court to the FCC order that it leave the air because of its failure to report stock purchases eight to ten years earlier.
NOV 10 1947 A crowd of 8,000 fans jams Philadelphia’s Broad Street station to greet Jack Bailey, host of Mutual’s Queen For A Day, who needs a police escort to leave the scene.
NOV 10 1947 The AP announces its new newsreel service for television stations.
NOV 10 1948 The AFRA and AFM unions reject CBS and NBC’s proposal to rerun their major shows by transcription in the summer months - unless the networks double the performers’ original fees.
NOV 10 1948 WGN-TV/Chicago becomes a CBS-TV affiliate, building the network’s roster to 16 stations.
NOV 10 1950 Illinois State Senator William (Botchie) Connors files a $1.0 Million libel suit against ABC, its commentator Robert Montgomery and sponsor Adam Hats for charging that Connors is, “...a power drunk tyrant responsible for wholesale lawlessness,” in Chicago's 42nd Ward.
NOV 10 1950 A Texas court dismisses a $1.2 Million suit filed against People Are Funny by a writer who claims the show stole his idea for a stunt called, The Lucky Interview Intro-ducing Secrets of The Little Black Box. (See People Are Funny.)
NOV 10 1951 Ed Wynn hosts NBC-TV’s All Star Review, the first variety show originating in Los Angeles, with guests Bob Hope, Buster Keaton and Dorothy Lamour.
NOV 10 1952 Bob Hope begins a new weekday morning series of quarter hour com-mentaries on NBC at 9:30 for General Foods with announcer Bill Goodwin and a different female co-star each week.
NOV 11 1928 The Federal Radio Commission reorganizes the AM broadcast band to provide clearer reception of the country's 585 stations. (See Alchemists of The Air.)
NOV 11 1932 Kate Smith signs a two year contract extension with CBS guaranteeing her a weekly minimum salary of $750.
NOV 11 1933 An invited audience of 1,500 guests attends NBC’s elaborate dedication broadcast from its new Radio City headquarters headlined by Rudy Vallee, Will Rogers, Paul Whiteman, Amos & Andy, a 75 piece orchestra and 60 voice choir. The Saturday night program begins a week of special broadcasts commemorating the event.
NOV 11 1935 NBC broadcasts shortwave reports from the stratosphere during the 74,000 foot ascent of balloonists Albert Stevens and Orvil Anderson, reaching record breaking heights.
NOV 11 1935 The Supreme Court of Mexico orders ownership of high powered XER/Villa Acuna, across the border from Del Rio, Texas, be restored to its owner, “Goat Gland" Doctor John R. Brinkley.
NOV 11 1935 CBS and Wrigley Gum experiment with inserting brief news capsules into commercials of the nightly broadcasts of Myrt & Marge on network owned WBBM/
Chicago, KMOX/St. Louis and WCCO/Minneapolis-St. Paul.
NOV 11 1936 The New York County Lawyers Association recommends banning NBC’s Goodwill Court for its dispensing free legal advice, “…accompanied by the announcer’s solicitation to purchase the sponsor’s coffee.” (See The 1936-37 Season.)
NOV 11 1937 Union engineers at WOL/Washington, D.C., stage a sudden sit-down strike that takes the Mutual affiliate off the air for eight hours.
NOV 11 1940 The historic Armistice Day storm demolishes the 733 foot transmitting tower of WJR/Detroit, but the station returns to the air twelve hours later with a makeshift antenna strung between telephone poles.
NOV 11 1941 WAAT/Jersey City devotes its entire broadcast day to the sale of U.S. Defense Bonds and Stamps.
NOV 11 1941 All networks carry President Roosevelt’s Armistice Day morning address from Arlington National Cemetery which registers a 30.0 Hooerating.
NOV 11 1941 Edgar Bergen and his Charlie McCarthy visit the Jim & Marian Jordan NBC sitcom Fibber McGee & Molly to plug their new RKO comedy, Look Who’s Laughing. (See Radio Goes To The Movies.)
NOV 11 1941 All four networks carry the 60 minute Red Cross Roll Call fund raiser featuring an address by President Roosevelt and Kate Smith singing Irving Berlin’s new song written for the program, Angels of Mercy.
NOV 11 1944 Hailed by AFM boss James Petrillo as, “The greatest victory for a labor organization in the history of the labor movement,“ RCA-Victor and Columbia Records capitulate to the union’s demands for royalties to end the 28 month recording ban. (See Petrillo!)
NOV 11 1944 Procter & Gamble introduces Gaslight Gayeties starring novelty singer Beatrice Kay for a one season run on NBC.
NOV 11 1945 Famed songwriter Jerome Kern dies of a cerebral hemorrhage at age 60.
NOV 11 1945 Radio Luxembourg, controlled by the United States since its recapture from Germany, is returned to its original owners.
NOV 11 1945 The Army Hour concludes its three year, eight month run on NBC’s Sunday afternoon schedule.
NOV 11 1946 A U.S. Department of Labor conciliator is appointed to attempt to settle a threatened AFRA strike against the networks.
NOV 11 1946 Bristol-Myers becomes the first sponsor of a regularly scheduled television show, Geographically Speaking, on WNBT(TV)/New York City.
NOV 11 1947 WMAL-TV/Washington, D.C., broadcasts the first live television pickup of a Congressional committee hearing - the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee testimony regarding The Marshall Plan.
NOV 11 1949 Calling the FCC, “..a do-nothing agency,” the Florida Broadcasters Association appeals to the state’s congressional delegation to help them combat Cuban “pirating of frequencies.’
NOV 11 1949 NBC splits its radio and television news divisions into two separate units.
NOV 11 1952 All radio networks carry a 15 minute program featuring President-elect Eisenhower to launch the 1952 Crusade For Freedom campaign supporting Radio Free Europe and Radio Free Asia.
NOV 11 1953 After an eleven year multi-network radio run, Dr. I.Q. debuts on ABC-TV. (See Dr. I.Q.)
NOV 12 1932 Roxy & His Gang is the first NBC program broadcast from the stage of Radio City.
NOV 12 1932 NBC presents a special two hour program saluting the power increase to 50,000 watts of its clear channel affiliate, WSM/Nashville.
NOV 12 1933 Five noted conductors lead a 400 piece orchestra in the Blue Network’s dedication broadcast of Radio City
NOV 12 1934 Magazine publishers band together to hire new research firm, Clark & Hooper, to conduct an independent survey of 100,000 evening phone calls to check the accuracy of Crossley’s high audience figures. (See Radio's Rulers: Crossley, Hooper & Nielsen.)
NOV 12 1935 The AP announces a 5% surcharge to all newspaper members who own radio stations.
NOV 12 1935 RCA Chairman J.G. Harbord addresses Princeton’s School of Engineering and predicts, “..the ultimate achievement of communications will come with colored tele-vision accompanied by odors and tastes.”
NOV 12 1936 CBS and NBC cover the start of the three day celebration to mark the opening of the 4.5 mile long San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, then the longest span in the world.
NOV 12 1937 Louella Parsons backs down from her threat to walk off Hollywood Hotel if not given double her weekly salary of $2,250 when sponsor Campbell Soup and CBS threaten breach of contract. (See Friday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 12 1938 In a speech covered by CBS, NBC and Mutual, FCC Chairman Frank McNinch denies any interest by the commission in the censorship of broadcasting.
NOV 12 1938 After four weeks, American Tobacco terminates the 26 week contract of W.C. Fields to perform monologs on the Saturday broadcasts of Your Hit Parade on CBS.
(See W.C. Fields.)
NOV 12 1939 Edgar Bergen introduces his newest character to NBC’s Chase & Sanborn Hour, country bumpkin Mortimer Snerd. (See Sunday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 12 1940 WNEW/New York City receives the Papal Blessing of Pope Pius XII for its effort in propagating the faith.
NOV 12 1940 Dr Peter Goldmark, CBS chief television engineer, announces that direct images of people and objects in color television has been achieved.
NOV 12 1942 Miller McClintock, 48, is appointed the first salaried President of Mutual in the network’s eight year history.
NOV 12 1943 WOR/New York City comedy panel show It Pays To Be Ignorant debuts on Network Radio with a series of appearances on the CBS Kate Smith Show. (See It Pays To Be Ignorant.)
NOV 12 1943 The U.S. Censorship Bureau relaxes its complete ban of record dedica-tions on radio to prevent passage of coded messages by establishing rules for dedications on the late night Sandman’s Serenade on WOLF/Syracuse.
NOV 12 1945 Adam Hats signs ABC commentator Drew Pearson to a three year contract for his Sunday night quarter hour at $4,500 per broadcast, a 156 week total of $702,000.
NOV 12 1945 The newly formed Radio Directors’ Guild agrees to a $100 per week minimum wage with the four major networks.
NOV 12 1947 FCC approves the call sign change of NBC’s KPO/San Francisco to KNBC. (See Three Letter Calls.)
NOV 12 1947 Both ABC and Mutual cancel their affiliations with WSAY/Rochester, New York, when a Federal judge denies the station’s injunction against them.
NOV 12 1948 False reports circulate that NBC is victorious in its fight with CBS to keep Jack Benny. (See Sunday At Seven.)
NOV 12 1948 AFRA insists its members receive the same pay for transcribed repeat broadcasts as they do for do for the original performances which throws an obstacle into network plans for summer month repeats of their top shows.
NOV 12 1948 The Pennsylvania Supreme Court rules in favor of a 10% Amusement Tax attached to bars and taverns equipped with television sets.
NOV 12 1951 After two years development, Bing Crosby Enterprises unveils its videotaping system.
NOV 12 1952 FCC approves the sale of KMPC/Los Angeles from the estate of G. A..(Dick) Richards to a group headed by Gene Autry for $800,000. (See Saturday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 12 1953 Standard Oil of California signs the contract for its 25th consecutive year of sponsoring Sunday night’s Standard Hour on NBC’s West Coast Network.
NOV 13 1931 Phillips H. Lord brings his popular NBC character Seth Parker to the screen in RKO’s Way Back Home, co-starring 23 year old ingénue Bette Davis. (See Radio Goes To The Movies.)
NOV 13 1931 NBC Censor Clarence Mesner is heard during the broadcast of First Nighter whispering to the cast to avoid the words "German" and "Boche" in the script. (See Friday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 13 1933 CBS is refused Congressional press gallery credentials for its reporters.
NOV 13 1933 Wayne King drops his twice weekly sustaining remotes from Chicago’s Aragon Ballroom on Mutual at the insistence of Lady Esther Cosmetics which sponsors his Serenades on CBS and NBC. (See The Aragon's Last Stand and The Waltz King.)
NOV 13 1936 Coca Cola signs host Don McNeill, vocalist Clark Dennis and the 16 piece Walter Blaufuss orchestra from Blue’s Breakfast Club to appear in its weekday transcribed half hour, Refreshment Time.
NOV 13 1936 The Mormon church applies to the FCC for a powerful non-commercial shortwave station to operate from its KSL transmitter grounds near Salt Lake City.
NOV 13 1938 NBC celebrates its twelfth anniversary two days early with an hour long broadcast tracing the history of the medium, This Is Radio, on the 160 affiliates of both of its networks.
NOV 13 1939 Procter & Gamble and Sterling Drug swap NBC and Blue weekday serial timeslots which solves P&G’s problem of several of its soap operas competing with each other.
NOV 13 1939 NBC sells its interests in KEX/Portland, Oregon, and KGA/Spokane, Washington, to local operators. (See Three Letter Calls.)
NOV 13 1939 Don Lee’s W6XAO(TV)/Los Angeles increases its live television programs to nine hours per week as sets go on sale in downtown department stores for prices ranging from $195 to $650.
NOV 13 1940 BMI reports its number of member stations has grown to 414 as broad-casters prepare to do without ASCAP music on January 1, 1941.
NOV 13 1942 The struggling American Broadcasters Association, a trade group chal-lenging the NAB, folds after less than a year.
NOV 13 1945 Variety reports that 263 of the 665 applications on file with the FCC for new FM stations, (40%), are from newspaper interests.
NOV 13 1947 AT&T opens its microwave radio relay between New York and Boston bringing network television to Boston.
NOV 13 1948 United Airlines successfully demonstrates the airborne television reception of local stations using a table model set inside aircraft flying 2,000 feet over Chicago and 6,500 feet over Milwaukee.
NOV 13 1950 Trade magazine Broadcasting pans the November 5th debut of NBC’s Big Show as, “…simply a collection of disassociated acts…not an imaginative answer to radio’s present programming problems.” (See Tallulah’s Big Show.)
NOV 13 1950 Stations responding to a poll conducted by BBDO for 3M indicates that 95% are using tape recording.
NOV 13 1950 The Minneapolis City Council bans FM broadcasting of music and commercials to the city’s 350 buses and streetcars already in practice for two months.
NOV 13 1950 CBS-TV begins 15 minute color television programs daily in New York City for two 10-inch receivers located in Gimbel’s Department Store.
NOV 13 1951 Edgar Bergen leaves with his Charlie McCarthy on a nine day coast-to-coast tour of veterans’ hospitals doing shows and distributing 32,000 Christmas gifts donated by his show’s listeners. (See Sunday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 13 1952 FCC examiner Leo Resnick issues a 140 page decision recommending approval of the ABC merger with United Paramount Theaters and UPT’s sale of WBKB(TV)/Chicago to CBS.
NOV 14 1932 CBS renews its purchase of time to broadcast on WGN/Chicago, buying the option rights to two and a half hours per night for $2,000 a week.
NOV 14 1934 KVOS/Bellingham, Washington, is charged in Federal Court by Associated Press with stealing its dispatches from Seattle newspapers for use in its newscasts.
NOV 14 1937 Rev. Gerald L.K. Smith, chairman of the Committee of One Million, begins a series of 26 Sunday broadcasts on a 38 station ad-hoc network similar to that used by Detroit priest Charles Coughlin. (See Father Coughlin on this site.)
NOV 14 1938 FCC begins its Network Monopoly Inquiry that will last for six months.
NOV14 1938 U.S. Interior Secretary Harold Ickes officiates the opening of the new radio studio in the penthouse of the Interior Department’s building, the government‘s first step into broadcast production.
NOV 14 1939 The Capitol Theater in Lincoln, Nebraska, offers $1,000 to any patron who misses the Pot O Gold prize phone call while attending its movies on Tuesday nights.
NOV 14 1939 Information Please celebrates its first anniversary on Blue for Canada Dry beverages with a celebratory broadcast at the Waldorf Astoria. (See Information Please.)
NOV 14 1939 FCC Television Committee foresees an eventual 120 stations, that the medium has grown beyond the experimental stage and “limited” commercialization will be necessary for its future development.
NOV 14 1940 CBS proposes to buy a minority interest in KQW/San Jose-San Francisco as the station applies to raise its power from 5,000 to 50,000 watts.
NOV 14 1940 Kay Kyser’s College of Musical Knowledge troupe appears on stage at New York City’s Roxy Theater for a week while its new RKO film,You’ll Find Out, is shown on the theater's screen. (See Kay Kyser and Wednesday’s All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 14 1941 Lever Brothers buys time on 129 small market stations of the Keystone Broadcasting System for transcriptions of its NBC Burns & Allen Show to get nationwide advertising saturation for its new Swan Soap. (See Wednesday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 14 1941 CBS owned WABC/New York begins testing an all-night disc jockey show from 1:00 until 5:15 a.m. Saturday mornings featuring the weekday morning personality it shares with WJSV/Washington, Arthur Godfrey. (See Arthur Godfrey.)
NOV 14 1942 NBC correspondent John MacVane and Charles Collingwood of CBS make the first direct reports of the North African war from Algiers.
NOV 14 1943 The Mutual-affiliated Don Lee West Coast Network begins its season of broadcasting repeats of NBC’s Jack Benny Program at 8:30 Pacific Time Sunday nights. (See Benny’s Double Plays.)
NOV 14 1944 George Burns & Gracie Allen take their CBS show on a four city tour in behalf of the Sixth War Loan Drive. (See Wednesday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 14 1947 The NAB proposes a new code limiting commercial time to three minutes per 15 daytime minutes and 30 nighttime minutes of programming and six commercial minutes for every hour of nighttime programming.
NOV 14 1948 An Attleboro, Massachusetts, housewife wins a $30,200 jackpot of prizes, for identifying the Mystery Melody on ABC’s Stop The Music as The Minstrel’s Return From The War. (See Stop The Music!)
NOV 14 1948 Helen Hayes becomes the permanent star of The General Electric Theater with her performance of Victoria Regina.
NOV 14 1950 Radio actors Ralph Bell and his wife, Pert Kelton, file a $300,000 libel suit against Red Channels magazine which labeled both as, “Communist dupes” and “fellow-travelers.”
NOV 14 1951 NBC introduces its Guaranteed Advertising Attention Plan which offers a “guaranteed” audience of 5.3 Million listeners each week over 13 weeks with one minute spots in Nightbeat, Hollywood Love Story and The $64 Question at a cost of $14,600 per week.
NOV 15 1926 NBC inaugurates its network service with a five hour gala broadcast from WEAF/New York City to 20 charter affiliates and four non-affiliated stations. (See Alchemists of The Air on this site.)
NOV 15 1933 NBC celebrates its seventh anniversary and move to Radio City with a special 90 minute broadcast featuring the Metropolitan Opera Company.
NOV 15 1934 Clark-Hooper, Inc., publishes its first Network Radio audience popularity ratings based on Telephone Coincidental methodology. (See Radio's Rulers: Crossley, Hooper & Nielsen.)
NOV 15 1935 Fred Allen makes his feature film debut in 20th Century Pictures’ Thanks A Million. (See Radio Goes To The Movies.)
NOV 15 1936 NBC’s combined Red and Blue networks of 102 affiliates broadcast a special hour long program in which 13 nations participate in saluting Network Radio’s tenth anniversary.
NOV 15 1936 Charles Laughton, who has turned down Network Radio guest appear-ances as high as $4,000, appears free on Blue from London recreating scenes from his film Rembrandt as a favor to producer Alexander Korda.
NOV 15 1937 The Nebraska Supreme Court rules in favor of ASCAP over state copyright laws which is considered a major victory for the group as it proceeds to similar cases in Florida and Tennessee.
NOV 15 1937 In the absence of Marian Jordan, Fibber McGee & Molly becomes Fibber McGee & Company for the next 17 months until her return to the NBC sitcom. (See Fibber McGee Minus Molly and Tuesday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 15 1938 Hollywood reporter Jimmie Fidler adds a 15 minute report on CBS Tuesday nights for P. Lorrilard’s Old Gold cigarettes to his Friday night quarter hour on NBC sponsored by Procter & Gamble’s Drene Shampoo.
NOV 15 1938 NBC televises the first live outside news event when it comes across an abandoned barracks fire at Wards Island, New York.
NOV 15 1939 WCKY begins identifying itself as located with its new studios in Cincinnati although its 50,000 watt transmitter remains across the river in Covington, Kentucky.
NOV 15 1939 RCA’s two shortwave stations in Bound Brook, New Jersey, WNBI and WRCA, go commercial with United Fruit as their first sponsor for a 15 minute program per day in Spanish.
NOV 15 1939 FCC gathers replies from stations to its inquiry asking if CBS and NBC pressured affiliates to refuse to carry Mutual’s broadcasts of the World Series as charged.
NOV 15 1939 Popular bandleader Artie Shaw, 29, who left the CBS Old Gold Program after calling his fans, “morons,” fails to appear to perform at New York City’s Pennsylvania Hotel and says he’s quitting the music business.
NOV 15 1940 NBC, CBS and the Independent Radio Network Affiliates trade group file their final briefs with the FCC in reply to the Commission’s controversial Network Monopoly Investigation Report of June.
NOV 15 1940 Jerry Colonna, famous from his appearances with Bob Hope, opens at the Los Angeles Paramount Theater for $2,500 a week. (See “Professor" Jerry Colonna.)
NOV 15 1940 Information Please moves from Blue to NBC where it will remain until 1946. (See Information Please.)
NOV 15 1940 FCC sends an unprecedented telegram to the 227 members of the Independent Radio Network Affiliates, (IRNA), considered an intimidation by the industry and a prelude to another Chain-Monopoly probe.
NOV 15 1940 New York Supreme Court Justice Aaron Steuer refuses the American Guild of Musical Artists’ request for an injunction against the AFM’s demand that all AGMA members join their union.
NOV 15 1941 The 243 stations affiliated with NBC and Blue broadcast the three hour celebration of NBC’s 15th anniversary starring Jack Benny, Bing Crosby, Edgar Bergen, Burns & Allen, Fanny Brice, Red Skelton and others.
NOV 15 1942 Sponsor Serutan moves Drew Pearson’s Sunday night news commentary on Blue to 7:00 p.m. opposite Jack Benny and the number of affiliates carrying Pearson jumps from 27 to 55.
NOV 15 1943 The Blue Network, Inc., conducts its first corporate affiliates’ meeting followed by a party with network entertainment hosted by The Breakfast Club’s Don McNeill and featuring mind reader Dunninger. (See Dunninger.)
NOV 15 1943 NAB President Neville Miller asks the Senate Interstate Commerce Committee to limit the powers of the FCC in controlling broadcast programming.
NOV 15 1943 Transcription-based Keystone Broadcasting System network grows to 200 small market affiliates.
NOV 15 1944 Colgate Palmolive Peet is reported to be “leasing” Kay Kyser’s College of Musical Knowledge on NBC from American Tobacco for two seasons. (See Kay Kyser and Wednesday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 15 1944 The NAB approves $75,000 seed money to establish its Broadcast Measurement Bureau radio circulation study in conjunction with the AAAA and ANA.
NOV 15 1945 Gunther Hollander, 15, a member of the Quiz Kids cast, is killed when struck by a bus in Chicago. (See The Quiz Kids.)
NOV 15 1945 FCC permits the estimated 60,000 amateur, (aka ham), radio operators to resume their normal operations.
NOV 15 1946 ABC commentator Walter Winchell flatly denies rumors that he and his sponsor, Jergens Lotion, are switching networks. (See Walter Winchell and Sunday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 15 1946 Reacting to the Soviet government shutting down its shortwave facilities to U.S. network newsmen, CBS orders correspondent Richard C. Hottelet to close its Moscow bureau and return home.
NOV 15 1946 Bulova’s WNEW/New York City boasts at becoming the country’s top grossing independent station at $2.3 Million in fiscal 1946.
NOV 15 1946 Six CIO unions petition the FCC to investigate why Milwaukee stations WTMJ and WISN refuse to sell or give them time to discuss the eleven month Allis-Chalmers strike.
NOV 15 1948 CBS begins negotiations with Phillips H. Lord to purchase his properties Mr. District Attorney, We The People, Gangbusters and Counterspy.
NOV 15 1948 KFI/Los Angeles resumes broadcasts of NBC’s Chesterfield Supper Club when its series of nightly frost warnings to farmers concludes.
NOV 15 1948 The St. Louis Star-Times, owner of KXOK-FM, begins fitting 1,300 city buses and streetcars with receivers to pick up its programs of music, news and limited commercials.
NOV 15 1948 Newsman John Cameron Swayze, 42, introduces the new ten minute NBC-TV Nightly News at 7:00 p.m.
NOV 15 1950 AFRA officials approve settlement with the networks calling for raises of approximately 15 to 20% for and actors in New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles.
NOV 15 1950 ABC revives detective series Rogue’s Gallery as a Wednesday night co-op show with Paul Stewart taking the title role created by Dick Powell. (See Dick Powell.)
NOV 15 1951 CBS Radio conducts a 15-hour campaign on its 206 affiliates for Red Cross blood bank donations resulting in pledges for 300,000 pints.
NOV 15 1952 CBS dedicates its new eight acre Television City in Hollywood with a 60 minute prime time show starring Jack Benny, Lucille Ball & Desi Arnaz, George Burns & Gracie Allen, Art Linkletter and other network stars.
NOV 16 1904 John Ambrose Fleming, 55, patents the vacuum tube, (diode valve), to improve the detection of wireless signals.
NOV 16 1926 NBC begins Tuesday night regular service with Network Radio’s first major variety show, The Eveready Hour.
NOV 16 1932 The NAB votes to offer former New York Governor Al Smith $50,000 per year to become radio’s “Czar” and lead its fight against newspapers, ASCAP and censorship.
NOV 16 1933 William Harmon, Chief Engineer at KDKA/Pittsburgh is electrocuted when 3,000 volts pass through his body while he was conducting transmitter experiments.
NOV 16 1934 Hearst Radio buys 10,000 watt WBAL/Baltimore from the Consolidated Gas & Electric Co., for $250,000.
NOV 16 1939 After 18 months on Mutual, The Green Hornet originating from WXYZ/ Detroit, begins its 12 year run on Blue/ABC. (See The Green Hornet.)
NOV 16 1940 FCC, in a rare Saturday statement, says NBC, CBS, Philco, Don Lee and Howard Hughes have pledged a total of $8.0 Million for the development of television.
NOV 16 1940 CBS Washington correspondent Albert Warner wins the first Sigma Delta Chi radio news writing award.
NOV 16 1941 WHDF/Calumet, Michigan, drops its Mutual network affiliation because telephone line quality to the isolated peninsula town isn’t deemed worthy to be broadcast.
NOV 16 1941 The small Oklahoma town of Berwyn changes its name to Gene Autry, Oklahoma. (See Saturday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 16 1942 CBS and NBC prepare appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court after a three-judge Federal Court dismisses their petitions for injunctions restraining the FCC from establishing its proposed Network-Monopoly regulations.
NOV 16 1942 Trade association FM Radio Broadcasting, Inc., dissolves.
NOV 16 1942 WJR/Detroit sells its hourly time signals from midnight to 5:00 a.m. to the Bulova Watch Co.
NOV 16 1943 FCC approves the sale of WMCA/New York City by Edward Noble to Nathan Straus, required for Noble’s purchase of the Blue network and WJZ/New York City
NOV 16 1944 Mutual commentator Boake Carter, 46, suffers a stroke and dies shortly after his broadcast.
NOV 16 1945 The Chicago Tribune labels NBC commentator Robert St. John, “…a deliberate and contemptible liar,” for a speech in which he charged that the Tribune and Hearst newspapers were trying to foment war with Russia.
NOV 16 1946 WNBT(TV)/New York City and WPTZ(TV)/Philadelphia share the telecast of the Army vs. Penn football game in a first time sponsorship split - Atlantic Oil on WNBT and Goodyear Tires on WPTZ.
NOV 16 1948 A Minnesota traveling salesman wins $21,000 on the CBS giveaway show Hit The Jackpot.
NOV 16 1949 FCC proposes that FM stations be required to operate at least as many hours as their AM affiliates and stand-alone FM’s operate a minimum of twelve hours daily after two years on the air.
NOV 16 1950 Chicago court concludes two days of testimony and decides in favor of RCA’s request for a temporary injunction to delay enactment of the FCC’s decision approv-ing the CBS color television system.
NOV 16 1951 Bob Hope files a $2.0 Million libel suit against Life magazine for an article by critic John Crosby claiming that the comedian stole jokes from Fred Allen.
NOV 16 1952 Freeman Gosden & Charles Correll celebrate the 10,000th broadcast of Amos & Andy. (See Amos & Andy - Twice Is Nicer, Multiple Runs All Time Top Ten and Sunday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 16 1953 Mutual’s leading co-op program, Fulton Lewis, Jr.’s nightly newscast, reaches 520 stations.
NOV 17 1926 Brooklyn's Mark-Strand Theater draws big crowds by booking radio acts for its November vaudeville shows: The Vincent Lopez Orchestra, The Happiness Boys, (aka Billy Jones & Ernie Hare), the Ben Bernie Orchestra and Cliff (Ukulele Ike) Edwards.
NOV 17 1932 Samuel Goldwyn releases Eddie Cantor’s hit movie, The Kid From Spain, giving Cantor a promotional boost as host of the top rated Chase & Sanborn Hour on NBC. (See The 1932-33 Season.)
NOV 17 1934 WTIC/Hartford accomplishes the rare feat of feeding two separate 30 minute programs to two different networks simultaneously at 12:30 p.m.: the National Grange Convention to NBC and The Merry Madcaps orchestra to Blue.
NOV 17 1936 Canadian soprano Deanna Durbin, 13, Eddie Cantor’s featured vocalist, receives an offer from the Metropolitan Opera to become effective when she reaches 16.
NOV 17 1937 Variety reports that the radio popularity of Edgar Bergen and his Charlie McCarthy has caused a resurgence in bookings for ventriloquist acts and Punch & Judy shows. (See The 1937-38 Season.)
NOV 17 1939 Jean Hersholt stars in Meet Dr. Christian, the first of six RKO films based on his CBS series. (See Dr. Christian, Wednesday's All Time Top Ten and Radio Goes To The Movies.)
NOV 17 1941 CBS and NBC begin two week coverage of the U.S. Army maneuvers in North and South Carolina.
NOV 17 1941 The U.S. Navy announces its recruitment of men with radio experience for a new device used to locate ships and planes - the Radio Detection & Ranging System, commonly known by the acronym RADAR.
NOV 17 1942 Radio industry groups and unions seek clarifications of the Economic Stabilization edict limiting personal net incomes at $25,000 annually.
NOV 17 1943 Former NBC News & Special Events Director, Captain A.A. (Abe) Schechter is named Radio Officer of the U.S. Air Force in charge of all the branch’s broadcasts.
NOV 17 1943 C.E. Hooper estimates that 80% of the 4,600 television sets in New York City remain in “good or fair” working condition with a nightly audience of eight viewers per set.
NOV 17 1945 ABC replaces the Saturday broadcast of Don McNeill’s Breakfast Club with a two year run of the hour long variety show Wake Up & Smile.
NOV 17 1945 WSM/Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry develops a network spin-off, the hour long Opry House Matinee broadcast Saturday afternoons on Mutual.
NOV 17 1946 KQW/San Francisco gives atheist spokesman Robert Scott a one-time-only Sunday morning half hour normally occupied by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir to state his case and receives 5,000 letters in response, 80% criticizing the move.
NOV 17 1947 FCC opens hearings to determine the utilization of the former television Channel One, (40-55 megacycles), with television, FM and other interests presenting their cases for its use.
NOV 17 1947 President Truman’s afternoon speech opening a special session of Congress is carried by all networks and registers an 18.2 Hooperating. (See Radio's Rulers: Crossley, Hooper & Nielsen.)
NOV 17 1947 Hallicrafters introduces its new table top TV set with 22 tubes and a seven-inch screen for $169.50.
NOV 17 1948 FCC orders hearings on charges that G.A. (Dick) Richards, owner of WJR/Detroit, WGAR/Cleveland and KMPC/Los Angeles, had ordered news reports on KMPC to be slanted against the Roosevelt family, Communists and certain minority groups.
NOV 17 1949 CBS affiliates KOY/Phoenix and co-owned KTUC/Tucson file suit to prevent the network dropping them to affiliate with KOOL/Phoenix and KOPO/Tucson, both owned by CBS personality Gene Autry. (See Saturday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 17 1950 The Committee of 150, formed to combat the accusations of Communism charged by Red Channels and potential subsequent “blacklisting,” meets in New York City to discuss strategy.
NOV 17 1950 FCC reacts to the Chicago court granting an injunction against its decision for the CBS color television system by expressing faith that its ruling will be sustained, “…once the judicial process is completed.”
NOV 17 1952 Thirteen major league baseball clubs deny in Chicago Federal Court that they violated anti-trust laws as claimed by the defunct Liberty Broadcasting System.
NOV 17 1952 DuMont Television chief Dr. Allen B. DuMont charges the NCAA with restraint of trade in allowing the television coverage of only one college football game a week. (See Dr. DuMont’s Predictions.)
NOV 18 1932 Al Jolson, 46, debuts on Blue, beginning nine season multi-network run spanning 17 years. (See Tuesday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 18 1932 The first Academy Awards to be broadcast are carried by NBC from Hollywood beginning at 12:30 a.m. in the East.
NOV 18 1933 Admiral Richard Byrd begins his Saturday night series of Antarctic Expedition programs on CBS via shortwave from his ship off the West Coast of South America. (See The 1932-33 Season.)
NOV 18 1935 Actor William Gillette, 80, comes out of retirement to recreate his role of Sherlock Holmes on CBS’s Lux Radio Theater in celebration his 60th anniversary on the stage and the 36th of his first appearance as the detective. (See Sherlock Holmes.)
NOV 18 1935 Joseph Bulova, founder of the Bulova Watch Company and one of radio’s heaviest advertisers, dies at 84 after a two month illness.
NOV 18 1938 AFRA’s first national convention re-elects Eddie Cantor as its President.
NOV 18 1940 WGAR/Cleveland works with the Nationality Broadcasting Association to establish strict safeguards against any un-American propaganda appearing in its eleven foreign language programs per week.
NOV 18 1940 CBS issues a ban against swing versions of any religious, sacred or gospel song or national anthem.
NOV 18 1940 Sponsor Rinso and agency Ruthrauff & Ryan instruct the cast of Big Town on CBS, performed before a studio audience, that formal or semi-formal dress is required for each broadcast. (See Big, Big Town and Tuesday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 18 1941 All U.S. radio networks close their Berlin news bureaus because of Nazi censorship.
NOV 18 1941 Network Affiliates, Inc., termed the successor to the Independent Network Radio Affiliates to supplant the NAB, is formed in Chicago by 75 stations.
NOV 18 1941 CBS establishes Chicago’s third FM station, W67C, which joins frequency modulation outlets operated by WGN and Zenith.
NOV 18 1941 NBC’s WNBT(TV)/New York City feeds the first live programs to Philco’s WPTZ(TV)/Philadelphia for rebroadcasting, Nick Kenny’s Stars of Tomorrow and wrestling from Ridgewood Arena.
NOV 18 1942 Mutual divulges its weekly co-op rate for five Fulton Lewis, Jr., newscasts per week is the local affiliate’s one time 15 minute rate.
NOV 18 1946 CBS releases an agency study stating a 30 minute program bought on its full network of 155 stations costs $10,654, plus production, but a transcribed program on the same stations would cost $14,850, plus production, pressing and shipping.
NOV 18 1946 DuMont’s WABD(TV) and Chevrolet sign a unique 52 week contract over closed circuit television by station executives in New York City and General Motors officials at DuMont facilities in Washington, D.C. (See Dr DuMont’s Predictions.)
NOV 18 1946 James J. (Jimmy) Walker, 65, former Mayor of New York City and recent radio personality, dies in New York of a brain hemorrhage.
NOV 18 1947 Newsman John Daly, reported jumping to ABC, signs a three year contract renewal with CBS
NOV 18 1947 Lever Brothers refuses to pay for Bob Hope’s shows originating in London and substitutes an all-star comedy show starring Eddie Cantor. Hope retaliates by asking to be released from his contract. (See Tuesday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 18 1951 Edward R. Murrow and Fred Friendly introduce their documentary series See It Now on CBS-TV, the first live coast-to-coast commercial telecast.
NOV 19 1932 Jane Froman headlines a special late night NBC program celebrating WSM/Nashville’s power boost to 50,000 watts.
NOV 19 1934 WBT/Charlotte, North Carolina, places a daily limit of 45 minutes on “hillbilly” or “mountain” music groups.
NOV 19 1934 KXYZ/Houston marks its third anniversary by going off the air so all of its 27 employees can attend the event’s celebration party.
NOV 19 1935 FCC Broadcast Division orders its lawyers to cease their, “...reckless charges” against broadcasters and advertisers of commercial programs, calling some of the charges, “frivolous.”
NOV 19 1936 WJR/Detroit Chief Announcer John Eccles goes home between his air shifts and commits suicide with a pistol.
NOV 19 1937 Bing Crosby severs his eight year ties with Rockwell-O’Keefe, Inc., as the talent agency sues the singer for $33,000 in back commissions from his Kraft Music Hall salaries. (See Thursday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 19 1939 Tallulah Bankhead refuses to appear gratis on Gulf Oil’s Screen Guild Theater, so comedians Fred Allen, Robert Benchley and singer John Charles Thomas volunteer to cover the half-hour. (See Acts of Charity.)
NOV 19 1940 American Tobacco begins transcribed rebroadcasts of its Friday night NBC Information Please programs on the following Tuesday nights on WMCA/New York City, “…as a service to listeners accustomed to that night.” The practice is dropped after two weeks. (See Information Please.)
NOV 19 1941 BMI announces a 25% reduction in license fees for stations signing eight year contracts beginning in March, 1942.
NOV 19 1943 WAIT/Chicago reports its five operators receive up to 700 orders per hour from its noontime 820 Club selling low priced merchandise ranging from flower seeds to fruit cakes to insurance policies.
NOV 19 1944 The four major networks each contribute a half-hour program in a “round robin” spanning two hours to kick off the Sixth War Loan Drive.
NOV 19 1945 The NAB takes steps to intervene on behalf of KGFL/Roswell, New Mexico, in the station’s court case seeking to invalidate the new state tax of 2% on broadcasters’ gross revenues for educational expenses.
NOV 19 1947 John Reed King’s interview/game show from New York City supermarkets, The Missus Goes A’Shopping, becomes a weekday feature on WCBS-TV.
NOV 19 1948 NBC-TV signs accordionist Dick Contino, 18 year old sensation from The Horace Heidt Youth Opportunity Program, to an exclusive contract.
NOV 19 1948 CBS announces that it will accept recorded programs for broadcast before 6:00 p.m.
NOV 19 1948 KFI/Los Angeles cuts three minutes from its broadcast of NBC’s Chesterfield Supper Club at 9:00 p.m. to carry its nightly frost warnings for citrus farmers but sponsor Liggett & Myers refuses to allow the station to broadcast the edited show.
NOV 19 1948 Zenith introduces its new model television sets with a round screen and single automatic tuner.
NOV 19 1949 NBC originates the first of two Grand Ole Opry broadcasts from Europe where 25 stars from the show are on a 17 day tour of U.S. military bases. (See Saturday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 19 1950 Chrysler’s Plymouth Division becomes the first car maker to employ the CBS Bullet Plan of sponsoring four otherwise sustaining half hour programs for two weeks to introduce its 1951 models.
NOV 19 1950 Federal mediators avert a strike of the Television Authority (TVA) union performers - other than musicians and actors - against the four networks and WOR-TV/New York City.
NOV 19 1951 NBC becomes the last of the major networks to open a co-op program and sales department, hiring ABC’s co-op director, Lud Simmel, to establish its department.
NOV 19 1951 Bing Crosby Enterprises announces the its development of a video recording system employing magnetic tape that, “…will reduce the cost of making television shows on film to about one-tenth of what it is today.”
NOV 19 1952 The U.S. Supreme Court hears the “featherbedding” case against the AFM under the Taft Hartley Labor Act. (See Petrillo!)
NOV 20 1929 Family serial (The Rise of) The Goldbergs created by Gertrude Berg begins its 21 season multi-network run on Blue.
NOV 20 1933 The AFM protests to the FRC any easing of requirements that stations identify all recorded music as such because anything less, “…would deceive the listening public.” (See Petrillo!)
NOV 20 1933 KSTP/Minneapolis-St. Paul presents nightly dramatizations of each day’s trial of gangster Roger Touhy charged with the kidnapping of St. Paul brewer William Hamm.
NOV 20 1937 Pope Pius publicly supports Archbishop Edward Mooney’s rebuke of Detroit priest Charles Coughlin’s series of radio addresses. (See Father Coughlin.)
NOV 20 1938 Detroit priest Charles Coughlin creates controversy on his Sunday network broadcast by claiming that the Nazi persecution of Jews is due to their Communist leanings.
NOV 20 1939 Daytime drama Young Dr. Malone debuts for six months on Mutual before moving to CBS for the next 20 years. (See Soft Soap & Hard Sell.)
NOV 20 1939 Unable to get necessary funding from the Wisconsin state legislature, WHA/Madison gives up its attempt to obtain the 50,000 watt facility at 670 kilocycles from NBC’s WMAQ/Chicago.
NOV 20 1940 Phil Spitalny’s Hour of Charm all-girl orchestra, sponsored on NBC each week by General Electric, performs a special concert in Schenectady for the dedication of GE’s new FM station, W2XOY. (See The Hour of Charm.)
NOV 20 1941 German State Radio bans all American news correspondents’ shortwave reports from Berlin.
NOV 20 1944 Veteran Blue Network executive Ed Kobak, 49, succeeds Miller McClintock as President of Mutual.
NOV 20 1944 Don McNeill’s Breakfast Club, already heard on 240 U.S. and Canadian stations daily, is added to morning shortwave schedules directed to Mexico, Central and South America.
NOV 20 1944 Mutual correspondent Seymour Kormen makes the first shortwave report from France since the beginning of World War II with his eyewitness report of the capture of Belfort by French forces.
NOV 20 1944 Frank & Anne Hummert’s soap opera, The Strange Romance of Evelyn Winters, begins its four year run on CBS. (See Soft Soap & Hard Sell.)
NOV 20 1944 Procter & Gamble announces the purchase of the title and rights to its NBC weekday serial The Road of Life from Carl Wester and Irna Phillips for $75,000. The pair had previously sold The Right To Happiness to P&G for $50,000. (See Soft Soap & Hard Sell.)
NOV 20 1944 NBC denies the charge of commentator Upton Close that the network cancelled him because of, “…pressure by Communists and other un-American groups.”
NOV 20 1945 Actor James Waters, who had played Papa on The Goldbergs for 15 years, dies at Woodbridge, Long Island of a cerebral hemorrhage at 72.
NOV 20 1946 UAW President Walter Reuther slams General Motors for spending $5.0 Million a year in radio advertising, saying the money could be better spent in wage increases for union members.
NOV 20 1947 The networks begin coverage from London of the marriage of Princess Elizabeth and Lt. Philip Mountbatten at 6:00 a.m.
NOV 20 1947 Roma Wines drops sponsorship of the CBS series Suspense and the network says the program will no longer be available for advertising alcoholic products. (See Sus…pense! and Thursday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 20 1948 Your Hit Parade adjusts its format, increasing its presentation of the week’s top songs from seven to ten. (See Saturday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 20 1950 CBS-TV notes the first day of its FCC authorized commercial telecasting in color with a special half-hour noontime program starring Arthur Godfrey. (See Arthur Godfrey.)
NOV 20 1950 TVA bans members of AFRA, AGVA or any associated unions from performing free, “…on any television fund raising benefit for any cause.”
NOV 20 1952 Broadcasters protest President-elect Eisenhower’s plans to exclude radio and television reporters from the three-man pool covering his forthcoming trip to Korea.
NOV 20 1952 Plymouth introduces its 1953 model cars with the one-time sponsorship of nine half hour shows on CBS and NBC.
NOV 20 1953 WSM/Nashville hosts 500 disc jockeys from around the country to cele-brate the 28th Anniversary of its Grand Ole Opry. (See Saturday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 20 1953 The Theater Authority strikes an agreement with major charities that it will receive 10% telethon revenues in which its members appear for actors’ charities.
NOV 21 1933 Because NBC affiliate WDAF/Kansas City refuses to broadcast advertising for alcoholic beverages, the touring Ben Bernie troupe is forced to originate its Pabst Blue Ribbon Town from the city's Muehlebach Hotel. (See Tuesday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 21 1937 The Cleveland Press identifies NBC shortwave broadcaster Ernst Kotz as a head of the Nazi propaganda machine in the United States.
NOV 21 1941 Sponsor Lever Brothers begins transcribed repeats of its Burns & Allen Show - broadcast live on 117 NBC stations - on an additional 129 small market stations affiliated with the Keystone Broadcasting System. (See Wednesday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 21 1941 CBS anchor WABC/New York City extends its Friday all-night show with Arthur Godfrey by an hour, to 6:15 a.m. on Saturday. (See Arthur Godfrey.)
NOV 21 1941 RKO releases Look Who’s Laughing featuring NBC comedy stars Edgar Bergen with Charlie McCarthy, Jim & Marian Jordan as Fibber McGee & Molly and Hal Peary as Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve. (See Radio Goes To The Movies.)
NOV 21 1943 Blue commentator Drew Pearson touches off controversy with the first report of U.S General George Patton slapping a shell-shocked American soldier in a Sicilian hospital.
NOV 21 1944 Cowboy star Roy Rogers begins his nine year multi-network run of music and adventure shows.
NOV 21 1944 President Roosevelt nominates Colonel David Sarnoff of the Army Signal Corps Reserve to become Brigadier General.
NOV 21 1945 FCC announces a new television channel allocation plan giving New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles seven channels each, additional channels to another 33 cities and creating a nationwide total of 400 channels..
NOV 21 1945 U.S. House Un-American Activities Committee Chairman John Wood proposes legislation tightly governing “opinionated” newscasts and commentators.
NOV 21 1945 Humorist Robert Benchley, 56, featured on NBC’s Texaco Star Theater, dies in New York City of a cerebral hemorrhage.
NOV 21 1946 The eight Seattle radio stations join forces to broadcast a half-hour documentary outlining the strike that cripples shipping supplies to Alaska.
NOV 21 1947 NBC-TV broadcasts film of the British Royal Wedding four days before the newsreels have it in theaters.
NOV 21 1947 Ballentine Beer obtains television rights to the 1948 New York Yankee home games, including the facilities of DuMont’s WABD(TV) and services of sportscasters Mel Allen and Russ Hodges for $300,000.
NOV 21 1948 Newly elected Pennsylvania Congressman Earl Chudoff tells a WCAU-TV/Philadelphia program that he plans to introduce legislation that puts audience surveys under FCC control and outlaws telephone polling. (See Radio's Rulers: Crossley, Hooper & Nielsen.)
NOV 21 1949 Watchmaker Arde Bulova and partners sell WNEW/New York to a group of investors headed by executives of the station for $2.0 Million.
NOV 21 1949 For the second consecutive year, Texaco sponsors ABC-TV’s four hour coverage of the Metropolitan Opera’s opening night performance and festivities. Six stations carry the broadcast.
NOV 21 1951 Judy Canova signs a five year exclusive radio and television contract with NBC. (See Judy Canova and Saturday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 21 1952 NBC’s WNBT(TV)/New York City offers 30 second Christmas commercials in local programs to retailers for $20.
NOV 22 1933 Major newspapers in Charlotte, Cincinnati, Denver, Miami, New Orleans, Oklahoma City, Salt Lake City, Seattle and Washington ban radio station listings in retaliation for the new CBS News Bureau. (See The Press Radio Bureau.)
NOV 22 1935 NBC’s William (Skeets) MIller leaves San Francisco to make direct reports aboard the maiden flight of Pan American’s China Clipper between the United States and China.
NOV 22 1935 Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll miss their first Amos & Andy broadcast in eight years when they miss connections and fail to appear at WRC/ Washington for the Eastern feed of their show. They did arrive for the 11:00 p.m. second feed. (See Amos & Andy - Twice Is Nicer and Multiple Runs All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 22 1936 A 400 foot piece of rope dangling from an airplane slashes the AT&T transcontinental cable at Denver, cutting network service to the West Coast for 45 minutes.
NOV 22 1937 AFRA bans any stage, screen or radio performers from appearing gratis on any radio program.
NOV 22 1937 Nebraska’s Attorney General files an objection with the state Supreme Court against the injunction won against the state’s anti-ASCAP law handed down the previous week.
NOV 22 1939 Edward Arnold is elected President of the Los Angeles local of AFRA. The popular 49 year old actor also serves as an officer of SAG. (See Mr. President.)
NOV 22 1939 The Los Angeles AFM bans Ray Noble’s orchestra from playing on the CBS show Young Man With A Band, decreeing that Noble’s work on The Burns & Allen Show and his engagement at the Beverly Wilshire are enough for one person. (See Petrillo!)
NOV 22 1942 Blue’s Chicago-based Quiz Kids originates from a Des Moines auditorium charging the purchase of a U.S. War Bond for admission. (See The Quiz Kids.)
NOV 22 1943 Lux Radio Theater’s coverage is expanded to Hawaii when CBS ships transcriptions of the show to KGMB/Honolulu and KHBC/Hilo for broadcast six weeks after its live performance. (See Lux…Presents Hollywood! and Monday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 22 1943 Mutual correspondent Royal Arch Gunnison and his wife, held in a Japanese internment camp since the fall of Manila, are reported released and placed aboard the rescue ship Gripsholm destined for America.
NOV 22 1944 NBC releases the results from a study of 542 homes and businesses with television sets which indicate that an average of 8.2 viewers watched each set on election night.
NOV 22 1945 Elgin Watches presents its fourth two hour Thanksgiving special broadcast on CBS starring Edgar Bergen, Jimmy Durante, Garry Moore, Frances Langford, Don Ameche and others. (See Elgin’s Thanksgiving Shows.)
NOV 22 1945 CBS broadcasts the half-hour Thank Your Stars Victory Loan Show headlined by Bob Hope, Eddie Cantor, Frank Sinatra and Danny Kaye.
NOV 22 1946 Bing Crosby and his sponsor Philco go public with their argument of who will pay the $1,000 to $1,200 per week in ASCAP and BMI music fees for songs performed on ABC’s Philco Radio Time. (See The 1946-47 Season.)
NOV 22 1946 New York Court of Appeals allows music publisher Advance Music to sue American Tobacco claiming that the company’s Your Hit Parade music surveys, “..are inaccurate for failing to recognize our songs” - specifically the song Don’t Sweetheart Me.
NOV 22 1946 Coca Cola drops its sponsorship of Mutual’s Spotlight Bands, (fka Victory Parade of Spotlight Bands). blaming the sugar shortage that curtails production of the soft drink. (See Spotlight Bands.)
NOV 22 1947 Frank Sinatra refuses to sing any up-tempo, heavy rhythmic songs on NBC's Your Hit Parade. (See Saturday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 22 1947 WVET/Syracuse, a new 5,000 watt Mutual affiliate established by 38 Armed Forces veterans, goes on the air.
NOV 22 1948 Bing Crosby begins a 15 minute weekday morning transcribed disc jockey show on WCBS/New York City.
NOV 22 1948 The Ohio-based Standard Network of 14 stations - an extension of the Cleveland Indians baseball network - begins feeding programs from WJW/Cleveland.
NOV 22 1949 RCA introduces its first portable style 45 r.p.m. record player for $49.95.
NOV 22 1953 FCC permits NBC-TV’s Colgate Comedy Hour to originate in color for one time only.
NOV 23, 1930 Westinghouse and General Electric join forces to transmit a broadcast via shortwave from WJZ/Newark to KGO/San Francisco. (See Alchemists of The Air.)
NOV 23 1931 West Coast broadcaster Don Lee is granted an experimental television license for W6XAO/Los Angeles.
NOV 23 1934 Paramount Pictures releases College Rhythm, the feature film debuts of Network Radio stars Joe Penner and Lanny Ross. (See Radio Goes To The Movies.)
NOV 23 1936 WOW/Omaha staff announcer John Chapel is revealed to be the principal beneficiary to a $500,000 trust fund established by the late General A.M. Kuropatkin of the Imperial Russian Army.
NOV 23 1936 FTC orders the makers of Youthray Hair Color Restorer to cease and desist its radio commercial claim that the solution, “…answers the prayers of blondes, brunettes and redheads.”
NOV 23 1936 Lux Radio Theater claims a record for the 23 speaking parts employed in its production of The Story of Louis Pasteur. (See Lux...Presents Hollywood! and Monday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 23 1938 New York City stations WEAF, WOR, WHN, WMCA and WBNX protest to the FCC against watchmaker Arde Bulova’s proposal to buy WPG/Atlantic City and move the station to New York City.
NOV 23 1938 FCC authorizes KRLD/Dallas to increase its power from 5,000 to 50,000 watts.
NOV 23 1939 NBC begins a tradition by televising Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City.
NOV 23 1940 Billy Jones, 53, surviving member of the Happiness Boys duo with Ernie Hare, dies of a heart attack.
NOV 23 1942 The NAB accuses the OWI of raiding small market stations for engineers by offering high salaries and draft deferments for working in its shortwave facilities.
NOV 23 1942 Freeman Gosden & Charles Correll perform their 4,000th episode of Amos & Andy. (See Multiple Runs All Time Top Ten and Sunday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 23 1943 By a unanimous decision the FCC revives its controversial proposal that bans multiple ownership of stations with overlapping signals.
NOV 23 1943 In its first denial since the start of World War II, the U.S. Office of Censor-ship reverses its earlier decision with no reason given and refuses to allow CBS to carry a speech from Mexico City by deposed King Carol of Rumania.
NOV 23 1943 NBC televises a performance of The Ice Follies from Madison Square Garden intended for Army and Navy hospitals without sound when the New York City AFM local refuses to allow its members to be seen or heard. (See Petrillo!)
NOV 23 1944 CBS broadcasts the third of Elgin’s two hour Thanksgiving Salutes To The Armed Forces with Edgar Bergen, Jimmy Durante, Ed Gardner, Don Ameche, Frances Langford and Admiral Chester Nimitz. (See Elgin's Thanksgiving Shows.)
NOV 23 1945 FCC grants another 45 conditional FM licenses bringing its total to 174 in one month’s time.
NOV 23 1946 CBS experiments with broadcasting two football games simultaneously - Michigan vs. Ohio State and Illinois vs. Northwestern - reporting the action of whichever game it considers more exciting at any given moment.
NOV 23 1947 Pioneer West Coast station, NBC-owned KPO/San Francisco, becomes KNBC. (See Three Letter Calls.)
NOV 23 1947 Walter Winchell refuses to allow a Jergens commercial in the middle of his ABC program, “…when I’m hot,” and claims he will run overtime into Louella Parsons’ program, “…if I feel like it.” (See Walter Winchell and Sunday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 23 1947 WCBS-TV/New York City receives critical praise when it televises a two hour performance of The Ice Follies from Madison Square Garden and observes the AFM’s ban on televised music by substituting recorded melodies.
NOV 23 1949 NBC and G.A. Richards break off negotiations for the network to acquire Richards’ KMPC/Los Angeles for a reported $1.25 Million.
NOV 23 1949 Set and costume designers at New York’s television stations go on strike for higher wages.
NOV 23 1950 Cleveland stations assume emergency status as a three day Thanksgiving weekend storm leaves two feet of snow in northeast Ohio.
NOV 23 1950 Edgar Bergen and his Charlie McCarthy make their television debut on a CBS-TV Thanksgiving show.
NOV 23 1951 AFRS adds its fifth, 250 watt mobile radio station serving the U.S. troops in Korea.
NOV 23 1952 Freeman Gosden & Charles Correll celebrate their 10,000th broadcast of Amos & Andy. (See Multiple Runs All Time Top Ten and Sunday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 24 1930 RCA begins daily, closed circuit experimental television broadcasts from its facilities in New York City’s New Amsterdam theater.
NOV 24 1937 Foreign language broadcasting pioneer, John Iraci, General Manager of WOV and WBIL/New York City and owner of WPEN/Philadelphia, dies of a heart attack at age 52.
NOV 24 1938 Eddie Cantor’s Thanksgiving quip, “I’d rather carve a turkey than carve up a map,” is censored as offensive by his Camel cigarette sponsor’s agency, William Esty, but quoted in the holiday remarks by President Roosevelt.
NOV 24 1939 RCA-Victor warns all stations to stop playing its records on December 1st under threat of lawsuit, unless they pay a license fee to do so.
NOV 24 1939 Kay Kyser and his NBC College of Musical Knowledge troupe make their movie debut in RKO’s That’s Right, You’re Wrong. (See Kay Kyser and Wednesday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 24 1940 Bob Hope, in search of fresh audiences, begins a two week trial of giving the Los Angeles Paramount Theater a free dress rehearsal of his Tuesday night NBC show on Sunday night. (See Tuesday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 24 1941 The U.S. Office of Facts & Figures calls on producers of daytime serials to begin weaving defense information into their plots.
NOV 24 1944 The NLRB defeats the AFM’s attempt to force NBC owned stations to hire its members as “platter turners”, ruling in favor of NABET. (See Petrillo!)
NOV 24 1945 NBC launches its Saturday morning Teentimer’s Club starring vocalists Johnny Desmond and June Harvey in 63 cities where affiliates have sold the show to department stores with Teentimer clothing and cosmetics franchises.
NOV 24 1947 Typographers begin a 22 month strike against Chicago newspapers, increasing the newscast schedules of all area stations and providing an advertising bonanza for them.
NOV 24 1947 Failed half-hour sitcom Beulah begins a successful five year comeback as a 15 minute early evening strip show on CBS. (See Multiple Runs All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 24 1947 FCC Commissioner Clifford Durr alleges that the FBI has been forwarding to the Commission, “…unsolicited information about people connected with the radio industry.”
NOV 24 1947 The New York Daily News files a 42 page petition with the FCC protesting that the Commission rejected its bid for an FM license and awarded it instead to the Methodist Church.
NOV 24 1948 FCC’s decision to refuse license renewal to WORL/Boston is reversed by a U.S. Court of Appeals. The Commission threatens to take its case to the U.S. Supreme Court.
NOV 24 1948 FCC receives its first cancellation of a major market AM station when The Baltimore Sun, owner of WMAR FM & TV, decides not to build its approved fulltime AM facility of 1,000 watts at 850 kc.
NOV 24 1948 Cowboy star Gene Autry, owner of KOOL/Phoenix and part owner of KOPO/Tucson and KOWL/Santa Monica, announces plans to buy KTSA/San Antonio for $450,000. (See Saturday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 24 1949 Rudy Vallee and Guy Lombardo headline Hotpoint Appliances’ 60 minute Hotpoint Holiday Thanksgiving Night on CBS.
NOV 24 1949 Longines-Whittenauer Watch Company combines the casts of its Choraliers and Symphonette programs for an hour long Thanksgiving Day simulcast on CBS. Radio and CBS-TV.
NOV 24 1949 Elgin-American spends $100,000 in time and talent charges to present its annual 90 minute Thanksgiving show on NBC-TV starring Milton Berle, George Jessell, the Ritz Brothers and Frances Langford.
NOV 24 1950 Armed Forces Radio Service ships 19½ hours of specially recorded 15 minute Christmas shows by radio stars to 60 AFRS stations overseas and 50 military hospitals in the United States.
NOV 24 1950 FCC grants permission to WOR-TV/New York City to test Subscribervision with Skiatron, Inc. between the hours of 12:00 midnight and 10:00 a.m., transmitting scrambled images to in-home decoding devices.
NOV 24 1951 WJR/Detroit celebrates its 25th anniversary on the air.
NOV 24 1953 FCC decides, after a five year delay, to limit multiple ownerships to seven AM stations, seven FM stations and five TV stations.
NOV 24 1953 The networks grant 30 minutes of radio and television time to Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy to answer criticism by former President Truman a week earlier.
NOV 25 1933 NBC reports that the evening’s broadcast by Admiral Byrd, originated on his ship off Antarctica, is transmitted first by shortwave to Honolulu then on to New York - a distance of 7,000 miles.
NOV 25 1936 FCC approves the sale of WOV/New York City to Arde Bulova, owner of WNEW in that city. (See Three Letter Calls.)
NOV 25 1936 U.S. Education Commissioner John Studebaker predicts that 2,000 radio stations in high frequency bands will be exclusively devoted to educational purposes.
NOV 25 1938 Comedian Phil Silvers, 27, records an audition for Mutual before leaving on a tour with burlesque queen Gypsy Rose Lee.
NOV 25 1938 The Edgewater Beach becomes the first Chicago hotel to pay a radio station, (WBBM), the $100 a week demanded by the city’s stations to cover line costs for band remotes. (See Big Band Remotes.)
NOV 25 1940 The U.S. Supreme Court rules that station license transfer decisions by the FCC cannot be reviewed by the District of Columbia Court of Appeals.
NOV 25 1942 Major General Charles Saltzman, FRC Chairman from 1930 to 1932, dies in Washington at age 72.
NOV 25 1943 NBC presents a special Thanksgiving Day program starring Jack Benny and Bob Hope, Soldiers In Grease Paint, celebrating the second anniversary of USO Camp Shows.
NOV 25 1943 Elgin Watches presents its second two-hour Thanksgiving afternoon all-star show on CBS with Edgar Bergen & Charlie McCarthy, Burns & Allen, Dinah Shore. Ed Gardner, Jose Iturbi and others at a total talent cost of $30,000. (See Elgin's Thanksgiving Shows.)
NOV 25 1944 The FBI In Peace & War begins its 14 season run on CBS sponsored by Procter & Gamble which also sponsors Truth Or Consequences on NBC at the same time. (See FBI vs. FBI and Thursday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 25 1944 WJNO/West Palm Beach begins the process of moving its transmitter because its tower was deemed too close to Morrison Airfield and a menace to military aircraft.
NOV 25 1946 Talent union AFRA and the networks reach a deadlock in negotiations over a demand that networks deny service to stations deemed “unfair” by the union.
NOV 25 1946 Frank & Anne Hummert bring daytime serial Rose of My Dreams to CBS for a two year run. (See Soft Soap & Hard Sell.)
NOV 25 1946 KYW/Philadelphia celebrates its 25th anniversary.
NOV 25 1946 Milton Berle and Henry Morgan host the Radio Directors’ Ball in New York City.
NOV 25 1947 AFM boss James Petrillo lifts the union’s ban on network programs offered for local co-op sale. (See Petrillo!)
NOV 25 1947 With four-letter call signs in short supply, the FCC encourages existing stations adding FM or television outlets to use the same call signs followed by the hyphenated suffix, FM or TV.
NOV 25 1948 Elgin Watches airs its seventh and final two hour Thanksgiving afternoon show, moving it from CBS to NBC headlined by Jack Benny, Red Skelton and Jimmy Durante. CBS counters with a new two hour show starring Arthur Godfrey, Abbott & Costello and Amos & Andy. A special Hooper survey shows CBS won the time period, 11.2 to 8.5. (See Elgin's Thanksgiving Shows.)
NOV 25 1948 ABC-TV presents a two hour Thanksgiving show headlined by George Jessel, Paul Whiteman, Phil Silvers, Connee Boswell, Jerry Colonna and Morey Amsterdam. Film of the show is flown to Chicago for Midwest broadcast four days later.
NOV 25 1948 Seattle’s first television station, KRSC(TV), begins operations with the Washington state high school football championship game.
NOV 25 1948 Returning to the air after installing a new antenna, WATV(TV)/Newark is finally seen in New York City on Channel 13.
NOV 25 1950 Stations in 22 Eastern states assume emergency communication status when a two day, extra tropical storm inflicts blizzards, flooding and hurricane force winds killing over 350 persons.
NOV 25 1950 Transmitter flooding puts WNEW/New York City off the air for 48 hours, winds cripple WMGM’s twin 400 foot towers, WOV loses 75 feet of its tower and WNBC recovers after going off the air briefly with weather and emergency information cut-in’s into network programs every 15 minutes.
NOV 25 1952 President-elect Eisenhower’s press secretary James Haggerty bows to broadcasters’ demands and allows one radio and one television representative to the reporting pool covering Eisenhower’s trip to Korea.
NOV 25 1953 ABC simulcasts The Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis Thanksgiving Party - a late night, two hour special to benefit the Muscular Dystrophy Associations of America - on 92 television and 360 radio stations.
NOV 26 1934 Philadelphia stations WFI and WLIT announce plans to merge with the call sign WFIL.
NOV 26 1934 Co-owned Buffallo stations WGR and WKBW begin alternating a series of 16 five minute newscasts a day with copy supplied by Transradio Press. (See The Press Radio Bureau.)
NOV 26 1935 Warner Brothers Music withdraws its membership from ASCAP saying it will bill broadcasters separately for its music which represents a huge amount of the ASCAP catalog.
NOV 26 1935 WJTL/Atlanta becomes WATL during a four hour celebratory broadcast.
NOV 26 1936 Detectives raid a house bordering the Louisiana Fair Grounds and arrest employees of WJBO/New Orleans who were violating state law by phoning race results to the station for broadcast.
NOV 26 1939 CBS and sponsor Gulf Oil move Screen Guild Theater from Hollywood to New York for three weeks in an effort to improve the quality of, “…lazy and sloppy volunteer acting”, on the show. (See Acts of Charity and Monday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 26 1940 Mutual carries a special episode of The American Forum of The Air from a Washington, D.C., banquet celebrating the 20th anniversary of commercial radio.
NOV 26 1942 Elgin Watches presents its first of its seven annual two hour Thanksgiving afternoon all-star shows, A Thanksgiving Salute To The Armed Forces on CBS, featuring Edgar Bergen, Red Skelton, Don Ameche, Loretta Young, Judy Canova, Spike Jones and others. (See Elgin's Thanksgiving Shows.)
NOV 26 1944 Jack Benny, Rudy Vallee and Orson Welles headline a cast of guests on Joe E. Brown’s Blue Network quiz Stop Or Go to pay tribute to his 44th anniversary in show business.
NOV 26 1944 CBS opens its new $1.5 Million shortwave station in Delano, California, beamed at Japan and Thailand.
NOV 26 1945 Bride & Groom begins its five year run on ABC’s weekday schedule.
NOV 26 1945 FCC Chairman Paul Porter predicts to the U.S. House Appropriations Committee that television will eventually overtake film as the nation’s top entertainment.
NOV 26 1945 Over 1,200 votes are cast in the New York City AFRA local’s election and one board contest results in tie between candidates George Hicks and Jack Costello.
NOV 26 1945 The United Auto Workers applies for FM stations in Detroit, Newark, Chicago, Cleveland, Los Angeles and Flint, Michigan.
NOV 26 1946 WBZ/Boston-Springfield celebrates its 25th anniversary.
NOV 26 1947 The New York Yankees sell 1948 radio and television rights to Ballentine Beer for $300,000.
NOV 26 1948 CBS escalates its talent raid on NBC by signing Jack Benny effective January 2, 1949. (See Sunday at Seven, The 1948-49 Season and Network Jumpers.)
NOV 26 1948 C.E. Hooper, temporarily in the television ratings business, reports that NBC-TV’s Texaco Star Theater starring Milton Berle had broken all radio and television records in November with an 80.7 rating.
NOV 26 1949 Texaco begins its tenth consecutive year of sponsoring Metropolitan Opera broadcasts on ABC.
NOV 26 1946 Transcription companies settle with the AFM granting a 50% raise to a union scale of $27 per hour. (See "By Transcriptipn...")
NOV 26 1947 AFM boss James Petrillo drops the union’s six year ban against network co-op programs. (See Petrillo!)
NOV 26 1947 After meeting with NBC’s top comedians, network executives issue a three page “Code of Good Taste” but also appoint standby announcers with disclaimers if the comics stray from approved scripts and are cut off.
NOV 26 1949 To boost its Christmas sales, Ronson Lighters simulcasts its Mutual quiz show Twenty Questions on two New York City television stations, WNBT(TV) and WOR-TV, for five weeks. (See Twenty Questions.)
NOV 26 1950 The Progressive Broadcasting System network begins operation with 63 affiliates. (See R.I.P. PBS.)
NOV 26 1950 Hormel Meat cancels its Sunday afternoon Girls Corps band program on ABC but keeps it on CBS Saturday afternoons..
NOV 26 1950 After 19 years on NBC’s Sunday night schedule Sterling Drug moves Frank & Anne Hummert’s American Album of Familiar Music to ABC for its final season on the air. (See Gus Haenschen.)
NOV 26 1951 FCC reaffirms its Port Huron Decision of June, 1948, and again rules that broadcasters cannot censor political speech.
NOV 26 1951 KMPC/Los Angeles becomes the Liberty network’s West Coast anchor station.
NOV 26 1951 WCBS-TV/New York City adds a second movie, The Late Late Show, to follow its nightly Late Show after the 11:00 p.m. news.
NOV 27 1930 Legendary series First Nighter begins its multi-network run spanning 23 years - 18 seasons under the sponsorship of Campana Italian Balm hand cream. (See Friday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 27 1935 Sportscaster Bill Stern’s infected broken leg is amputated above the knee. (See Bill Stern.)
NOV 27 1938 Fearing his anti-Semitic remarks, WMCA/New York, WDAS/Philadelphia and Chicago stations WJJD and WIND refuse to carry Father Charles Coughlin’s hour long program without seeing his scripts in advance. Coughlin quickly blames the stations’ Jewish ownership. (See Father Coughlin.)
NOV 27 1939 FCC approves the sale of WKRC/Cincinnati from CBS to The Cincinnati Times Star.
NOV 27 1941 FTC assigns agents to examine the books of Blue, CBS, Mutual and NBC to learn if the network(s) gave preferential rates or considerations to favored clients.
NOV 27 1944 After 17 years on NBC, Cities Service Petroleum changes the format of its Cities Service Concert to become Highways In Melody. (See Friday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 27 1946 Network Radio is barred from the Washington’s Federal Courts building at the start of the contempt trial of United Mine Workers boss, John L. Lewis.
NOV 27 1946 Audiences are banned from the CBS Old Gold Show after Frank Sinatra fans interrupted the previous week’s broadcast with their screaming.
NOV 27 1946 Los Angeles producer of transcribed programs Larry Finley proposes selling his shows through a network of record distributors who would call on stations in their cities with sales materials, audition shows and wire recorders. (See R.I.P. PBS.)
NOV 27 1946 Convinced that television will not harm attendance, all three New York City baseball teams agree to televise their 77 home games - the Giants on NBC, the Dodgers on CBS and the Yankees on DuMont. No financial terms are released.
NOV 27 1947 Elgin’s annual Thanksgiving afternoon show on CBS hosted by Don Ameche stars Jack Benny, Red Skelton, Jimmy Durante, Yehudi Menuhin, Margaret Whiting and others is reviewed by Variety as, “,,,flavorsome.” (See Elgin's Thanksgiving Shows.)
NOV 27 1948 Don McNeill’s Breakfast Club cast travels to Kansas City for a non-broadcast performance to benefit the Children’s Mercy Hospital.
NOV 27 1949 Hormel introduces its all-girl band and chorus for a five year run on ABC.
NOV 27 1949 Bob Hope and Los Angeles radio personality Johnny Grant co-host a one time, five minute radio show on ABC’s full network of 272 stations sponsored by RCW Enterprises’ circus balloon toys.
NOV 27 1950 WOR/New York City becomes the 58th station to carry the syndicated Lonesome Gal late night quarter hour with the sultry-voiced, masked disc jockey, (Jean King), playing soft, romantic music.
NOV 27 1950 KTLA(TV)/Los Angeles reports syndicating its programs Dixie Showboat, The Spade Cooley Show, Time For Beany, Hollywood Reel and Olympic Wrestling to 42 stations nationwide.
NOV 27 1950 The Television Contractors Assn. estimates that 75% of Philadelphia’s home television antennas were destroyed in the massive weekend storms.
NOV 27 1951 Dinah Shore begins her twice a week, 15 minute series of shows for Chevrolet on NBC-TV at 7:30 - the first network prime time television program hosted by a woman.
NOV 27 1952 KTBC-TV/Austin, Texas, owned by U.S. Senator Lyndon Johnson and his wife begins operations on Channel 7.
NOV 27 1953 NBC settles the $1.25 Million plagiarism suit out of court with Phil Rapp, creator of The Bickersons resulting from a skit on NBC-TV’s Saturday Night Revue.
NOV 28 1932 NBC estimates it will cost $1.85 Million to move and install its facilities from its current headquarters a 711 Fifth Avenue in New York City to the new Radio City complex.
NOV 28 1932 Groucho & Chico Marx debut Flywheel, Shyster & Flywheel for one highly rated season on Blue‘s Five Star Theater. (See The 1932-33 Season.)
NOV 28 1933 Liggett & Myers Tobacco replaces its Chesterfield cigarette popular music programs for a season of quarter-hour concerts by the Philadelphia Orchestra on CBS at 9:00 p.m. Monday through Saturday nights.
NOV 28 1935 Representatives of St. Louis radio stations, car dealers, Auto Club and Safety Council testify against an ordinance proposed by the City Council to outlaw radios in automobiles.
NOV 28 1941 After a two week test WABC/New York City drops its Friday all-night show with Arthur Godfrey and resumes its 1:00 a.m. sign-off. (See Arthur Godfrey.)
NOV 28 1942 Esso sponsors broadcasts of the Army vs. Navy football game on CBS with Ted Husing, on NBC with Bill Stern and on Mutual with Mel Allen and Connie Desmond.
NOV 28 1942 Boston radio stations assume emergency status to cover the 10:30 p.m. Coconut Grove night club explosion and fire that kills 489 of the 750 patrons, many celebrating the Holy Cross football victory over Boston College.
NOV 28 1944 Four striking engineers return to work at WSIX/Nashville, ending a five day strike which forced the station off the air for two days.
NOV 28 1945 The proposal by U.S. House Un-American Activities Committee Chairman John Wood to control “opinionated” newscasts results in a huge backlash of criticism and fears of censorship.
NOV 28 1945 FCC adopts a set of rules and regulations to govern television on 13 VHF channels providing for 406 stations in 140 “Metropolitan” areas and 17 in “Community” districts.
NOV 28 1946 Elgin’s fifth two hour Thanksgiving afternoon show on CBS stars Jack Benny, Jimmy Durante, Garry Moore, Red Skelton, Margaret Whiting and others. (See
Elgin's Thanksgiving Shows.)
NOV 28 1947 Syndicated program producer Fredric Ziv reports sales of its Favorite Story starring Ronald Colman to 275 stations resulting in over $1.0 Million in gross revenues. (See Fred Ziv - King of Syndication.)
NOV 28 1948 Citing no takers in two months, Fred Allen cancels the $5,000 surety bond he posted to insure against the loss claimed by any listeners who missed a Stop The Music! question because of listening to his show. (See Stop The Music!)
NOV 28 1949 Columbia Records reports Edward R. Murrow’s I Can Hear It Now, released in 1948, are still selling at the rate of 1,000 albums per week and Volume Two of the series has an advance sale of $300,000.
NOV 28 1949 DuMont’s weekday afternoon audience participation show Okay, Mother! with host Dennis James becomes the first daytime commercial network television program. (See Dr. DuMont’s Predictions.)
NOV 28 1951 After a three year investigation of the stations’ alleged slanting of news, the FCC approves the license renewals of the G.A. Richards family’s WJR/Detroit, WGAR/ Cleveland and KMPC/Los Angeles.
NOV 28 1951 NBC opens its three day convention in Boca Raton, Florida, for 475 affiliate and network representatives highlighted by a stage show featuring Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis and vocalist Helen O'Connell.
NOV 28 1951 NBC awards silver anniversary plaques to six affiliates that have been with the network since its start: KSD/St. Louis, WCSH/Portland, Maine, WDAF/Kansas City, WJAR/Providence, WTIC/Hartford and WWJ/Detroit.
NOV 28 1952 CBS loses $5.0 Million in Procter & Gamble and Campbell Soup billings with the cancellations of weeknight strips Beulah, The Jack Smith & Dinah Shore Show and Club 15. (See Multiple Runs All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 28 1952 Thirty-one independent film companies report over three dozen film series are in production for television.
NOV 28 1952 ABC-TV’s Western Division leases the entire library of Unity Films - over 65 movies and the Laurel & Hardy comedies - for $250,000.
NOV 28 1953 Socony-Vacuum Oil agrees to sponsor the 22 week season of the NBC Symphony led by Arturo Toscanini for $300,000.
NOV 28 1953 New York radio and television stations increase news coverage as union employees at six of the city’s seven daily newspapers go on an eleven day strike.
NOV 29 1933 KFWB/Los Angeles announces that it will accept liquor advertising after 9:00 p.m. nightly.
NOV 29 1937 CBS-owned WABC/New York City moves its weekday sign-on back one hour to 6:30 a.m. and begins to accept transcribed program elements until 9:00 a.m.
NOV 29 1937 Texas Congressman W.D. McFarlane condemns FCC Chairman Frank McNinch for not answering his question where the Commission got the authority to unseat Commissioner George Payne.
NOV 29 1938 Canada ratifies The North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement, joining the United States and Cuba, leaving Mexico as the only holdout. (See The March of Change.)
NOV 29 1938 KSRO/Santa Rosa, California, is first on the scene after a United Airlines DC-3 crashes into the Pacific Ocean off Point Reyes, killing five persons. KFRC/San Francisco follows and provides reports to Mutual.
NOV 29 1939 FCC permits Arde Bulova to keep WOV as the call sign for his new 5,000 watt station at 1100 kc. in New York City, noting that only 84 stations remain with three call letters. (See Three Letter Calls.)
NOV 29 1941 Durwood Kirby of WENR/Chicago wins the $300 H.P. Davis Award as “America’s Best Announcer” in a 15 minute broadcast carried by NBC and Blue.
NOV 29 1943 Firestone Tire & Rubber celebrates the 15th anniversary of its Voice of Firestone on NBC and launches the Voice of Firestone Televues filmed series on WNBT(TV)/New York City. (See Monday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 29 1943 CBS boasts 17 house-built programs are sold to sponsors although eleven are newscasts or commentaries and two are concerts - leaving Let’s Pretend, The Man Behind The Gun, Mother & Dad and Suspense. (See CBS Packages Unwrapped.)
NOV 29 1944 Procter & Gamble cancels I Love A Mystery after an 18 month weeknight run on CBS. (See I Love A Mystery and I Love A Sequel.)
NOV 29 1944 Aldrich Family star Ezra Stone publishes Coming, Major!! - a humorous novel about his life in the Army. (See The Aldrich Family and Thursday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 29 1944 The U.S. Senate Interstate Commerce Committee reports out a bill prohibiting the AFM from interfering with the broadcasts of non-commercial programs by educational institutions. (See Petrillo!)
NOV 29 1946 AFRA and the networks settle their differences - particularly the “unfair stations” clause demanded by the union - and avert a nationwide strike.
NOV 29 1946 Mutual reports its nightly Fulton Lewis, Jr., newscast, the most successful co-op program in radio, is broadcast and sponsored locally by 210 stations.
NOV 29 1946 FCC reverses its decision that KGFJ/Los Angeles violated its Blue Book provisions and grants a three year license renewal to the station.
NOV 29 1946 FCC grants a 90 day permit to DuMont’s commercial station WTTG(TV)/ Washington, D.C. using the equipment from the company’s experimental W3XWT.
NOV 29 1947 Gillette moves its prized Army vs. Navy football broadcast from NBC to Mutual.
NOV 29 1948 Witnesses at an FCC hearing charge that the networks are pressuring affiliates to take over the national sales representation for their radio and television stations.
NOV 29 1948 Texaco sponsors ABC-TV’s telecast of the full length Metropolitan Opera production of Verdi’s Otello.
NOV 29 1950 Dr. I.Q., The Mental Banker is cancelled by ABC after an eleven year multi-network run. (See Dr. I.Q.)
NOV 29 1950 Singer Dick Haymes and announcer George Fenneman are teamed in the 26-week ABC adventure series, I Fly Anything.
NOV 29 1950 DuMont is the only television network to broadcast Secretary of State Dean Acheson’s prime time speech charging Communism’s threat to world peace and 27 affiliates of the other networks accept its invitation to carry it.
NOV 29 1951 NBC affiliates reject the network’s Economic Study Formula affecting station compensation by a vote of 72 to 22 delegates attending the group’s convention.
NOV 29 1951 Tallulah Bankhead, star of NBC’s Big Show, forces the National Newspaper Service to rename the lead character in its comic strip from Tallulah to Jezebel. (See Tallulah’s Big Show.)
NOV 29 1951 WHLI/Hempstead, Long Island, presents a memorial program for its founder, Elias Godofsky, who died suddenly of a heart attack two days earlier at age 39.
NOV 30 1931 In a rare turnabout, KFAB/Lincoln, Nebraska, drops its NBC affiliation and becomes and independent station.
NOV 30 1938 Columbia Pictures releases Blondie, the first of its 28 films based on the Chic Young comic strip, starring the leads from the popular Blondie radio series, Penny Singleton and Arthur Lake. (See Bloon…deee! and Radio Goes To The Movies.)
NOV 30 1938 NBC West Coast Music Director Meredith Willson, 36, resigns to devote his full time to his duties on NBC programs Good News and The Signal Carnival. (See Meredith Willson.)
NOV 30 1930 The Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. sues WHOM/New York City for $250,000, charging ten causes of libel, delivered in Italian.
NOV 30 1941 New York City stations WNEW and WOV swap facilities - WNEW moving to 1130 kilocycles at 10,000 watts and WOV shifting to 1280 at 5,000 watts.
NOV 30 1941 WOR/New York City pioneers a wireless network from its experimental FM station, W71NY, to six other FM outlets.
NOV 30 1943 FCC Commissioner T.A.M. Craven charges that the Commission. “…is one place where you won’t get freedom of speech,” and, “Government control of radio is the worst control.”
NOV 30 1944 CBS-owned WCBW/(TV) New York City presents a 45 minute all-star music show to benefit the Sixth War Loan Drive featuring Richard Rodgers, Jay C. Flippen, Paul Draper and Frank Parker.
NOV 30 1945 FCC begins acting on its backlog of 700 applications for new stations by granting 13 new 250 watt stations in areas it considers to be “radio poor.”
NOV 30 1945 Mutual broadcasts correspondent Arthur Gaeth‘s recording of Rudolph Hess denying that he’s crazy at the Nuremberg Nazi war criminal trials.
NOV 30 1945 The Lone Ranger from WXYZ/Detroit celebrates its 2,000th consecutive broadcast. (See The Lone Ranger and Multiple Runs All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 30 1946 Your Hit Parade, a New York City based show since it began in 1935, moves to the West Coast. (See Saturday’s All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 30 1947 Longtime CBS commentator William L. Shirer returns to the air with a weekly broadcast on Mutual.
NOV 30 1948 The Philadelphia city council proposes a 5% amusement tax on the gross receipts of all bars and taprooms equipped with television sets.
NOV 30 1949 NBC’s $1.25 Million offer to buy KMPC/Los Angeles is turned down when the network makes “impossible” technical demands.
NOV 30 1949 NBC-TV presents a new two-year contract to its affiliates eliminating charges for its sustaining programs.
NOV 30 1950 Transcription companies and AFRA agree on a new two-year contract guaranteeing union talent a 175% average increase in performance fees. (See “By Transcription…”)
NOV 30 1950 St. Louis stations KSD and KXOK are forced off the air for an hour when a fire melts an electrical cable leading to their transmitters in nearby National City, Illinois.
NOV 30 1951 Transradio Press ceases operations after 17 years of providing news service to broadcasters. (See The Press Radio Bureau.)
NOV 30 1951 WHAS/Louisville censors a portion of Arthur Godfrey Time, (recorded from CBS for afternoon broadcast), in which Godfrey jokingly quizzes a woman about Lydia Pinkham’s tonics for menstrual and menopausal pain. (See Arthur Godfrey.)
NOV 30 1951 NBC Radio announces it will proceed with its Guaranteed Listenership Plan to be offered to advertisers over the objections of its affiliates.
NOV 30 1952 Colgate’s Lustre Crème Shampoo introduces a contest on its CBS sitcom Our Miss Brooks to find America’s Most Beautiful School Teacher. (See Our Miss Arden.)
NOV 30 1953 NBC celebrates the 25th anniversary of The Voice of Firestone with a special simulcast on its radio and television networks. (See Monday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 30 1953 Former Michigan Governor Kim Sigler, 59, and three passengers are killed when the plane he was piloting strikes the television tower of WBCK-TV/Battle Creek, near Augusta, Michigan.
GLOSSARY
AAAA = American Association of Advertising Agencies - ABC = American Broadcasting Company - AFL = American Federation of Labor - AFM = American Federation of Musicians - AFRA = American Federation of Radio Artists - AFRS = Armed Forces Radio Service - AFTRA = American Federation of Radio & Television Artists - AGVA = American Guild of Variety Artists - ANA = Association of National Advertisers - ANPA = American Newspaper Publishers Association - AP = Associated Press - ASCAP = American Society of Composers, Authors & Publishers - BBC = British Broadcasting Corporation - BMB = Broadcast Measurement Bureau - BMI = Broadcast Music, Inc. - CAB = Cooperative Analysis of Broadcasting - CBC = Canadian Broadcasting Corporation - CBS = Columbia Broadcasting System - CIO = Congress of Industrial Organizations - CST = Central Standard Time - CWA = Communications Workers of America - EST = Eastern Standard Time - FCC = Federal Communications Commission - FRC = Federal Radio Commission - FTC = Federal Trade Commission - IBEW = International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers - ILGW = International Ladies Garment Workers - INS = International News Service - LBS = Liberty Broadcasting System - MBS = Mutual Broadcasting System - MST = Mountain Standard Time - NAB = National Association of Broadcasters - NBC = National Broadcasting Company - NCAA = National Collegiate Athletic Association - NLRB = National Labor Relations Board - PST = Pacific Standard Time - RCA = Radio Corporation of America - SESAC = Society of European Stage Authors & Composers - TVA = The Television Authority (union) - UAW = United Auto Workers - UP = United Press
Copyright © 2017, Jim Ramsburg, Estero FL Email: [email protected]
Unless otherwise noted all times are Eastern Time Zone
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NOV 1 1931 NBC acquires 50% of WMAQ/Chicago from The Chicago Daily News for $600,000. The station switches its network affiliation from CBS to NBC.
NOV 1 1931 CBS signs The Chicago Tribune’s WGN as its primary affiliate in the city, guaranteeing first call on the station’s nighttime hours of 7:00 to 10:00 p.m. for a payment of $5,000 per week.
NOV 1 1932 WBBM replaces WGN as Chicago’s primary CBS affiliate and takes 14 programs from the network.
NOV 1 1932 Chrysler Corp. buys 90 minutes of CBS afternoon time for a “radio convention” of its dealers.
NOV 1 1932 Pioneer talent agent William Morris dies of a heart attack at 59.
NOV 1 1933 CBS terminates its partial affiliation agreement with WGN/Chicago as WBBM becomes its fulltime affiliate.
NOV 1 1933 Ed Wynn’s Amalgamated Broadcasting System network folds after five weeks of operation.
NOV 1 1933 NBC moves into its new Radio City headquarters for an annual rent of $1.25 Million.
NOV 1 1933 NBC restores the 10% pay cut imposed on all employees in April.
NOV 1 1934 CBS and NBC report distributing a total of 55,000 free tickets every week for their combined 24 shows welcoming studio audiences.
NOV 1 1934 NBC buys the remaining 50% of WMAQ from The Chicago Daily News for $500,000.
NOV 1 1934 Brothers Leon and I.D. (Ike) Levy, owners of WCAU/Philadelphia and stockholders in CBS, begin managing NBC affiliate KYW, moved to the city from Chicago by Westinghouse and housed in the same building as WCAU.
NOV 1 1934 WOR/Newark becomes the 150th station to buy news service from Transradio Press. (See The Press Radio Bureau.)
NOV 1 1934 New Jersey Governor Arthur Moore prohibits any radio broadcasts from the Flemington courtroom trial of Bruno Hauptmann for the kidnapping/murder of the Lindbergh baby.
NOV 1 1934 WCOA/Pensacola, Florida, joins CBS with $12,000 donated by listeners to cover its first year of telephone line costs to connect to the network.
NOV 1 1935 NBC adopts the CBS system of beginning programs on the hour and ending them at 20 seconds to the hour instead of beginning them 20 seconds after the hour and ending them on the hour.
NOV 1 1935 Mutual announces plans to expand its network to WNAC/Boston, WCAE/ Pittsburgh, WGAR/Cleveland, KWK/St. Louis and KNX/Los Angeles.
NOV 1 1935 FCC examiner recommends the license revocation of KFYR/Bismarck, North Dakota, for transmitting with more power than authorized.
NOV 1 1935 A St. Louiis alderman suggests outlawing car radios so drivers can devote full attention to the city’s traffic.
NOV 1 1936 Ralph Edwards, 23, leaves KFRC/San Francisco to join the announcing staff of CBS. (See Truth Or Consequences and Saturday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 1 1937 Long-running weekday serial Hilltop House begins its first season on CBS and Mutual for Palmolive Soap. (See Soft Soap & Hard Sell.)
NOV 1 1937 Kids’ serial Terry & The Pirates, based on Milton Caniff’s popular comic strip, begins a sporadic, multi-network run on NBC. (See Serials, Cereals & Premiums.)
NOV 1 1937 The Inter-American Radio Conference convenes in Havana with represen-tatives from the United States, Canada, Mexico and Cuba. It will result in The North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement, forcing hundreds of US stations to change frequencies. (See The March of Change.)
NOV 1 1937 NBC begins construction of its new West Coast headquarters at Sunset & Vine in Hollywood.
NOV 1 1937 Chicago AFM local head James Petrillo negotiates a contract with the networks giving musicians the highest wage scale in the history of the labor movement - seven days’ pay for a five day week. (See Petrillo!)
NOV 1 1938 Blue broadcasts “The Match Race of The Century” to an estimated 40 million listeners as once beaten Sea Biscuit upsets undefeated War Admiral by four lengths at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore.
NOV 1 1938 NBC page Dee Englebach, 18, who later becomes a noted Network Radio producer, debuts on Easy Aces as a singing orphan. (See Easy Aces.)
NOV 1 1939 Brown & Williamson Raleigh cigarettes buys 50 stations for Paul Sullivan's 15 min news 6 nights a week on CBS.
NOV 1 1940 Mutual adds the weekend broadcasts of the Chicago Civic Opera and the Philadelphia Orchestra to its schedule of Thursday night Chicago Symphony concerts.
NOV 1 1940 The four networks and AFRA begin a new three year agreement with provisions for increases based on the cost of living index.
NOV 1 1940 KFI and KECA/Los Angeles ban all ASCAP music from the stations’ sustaining remote broadcasts. (See Big Band Remotes.)
NOV 1 1942 The U.S. government leases and assumes control of the nation’s 14 inter-national short-wave stations.
NOV 1 1942 CBS-owned, 50,000 watt KMOX/St. Louis begins 24 hour a day operation for the duration.
NOV 1 1943 Marine Sergeant Roy Maypole, a former CBS producer, covers the American invasion of Bougainville, New Guinea, with a wire recorder, a report later broadcast by the networks.
NOV 1 1943 Lowell Thomas, sponsored on Blue in the East by Sun Oil, adds a nightly newscast to Blue’s Pacific Coast network for Standard Oil. (See Multiple Runs All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 1 1943 The Office of War Information reports that two weeks of radio spots resulted in 1.5 million requests for its booklet Wartime Canning of Fruits & Vegetables.
NOV 1 1943 FCC rule takes effect that all FM stations must replace call signs that mix letters and numbers with call letters only. As a result, New York City station W67NY becomes WCBS-FM and W71NY changes to WOR-FM.
NOV 1 1944 Goodman and Jane Ace celebrate their 15th anniversary on radio. (See Easy Aces.)
NOV 1 1944 The Blue Network orders its announcers to obtain the scripts for their newscasts at least 15 minutes in advance of airtime to avoid mispronunciation of foreign names.
NOV 1 1944 NBC shortwave announcers are instructed to slow their delivery from 120 to 68 words per minute and overemphasize their articulation when Axis jamming attempts are reported.
NOV 1 1945 The AFM uses its journal, International Musician, to announce the extension of the union’s ban of network AM-FM simulcasts to include those of individual stations. (See Petrillo!)
NOV 1 1946 FCC approves the sale of WHOM/Jersey City from Cowles Communications to Il Progresso Italo-Americano Publishing Company for $450,000 and KJR/Seattle from Fisher Broadcasting to Marshall Field for $700,000.
NOV 1 1946 FCC grants Chicago’s television Channel 9 to the Chicago Tribune for WGN-TV.
NOV 1 1947 NBC’s Grand Ole Opry makes a rare performance outside of Nashville at Constitution Hall in Washington. (See Saturday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 1 1947 WOKO/Albany, New York, is sold to the Governor Dongan Broadcasting Co.
NOV 1 1948 Arthur Godfrey leaves his early morning local programs in New York and Washington - Jack Sterling replaces Godfrey at WCBS/New York and Eddie Gallaher takes over at WTOP/Washington. (See Arthur Godfrey.)
NOV 1 1948 In a reversal of policy, CBS and NBC consider putting their top weekly radio shows on 52 week schedules with transcribed repeats over the summer months. The plan potentially involves 14 CBS shows and 17 on NBC.
NOV 1 1948 The Radio Writers Guild goes on strike against nearly 60 Network Radio shows produced by the ad agencies and independent producers who refuse agreements already signed by the four major networks.
NOV 1 1948 The Republican Party sponsors an election eve campaign broadcast from 9:00 to 10:00 p.m. on the four national networks starring Frank Morgan, Robert Montgomery, Irene Dunne, Abbot & Costello, Jeanette MacDonald, George Murphy and others at a cost of $150,000.
NOV 1 1948 CBS-TV pays $100,000 for the two year broadcast rights to 52 British movies.
NOV 1 1949 A transformer explosion and fire causes $150,000 damage to the Washington headquarters of the FCC.
NOV 1 1949 The eleven stations owned and operated by ABC, CBS and NBC are put on temporary licenses while the FCC decides if they violate chain broadcasting regulations.
NOV 1 1949 FCC’s twelve-month report states that 97 new FM licenses were granted and 209 were deleted.
NOV 1 1949 In an important victory for broadcasters, a U.S. District Court in Philadelphia upholds the contention of five television stations that the state of Pennsylvania has no right to censor their programs.
NOV 1 1949 CBS-TV cancels C.E. Hooper’s television ratings service.
NOV 1 1950 The Radio Writers Guild reaches a new agreement with ABC, CBS and NBC giving network staff news and continuity writers a 28% raise over two years to a minimum of $130 per week.
NOV 1 1950 Jimmy Durante makes his television debut on NBC-TV’s Four Star Review which New York Herald-Tribune critic John Crosby calls, “…the best show I ever saw on television.” (See Goodnight, Mr. Durante...)
NOV 1 1952 Actress Dixie Lee Crosby, 40, wife of Bing Crosby, dies of cancer.
NOV 2 1920 KDKA/Pittsburgh and 8MK/Detroit, (later WWJ) broadcast the Harding-Cox presidential election returns. (See Alchemists of The Air.)
NOV 2 1926 Eddie Cantor is paid $1500 for his 15 minute appearance in National Broadcasting Company’s debut program, The Eveready Hour.
NOV 2 1931 Early soap opera Myrt & Marge begins its eleven season run on CBS.
NOV 2 1933 NBC broadcasts a one hour tribute to “Modern Radio’s 13th Anniversary” from KDKA/Pittsburgh.
NOV 2 1935 CBS and NBC broadcast the hour long Will Rogers Memorial hosted by George M. Cohan and featuring former President Herbert Hoover, Eddie Cantor, Charlie Chaplin, Rudy Vallee and others plus overseas tributes.
NOV 2 1936 Phil Spitalny increases the size of his all-girl orchestra from 30 to 40 members for his new NBC Hour of Charm programs sponsored by General Electric. (See The Hour of Charm.)
NOV 2 1936 CBS signs a rare reciprocal talent agreement with independent WHN/New York City providing new talent to the station for its programs but paid by the network.
NOV 2 1936 Alfred Erickson, Board Chairman of McCann-Erickson Advertising and longtime ad industry figure dies in California at 60.
NOV 2 1939 Chicago Federation of Musicians head James C. Petrillo condemns the placement of commercials between sustaining late night band remotes. (See Petrillo! )
NOV 2 1939 FCC allows watchmaker Arde Bulova to buy WPG/Atlantic City and merge it into his WOV and WBIL/New York City with WOV becoming the surviving call sign. (See Three Letter Calls.)
NOV 2 1939 WWL/New Orleans issues a check for 20 cents to a listener who claimed she burned a can of beans when distracted by one of the station’s soap operas.
NOV 2 1940 Bob Hope climaxes his nine day run at the San Francisco Auto Show by breaking all attendance records at the Civic Auditorium and grossing a total of $49,500.
(See Tuesday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 2 1940 New comedy panel show Can You Top This? is auditioned with an audience at WOR/New York City. (See Can You Top This? and Saturday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 2 1940 WOR/Newark cuts Guy Lombardo’s late night remote broadcast short when his band fails to play the required six non-ASCAP songs within the half hour. The station apologizes when Lombardo complains. (See Guy Lombardo.)
NOV 2 1942 WJR/Detroit begins 24 hour operation to serve factory workers with transcriptions of CBS daytime programs provided by the network by wire from Chicago.
NOV 2 1942 Owners of shortwave station WRUL/Boston resist the Federal government’s leasing the facility for the duration until guarantees are given that its established programs will remain on the air.
NOV 2 1942 The U.S. War Shipping Administration orders 2,600 radios which do not radiate a signal when receiving AM or shortwave transmissions for distribution to the merchant fleet.
NOV 2 1944 FCC Chairman James Fly resigns after 15 years of government service to enter private law practice with no successor immediately named.
NOV 2 1945 New ABC Program Manager Adrian Samish announces a $250,000 budget for the development of new daytime programs for the network, beginning with the half-hour Al Pearce and Bride & Groom shows.
NOV 2 1945 FCC grants 65 new conditional FM licenses, bringing its postwar total up to 129 with another 550 applications pending..
NOV 2 1945 Ezra Stone, 28 and discharged from the Army, resumes his role as teenager Henry Aldrich in The Aldrich Family sitcom. (See The Aldrich Family and Thursday's All Time Top Ten)
NOV 2 1946 NBC owned WEAF/New York City changes its call sign to WNBC and CBS owned WABC/New York City changes its identity to WCBS.
NOV 2 1946 WNBC/New York City offers a $100 reward for any of its announcers who can make it to January 1st without identifying the station as “WEAF.”
NOV 2 1948 The four national radio networks sell their Election Night coverage to sponsors for the first time - ABC to Kaiser-Frazer Autos, CBS to Nash Motors, Mutual to Curtis Publishing and NBC to Chevrolet.
NOV 2 1948 Election coverage on the four national networks results in a combined 48.3 Hooperating from 8:00 to 11:00 p.m. local time with NBC leading the four chains at 15.8.
See Radio's Rulers: Crossley, Hooper & Nielsen.)
NOV 2 1948 Twenty East Coast network television stations, 14 network affiliated TV stations in the Midwest and eight stations without network ties broadcast election returns to an estimated five to six million viewers.
NOV 2 1949 Gillette and Mutual pay Major League Baseball $1.0 Million to buy radio rights for the World Series and annual All-Star Game for the next seven years. The contract includes first refusal to television rights.
NOV 2 1949 Bob Hope burns NBC brass by appearing on Bing Crosby’s CBS show and helping raise it to a time period winning 15.6 rating over Mr. District Attorney.
NOV 2 1950 The networks pay tribute to George Bernard Shaw who died in Great Britain at 94 from complications after a fall and subsequent operation.
NOV 2 1951 Ralph Edwards signs an exclusive five year radio and television contract with NBC valued at $6.5 Million. (See Truth Or Consequences.)
NOV 2 1951 Jimmy Durante sues Paramount Pictures, producer Hal Wallis and comics Martin & Lewis for $350,000 for using his expression, “That’s my boy,” as the title of their recent film. (See Goodnight, Mr. Durante...)
NOV 2 1951 WWJ/Detroit cuts into NBC radio and television programs including Your Hit Parade to censor the songs I Get Ideas and Sweet Violets.
NOV 2 1951 NBC-TV Vice President Sylvester (Pat) Weaver, 42, is elected to NBC’s Board of Directors.
NOV 3, 1931 Walter Winchell becomes the first radio personality to appear for two sponsors on the same night - at 8:45 p.m. on CBS for LaGerardine hair tonic and at 10:00 for American Tobacco's Lucky Strike cigarettes. (See Walter Winchell and Sunday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 3 1933 The FRC authorizes clear channel stations WGN/Chicago, WBZ/Boston and WHAM/Rochester to increase their transmitting power from 25,000 to 50,000 watts.
NOV 3 1933 MGM releases The Chief starring Ed Wynn, based on his weekly NBC show as the Texaco Fire Chief. (See Tuesday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 3 1935 Detroit priest Charles Coughlin expands his Sunday program’s network to the West Coast and a total of 33 stations but cuts his costs by reducing the program’s length to 45 minutes. (See Father Coughlin.)
NOV 3 1936 Chicago voters decide to return the city to Central Time after eight months on Eastern Time.
NOV 3 1939 BMI files its registration with the Securities & Exchange Commission stating that the proposed music source has the backing of both NBC and CBS.
NOV 3 1939 KDKA/Pittsburgh personality Dave Garroway, 26, wins The H.P. Davis annual award and $100 as the city’s best announcer.
NOV 3 1940 Most of the announcers and engineers at Bulova’s WOV/New York City walk off their jobs in a union contract dispute forcing the station off the air for 24 hours.
NOV 3 1941 England’s Poet Laureate, John Masefield, reads selections from his works via shortwave from London on the NBC serial Against The Storm.
NOV 3 1941 Coca Cola’s Spotlight Bands begins its six night a week run on 125 Mutual stations representing the largest single advertising buy in the network’s history. (See Spotlight Bands.)
NOV 3 1942 WJW/Akron, already authorized to increase its power from 250 to 5,000 watts and shift frequency from 1240 to 850 kilocycles applies with the FCC to transfer its city of license to Cleveland.
NOV 3 1943 Lever Brothers tests commercial television with a weekly 15-minute program, The Face of War, on DuMont’s W2XWV(TV)/New York City, to advertise several of its products. (See Dr. DuMont’s Predictions.)
NOV 3 1944 Ed Wynn drops the fantasy characters on Blue’s Happy Island but remains King Bubbles with announcer, (and future movie star), Paul Douglas playing his straight man.
NOV 3 1944 AFRA and the networks agree on a two year contract granting on-air talent a 10% raise.
NOV 3 1944 Music license group SESAC produces and distributes transcriptions of its music in an effort to get it more widely played by stations.
NOV 3 1945 Networks and stations begin celebration of National Radio Week com-memorating its 25th anniversary.
NOV 3 1946 WSB/Atlanta launches a new public service program, The Harbor We Seek, which is directed against The Columbians, a new fascist movement preaching hate of Negroes, Jews and Catholics.
NOV 3 1946 Arlene Wilkins Rogers, 32, wife of cowboy star Roy Rogers, dies of an embolism following the birth of their son.
NOV 3 1946 The New York Giants at Philadelphia Eagles NFL game becomes television’s first “network” sports event - fed from WPTZ(TV)/Philadelphia to WNBT(TV)/New York City.
NOV 3 1947 President Truman names FCC Commissioner Paul Walker Acting Chairman of the Commission to replace Charles Denney who resigned to join NBC as general counsel.
NOV 3 1947 Faced with the threatened musicians union ban against recording on December 31, Bing Crosby increases the recording schedule of his Philco Radio Time to two programs per week.
NOV 3 1947 Station group owner Harry Wilder sells WSYR/Syracuse to Newhouse Newspapers, owner of The Syracuse Herald Journal and Post Standard, for $1.2 Million.
NOV 3 1948 The four radio networks finally conclude their continuous reporting of the Truman-Dewey Presidential election after a combined total of over 52 hours of coverage.
NOV 3 1948 CBS announces lifting its ban against transcribed programs to allow recorded repeats of its popular shows during summer vacation periods. NBC is expected to follow suite.
NOV 3 1949 Chicago radio and TV personality Dave Garroway, 36, signs a five year contract with NBC.
NOV 3 1949 Al Jolson leaves NBC and signs an exclusive radio and television contract with CBS. He dies eleven months later.
NOV 3 1950 NBC introduces its Operation Tandem, combining spot advertising in The Big Show, Screen Directors’ Playhouse, Duffy’s Tavern, The Man Called X and NBC Symphony broadcasts for an estimated 59 cents per 1,000 listeners.
NOV 3 1950 NBC-TV purchases the television rights to 54 Hopalong Cassidy feature films.
NOV 3 1952 The Democratic National Committee complains to ABC and the FCC that the previous night’s Walter Winchell radio and television commentaries were endorse-ments for General Dwight Eisenhower for President. (See Walter Winchell and Sunday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 3 1952 Mutual sets a new record by offering 31 shows a week to its affiliates for co-op sales. (See Mutual Led The Way.)
NOV 3 1952 KSFO/San Francisco joins the growing trend and announces one rate from 6:00 a.m. to Midnight.
NOV 3 1952 Citizens For Eisenhower presidential campaign committee buys the 11:00 p.m. hour on election eve on all radio and television networks.
NOV 4 1930 "Goat Gland Doctor" John Brinkley, licensee of KFKB/Milford, Kansas, receives 183,278 write-in votes in the Kansas gubernatorial election, 34,000 short of winning.
NOV 4 1932 Jehovah Witness evangelist “Judge” Franklin Rutherford adds Chicago stations KYW, WCFL, WJJD and WHFC to his roster of 300 stations nationwide that carry his weekly transcribed sermons.
NOV 4 1933 A Federal judge names Irving Bank & Trust Company receiver in the bankruptcy of Ed Wynn’s Amalgamated Broadcasting System network.
NOV 4 1935 The Don Lee network of West Coast stations extends its affiliation contract with CBS until January 1, 1937. (See The 1936-37 Season.)
NOV 4 1935 FCC engineers recommend dividing the 40 U.S. regional AM radio channels into three classes: The seven channels from 590 kilocycles to 950 kc, boosted to a night-time power of 5,000 watts, the 17 channels from 1010 kc. to 1390 kc. remaining at 1,000 watts at night, and the remaining 16 channels considered on a case by case basis.
NOV 4 1935 A rare Category Two hurricane strikes south Florida from the northeast, cuts network service for two days and destroys the transmitter towers of Miami stations WIOD and WQAM.
NOV 4 1935 General Motors sponsors a 15 minute weeknight newscast on WJR/Detroit with no commercials, just the opening and closing credit, “…brought to you courtesy of General Motors.”
NOV 4 1935 A&P Stores throws a private party for 13,000 employees, vendors and guests at Philadelphia’s Convention Hall starring Kate Smith.
NOV 4 1937 General Foods’ replaces its Maxwell House Showboat with Good News of 1938, an elaborate 60 minute, Thursday night NBC variety show featuring MGM movie stars. (See Good News and Thursday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 4 1937 Allis-Chalmers sponsors The National Cornhusking Contest from a farm in Marshall, Missouri, on a special 14 station Midwest network anchored by WLS/Chicago and WHO/Des Moines.
NOV 4 1938 FDR’s mid-term election political address on CBS, NBC and Mutual receives a 23.6 Crossley/CAB rating.
NOV 4 1940 The Democratic National Committee buys the 11:00 p.m. to 12:00 a.m. slot on all four networks, assuring President Roosevelt of the last word in his bid for re-election.
NOV 4 1941 NBC adopts a one month admission policy of 55 cents to $1.65, to cover rental of the Cosmopolitan Opera House for its November Blue Network broadcasts of the NBC Symphony conducted by Leopold Stowkowski.
NOV 4 1942 AFRA union representatives meet with the Office of Economic Stabilization to protest the exclusion of agency fees, commissions and expenses from “allowable” deductions in calculating performers’ wages.
NOV 4 1943 NBC and Blue ban the hit song Pistol Packin’ Mama because of the lyric, “…drinkin’ beer in a cabaret.”
NOV 4 1943 Comics Bud Abbott & Lou Costello return to their NBC series after a nine month layoff due to Costello’s rheumatic fever. Costello was notified shortly before the broadcast of his year-old son’s drowning death in the family‘s pool.
NOV 4 1944 FCC concludes five weeks of its allocation hearings to determine postwar frequencies available for AM, FM, TV, Facsimile, Amateur Radio, Government and Relay Systems.
NOV 4 1946 Edgar Bergen floats the idea of alternating weekly NBC shows with Fred Allen to avoid overexposure. (See Sunday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 4 1946 NBC expresses concern over suggestive lines getting into the new family-oriented Phil Harris & Alice Faye Show.
NOV 4 1946 RCA’s first postwar television sets go on sale - the ten inch screen 630-TS, ($435), and its seven-inch companion 621-TS, ($350), plus a $50 installation fee. The first week’s total sales are estimated at $2.0 Million.
NOV 4 1947 FCC grants New York City FM licenses to ABC, WMCA, WPAT, the ILGW and Methodist Church, but denies the applications from The New York Post and The New York Daily News.
NOV 4 1947 FCC issues its 112 page Economic Study of Standard Broadcasting which predicts problems for 724 new stations in 287 “oversaturated” markets of five or more stations with the expected arrival of 1,000 FM and 100 TV stations.
NOV 4 1949 Gulf Oil moves its radio and television simulcast of We The People from CBS to NBC.
NOV 4 1949 The television adaptation of One Man’s Family debuts on NBC-TV.
NOV 4 1949 The Korn Kobblers hillbilly band is exonerated of disturbing the peace for performing while riding down New York’s Broadway on a hay wagon to publicize a personal appearance. (See Fred Ziv - King of Syndication.)
NOV 4 1949 The Chicago Cubs increase local television rights to their 1950 games from $20,000 to $60,000.
NOV 4 1950 Frank Sinatra’s temper outburst after his Saturday night CBS-TV show causes producer Irving Mansfield to walk out and leave the program.
NOV 4 1951 Jack Benny begins a half hour television series on CBS-TV, scheduled once every five Sundays at 7:30 p.m. immediately following his CBS radio program.
NOV 4 1951 Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis appear on NBC-TV’s Colgate Comedy Hour which the network will later claim was seen by one of every five Americans for a total audience of 28.98 Million persons.
NOV 4 1953 FCC finalizes its rule extending television station licenses from one to three years, the same length as radio station licenses.
NOV 5 1933 Ruth Cambridge, secretary to Walter Winchell, substitutes for the ill commentator on his Sunday night Jergens Journal broadcast. (See Walter Winchell and Sunday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 5 1934 Weekday comedy serial Vic & Sade begins its ten year multi-network run for Procter & Gamble on Blue and NBC. (See Vic & Sade.)
NOV 5 1935 True Story magazine sends a mass mailing of penny postcards to business executives promoting its NBC Court of Human Relations episodes dealing with the consequences of office romances.
NOV 5 1939 Garry Moore, 24, (aka Gary Morfit), begins the hour long Hit Tunes six nights a week at 10:00 p.m. and Sundays at noon on WENR/Chicago sponsored by Walgreen Drug Stores.
NOV 5 1939 A special program on Blue climaxes the two day dedication celebrating KDKA/Pittsburgh’s new 50,000 watt transmitter and 718 foot tower.
NOV 5 1940 A St. Louis woman is awarded a $100 consolation prize after she complains that her telephone wasn’t busy as claimed by NBC’s Pot O Gold show when it called.
NOV 5 1940 NBC's W2XBS(TV) and DuMont’s W2XWV(TV) provide the first television coverage of an election to New York City viewers while the four radio networks remain on the air past midnight until FDR’s re-election is confirmed.
NOV 5 1940 NBC’s first television election reporting staff includes Leo Rosenberg who had read returns on KDKA/Pittsburgh’s historic Harding vs. Cox presidential election broadcast of November 2, 1920.
NOV 5 1942 Show business great and early radio performer George M. Cohan dies of cancer in New York City at age 64.
NOV 5 1942 The U.S. Office of War Information leases Boston-based international shortwave stations WRUS and WRUW.
NOV 5 1942 With AFM permission, Coca Cola and Blue transcribe an “emergency” episode of Spotlight Bands with Xavier Cugat’s orchestra for use if its lines to a live broadcast fail. (See Spotlight Bands.)
NOV 5 1943 WBCA(FM)/Schenectady becomes the first FM station to affiliate with a national network, Mutual.
NOV 5 1944 Air Force veteran Larry Stevens, 22, joins Jack Benny’s cast as featured vocalist while Dennis Day serves in the Navy.
NOV 5 1945 The AFM forces the Cleveland School Board’s WBOE-FM to cancel its daily rebroadcast of the CBS School of The Air because the number of musicians on the AM program aren’t matched by union musicians paid by the non-commercial FM station. (See Petrillo!)
NOV 5 1945 Film director William Keighley, 56, wins out over 17 candidates and becomes the fulltime host of Lux Radio Theater succeeding Cecil B. DeMille. (See Lux…Presents Hollywood! and Monday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 5 1945 CBS salutes radio’s 25th anniversary by repeating Norman Corwin’s Seems Radio Is Here To Stay which it first broadcast in 1939.
NOV 5 1945 WMCA/New York joins the fledgling Associated Broadcasting Corporation network based in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
NOV 5 1946 NBC’s Fibber McGee & Molly originates from Racine, Wisconsin, home of sponsor Johnson Wax, to celebrate the company’s 60th anniversary. (See Fibber McGee Minus Molly and Tuesday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 5 1947 Eversharp Pens deals a blow to ABC’s highly promoted Wednesday lineup by canceling the low-rated Henry Morgan Show.
NOV 5 1947 Colgate-Palmalove-Peet joins Bristol-Myers and Sterling Drug by adver-tising three separate products in its 30 minute programs.
NOV 5 1947 Philco inserts commercials for its television sets in its ABC Bing Crosby Show broadcasts heard in New York City and Philadelphia while the rest of the country receives commercials for its radios and phonographs. (See Wednesday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 5 1948 The Radio Writers Guild ends its short strike against advertising agencies as contract negotiations resume.
NOV 5 1948 Bob Hope, Dick Powell and Bert Lahr are listed as investors in Earl (Madman) Muntz’s nationwide rollout of low cost television receivers.
NOV 5 1949 A.C. Nielsen Network Radio ratings for the last half of October give CBS a sweep of the Top Ten positions. (See The 1949-50 Season.)
NOV 5 1950 The Big Show, regarded as Network Radio’s most expensive failure, begins its two season run on NBC. (See Tallulah’s Big Show.)
NOV 5 1950 Minneapolis based evangelist Billy Graham, 31, begins the half-century run of his weekly Hour of Decision on ABC
NOV 5 1951 NBC Radio releases its revised Economic Plan rate structure - based on a formula involving market by market population, retail sales, affiliate coverage and television penetration
NOV 5 1951 Ralph Edwards signs a five year, $6.5 Million contract with NBC radio and television. (See Truth Or Consequences and Saturday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 5 1951 KQV/Pittsburgh shuts down its FM station after two years.
NOV 5 1952 Cowboy star Gene Autry, principal owner of KOOL/Phoenix and KOPO/Tucson, leads the group agreeing to buy KMPC/Los Angeles for $800,000. (See Saturday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 5 1952 ABC, CBS and NBC report a combined $2.5 Million loss in their radio and television political campaign coverage from the party conventions through election night. Mutual posts a $50,000 profit.
NOV 5 1953 Dinah Shore, stricken with laryngitis, performs her entire NBC-TV show in pantomime.
NOV 6 1932 Frank & Anne Hummert’s Manhattan Merry Go Round begins on Blue’s Sunday afternoon schedule for its first five months before moving to NBC where it remained on Sundays at 9:00 until 1949. (See Top 40 Radio’s Roots and Sunday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 6 1933 The New York City musicians union bills Ed Wynn $9,400 for the month’s worth of pay owed by the defunct Amalgamated Broadcasting System.
NOV 6 1933 CKLW/Windsor, Ontario, the CBS affiliate for the Detroit area, moves from 540 kilocycles to 840 kc., because 540 was outside the United States frequency band on American radios which starts at 550 kc.
NOV 6 1938 Detroit priest Charles Coughlin returns to the air with an hour long Sunday afternoon program broadcast on an independent chain of 44 stations. (See Father Coughlin.)
NOV 6 1939 The U.S. Supreme Court refuses to review a lower court decision in favor of the FCC in denying an extension of the 500,000 watt experimental operation of WLW/ Cincinnati.
NOV 6 1939 Hollywood columnist Hedda Hopper begins her twelve year, sporadic, multi-network career.
NOV 6 1939 Sponsor Ralston Purina orders Mutual to cease identifying actor Russell Thorson as the voice of Tom Mix on the daily kids’ serial because, “…it spoils the illusion that it isn’t the original Tom Mix.” (See Serials, Cereals & Premiums.)
NOV 6 1939 The CBS studios at KNX/Los Angeles originates a record 44 programs for its nationwide and West Coast networks, led by ten episodes of Amos & Andy and six of Lum & Abner.
NOV 6 1940 The FCC Engineering Department proposes a new system of call signs for FM stations combining two letters followed by two numbers identifying the station’s frequency.
NOV 6 1940 The four networks report a total of $1.6 Million in political advertising revenues from the 1940 elections.
NOV 6 1941 A small studio fire triggering sprinklers that left three inches of water soaking floor cables disables Philco’s experimental W3XEU(TV)/Philadelphia for 24 hours.
NOV 6 1942 FCC orders all stations to cut transmitter power by one decibel for the duration of World War II.
NOV 6 1942 Bandleader-comedian Phil Harris and his entire orchestra from NBC’s Jack Benny Program join the U.S. Merchant Marines.
NOV 6 1942 NBC’s country themed Plantation Party is cut to 23 minutes by sponsor Brown & Williamson’s Kool cigarettes, the remaining seven minutes given to vocalist Mary Ann Mercer’s Pipe Dreams sponsored by the company’s Sir Walter Raleigh pipe tobacco.
NOV 6 1942 American Tobacco launches its Lucky Strike Green Has Gone To War ad campaign then abruptly drops it two weeks later when the need for green ink is debunked by the War Production Board. (See Smoke Gets In Your Ears.)
NOV 6 1942 KNX/Los Angeles sells $25,000 in War Bonds and Stamps when it parks a Lockheed P-38 Interceptor fighter in its courtyard for a week and allows citizens to auto-graph the plane when purchasing war bonds and stamps.
NOV 6 1942 The U.S. Treasury War Savings staff announces a plan for stations to recycle transcription discs of its programs to save the Vinylite used in making them.
NOV 6 1944 Blue’s Breakfast Club adds 39 Canadian stations to its roster, giving it 240 stations carrying the show every morning.
NOV 6 1944 President Roosevelt, Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra, Ethel Merman and Humphrey Bogart headline a Democrat party election eve campaign program from 10:00 to 11:00 p.m. on all networks.
NOV 6 1946 Bing Crosby’s transcribed Philco Radio Time on ABC plummets after four weeks from an initial 24.0 Hooperating to 12.2. (See Wednesday’s All Time Top Ten)
NOV 6 1948 NBC President Niles Trammell leaves New York for Los Angeles in a last-ditch attempt to keep Jack Benny and Edgar Bergen from jumping to CBS. (See Network Jumpers.)
NOV 6 1948 NBC, moves its Chesterfield Supper Club to secondary affiliate KMPC/Los Angeles when KFI pre-empts the show for its nightly frost warnings to farmers,
NOV 6 1950 Bob Hope returns from a 42 performance USO tour of the Korean battlefront in which he and actress Marilyn Maxwell, singer Jimmy Wakely, Judy Kelly and the Les Brown band appeared before thousands of Allied troops. (See Hope From Home.)
NOV 6 1950 Veteran newsman Raymond Gram Swing begins nightly commentaries on the Liberty network.
NOV 6 1950 Curt Gowdy, 31, is signed by WHDH/Boston to become the play-by-play voice of the Red Sox.
NOV 6 1950 New York Governor Thomas Dewey puts in an 18½ hour day in the studios of WOR-TV in a marathon radio and television re-election campaign simulcast seen and heard throughout the state.
NOV 6 1951 C.E. Hooper announces his company’s new system of measuring the car radio audiences by employing interviewers at traffic signals to survey drivers in cars stopped for red lights. (See Radio's Rulers: Crossley, Hooper & Nielsen.)
NOV 7 1932 Amos & Andy and The Rise of The Goldbergs become Monday through Friday shows on NBC as sponsor Pepsodent cancels their Saturday broadcasts.
NOV 7 1932 Bandleaders protest NBC’s rules prohibiting any song to be repeated between 6:00 p.m. and 1:00 a.m. as limiting their repertoire late at night. (See Big Band Remotes.)
NOV 7 1932 Buck Rogers In The 25th Century begins its first four year run on CBS, followed by a number of shorter runs on Mutual until 1947. (See Serials, Cereals & Premiums.)
NOV 7 1933 CBS censors ban the lyrics of Coffee In The Morning from the film Moulin Rouge.
NOV 7 1936 Militant priest Charles Coughlin announces the cancellation of his controversial five year radio series blaming lack of support for his anti-administration National Union For Social Justice. (See Father Coughlin.)
NOV 7 1937 Danish actor Jean Hersholt, 51, debuts as Dr. Christian on CBS where his program will remain under Vaseline sponsorship for 17 seasons. (See Dr. Christian and Wednesday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 7 1938 Writers Carl Bixby & Don Becker introduce their new serial This Day Is Ours on CBS for a 14 month multi-network run. (See Soft Soap & Hard Sell.)
NOV 7 1938 Paramount Pictures announces plans to build a television station in Hollywood, “…to function closely with its film production.”
NOV 7 1938 NBC begins a series of winter-long tests of television broadcasts from the grounds of the New York World Fair to determine the best locations for signals when the exposition opens.
NOV 7 1940 KIRO/Seattle provides spot coverage for CBS at the collapse of the huge, four month old Tacoma Narrows suspension bridge into Puget Sound.
NOV 7 1941 KDKA/Pittsburgh demonstrates an aerial system for enclosures that solves the problem of autos losing AM signals in long tunnels.
NOV 7 1942 CBS is first to broadcast the news of the Allied invasion of North Africa with a 9:02 p.m. interruption of Your Hit Parade.
NOV 7 1942 The OWI and FCC announce that they have seized WRUL/Boston when negotiations with the station’s ownership break down but the government needing it to bring all U.S. shortwave stations under its control.
NOV 7 1944 Boasting, “The most perfect television picture yet shown,” RCA demonstrates a new 18x24 inch projection set during NBC’s Election Night coverage at Radio City.
NOV 7 1944 A first time news cooperative links the election coverage staffs of The New York Daily News, WNEW Radio and WABD(TV).
NOV 7 1944 KSD/St. Louis, owned by The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, suspends most programs as staff members continuously read the contents of the newspaper during a 24 hour paper handlers’ strike.
NOV 7 1945 President Truman opens the new U.S. Senate radio gallery in a two hour ceremony.
NOV 7 1945 ABC broadcasts The First Twenty Five, a half-hour program featuring Paul Whiteman, Milton Cross, George Hicks and network president Mark Woods to celebrate radio’s 25th anniversary.
NOV 7 1947 Eddie Cantor emcees the gala radio and television sendoff given The Friendship Food Train on its eleven day trip across the U.S. collecting an eventual 700 cars of food for Europe valued at $40.0 Million.
NOV 7 1947 WSAY/Rochester, New York, wins a temporary injunction to prevent ABC and Mutual from canceling their affiliation with the station.
NOV 7 1947 FCC data reveals the seven cities it considers “over-radioed”: Washington, Seattle, Spokane, Oklahoma City, Chattanooga, Richmond and Portland, Oregon.
NOV 7 1947 FCC grants an FM license to The Providence Journal over the protests of the Rhode Island House of Representatives and the mayors of Providence, Pawtucket and Woonsocket who argue it will create a news monopoly.
NOV 7 1947 Meat packer Swift & Co. becomes the first network television sponsor with The Swift Home Service Club, a Friday afternoon half hour on NBC-TV seen in New York City, Philadelphia, Washington and Schenectady.
NOV 7 1948 Edward Arnold is awarded a, “…half-hour of the best time available,” per week on his “hometown station,” KITO/San Bernardino, which he promises to donate to charitable causes. (See Mr. President.)
NOV 7 1948 CBS introduces its legendary Studio One series of dramas to television.
NOV 7 1949 ABC Radio’s Monday night Kate Smith Calls giveaway show is reduced from an hour, forty-five minutes to one hour. (See Kate’s Great Song.)
NOV 7 1949 KHJ/Los Angeles drops its ban against disc jockey programs.
NOV 7 1949 Gillette and Mutual sign a seven year contract with Major League Baseball estimated at $1.1 Million for radio rights to the World Series and for first refusal of television rights.
NOV 7 1949 ABC’s WJZ-TV/New York City suspends all Monday and Tuesday broad-casts as part of the company’s temporary budget cutting maneuvers.
NOV 7 1951 The Green Hornet returns to Mutual for a final season on late Wednesday and Friday afternoons after a twelve year run on Blue/ABC. (See The Green Hornet.)
NOV 7 1951 A breakdown at Chicago master control blacks out the first 17 minutes of Don McNeill’s Wednesday night show on ABC-TV.
NOV 8 1932 Both CBS and NBC take advantage of the Associated Press offer to give them free AP wire reports of the presidential and congressional elections. (See The Press-Radio Bureau.)
NOV 8 1932 "Goat Gland" Doctor John Brinkley, licensee of KFKB/Milford, Kansas, loses the Kansas gubernatorial election to Republican Alf Landon, 278,581 votes to 244,607.
NOV 8 1935 Local radio stations protest the Chicago City Council approving an ordinance that will shift the city to the Eastern Time Zone on March 1, 1936 - one hour ahead of its neighboring suburbs and the rest of Illinois.
NOV 8 1935 A Federal Court rules the Washington state tax of 1.5% on radio station gross revenues to be invalid and unconstitutional.
NOV 8 1936 RCA demonstrates television to owners and managers of 60 NBC affiliated radio stations as part of the network’s tenth anniversary celebration in New York City.
NOV 8 1937 Hearst dissolves its partnership with McClatchy newspapers in the operation of the California Radio System network.
NOV 8 1940 An Illinois appellate court decides that WGN is the owner of the early soap opera Painted Dreams, not writer Irna Phillips who was an employee of the station at the time. (See Soft Soap & Hard Sell.)
NOV 8 1940 Four 500 watt stations sharing the 1400 kilocycle frequency in New York City - WARD, WBBC, WLTH and WVFW - announce plans to merge and apply for 5,000 watts.
NOV 8 1940 NBC approves the construction of a new $1.2 Million building in San Francisco to house its stations KPO and KGO. (See Three Letter Calls.)
NOV 8 1942 CBS correctly predicts the location of the Allied invasion of Morocco and Algeria.
NOV 8 1942 NBC relaxes its ban on recorded programs to broadcast President Roosevelt’s remarks in French coincidental with the Allied invasion of North Africa.
NOV 8 1944 NBC cites C.E. Hooper figures from Election Night which give its coverage “…the largest sustained audience in radio history, 55% greater than a normal Tuesday evening.” (See Radio's Rulers: Crossley, Hooper & Nielsen.)
NOV 8 1946 The New York AFRA local’s largest meeting in history, 1,200 members, joins the Los Angeles and Chicago locals in voting to authorize a strike against the networks.
NOV 8 1946 Rochester, New York, stations WHAM, WHEC, WRNY and WSAY enjoy an advertising windfall as strikes shut down the two local newspapers for three months.
NOV 8 1947 General Electric transmits the telecast of Notre Dame vs. Army football game via microwave from South Bend, Indiana, to Chicago for broadcast on WBKB(TV).
NOV 8 1948 Milton Berle’s Texaco Star Theater on NBC-TV scores another record high Hooperating of 86.7.
NOV 8 1948 RCA, Philco and General Electric all introduce television sets with ten-inch screens for the Christmas season priced around $350.
NOV 8 1949 Fanny Brice returns to Network Radio on NBC as Baby Snooks after a year’s sabbatical. (See Baby Snooks and Thursday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 8 1949 Variety reports that C.E. Hooper's five highest rated network attractions of November, 1939 - Bing Crosby, Edgar Bergen & Charlie McCarthy, Fibber McGee & Molly, Jack Benny and Lux Radio Theater - also make up the Top Five ten years later in November, 1949. (See The 1949-50 Season on this site.)
NOV 8 1953 Arturo Toscanini,87, begins his “farewell” series of 14 NBC Symphony concerts on Sunday evenings from 6:30 to 7:30.
NOV 9 1921 Westinghouse establishes KYW/Chicago.
NOV 9 1925 Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover convenes the three-day, Fourth National Radio Conference in Washington, D.C. with 500 delegates addressing the subjects of frequency allocation, advertising, station licensing, operating regulations and miscellaneous problems.
NOV 9, 1926 RCA establishes The National Broadcasting Company and purchases WEAF/New York City and WCAP/Washington, D.C. from AT&T for $1.0 Million. (See Alchemists of The Air.)
NOV 9 1936 A formal banquet for 1,400 invited guests at New York City’s Waldorf Astoria celebrates the 10th Anniversary of NBC.
NOV 9 1937 General Hugh M. Johnson’s planned address warning of the dangers of venereal disease is barred by NBC.
NOV 9 1938 Amos & Andy announcer Bill Hay sues Lum & Abner’s Chet Lauck and Norris Goff for reneging on their 1931 management agreement giving Hay 10% of the team’s earnings for five years.
NOV 9 1938 Actress Sara Collins files a $60,000 damages claim against CBS for “frazzled nerves” suffered from the Orson Welles War of The Worlds broadcast. (See War of The Worlds.)
NOV 9 1941 The U.S. Office of Emergency Management begins a weekly all-star half hour show on Mutual, Keep ‘Em Rolling, hosted by Clifton Fadiman, designed to present the needs to defend America.
NOV 9 1942 Orson Welles hosts Ceiling Unlimited, a new weekly 15-minute program on CBS tracing the history of American aviation.
NOV 9 1942 CBS debuts Daytime Showcase, a 13 week series of prime time half hour shows featuring samples of its weekday programs.
NOV 9 1944 Bing Crosby returns to NBC’s Kraft Music Hall after a 13 week USO tour and eliminates all comedy and non-musical elements from the show including audience applause except at the beginning and end of the program. (See The 1944-45 Season.)
NOV 9 1945 FCC Chairman Paul Porter advises FM broadcasters that the Commission can’t force the AFM to back down on its ban of network programs being broadcast on FM stations without double pay to musicians. (See Petrillo!)
NOV 9 1945 FCC denies Zenith Radio Corporation’s assertion that more power will be required by FM stations to operate in the new proposed higher frequencies than in the lower bands.
NOV 9 1948 Ralph Edwards introduces his new Truth Or Consequences spinoff, This Is Your Life, on NBC Radio. (See Truth Or Consequences.)
NOV 9 1948 KFMV(FM)/Los Angeles, owned by the ILGW, begins operations.
NOV 9 1949 The U.S. Supreme Court upholds the Little Rock, Arkansas, $250 annual tax on the city’s radio stations for "generating radio waves,” and the $50 tax on their “solicitors” (salesmen).
NOV 9 1951 CBS celebrates Jack Benny’s 20th anniversary in Network Radio with a special half hour broadcast featuring Milton Berle, Ethel Merman and Ronald & Benita Colman. (See Sunday At Seven and Your Money Or Your Life.)
NOV 9 1951 WMCA/New York City introduces a new music format in which two-thirds of the music played is among the city’s Top 30 popular records. (See Top 40 Radio's Roots.)
NOV 9 1951 Romantic composer and longtime radio conductor Sigmund Romberg, 64, dies of a cerebral hemorrhage.
NOV 9 1952 Freeman Gosden & Charles Correll celebrate the 10,000th broadcast of Amos & Andy. (See Multiple Runs All Time Top Ten and Sunday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 9 1953 Singer Julius LaRosa, publicly fired by Arthur Godfrey three weeks earlier, begins a series of ten minute shows three nights a week on CBS. (See Arthur Godfrey.)
NOV 9 1953 A group of 33 songwriters and composers of “serious” music file a $150,000 anti-trust suit to divest BMI from the broadcast industry.
NOV 10 1932 CBS accepts Ex-Lax Laxative as sponsor of The Magic Voice with the provision that the contract will be cancelled if 2,000 letters protesting the commercials are received by the network.
NOV 10 1933 CBS establishes a talent rate for “mob extras” used for crowd sound effects used on its Friday night March of Time and All American Football Show: $5, including eight hours rehearsal time.
NOV 10 1937 Chicago musicians union local president James C. Petrillo threatens a strike against NBC if the network doesn’t agree to a new contract within two months. (See Petrillo!)
NOV 10 1937 Bell Laboratories demonstrates the use of coaxial cable to transmit 240-line television images of a Paramount newsreel from New York to a seven by eight inch screen in Philadelphia.
NOV 10 1938 FCC suddenly fires its Chief Examiner, his assistant and the commission’s Information Director without explanation.
NOV 10 1938 Kate Smith introduces Irving Berlin’s God Bless America on her CBS program on the eve of the 20th anniversary of Armistice Day. (See Kate’s Great Song.)
NOV 10 1939 WMCA/New York City negotiates a trade with the area’s appliance dealer association, giving the stores a half-hour program every Saturday night in exchange for a pre-set tab on all the new push-button radios they sell.
NOV 10 1940 Katherine Cornell makes her radio debut with a dramatic reading on the Sunday afternoon Red Cross Roll Call program, broadcast simultaneously by CBS, Mutual and NBC.
NOV 10 1941 FCC files an appeal with a New York court to dismiss the NBC and CBS suits resulting from the Commission’s pending Network-Monopoly regulations.
NOV 10 1941 The American Radio Relay League of 55,000 amateur radio operators and U.S. Army morale officers plan a system of allowing Armed Forces personnel in the United States and overseas to converse with their families.
NOV 10 1944 FCC proposes to revoke the license of WOKO/Albany, New York, because of hidden ownership issues.
NOV 10 1944 The War Labor Board sides with KSTP/Minneapolis-St. Paul in rejecting the AFM’s demand that the station employ eight union musicians or that its music librarian and three record handlers be AFM members. (See Petrillo!)
NOV 10 1945 After 13 years on the air Don McNeill’s Breakfast Club makes its final Saturday morning broadcast on ABC and becomes a Monday through Friday program.
NOV 10 1945 Counsel for the U.S. House Un-American Activities Committee reveals proposed legislation to the press which is designed to tightly control news and political commentators.
NOV 10 1945 Walter Winchell, Hildegarde, Ray Bolger, George Jessel and other show business luminaries participate in NBC’s memorial program to legendary producer Gus Edwards who died on November 7th.
NOV 10 1947 A.C. Nielsen releases its first Top 20 Programs list, recognizing Lux Radio Theater as prime time’s leading program and Our Gal Sunday first in daytime listening. (See Lux…Presents Hollywood! and Soft Soap & Hard Sell.)
NOV 10 1947 Information Please producer Don Golenpaul files a National Labor Rela-tions Board complaint against the AFM for the union’s refusal to allow a pianist to play on the program after its move to Mutual as a co-op program available for local sponsorship. (See Information Please.)
NOV 10 1947 FCC authorizes the Governor Dongan Broadcasting Corp. to take control of WOKO/Albany, New York.
NOV 10 1947 WORL/Boston files an appeal in U.S. Court to the FCC order that it leave the air because of its failure to report stock purchases eight to ten years earlier.
NOV 10 1947 A crowd of 8,000 fans jams Philadelphia’s Broad Street station to greet Jack Bailey, host of Mutual’s Queen For A Day, who needs a police escort to leave the scene.
NOV 10 1947 The AP announces its new newsreel service for television stations.
NOV 10 1948 The AFRA and AFM unions reject CBS and NBC’s proposal to rerun their major shows by transcription in the summer months - unless the networks double the performers’ original fees.
NOV 10 1948 WGN-TV/Chicago becomes a CBS-TV affiliate, building the network’s roster to 16 stations.
NOV 10 1950 Illinois State Senator William (Botchie) Connors files a $1.0 Million libel suit against ABC, its commentator Robert Montgomery and sponsor Adam Hats for charging that Connors is, “...a power drunk tyrant responsible for wholesale lawlessness,” in Chicago's 42nd Ward.
NOV 10 1950 A Texas court dismisses a $1.2 Million suit filed against People Are Funny by a writer who claims the show stole his idea for a stunt called, The Lucky Interview Intro-ducing Secrets of The Little Black Box. (See People Are Funny.)
NOV 10 1951 Ed Wynn hosts NBC-TV’s All Star Review, the first variety show originating in Los Angeles, with guests Bob Hope, Buster Keaton and Dorothy Lamour.
NOV 10 1952 Bob Hope begins a new weekday morning series of quarter hour com-mentaries on NBC at 9:30 for General Foods with announcer Bill Goodwin and a different female co-star each week.
NOV 11 1928 The Federal Radio Commission reorganizes the AM broadcast band to provide clearer reception of the country's 585 stations. (See Alchemists of The Air.)
NOV 11 1932 Kate Smith signs a two year contract extension with CBS guaranteeing her a weekly minimum salary of $750.
NOV 11 1933 An invited audience of 1,500 guests attends NBC’s elaborate dedication broadcast from its new Radio City headquarters headlined by Rudy Vallee, Will Rogers, Paul Whiteman, Amos & Andy, a 75 piece orchestra and 60 voice choir. The Saturday night program begins a week of special broadcasts commemorating the event.
NOV 11 1935 NBC broadcasts shortwave reports from the stratosphere during the 74,000 foot ascent of balloonists Albert Stevens and Orvil Anderson, reaching record breaking heights.
NOV 11 1935 The Supreme Court of Mexico orders ownership of high powered XER/Villa Acuna, across the border from Del Rio, Texas, be restored to its owner, “Goat Gland" Doctor John R. Brinkley.
NOV 11 1935 CBS and Wrigley Gum experiment with inserting brief news capsules into commercials of the nightly broadcasts of Myrt & Marge on network owned WBBM/
Chicago, KMOX/St. Louis and WCCO/Minneapolis-St. Paul.
NOV 11 1936 The New York County Lawyers Association recommends banning NBC’s Goodwill Court for its dispensing free legal advice, “…accompanied by the announcer’s solicitation to purchase the sponsor’s coffee.” (See The 1936-37 Season.)
NOV 11 1937 Union engineers at WOL/Washington, D.C., stage a sudden sit-down strike that takes the Mutual affiliate off the air for eight hours.
NOV 11 1940 The historic Armistice Day storm demolishes the 733 foot transmitting tower of WJR/Detroit, but the station returns to the air twelve hours later with a makeshift antenna strung between telephone poles.
NOV 11 1941 WAAT/Jersey City devotes its entire broadcast day to the sale of U.S. Defense Bonds and Stamps.
NOV 11 1941 All networks carry President Roosevelt’s Armistice Day morning address from Arlington National Cemetery which registers a 30.0 Hooerating.
NOV 11 1941 Edgar Bergen and his Charlie McCarthy visit the Jim & Marian Jordan NBC sitcom Fibber McGee & Molly to plug their new RKO comedy, Look Who’s Laughing. (See Radio Goes To The Movies.)
NOV 11 1941 All four networks carry the 60 minute Red Cross Roll Call fund raiser featuring an address by President Roosevelt and Kate Smith singing Irving Berlin’s new song written for the program, Angels of Mercy.
NOV 11 1944 Hailed by AFM boss James Petrillo as, “The greatest victory for a labor organization in the history of the labor movement,“ RCA-Victor and Columbia Records capitulate to the union’s demands for royalties to end the 28 month recording ban. (See Petrillo!)
NOV 11 1944 Procter & Gamble introduces Gaslight Gayeties starring novelty singer Beatrice Kay for a one season run on NBC.
NOV 11 1945 Famed songwriter Jerome Kern dies of a cerebral hemorrhage at age 60.
NOV 11 1945 Radio Luxembourg, controlled by the United States since its recapture from Germany, is returned to its original owners.
NOV 11 1945 The Army Hour concludes its three year, eight month run on NBC’s Sunday afternoon schedule.
NOV 11 1946 A U.S. Department of Labor conciliator is appointed to attempt to settle a threatened AFRA strike against the networks.
NOV 11 1946 Bristol-Myers becomes the first sponsor of a regularly scheduled television show, Geographically Speaking, on WNBT(TV)/New York City.
NOV 11 1947 WMAL-TV/Washington, D.C., broadcasts the first live television pickup of a Congressional committee hearing - the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee testimony regarding The Marshall Plan.
NOV 11 1949 Calling the FCC, “..a do-nothing agency,” the Florida Broadcasters Association appeals to the state’s congressional delegation to help them combat Cuban “pirating of frequencies.’
NOV 11 1949 NBC splits its radio and television news divisions into two separate units.
NOV 11 1952 All radio networks carry a 15 minute program featuring President-elect Eisenhower to launch the 1952 Crusade For Freedom campaign supporting Radio Free Europe and Radio Free Asia.
NOV 11 1953 After an eleven year multi-network radio run, Dr. I.Q. debuts on ABC-TV. (See Dr. I.Q.)
NOV 12 1932 Roxy & His Gang is the first NBC program broadcast from the stage of Radio City.
NOV 12 1932 NBC presents a special two hour program saluting the power increase to 50,000 watts of its clear channel affiliate, WSM/Nashville.
NOV 12 1933 Five noted conductors lead a 400 piece orchestra in the Blue Network’s dedication broadcast of Radio City
NOV 12 1934 Magazine publishers band together to hire new research firm, Clark & Hooper, to conduct an independent survey of 100,000 evening phone calls to check the accuracy of Crossley’s high audience figures. (See Radio's Rulers: Crossley, Hooper & Nielsen.)
NOV 12 1935 The AP announces a 5% surcharge to all newspaper members who own radio stations.
NOV 12 1935 RCA Chairman J.G. Harbord addresses Princeton’s School of Engineering and predicts, “..the ultimate achievement of communications will come with colored tele-vision accompanied by odors and tastes.”
NOV 12 1936 CBS and NBC cover the start of the three day celebration to mark the opening of the 4.5 mile long San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, then the longest span in the world.
NOV 12 1937 Louella Parsons backs down from her threat to walk off Hollywood Hotel if not given double her weekly salary of $2,250 when sponsor Campbell Soup and CBS threaten breach of contract. (See Friday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 12 1938 In a speech covered by CBS, NBC and Mutual, FCC Chairman Frank McNinch denies any interest by the commission in the censorship of broadcasting.
NOV 12 1938 After four weeks, American Tobacco terminates the 26 week contract of W.C. Fields to perform monologs on the Saturday broadcasts of Your Hit Parade on CBS.
(See W.C. Fields.)
NOV 12 1939 Edgar Bergen introduces his newest character to NBC’s Chase & Sanborn Hour, country bumpkin Mortimer Snerd. (See Sunday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 12 1940 WNEW/New York City receives the Papal Blessing of Pope Pius XII for its effort in propagating the faith.
NOV 12 1940 Dr Peter Goldmark, CBS chief television engineer, announces that direct images of people and objects in color television has been achieved.
NOV 12 1942 Miller McClintock, 48, is appointed the first salaried President of Mutual in the network’s eight year history.
NOV 12 1943 WOR/New York City comedy panel show It Pays To Be Ignorant debuts on Network Radio with a series of appearances on the CBS Kate Smith Show. (See It Pays To Be Ignorant.)
NOV 12 1943 The U.S. Censorship Bureau relaxes its complete ban of record dedica-tions on radio to prevent passage of coded messages by establishing rules for dedications on the late night Sandman’s Serenade on WOLF/Syracuse.
NOV 12 1945 Adam Hats signs ABC commentator Drew Pearson to a three year contract for his Sunday night quarter hour at $4,500 per broadcast, a 156 week total of $702,000.
NOV 12 1945 The newly formed Radio Directors’ Guild agrees to a $100 per week minimum wage with the four major networks.
NOV 12 1947 FCC approves the call sign change of NBC’s KPO/San Francisco to KNBC. (See Three Letter Calls.)
NOV 12 1947 Both ABC and Mutual cancel their affiliations with WSAY/Rochester, New York, when a Federal judge denies the station’s injunction against them.
NOV 12 1948 False reports circulate that NBC is victorious in its fight with CBS to keep Jack Benny. (See Sunday At Seven.)
NOV 12 1948 AFRA insists its members receive the same pay for transcribed repeat broadcasts as they do for do for the original performances which throws an obstacle into network plans for summer month repeats of their top shows.
NOV 12 1948 The Pennsylvania Supreme Court rules in favor of a 10% Amusement Tax attached to bars and taverns equipped with television sets.
NOV 12 1951 After two years development, Bing Crosby Enterprises unveils its videotaping system.
NOV 12 1952 FCC approves the sale of KMPC/Los Angeles from the estate of G. A..(Dick) Richards to a group headed by Gene Autry for $800,000. (See Saturday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 12 1953 Standard Oil of California signs the contract for its 25th consecutive year of sponsoring Sunday night’s Standard Hour on NBC’s West Coast Network.
NOV 13 1931 Phillips H. Lord brings his popular NBC character Seth Parker to the screen in RKO’s Way Back Home, co-starring 23 year old ingénue Bette Davis. (See Radio Goes To The Movies.)
NOV 13 1931 NBC Censor Clarence Mesner is heard during the broadcast of First Nighter whispering to the cast to avoid the words "German" and "Boche" in the script. (See Friday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 13 1933 CBS is refused Congressional press gallery credentials for its reporters.
NOV 13 1933 Wayne King drops his twice weekly sustaining remotes from Chicago’s Aragon Ballroom on Mutual at the insistence of Lady Esther Cosmetics which sponsors his Serenades on CBS and NBC. (See The Aragon's Last Stand and The Waltz King.)
NOV 13 1936 Coca Cola signs host Don McNeill, vocalist Clark Dennis and the 16 piece Walter Blaufuss orchestra from Blue’s Breakfast Club to appear in its weekday transcribed half hour, Refreshment Time.
NOV 13 1936 The Mormon church applies to the FCC for a powerful non-commercial shortwave station to operate from its KSL transmitter grounds near Salt Lake City.
NOV 13 1938 NBC celebrates its twelfth anniversary two days early with an hour long broadcast tracing the history of the medium, This Is Radio, on the 160 affiliates of both of its networks.
NOV 13 1939 Procter & Gamble and Sterling Drug swap NBC and Blue weekday serial timeslots which solves P&G’s problem of several of its soap operas competing with each other.
NOV 13 1939 NBC sells its interests in KEX/Portland, Oregon, and KGA/Spokane, Washington, to local operators. (See Three Letter Calls.)
NOV 13 1939 Don Lee’s W6XAO(TV)/Los Angeles increases its live television programs to nine hours per week as sets go on sale in downtown department stores for prices ranging from $195 to $650.
NOV 13 1940 BMI reports its number of member stations has grown to 414 as broad-casters prepare to do without ASCAP music on January 1, 1941.
NOV 13 1942 The struggling American Broadcasters Association, a trade group chal-lenging the NAB, folds after less than a year.
NOV 13 1945 Variety reports that 263 of the 665 applications on file with the FCC for new FM stations, (40%), are from newspaper interests.
NOV 13 1947 AT&T opens its microwave radio relay between New York and Boston bringing network television to Boston.
NOV 13 1948 United Airlines successfully demonstrates the airborne television reception of local stations using a table model set inside aircraft flying 2,000 feet over Chicago and 6,500 feet over Milwaukee.
NOV 13 1950 Trade magazine Broadcasting pans the November 5th debut of NBC’s Big Show as, “…simply a collection of disassociated acts…not an imaginative answer to radio’s present programming problems.” (See Tallulah’s Big Show.)
NOV 13 1950 Stations responding to a poll conducted by BBDO for 3M indicates that 95% are using tape recording.
NOV 13 1950 The Minneapolis City Council bans FM broadcasting of music and commercials to the city’s 350 buses and streetcars already in practice for two months.
NOV 13 1950 CBS-TV begins 15 minute color television programs daily in New York City for two 10-inch receivers located in Gimbel’s Department Store.
NOV 13 1951 Edgar Bergen leaves with his Charlie McCarthy on a nine day coast-to-coast tour of veterans’ hospitals doing shows and distributing 32,000 Christmas gifts donated by his show’s listeners. (See Sunday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 13 1952 FCC examiner Leo Resnick issues a 140 page decision recommending approval of the ABC merger with United Paramount Theaters and UPT’s sale of WBKB(TV)/Chicago to CBS.
NOV 14 1932 CBS renews its purchase of time to broadcast on WGN/Chicago, buying the option rights to two and a half hours per night for $2,000 a week.
NOV 14 1934 KVOS/Bellingham, Washington, is charged in Federal Court by Associated Press with stealing its dispatches from Seattle newspapers for use in its newscasts.
NOV 14 1937 Rev. Gerald L.K. Smith, chairman of the Committee of One Million, begins a series of 26 Sunday broadcasts on a 38 station ad-hoc network similar to that used by Detroit priest Charles Coughlin. (See Father Coughlin on this site.)
NOV 14 1938 FCC begins its Network Monopoly Inquiry that will last for six months.
NOV14 1938 U.S. Interior Secretary Harold Ickes officiates the opening of the new radio studio in the penthouse of the Interior Department’s building, the government‘s first step into broadcast production.
NOV 14 1939 The Capitol Theater in Lincoln, Nebraska, offers $1,000 to any patron who misses the Pot O Gold prize phone call while attending its movies on Tuesday nights.
NOV 14 1939 Information Please celebrates its first anniversary on Blue for Canada Dry beverages with a celebratory broadcast at the Waldorf Astoria. (See Information Please.)
NOV 14 1939 FCC Television Committee foresees an eventual 120 stations, that the medium has grown beyond the experimental stage and “limited” commercialization will be necessary for its future development.
NOV 14 1940 CBS proposes to buy a minority interest in KQW/San Jose-San Francisco as the station applies to raise its power from 5,000 to 50,000 watts.
NOV 14 1940 Kay Kyser’s College of Musical Knowledge troupe appears on stage at New York City’s Roxy Theater for a week while its new RKO film,You’ll Find Out, is shown on the theater's screen. (See Kay Kyser and Wednesday’s All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 14 1941 Lever Brothers buys time on 129 small market stations of the Keystone Broadcasting System for transcriptions of its NBC Burns & Allen Show to get nationwide advertising saturation for its new Swan Soap. (See Wednesday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 14 1941 CBS owned WABC/New York begins testing an all-night disc jockey show from 1:00 until 5:15 a.m. Saturday mornings featuring the weekday morning personality it shares with WJSV/Washington, Arthur Godfrey. (See Arthur Godfrey.)
NOV 14 1942 NBC correspondent John MacVane and Charles Collingwood of CBS make the first direct reports of the North African war from Algiers.
NOV 14 1943 The Mutual-affiliated Don Lee West Coast Network begins its season of broadcasting repeats of NBC’s Jack Benny Program at 8:30 Pacific Time Sunday nights. (See Benny’s Double Plays.)
NOV 14 1944 George Burns & Gracie Allen take their CBS show on a four city tour in behalf of the Sixth War Loan Drive. (See Wednesday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 14 1947 The NAB proposes a new code limiting commercial time to three minutes per 15 daytime minutes and 30 nighttime minutes of programming and six commercial minutes for every hour of nighttime programming.
NOV 14 1948 An Attleboro, Massachusetts, housewife wins a $30,200 jackpot of prizes, for identifying the Mystery Melody on ABC’s Stop The Music as The Minstrel’s Return From The War. (See Stop The Music!)
NOV 14 1948 Helen Hayes becomes the permanent star of The General Electric Theater with her performance of Victoria Regina.
NOV 14 1950 Radio actors Ralph Bell and his wife, Pert Kelton, file a $300,000 libel suit against Red Channels magazine which labeled both as, “Communist dupes” and “fellow-travelers.”
NOV 14 1951 NBC introduces its Guaranteed Advertising Attention Plan which offers a “guaranteed” audience of 5.3 Million listeners each week over 13 weeks with one minute spots in Nightbeat, Hollywood Love Story and The $64 Question at a cost of $14,600 per week.
NOV 15 1926 NBC inaugurates its network service with a five hour gala broadcast from WEAF/New York City to 20 charter affiliates and four non-affiliated stations. (See Alchemists of The Air on this site.)
NOV 15 1933 NBC celebrates its seventh anniversary and move to Radio City with a special 90 minute broadcast featuring the Metropolitan Opera Company.
NOV 15 1934 Clark-Hooper, Inc., publishes its first Network Radio audience popularity ratings based on Telephone Coincidental methodology. (See Radio's Rulers: Crossley, Hooper & Nielsen.)
NOV 15 1935 Fred Allen makes his feature film debut in 20th Century Pictures’ Thanks A Million. (See Radio Goes To The Movies.)
NOV 15 1936 NBC’s combined Red and Blue networks of 102 affiliates broadcast a special hour long program in which 13 nations participate in saluting Network Radio’s tenth anniversary.
NOV 15 1936 Charles Laughton, who has turned down Network Radio guest appear-ances as high as $4,000, appears free on Blue from London recreating scenes from his film Rembrandt as a favor to producer Alexander Korda.
NOV 15 1937 The Nebraska Supreme Court rules in favor of ASCAP over state copyright laws which is considered a major victory for the group as it proceeds to similar cases in Florida and Tennessee.
NOV 15 1937 In the absence of Marian Jordan, Fibber McGee & Molly becomes Fibber McGee & Company for the next 17 months until her return to the NBC sitcom. (See Fibber McGee Minus Molly and Tuesday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 15 1938 Hollywood reporter Jimmie Fidler adds a 15 minute report on CBS Tuesday nights for P. Lorrilard’s Old Gold cigarettes to his Friday night quarter hour on NBC sponsored by Procter & Gamble’s Drene Shampoo.
NOV 15 1938 NBC televises the first live outside news event when it comes across an abandoned barracks fire at Wards Island, New York.
NOV 15 1939 WCKY begins identifying itself as located with its new studios in Cincinnati although its 50,000 watt transmitter remains across the river in Covington, Kentucky.
NOV 15 1939 RCA’s two shortwave stations in Bound Brook, New Jersey, WNBI and WRCA, go commercial with United Fruit as their first sponsor for a 15 minute program per day in Spanish.
NOV 15 1939 FCC gathers replies from stations to its inquiry asking if CBS and NBC pressured affiliates to refuse to carry Mutual’s broadcasts of the World Series as charged.
NOV 15 1939 Popular bandleader Artie Shaw, 29, who left the CBS Old Gold Program after calling his fans, “morons,” fails to appear to perform at New York City’s Pennsylvania Hotel and says he’s quitting the music business.
NOV 15 1940 NBC, CBS and the Independent Radio Network Affiliates trade group file their final briefs with the FCC in reply to the Commission’s controversial Network Monopoly Investigation Report of June.
NOV 15 1940 Jerry Colonna, famous from his appearances with Bob Hope, opens at the Los Angeles Paramount Theater for $2,500 a week. (See “Professor" Jerry Colonna.)
NOV 15 1940 Information Please moves from Blue to NBC where it will remain until 1946. (See Information Please.)
NOV 15 1940 FCC sends an unprecedented telegram to the 227 members of the Independent Radio Network Affiliates, (IRNA), considered an intimidation by the industry and a prelude to another Chain-Monopoly probe.
NOV 15 1940 New York Supreme Court Justice Aaron Steuer refuses the American Guild of Musical Artists’ request for an injunction against the AFM’s demand that all AGMA members join their union.
NOV 15 1941 The 243 stations affiliated with NBC and Blue broadcast the three hour celebration of NBC’s 15th anniversary starring Jack Benny, Bing Crosby, Edgar Bergen, Burns & Allen, Fanny Brice, Red Skelton and others.
NOV 15 1942 Sponsor Serutan moves Drew Pearson’s Sunday night news commentary on Blue to 7:00 p.m. opposite Jack Benny and the number of affiliates carrying Pearson jumps from 27 to 55.
NOV 15 1943 The Blue Network, Inc., conducts its first corporate affiliates’ meeting followed by a party with network entertainment hosted by The Breakfast Club’s Don McNeill and featuring mind reader Dunninger. (See Dunninger.)
NOV 15 1943 NAB President Neville Miller asks the Senate Interstate Commerce Committee to limit the powers of the FCC in controlling broadcast programming.
NOV 15 1943 Transcription-based Keystone Broadcasting System network grows to 200 small market affiliates.
NOV 15 1944 Colgate Palmolive Peet is reported to be “leasing” Kay Kyser’s College of Musical Knowledge on NBC from American Tobacco for two seasons. (See Kay Kyser and Wednesday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 15 1944 The NAB approves $75,000 seed money to establish its Broadcast Measurement Bureau radio circulation study in conjunction with the AAAA and ANA.
NOV 15 1945 Gunther Hollander, 15, a member of the Quiz Kids cast, is killed when struck by a bus in Chicago. (See The Quiz Kids.)
NOV 15 1945 FCC permits the estimated 60,000 amateur, (aka ham), radio operators to resume their normal operations.
NOV 15 1946 ABC commentator Walter Winchell flatly denies rumors that he and his sponsor, Jergens Lotion, are switching networks. (See Walter Winchell and Sunday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 15 1946 Reacting to the Soviet government shutting down its shortwave facilities to U.S. network newsmen, CBS orders correspondent Richard C. Hottelet to close its Moscow bureau and return home.
NOV 15 1946 Bulova’s WNEW/New York City boasts at becoming the country’s top grossing independent station at $2.3 Million in fiscal 1946.
NOV 15 1946 Six CIO unions petition the FCC to investigate why Milwaukee stations WTMJ and WISN refuse to sell or give them time to discuss the eleven month Allis-Chalmers strike.
NOV 15 1948 CBS begins negotiations with Phillips H. Lord to purchase his properties Mr. District Attorney, We The People, Gangbusters and Counterspy.
NOV 15 1948 KFI/Los Angeles resumes broadcasts of NBC’s Chesterfield Supper Club when its series of nightly frost warnings to farmers concludes.
NOV 15 1948 The St. Louis Star-Times, owner of KXOK-FM, begins fitting 1,300 city buses and streetcars with receivers to pick up its programs of music, news and limited commercials.
NOV 15 1948 Newsman John Cameron Swayze, 42, introduces the new ten minute NBC-TV Nightly News at 7:00 p.m.
NOV 15 1950 AFRA officials approve settlement with the networks calling for raises of approximately 15 to 20% for and actors in New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles.
NOV 15 1950 ABC revives detective series Rogue’s Gallery as a Wednesday night co-op show with Paul Stewart taking the title role created by Dick Powell. (See Dick Powell.)
NOV 15 1951 CBS Radio conducts a 15-hour campaign on its 206 affiliates for Red Cross blood bank donations resulting in pledges for 300,000 pints.
NOV 15 1952 CBS dedicates its new eight acre Television City in Hollywood with a 60 minute prime time show starring Jack Benny, Lucille Ball & Desi Arnaz, George Burns & Gracie Allen, Art Linkletter and other network stars.
NOV 16 1904 John Ambrose Fleming, 55, patents the vacuum tube, (diode valve), to improve the detection of wireless signals.
NOV 16 1926 NBC begins Tuesday night regular service with Network Radio’s first major variety show, The Eveready Hour.
NOV 16 1932 The NAB votes to offer former New York Governor Al Smith $50,000 per year to become radio’s “Czar” and lead its fight against newspapers, ASCAP and censorship.
NOV 16 1933 William Harmon, Chief Engineer at KDKA/Pittsburgh is electrocuted when 3,000 volts pass through his body while he was conducting transmitter experiments.
NOV 16 1934 Hearst Radio buys 10,000 watt WBAL/Baltimore from the Consolidated Gas & Electric Co., for $250,000.
NOV 16 1939 After 18 months on Mutual, The Green Hornet originating from WXYZ/ Detroit, begins its 12 year run on Blue/ABC. (See The Green Hornet.)
NOV 16 1940 FCC, in a rare Saturday statement, says NBC, CBS, Philco, Don Lee and Howard Hughes have pledged a total of $8.0 Million for the development of television.
NOV 16 1940 CBS Washington correspondent Albert Warner wins the first Sigma Delta Chi radio news writing award.
NOV 16 1941 WHDF/Calumet, Michigan, drops its Mutual network affiliation because telephone line quality to the isolated peninsula town isn’t deemed worthy to be broadcast.
NOV 16 1941 The small Oklahoma town of Berwyn changes its name to Gene Autry, Oklahoma. (See Saturday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 16 1942 CBS and NBC prepare appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court after a three-judge Federal Court dismisses their petitions for injunctions restraining the FCC from establishing its proposed Network-Monopoly regulations.
NOV 16 1942 Trade association FM Radio Broadcasting, Inc., dissolves.
NOV 16 1942 WJR/Detroit sells its hourly time signals from midnight to 5:00 a.m. to the Bulova Watch Co.
NOV 16 1943 FCC approves the sale of WMCA/New York City by Edward Noble to Nathan Straus, required for Noble’s purchase of the Blue network and WJZ/New York City
NOV 16 1944 Mutual commentator Boake Carter, 46, suffers a stroke and dies shortly after his broadcast.
NOV 16 1945 The Chicago Tribune labels NBC commentator Robert St. John, “…a deliberate and contemptible liar,” for a speech in which he charged that the Tribune and Hearst newspapers were trying to foment war with Russia.
NOV 16 1946 WNBT(TV)/New York City and WPTZ(TV)/Philadelphia share the telecast of the Army vs. Penn football game in a first time sponsorship split - Atlantic Oil on WNBT and Goodyear Tires on WPTZ.
NOV 16 1948 A Minnesota traveling salesman wins $21,000 on the CBS giveaway show Hit The Jackpot.
NOV 16 1949 FCC proposes that FM stations be required to operate at least as many hours as their AM affiliates and stand-alone FM’s operate a minimum of twelve hours daily after two years on the air.
NOV 16 1950 Chicago court concludes two days of testimony and decides in favor of RCA’s request for a temporary injunction to delay enactment of the FCC’s decision approv-ing the CBS color television system.
NOV 16 1951 Bob Hope files a $2.0 Million libel suit against Life magazine for an article by critic John Crosby claiming that the comedian stole jokes from Fred Allen.
NOV 16 1952 Freeman Gosden & Charles Correll celebrate the 10,000th broadcast of Amos & Andy. (See Amos & Andy - Twice Is Nicer, Multiple Runs All Time Top Ten and Sunday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 16 1953 Mutual’s leading co-op program, Fulton Lewis, Jr.’s nightly newscast, reaches 520 stations.
NOV 17 1926 Brooklyn's Mark-Strand Theater draws big crowds by booking radio acts for its November vaudeville shows: The Vincent Lopez Orchestra, The Happiness Boys, (aka Billy Jones & Ernie Hare), the Ben Bernie Orchestra and Cliff (Ukulele Ike) Edwards.
NOV 17 1932 Samuel Goldwyn releases Eddie Cantor’s hit movie, The Kid From Spain, giving Cantor a promotional boost as host of the top rated Chase & Sanborn Hour on NBC. (See The 1932-33 Season.)
NOV 17 1934 WTIC/Hartford accomplishes the rare feat of feeding two separate 30 minute programs to two different networks simultaneously at 12:30 p.m.: the National Grange Convention to NBC and The Merry Madcaps orchestra to Blue.
NOV 17 1936 Canadian soprano Deanna Durbin, 13, Eddie Cantor’s featured vocalist, receives an offer from the Metropolitan Opera to become effective when she reaches 16.
NOV 17 1937 Variety reports that the radio popularity of Edgar Bergen and his Charlie McCarthy has caused a resurgence in bookings for ventriloquist acts and Punch & Judy shows. (See The 1937-38 Season.)
NOV 17 1939 Jean Hersholt stars in Meet Dr. Christian, the first of six RKO films based on his CBS series. (See Dr. Christian, Wednesday's All Time Top Ten and Radio Goes To The Movies.)
NOV 17 1941 CBS and NBC begin two week coverage of the U.S. Army maneuvers in North and South Carolina.
NOV 17 1941 The U.S. Navy announces its recruitment of men with radio experience for a new device used to locate ships and planes - the Radio Detection & Ranging System, commonly known by the acronym RADAR.
NOV 17 1942 Radio industry groups and unions seek clarifications of the Economic Stabilization edict limiting personal net incomes at $25,000 annually.
NOV 17 1943 Former NBC News & Special Events Director, Captain A.A. (Abe) Schechter is named Radio Officer of the U.S. Air Force in charge of all the branch’s broadcasts.
NOV 17 1943 C.E. Hooper estimates that 80% of the 4,600 television sets in New York City remain in “good or fair” working condition with a nightly audience of eight viewers per set.
NOV 17 1945 ABC replaces the Saturday broadcast of Don McNeill’s Breakfast Club with a two year run of the hour long variety show Wake Up & Smile.
NOV 17 1945 WSM/Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry develops a network spin-off, the hour long Opry House Matinee broadcast Saturday afternoons on Mutual.
NOV 17 1946 KQW/San Francisco gives atheist spokesman Robert Scott a one-time-only Sunday morning half hour normally occupied by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir to state his case and receives 5,000 letters in response, 80% criticizing the move.
NOV 17 1947 FCC opens hearings to determine the utilization of the former television Channel One, (40-55 megacycles), with television, FM and other interests presenting their cases for its use.
NOV 17 1947 President Truman’s afternoon speech opening a special session of Congress is carried by all networks and registers an 18.2 Hooperating. (See Radio's Rulers: Crossley, Hooper & Nielsen.)
NOV 17 1947 Hallicrafters introduces its new table top TV set with 22 tubes and a seven-inch screen for $169.50.
NOV 17 1948 FCC orders hearings on charges that G.A. (Dick) Richards, owner of WJR/Detroit, WGAR/Cleveland and KMPC/Los Angeles, had ordered news reports on KMPC to be slanted against the Roosevelt family, Communists and certain minority groups.
NOV 17 1949 CBS affiliates KOY/Phoenix and co-owned KTUC/Tucson file suit to prevent the network dropping them to affiliate with KOOL/Phoenix and KOPO/Tucson, both owned by CBS personality Gene Autry. (See Saturday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 17 1950 The Committee of 150, formed to combat the accusations of Communism charged by Red Channels and potential subsequent “blacklisting,” meets in New York City to discuss strategy.
NOV 17 1950 FCC reacts to the Chicago court granting an injunction against its decision for the CBS color television system by expressing faith that its ruling will be sustained, “…once the judicial process is completed.”
NOV 17 1952 Thirteen major league baseball clubs deny in Chicago Federal Court that they violated anti-trust laws as claimed by the defunct Liberty Broadcasting System.
NOV 17 1952 DuMont Television chief Dr. Allen B. DuMont charges the NCAA with restraint of trade in allowing the television coverage of only one college football game a week. (See Dr. DuMont’s Predictions.)
NOV 18 1932 Al Jolson, 46, debuts on Blue, beginning nine season multi-network run spanning 17 years. (See Tuesday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 18 1932 The first Academy Awards to be broadcast are carried by NBC from Hollywood beginning at 12:30 a.m. in the East.
NOV 18 1933 Admiral Richard Byrd begins his Saturday night series of Antarctic Expedition programs on CBS via shortwave from his ship off the West Coast of South America. (See The 1932-33 Season.)
NOV 18 1935 Actor William Gillette, 80, comes out of retirement to recreate his role of Sherlock Holmes on CBS’s Lux Radio Theater in celebration his 60th anniversary on the stage and the 36th of his first appearance as the detective. (See Sherlock Holmes.)
NOV 18 1935 Joseph Bulova, founder of the Bulova Watch Company and one of radio’s heaviest advertisers, dies at 84 after a two month illness.
NOV 18 1938 AFRA’s first national convention re-elects Eddie Cantor as its President.
NOV 18 1940 WGAR/Cleveland works with the Nationality Broadcasting Association to establish strict safeguards against any un-American propaganda appearing in its eleven foreign language programs per week.
NOV 18 1940 CBS issues a ban against swing versions of any religious, sacred or gospel song or national anthem.
NOV 18 1940 Sponsor Rinso and agency Ruthrauff & Ryan instruct the cast of Big Town on CBS, performed before a studio audience, that formal or semi-formal dress is required for each broadcast. (See Big, Big Town and Tuesday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 18 1941 All U.S. radio networks close their Berlin news bureaus because of Nazi censorship.
NOV 18 1941 Network Affiliates, Inc., termed the successor to the Independent Network Radio Affiliates to supplant the NAB, is formed in Chicago by 75 stations.
NOV 18 1941 CBS establishes Chicago’s third FM station, W67C, which joins frequency modulation outlets operated by WGN and Zenith.
NOV 18 1941 NBC’s WNBT(TV)/New York City feeds the first live programs to Philco’s WPTZ(TV)/Philadelphia for rebroadcasting, Nick Kenny’s Stars of Tomorrow and wrestling from Ridgewood Arena.
NOV 18 1942 Mutual divulges its weekly co-op rate for five Fulton Lewis, Jr., newscasts per week is the local affiliate’s one time 15 minute rate.
NOV 18 1946 CBS releases an agency study stating a 30 minute program bought on its full network of 155 stations costs $10,654, plus production, but a transcribed program on the same stations would cost $14,850, plus production, pressing and shipping.
NOV 18 1946 DuMont’s WABD(TV) and Chevrolet sign a unique 52 week contract over closed circuit television by station executives in New York City and General Motors officials at DuMont facilities in Washington, D.C. (See Dr DuMont’s Predictions.)
NOV 18 1946 James J. (Jimmy) Walker, 65, former Mayor of New York City and recent radio personality, dies in New York of a brain hemorrhage.
NOV 18 1947 Newsman John Daly, reported jumping to ABC, signs a three year contract renewal with CBS
NOV 18 1947 Lever Brothers refuses to pay for Bob Hope’s shows originating in London and substitutes an all-star comedy show starring Eddie Cantor. Hope retaliates by asking to be released from his contract. (See Tuesday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 18 1951 Edward R. Murrow and Fred Friendly introduce their documentary series See It Now on CBS-TV, the first live coast-to-coast commercial telecast.
NOV 19 1932 Jane Froman headlines a special late night NBC program celebrating WSM/Nashville’s power boost to 50,000 watts.
NOV 19 1934 WBT/Charlotte, North Carolina, places a daily limit of 45 minutes on “hillbilly” or “mountain” music groups.
NOV 19 1934 KXYZ/Houston marks its third anniversary by going off the air so all of its 27 employees can attend the event’s celebration party.
NOV 19 1935 FCC Broadcast Division orders its lawyers to cease their, “...reckless charges” against broadcasters and advertisers of commercial programs, calling some of the charges, “frivolous.”
NOV 19 1936 WJR/Detroit Chief Announcer John Eccles goes home between his air shifts and commits suicide with a pistol.
NOV 19 1937 Bing Crosby severs his eight year ties with Rockwell-O’Keefe, Inc., as the talent agency sues the singer for $33,000 in back commissions from his Kraft Music Hall salaries. (See Thursday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 19 1939 Tallulah Bankhead refuses to appear gratis on Gulf Oil’s Screen Guild Theater, so comedians Fred Allen, Robert Benchley and singer John Charles Thomas volunteer to cover the half-hour. (See Acts of Charity.)
NOV 19 1940 American Tobacco begins transcribed rebroadcasts of its Friday night NBC Information Please programs on the following Tuesday nights on WMCA/New York City, “…as a service to listeners accustomed to that night.” The practice is dropped after two weeks. (See Information Please.)
NOV 19 1941 BMI announces a 25% reduction in license fees for stations signing eight year contracts beginning in March, 1942.
NOV 19 1943 WAIT/Chicago reports its five operators receive up to 700 orders per hour from its noontime 820 Club selling low priced merchandise ranging from flower seeds to fruit cakes to insurance policies.
NOV 19 1944 The four major networks each contribute a half-hour program in a “round robin” spanning two hours to kick off the Sixth War Loan Drive.
NOV 19 1945 The NAB takes steps to intervene on behalf of KGFL/Roswell, New Mexico, in the station’s court case seeking to invalidate the new state tax of 2% on broadcasters’ gross revenues for educational expenses.
NOV 19 1947 John Reed King’s interview/game show from New York City supermarkets, The Missus Goes A’Shopping, becomes a weekday feature on WCBS-TV.
NOV 19 1948 NBC-TV signs accordionist Dick Contino, 18 year old sensation from The Horace Heidt Youth Opportunity Program, to an exclusive contract.
NOV 19 1948 CBS announces that it will accept recorded programs for broadcast before 6:00 p.m.
NOV 19 1948 KFI/Los Angeles cuts three minutes from its broadcast of NBC’s Chesterfield Supper Club at 9:00 p.m. to carry its nightly frost warnings for citrus farmers but sponsor Liggett & Myers refuses to allow the station to broadcast the edited show.
NOV 19 1948 Zenith introduces its new model television sets with a round screen and single automatic tuner.
NOV 19 1949 NBC originates the first of two Grand Ole Opry broadcasts from Europe where 25 stars from the show are on a 17 day tour of U.S. military bases. (See Saturday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 19 1950 Chrysler’s Plymouth Division becomes the first car maker to employ the CBS Bullet Plan of sponsoring four otherwise sustaining half hour programs for two weeks to introduce its 1951 models.
NOV 19 1950 Federal mediators avert a strike of the Television Authority (TVA) union performers - other than musicians and actors - against the four networks and WOR-TV/New York City.
NOV 19 1951 NBC becomes the last of the major networks to open a co-op program and sales department, hiring ABC’s co-op director, Lud Simmel, to establish its department.
NOV 19 1951 Bing Crosby Enterprises announces the its development of a video recording system employing magnetic tape that, “…will reduce the cost of making television shows on film to about one-tenth of what it is today.”
NOV 19 1952 The U.S. Supreme Court hears the “featherbedding” case against the AFM under the Taft Hartley Labor Act. (See Petrillo!)
NOV 20 1929 Family serial (The Rise of) The Goldbergs created by Gertrude Berg begins its 21 season multi-network run on Blue.
NOV 20 1933 The AFM protests to the FRC any easing of requirements that stations identify all recorded music as such because anything less, “…would deceive the listening public.” (See Petrillo!)
NOV 20 1933 KSTP/Minneapolis-St. Paul presents nightly dramatizations of each day’s trial of gangster Roger Touhy charged with the kidnapping of St. Paul brewer William Hamm.
NOV 20 1937 Pope Pius publicly supports Archbishop Edward Mooney’s rebuke of Detroit priest Charles Coughlin’s series of radio addresses. (See Father Coughlin.)
NOV 20 1938 Detroit priest Charles Coughlin creates controversy on his Sunday network broadcast by claiming that the Nazi persecution of Jews is due to their Communist leanings.
NOV 20 1939 Daytime drama Young Dr. Malone debuts for six months on Mutual before moving to CBS for the next 20 years. (See Soft Soap & Hard Sell.)
NOV 20 1939 Unable to get necessary funding from the Wisconsin state legislature, WHA/Madison gives up its attempt to obtain the 50,000 watt facility at 670 kilocycles from NBC’s WMAQ/Chicago.
NOV 20 1940 Phil Spitalny’s Hour of Charm all-girl orchestra, sponsored on NBC each week by General Electric, performs a special concert in Schenectady for the dedication of GE’s new FM station, W2XOY. (See The Hour of Charm.)
NOV 20 1941 German State Radio bans all American news correspondents’ shortwave reports from Berlin.
NOV 20 1944 Veteran Blue Network executive Ed Kobak, 49, succeeds Miller McClintock as President of Mutual.
NOV 20 1944 Don McNeill’s Breakfast Club, already heard on 240 U.S. and Canadian stations daily, is added to morning shortwave schedules directed to Mexico, Central and South America.
NOV 20 1944 Mutual correspondent Seymour Kormen makes the first shortwave report from France since the beginning of World War II with his eyewitness report of the capture of Belfort by French forces.
NOV 20 1944 Frank & Anne Hummert’s soap opera, The Strange Romance of Evelyn Winters, begins its four year run on CBS. (See Soft Soap & Hard Sell.)
NOV 20 1944 Procter & Gamble announces the purchase of the title and rights to its NBC weekday serial The Road of Life from Carl Wester and Irna Phillips for $75,000. The pair had previously sold The Right To Happiness to P&G for $50,000. (See Soft Soap & Hard Sell.)
NOV 20 1944 NBC denies the charge of commentator Upton Close that the network cancelled him because of, “…pressure by Communists and other un-American groups.”
NOV 20 1945 Actor James Waters, who had played Papa on The Goldbergs for 15 years, dies at Woodbridge, Long Island of a cerebral hemorrhage at 72.
NOV 20 1946 UAW President Walter Reuther slams General Motors for spending $5.0 Million a year in radio advertising, saying the money could be better spent in wage increases for union members.
NOV 20 1947 The networks begin coverage from London of the marriage of Princess Elizabeth and Lt. Philip Mountbatten at 6:00 a.m.
NOV 20 1947 Roma Wines drops sponsorship of the CBS series Suspense and the network says the program will no longer be available for advertising alcoholic products. (See Sus…pense! and Thursday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 20 1948 Your Hit Parade adjusts its format, increasing its presentation of the week’s top songs from seven to ten. (See Saturday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 20 1950 CBS-TV notes the first day of its FCC authorized commercial telecasting in color with a special half-hour noontime program starring Arthur Godfrey. (See Arthur Godfrey.)
NOV 20 1950 TVA bans members of AFRA, AGVA or any associated unions from performing free, “…on any television fund raising benefit for any cause.”
NOV 20 1952 Broadcasters protest President-elect Eisenhower’s plans to exclude radio and television reporters from the three-man pool covering his forthcoming trip to Korea.
NOV 20 1952 Plymouth introduces its 1953 model cars with the one-time sponsorship of nine half hour shows on CBS and NBC.
NOV 20 1953 WSM/Nashville hosts 500 disc jockeys from around the country to cele-brate the 28th Anniversary of its Grand Ole Opry. (See Saturday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 20 1953 The Theater Authority strikes an agreement with major charities that it will receive 10% telethon revenues in which its members appear for actors’ charities.
NOV 21 1933 Because NBC affiliate WDAF/Kansas City refuses to broadcast advertising for alcoholic beverages, the touring Ben Bernie troupe is forced to originate its Pabst Blue Ribbon Town from the city's Muehlebach Hotel. (See Tuesday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 21 1937 The Cleveland Press identifies NBC shortwave broadcaster Ernst Kotz as a head of the Nazi propaganda machine in the United States.
NOV 21 1941 Sponsor Lever Brothers begins transcribed repeats of its Burns & Allen Show - broadcast live on 117 NBC stations - on an additional 129 small market stations affiliated with the Keystone Broadcasting System. (See Wednesday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 21 1941 CBS anchor WABC/New York City extends its Friday all-night show with Arthur Godfrey by an hour, to 6:15 a.m. on Saturday. (See Arthur Godfrey.)
NOV 21 1941 RKO releases Look Who’s Laughing featuring NBC comedy stars Edgar Bergen with Charlie McCarthy, Jim & Marian Jordan as Fibber McGee & Molly and Hal Peary as Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve. (See Radio Goes To The Movies.)
NOV 21 1943 Blue commentator Drew Pearson touches off controversy with the first report of U.S General George Patton slapping a shell-shocked American soldier in a Sicilian hospital.
NOV 21 1944 Cowboy star Roy Rogers begins his nine year multi-network run of music and adventure shows.
NOV 21 1944 President Roosevelt nominates Colonel David Sarnoff of the Army Signal Corps Reserve to become Brigadier General.
NOV 21 1945 FCC announces a new television channel allocation plan giving New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles seven channels each, additional channels to another 33 cities and creating a nationwide total of 400 channels..
NOV 21 1945 U.S. House Un-American Activities Committee Chairman John Wood proposes legislation tightly governing “opinionated” newscasts and commentators.
NOV 21 1945 Humorist Robert Benchley, 56, featured on NBC’s Texaco Star Theater, dies in New York City of a cerebral hemorrhage.
NOV 21 1946 The eight Seattle radio stations join forces to broadcast a half-hour documentary outlining the strike that cripples shipping supplies to Alaska.
NOV 21 1947 NBC-TV broadcasts film of the British Royal Wedding four days before the newsreels have it in theaters.
NOV 21 1947 Ballentine Beer obtains television rights to the 1948 New York Yankee home games, including the facilities of DuMont’s WABD(TV) and services of sportscasters Mel Allen and Russ Hodges for $300,000.
NOV 21 1948 Newly elected Pennsylvania Congressman Earl Chudoff tells a WCAU-TV/Philadelphia program that he plans to introduce legislation that puts audience surveys under FCC control and outlaws telephone polling. (See Radio's Rulers: Crossley, Hooper & Nielsen.)
NOV 21 1949 Watchmaker Arde Bulova and partners sell WNEW/New York to a group of investors headed by executives of the station for $2.0 Million.
NOV 21 1949 For the second consecutive year, Texaco sponsors ABC-TV’s four hour coverage of the Metropolitan Opera’s opening night performance and festivities. Six stations carry the broadcast.
NOV 21 1951 Judy Canova signs a five year exclusive radio and television contract with NBC. (See Judy Canova and Saturday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 21 1952 NBC’s WNBT(TV)/New York City offers 30 second Christmas commercials in local programs to retailers for $20.
NOV 22 1933 Major newspapers in Charlotte, Cincinnati, Denver, Miami, New Orleans, Oklahoma City, Salt Lake City, Seattle and Washington ban radio station listings in retaliation for the new CBS News Bureau. (See The Press Radio Bureau.)
NOV 22 1935 NBC’s William (Skeets) MIller leaves San Francisco to make direct reports aboard the maiden flight of Pan American’s China Clipper between the United States and China.
NOV 22 1935 Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll miss their first Amos & Andy broadcast in eight years when they miss connections and fail to appear at WRC/ Washington for the Eastern feed of their show. They did arrive for the 11:00 p.m. second feed. (See Amos & Andy - Twice Is Nicer and Multiple Runs All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 22 1936 A 400 foot piece of rope dangling from an airplane slashes the AT&T transcontinental cable at Denver, cutting network service to the West Coast for 45 minutes.
NOV 22 1937 AFRA bans any stage, screen or radio performers from appearing gratis on any radio program.
NOV 22 1937 Nebraska’s Attorney General files an objection with the state Supreme Court against the injunction won against the state’s anti-ASCAP law handed down the previous week.
NOV 22 1939 Edward Arnold is elected President of the Los Angeles local of AFRA. The popular 49 year old actor also serves as an officer of SAG. (See Mr. President.)
NOV 22 1939 The Los Angeles AFM bans Ray Noble’s orchestra from playing on the CBS show Young Man With A Band, decreeing that Noble’s work on The Burns & Allen Show and his engagement at the Beverly Wilshire are enough for one person. (See Petrillo!)
NOV 22 1942 Blue’s Chicago-based Quiz Kids originates from a Des Moines auditorium charging the purchase of a U.S. War Bond for admission. (See The Quiz Kids.)
NOV 22 1943 Lux Radio Theater’s coverage is expanded to Hawaii when CBS ships transcriptions of the show to KGMB/Honolulu and KHBC/Hilo for broadcast six weeks after its live performance. (See Lux…Presents Hollywood! and Monday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 22 1943 Mutual correspondent Royal Arch Gunnison and his wife, held in a Japanese internment camp since the fall of Manila, are reported released and placed aboard the rescue ship Gripsholm destined for America.
NOV 22 1944 NBC releases the results from a study of 542 homes and businesses with television sets which indicate that an average of 8.2 viewers watched each set on election night.
NOV 22 1945 Elgin Watches presents its fourth two hour Thanksgiving special broadcast on CBS starring Edgar Bergen, Jimmy Durante, Garry Moore, Frances Langford, Don Ameche and others. (See Elgin’s Thanksgiving Shows.)
NOV 22 1945 CBS broadcasts the half-hour Thank Your Stars Victory Loan Show headlined by Bob Hope, Eddie Cantor, Frank Sinatra and Danny Kaye.
NOV 22 1946 Bing Crosby and his sponsor Philco go public with their argument of who will pay the $1,000 to $1,200 per week in ASCAP and BMI music fees for songs performed on ABC’s Philco Radio Time. (See The 1946-47 Season.)
NOV 22 1946 New York Court of Appeals allows music publisher Advance Music to sue American Tobacco claiming that the company’s Your Hit Parade music surveys, “..are inaccurate for failing to recognize our songs” - specifically the song Don’t Sweetheart Me.
NOV 22 1946 Coca Cola drops its sponsorship of Mutual’s Spotlight Bands, (fka Victory Parade of Spotlight Bands). blaming the sugar shortage that curtails production of the soft drink. (See Spotlight Bands.)
NOV 22 1947 Frank Sinatra refuses to sing any up-tempo, heavy rhythmic songs on NBC's Your Hit Parade. (See Saturday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 22 1947 WVET/Syracuse, a new 5,000 watt Mutual affiliate established by 38 Armed Forces veterans, goes on the air.
NOV 22 1948 Bing Crosby begins a 15 minute weekday morning transcribed disc jockey show on WCBS/New York City.
NOV 22 1948 The Ohio-based Standard Network of 14 stations - an extension of the Cleveland Indians baseball network - begins feeding programs from WJW/Cleveland.
NOV 22 1949 RCA introduces its first portable style 45 r.p.m. record player for $49.95.
NOV 22 1953 FCC permits NBC-TV’s Colgate Comedy Hour to originate in color for one time only.
NOV 23, 1930 Westinghouse and General Electric join forces to transmit a broadcast via shortwave from WJZ/Newark to KGO/San Francisco. (See Alchemists of The Air.)
NOV 23 1931 West Coast broadcaster Don Lee is granted an experimental television license for W6XAO/Los Angeles.
NOV 23 1934 Paramount Pictures releases College Rhythm, the feature film debuts of Network Radio stars Joe Penner and Lanny Ross. (See Radio Goes To The Movies.)
NOV 23 1936 WOW/Omaha staff announcer John Chapel is revealed to be the principal beneficiary to a $500,000 trust fund established by the late General A.M. Kuropatkin of the Imperial Russian Army.
NOV 23 1936 FTC orders the makers of Youthray Hair Color Restorer to cease and desist its radio commercial claim that the solution, “…answers the prayers of blondes, brunettes and redheads.”
NOV 23 1936 Lux Radio Theater claims a record for the 23 speaking parts employed in its production of The Story of Louis Pasteur. (See Lux...Presents Hollywood! and Monday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 23 1938 New York City stations WEAF, WOR, WHN, WMCA and WBNX protest to the FCC against watchmaker Arde Bulova’s proposal to buy WPG/Atlantic City and move the station to New York City.
NOV 23 1938 FCC authorizes KRLD/Dallas to increase its power from 5,000 to 50,000 watts.
NOV 23 1939 NBC begins a tradition by televising Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City.
NOV 23 1940 Billy Jones, 53, surviving member of the Happiness Boys duo with Ernie Hare, dies of a heart attack.
NOV 23 1942 The NAB accuses the OWI of raiding small market stations for engineers by offering high salaries and draft deferments for working in its shortwave facilities.
NOV 23 1942 Freeman Gosden & Charles Correll perform their 4,000th episode of Amos & Andy. (See Multiple Runs All Time Top Ten and Sunday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 23 1943 By a unanimous decision the FCC revives its controversial proposal that bans multiple ownership of stations with overlapping signals.
NOV 23 1943 In its first denial since the start of World War II, the U.S. Office of Censor-ship reverses its earlier decision with no reason given and refuses to allow CBS to carry a speech from Mexico City by deposed King Carol of Rumania.
NOV 23 1943 NBC televises a performance of The Ice Follies from Madison Square Garden intended for Army and Navy hospitals without sound when the New York City AFM local refuses to allow its members to be seen or heard. (See Petrillo!)
NOV 23 1944 CBS broadcasts the third of Elgin’s two hour Thanksgiving Salutes To The Armed Forces with Edgar Bergen, Jimmy Durante, Ed Gardner, Don Ameche, Frances Langford and Admiral Chester Nimitz. (See Elgin's Thanksgiving Shows.)
NOV 23 1945 FCC grants another 45 conditional FM licenses bringing its total to 174 in one month’s time.
NOV 23 1946 CBS experiments with broadcasting two football games simultaneously - Michigan vs. Ohio State and Illinois vs. Northwestern - reporting the action of whichever game it considers more exciting at any given moment.
NOV 23 1947 Pioneer West Coast station, NBC-owned KPO/San Francisco, becomes KNBC. (See Three Letter Calls.)
NOV 23 1947 Walter Winchell refuses to allow a Jergens commercial in the middle of his ABC program, “…when I’m hot,” and claims he will run overtime into Louella Parsons’ program, “…if I feel like it.” (See Walter Winchell and Sunday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 23 1947 WCBS-TV/New York City receives critical praise when it televises a two hour performance of The Ice Follies from Madison Square Garden and observes the AFM’s ban on televised music by substituting recorded melodies.
NOV 23 1949 NBC and G.A. Richards break off negotiations for the network to acquire Richards’ KMPC/Los Angeles for a reported $1.25 Million.
NOV 23 1949 Set and costume designers at New York’s television stations go on strike for higher wages.
NOV 23 1950 Cleveland stations assume emergency status as a three day Thanksgiving weekend storm leaves two feet of snow in northeast Ohio.
NOV 23 1950 Edgar Bergen and his Charlie McCarthy make their television debut on a CBS-TV Thanksgiving show.
NOV 23 1951 AFRS adds its fifth, 250 watt mobile radio station serving the U.S. troops in Korea.
NOV 23 1952 Freeman Gosden & Charles Correll celebrate their 10,000th broadcast of Amos & Andy. (See Multiple Runs All Time Top Ten and Sunday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 24 1930 RCA begins daily, closed circuit experimental television broadcasts from its facilities in New York City’s New Amsterdam theater.
NOV 24 1937 Foreign language broadcasting pioneer, John Iraci, General Manager of WOV and WBIL/New York City and owner of WPEN/Philadelphia, dies of a heart attack at age 52.
NOV 24 1938 Eddie Cantor’s Thanksgiving quip, “I’d rather carve a turkey than carve up a map,” is censored as offensive by his Camel cigarette sponsor’s agency, William Esty, but quoted in the holiday remarks by President Roosevelt.
NOV 24 1939 RCA-Victor warns all stations to stop playing its records on December 1st under threat of lawsuit, unless they pay a license fee to do so.
NOV 24 1939 Kay Kyser and his NBC College of Musical Knowledge troupe make their movie debut in RKO’s That’s Right, You’re Wrong. (See Kay Kyser and Wednesday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 24 1940 Bob Hope, in search of fresh audiences, begins a two week trial of giving the Los Angeles Paramount Theater a free dress rehearsal of his Tuesday night NBC show on Sunday night. (See Tuesday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 24 1941 The U.S. Office of Facts & Figures calls on producers of daytime serials to begin weaving defense information into their plots.
NOV 24 1944 The NLRB defeats the AFM’s attempt to force NBC owned stations to hire its members as “platter turners”, ruling in favor of NABET. (See Petrillo!)
NOV 24 1945 NBC launches its Saturday morning Teentimer’s Club starring vocalists Johnny Desmond and June Harvey in 63 cities where affiliates have sold the show to department stores with Teentimer clothing and cosmetics franchises.
NOV 24 1947 Typographers begin a 22 month strike against Chicago newspapers, increasing the newscast schedules of all area stations and providing an advertising bonanza for them.
NOV 24 1947 Failed half-hour sitcom Beulah begins a successful five year comeback as a 15 minute early evening strip show on CBS. (See Multiple Runs All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 24 1947 FCC Commissioner Clifford Durr alleges that the FBI has been forwarding to the Commission, “…unsolicited information about people connected with the radio industry.”
NOV 24 1947 The New York Daily News files a 42 page petition with the FCC protesting that the Commission rejected its bid for an FM license and awarded it instead to the Methodist Church.
NOV 24 1948 FCC’s decision to refuse license renewal to WORL/Boston is reversed by a U.S. Court of Appeals. The Commission threatens to take its case to the U.S. Supreme Court.
NOV 24 1948 FCC receives its first cancellation of a major market AM station when The Baltimore Sun, owner of WMAR FM & TV, decides not to build its approved fulltime AM facility of 1,000 watts at 850 kc.
NOV 24 1948 Cowboy star Gene Autry, owner of KOOL/Phoenix and part owner of KOPO/Tucson and KOWL/Santa Monica, announces plans to buy KTSA/San Antonio for $450,000. (See Saturday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 24 1949 Rudy Vallee and Guy Lombardo headline Hotpoint Appliances’ 60 minute Hotpoint Holiday Thanksgiving Night on CBS.
NOV 24 1949 Longines-Whittenauer Watch Company combines the casts of its Choraliers and Symphonette programs for an hour long Thanksgiving Day simulcast on CBS. Radio and CBS-TV.
NOV 24 1949 Elgin-American spends $100,000 in time and talent charges to present its annual 90 minute Thanksgiving show on NBC-TV starring Milton Berle, George Jessell, the Ritz Brothers and Frances Langford.
NOV 24 1950 Armed Forces Radio Service ships 19½ hours of specially recorded 15 minute Christmas shows by radio stars to 60 AFRS stations overseas and 50 military hospitals in the United States.
NOV 24 1950 FCC grants permission to WOR-TV/New York City to test Subscribervision with Skiatron, Inc. between the hours of 12:00 midnight and 10:00 a.m., transmitting scrambled images to in-home decoding devices.
NOV 24 1951 WJR/Detroit celebrates its 25th anniversary on the air.
NOV 24 1953 FCC decides, after a five year delay, to limit multiple ownerships to seven AM stations, seven FM stations and five TV stations.
NOV 24 1953 The networks grant 30 minutes of radio and television time to Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy to answer criticism by former President Truman a week earlier.
NOV 25 1933 NBC reports that the evening’s broadcast by Admiral Byrd, originated on his ship off Antarctica, is transmitted first by shortwave to Honolulu then on to New York - a distance of 7,000 miles.
NOV 25 1936 FCC approves the sale of WOV/New York City to Arde Bulova, owner of WNEW in that city. (See Three Letter Calls.)
NOV 25 1936 U.S. Education Commissioner John Studebaker predicts that 2,000 radio stations in high frequency bands will be exclusively devoted to educational purposes.
NOV 25 1938 Comedian Phil Silvers, 27, records an audition for Mutual before leaving on a tour with burlesque queen Gypsy Rose Lee.
NOV 25 1938 The Edgewater Beach becomes the first Chicago hotel to pay a radio station, (WBBM), the $100 a week demanded by the city’s stations to cover line costs for band remotes. (See Big Band Remotes.)
NOV 25 1940 The U.S. Supreme Court rules that station license transfer decisions by the FCC cannot be reviewed by the District of Columbia Court of Appeals.
NOV 25 1942 Major General Charles Saltzman, FRC Chairman from 1930 to 1932, dies in Washington at age 72.
NOV 25 1943 NBC presents a special Thanksgiving Day program starring Jack Benny and Bob Hope, Soldiers In Grease Paint, celebrating the second anniversary of USO Camp Shows.
NOV 25 1943 Elgin Watches presents its second two-hour Thanksgiving afternoon all-star show on CBS with Edgar Bergen & Charlie McCarthy, Burns & Allen, Dinah Shore. Ed Gardner, Jose Iturbi and others at a total talent cost of $30,000. (See Elgin's Thanksgiving Shows.)
NOV 25 1944 The FBI In Peace & War begins its 14 season run on CBS sponsored by Procter & Gamble which also sponsors Truth Or Consequences on NBC at the same time. (See FBI vs. FBI and Thursday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 25 1944 WJNO/West Palm Beach begins the process of moving its transmitter because its tower was deemed too close to Morrison Airfield and a menace to military aircraft.
NOV 25 1946 Talent union AFRA and the networks reach a deadlock in negotiations over a demand that networks deny service to stations deemed “unfair” by the union.
NOV 25 1946 Frank & Anne Hummert bring daytime serial Rose of My Dreams to CBS for a two year run. (See Soft Soap & Hard Sell.)
NOV 25 1946 KYW/Philadelphia celebrates its 25th anniversary.
NOV 25 1946 Milton Berle and Henry Morgan host the Radio Directors’ Ball in New York City.
NOV 25 1947 AFM boss James Petrillo lifts the union’s ban on network programs offered for local co-op sale. (See Petrillo!)
NOV 25 1947 With four-letter call signs in short supply, the FCC encourages existing stations adding FM or television outlets to use the same call signs followed by the hyphenated suffix, FM or TV.
NOV 25 1948 Elgin Watches airs its seventh and final two hour Thanksgiving afternoon show, moving it from CBS to NBC headlined by Jack Benny, Red Skelton and Jimmy Durante. CBS counters with a new two hour show starring Arthur Godfrey, Abbott & Costello and Amos & Andy. A special Hooper survey shows CBS won the time period, 11.2 to 8.5. (See Elgin's Thanksgiving Shows.)
NOV 25 1948 ABC-TV presents a two hour Thanksgiving show headlined by George Jessel, Paul Whiteman, Phil Silvers, Connee Boswell, Jerry Colonna and Morey Amsterdam. Film of the show is flown to Chicago for Midwest broadcast four days later.
NOV 25 1948 Seattle’s first television station, KRSC(TV), begins operations with the Washington state high school football championship game.
NOV 25 1948 Returning to the air after installing a new antenna, WATV(TV)/Newark is finally seen in New York City on Channel 13.
NOV 25 1950 Stations in 22 Eastern states assume emergency communication status when a two day, extra tropical storm inflicts blizzards, flooding and hurricane force winds killing over 350 persons.
NOV 25 1950 Transmitter flooding puts WNEW/New York City off the air for 48 hours, winds cripple WMGM’s twin 400 foot towers, WOV loses 75 feet of its tower and WNBC recovers after going off the air briefly with weather and emergency information cut-in’s into network programs every 15 minutes.
NOV 25 1952 President-elect Eisenhower’s press secretary James Haggerty bows to broadcasters’ demands and allows one radio and one television representative to the reporting pool covering Eisenhower’s trip to Korea.
NOV 25 1953 ABC simulcasts The Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis Thanksgiving Party - a late night, two hour special to benefit the Muscular Dystrophy Associations of America - on 92 television and 360 radio stations.
NOV 26 1934 Philadelphia stations WFI and WLIT announce plans to merge with the call sign WFIL.
NOV 26 1934 Co-owned Buffallo stations WGR and WKBW begin alternating a series of 16 five minute newscasts a day with copy supplied by Transradio Press. (See The Press Radio Bureau.)
NOV 26 1935 Warner Brothers Music withdraws its membership from ASCAP saying it will bill broadcasters separately for its music which represents a huge amount of the ASCAP catalog.
NOV 26 1935 WJTL/Atlanta becomes WATL during a four hour celebratory broadcast.
NOV 26 1936 Detectives raid a house bordering the Louisiana Fair Grounds and arrest employees of WJBO/New Orleans who were violating state law by phoning race results to the station for broadcast.
NOV 26 1939 CBS and sponsor Gulf Oil move Screen Guild Theater from Hollywood to New York for three weeks in an effort to improve the quality of, “…lazy and sloppy volunteer acting”, on the show. (See Acts of Charity and Monday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 26 1940 Mutual carries a special episode of The American Forum of The Air from a Washington, D.C., banquet celebrating the 20th anniversary of commercial radio.
NOV 26 1942 Elgin Watches presents its first of its seven annual two hour Thanksgiving afternoon all-star shows, A Thanksgiving Salute To The Armed Forces on CBS, featuring Edgar Bergen, Red Skelton, Don Ameche, Loretta Young, Judy Canova, Spike Jones and others. (See Elgin's Thanksgiving Shows.)
NOV 26 1944 Jack Benny, Rudy Vallee and Orson Welles headline a cast of guests on Joe E. Brown’s Blue Network quiz Stop Or Go to pay tribute to his 44th anniversary in show business.
NOV 26 1944 CBS opens its new $1.5 Million shortwave station in Delano, California, beamed at Japan and Thailand.
NOV 26 1945 Bride & Groom begins its five year run on ABC’s weekday schedule.
NOV 26 1945 FCC Chairman Paul Porter predicts to the U.S. House Appropriations Committee that television will eventually overtake film as the nation’s top entertainment.
NOV 26 1945 Over 1,200 votes are cast in the New York City AFRA local’s election and one board contest results in tie between candidates George Hicks and Jack Costello.
NOV 26 1945 The United Auto Workers applies for FM stations in Detroit, Newark, Chicago, Cleveland, Los Angeles and Flint, Michigan.
NOV 26 1946 WBZ/Boston-Springfield celebrates its 25th anniversary.
NOV 26 1947 The New York Yankees sell 1948 radio and television rights to Ballentine Beer for $300,000.
NOV 26 1948 CBS escalates its talent raid on NBC by signing Jack Benny effective January 2, 1949. (See Sunday at Seven, The 1948-49 Season and Network Jumpers.)
NOV 26 1948 C.E. Hooper, temporarily in the television ratings business, reports that NBC-TV’s Texaco Star Theater starring Milton Berle had broken all radio and television records in November with an 80.7 rating.
NOV 26 1949 Texaco begins its tenth consecutive year of sponsoring Metropolitan Opera broadcasts on ABC.
NOV 26 1946 Transcription companies settle with the AFM granting a 50% raise to a union scale of $27 per hour. (See "By Transcriptipn...")
NOV 26 1947 AFM boss James Petrillo drops the union’s six year ban against network co-op programs. (See Petrillo!)
NOV 26 1947 After meeting with NBC’s top comedians, network executives issue a three page “Code of Good Taste” but also appoint standby announcers with disclaimers if the comics stray from approved scripts and are cut off.
NOV 26 1949 To boost its Christmas sales, Ronson Lighters simulcasts its Mutual quiz show Twenty Questions on two New York City television stations, WNBT(TV) and WOR-TV, for five weeks. (See Twenty Questions.)
NOV 26 1950 The Progressive Broadcasting System network begins operation with 63 affiliates. (See R.I.P. PBS.)
NOV 26 1950 Hormel Meat cancels its Sunday afternoon Girls Corps band program on ABC but keeps it on CBS Saturday afternoons..
NOV 26 1950 After 19 years on NBC’s Sunday night schedule Sterling Drug moves Frank & Anne Hummert’s American Album of Familiar Music to ABC for its final season on the air. (See Gus Haenschen.)
NOV 26 1951 FCC reaffirms its Port Huron Decision of June, 1948, and again rules that broadcasters cannot censor political speech.
NOV 26 1951 KMPC/Los Angeles becomes the Liberty network’s West Coast anchor station.
NOV 26 1951 WCBS-TV/New York City adds a second movie, The Late Late Show, to follow its nightly Late Show after the 11:00 p.m. news.
NOV 27 1930 Legendary series First Nighter begins its multi-network run spanning 23 years - 18 seasons under the sponsorship of Campana Italian Balm hand cream. (See Friday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 27 1935 Sportscaster Bill Stern’s infected broken leg is amputated above the knee. (See Bill Stern.)
NOV 27 1938 Fearing his anti-Semitic remarks, WMCA/New York, WDAS/Philadelphia and Chicago stations WJJD and WIND refuse to carry Father Charles Coughlin’s hour long program without seeing his scripts in advance. Coughlin quickly blames the stations’ Jewish ownership. (See Father Coughlin.)
NOV 27 1939 FCC approves the sale of WKRC/Cincinnati from CBS to The Cincinnati Times Star.
NOV 27 1941 FTC assigns agents to examine the books of Blue, CBS, Mutual and NBC to learn if the network(s) gave preferential rates or considerations to favored clients.
NOV 27 1944 After 17 years on NBC, Cities Service Petroleum changes the format of its Cities Service Concert to become Highways In Melody. (See Friday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 27 1946 Network Radio is barred from the Washington’s Federal Courts building at the start of the contempt trial of United Mine Workers boss, John L. Lewis.
NOV 27 1946 Audiences are banned from the CBS Old Gold Show after Frank Sinatra fans interrupted the previous week’s broadcast with their screaming.
NOV 27 1946 Los Angeles producer of transcribed programs Larry Finley proposes selling his shows through a network of record distributors who would call on stations in their cities with sales materials, audition shows and wire recorders. (See R.I.P. PBS.)
NOV 27 1946 Convinced that television will not harm attendance, all three New York City baseball teams agree to televise their 77 home games - the Giants on NBC, the Dodgers on CBS and the Yankees on DuMont. No financial terms are released.
NOV 27 1947 Elgin’s annual Thanksgiving afternoon show on CBS hosted by Don Ameche stars Jack Benny, Red Skelton, Jimmy Durante, Yehudi Menuhin, Margaret Whiting and others is reviewed by Variety as, “,,,flavorsome.” (See Elgin's Thanksgiving Shows.)
NOV 27 1948 Don McNeill’s Breakfast Club cast travels to Kansas City for a non-broadcast performance to benefit the Children’s Mercy Hospital.
NOV 27 1949 Hormel introduces its all-girl band and chorus for a five year run on ABC.
NOV 27 1949 Bob Hope and Los Angeles radio personality Johnny Grant co-host a one time, five minute radio show on ABC’s full network of 272 stations sponsored by RCW Enterprises’ circus balloon toys.
NOV 27 1950 WOR/New York City becomes the 58th station to carry the syndicated Lonesome Gal late night quarter hour with the sultry-voiced, masked disc jockey, (Jean King), playing soft, romantic music.
NOV 27 1950 KTLA(TV)/Los Angeles reports syndicating its programs Dixie Showboat, The Spade Cooley Show, Time For Beany, Hollywood Reel and Olympic Wrestling to 42 stations nationwide.
NOV 27 1950 The Television Contractors Assn. estimates that 75% of Philadelphia’s home television antennas were destroyed in the massive weekend storms.
NOV 27 1951 Dinah Shore begins her twice a week, 15 minute series of shows for Chevrolet on NBC-TV at 7:30 - the first network prime time television program hosted by a woman.
NOV 27 1952 KTBC-TV/Austin, Texas, owned by U.S. Senator Lyndon Johnson and his wife begins operations on Channel 7.
NOV 27 1953 NBC settles the $1.25 Million plagiarism suit out of court with Phil Rapp, creator of The Bickersons resulting from a skit on NBC-TV’s Saturday Night Revue.
NOV 28 1932 NBC estimates it will cost $1.85 Million to move and install its facilities from its current headquarters a 711 Fifth Avenue in New York City to the new Radio City complex.
NOV 28 1932 Groucho & Chico Marx debut Flywheel, Shyster & Flywheel for one highly rated season on Blue‘s Five Star Theater. (See The 1932-33 Season.)
NOV 28 1933 Liggett & Myers Tobacco replaces its Chesterfield cigarette popular music programs for a season of quarter-hour concerts by the Philadelphia Orchestra on CBS at 9:00 p.m. Monday through Saturday nights.
NOV 28 1935 Representatives of St. Louis radio stations, car dealers, Auto Club and Safety Council testify against an ordinance proposed by the City Council to outlaw radios in automobiles.
NOV 28 1941 After a two week test WABC/New York City drops its Friday all-night show with Arthur Godfrey and resumes its 1:00 a.m. sign-off. (See Arthur Godfrey.)
NOV 28 1942 Esso sponsors broadcasts of the Army vs. Navy football game on CBS with Ted Husing, on NBC with Bill Stern and on Mutual with Mel Allen and Connie Desmond.
NOV 28 1942 Boston radio stations assume emergency status to cover the 10:30 p.m. Coconut Grove night club explosion and fire that kills 489 of the 750 patrons, many celebrating the Holy Cross football victory over Boston College.
NOV 28 1944 Four striking engineers return to work at WSIX/Nashville, ending a five day strike which forced the station off the air for two days.
NOV 28 1945 The proposal by U.S. House Un-American Activities Committee Chairman John Wood to control “opinionated” newscasts results in a huge backlash of criticism and fears of censorship.
NOV 28 1945 FCC adopts a set of rules and regulations to govern television on 13 VHF channels providing for 406 stations in 140 “Metropolitan” areas and 17 in “Community” districts.
NOV 28 1946 Elgin’s fifth two hour Thanksgiving afternoon show on CBS stars Jack Benny, Jimmy Durante, Garry Moore, Red Skelton, Margaret Whiting and others. (See
Elgin's Thanksgiving Shows.)
NOV 28 1947 Syndicated program producer Fredric Ziv reports sales of its Favorite Story starring Ronald Colman to 275 stations resulting in over $1.0 Million in gross revenues. (See Fred Ziv - King of Syndication.)
NOV 28 1948 Citing no takers in two months, Fred Allen cancels the $5,000 surety bond he posted to insure against the loss claimed by any listeners who missed a Stop The Music! question because of listening to his show. (See Stop The Music!)
NOV 28 1949 Columbia Records reports Edward R. Murrow’s I Can Hear It Now, released in 1948, are still selling at the rate of 1,000 albums per week and Volume Two of the series has an advance sale of $300,000.
NOV 28 1949 DuMont’s weekday afternoon audience participation show Okay, Mother! with host Dennis James becomes the first daytime commercial network television program. (See Dr. DuMont’s Predictions.)
NOV 28 1951 After a three year investigation of the stations’ alleged slanting of news, the FCC approves the license renewals of the G.A. Richards family’s WJR/Detroit, WGAR/ Cleveland and KMPC/Los Angeles.
NOV 28 1951 NBC opens its three day convention in Boca Raton, Florida, for 475 affiliate and network representatives highlighted by a stage show featuring Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis and vocalist Helen O'Connell.
NOV 28 1951 NBC awards silver anniversary plaques to six affiliates that have been with the network since its start: KSD/St. Louis, WCSH/Portland, Maine, WDAF/Kansas City, WJAR/Providence, WTIC/Hartford and WWJ/Detroit.
NOV 28 1952 CBS loses $5.0 Million in Procter & Gamble and Campbell Soup billings with the cancellations of weeknight strips Beulah, The Jack Smith & Dinah Shore Show and Club 15. (See Multiple Runs All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 28 1952 Thirty-one independent film companies report over three dozen film series are in production for television.
NOV 28 1952 ABC-TV’s Western Division leases the entire library of Unity Films - over 65 movies and the Laurel & Hardy comedies - for $250,000.
NOV 28 1953 Socony-Vacuum Oil agrees to sponsor the 22 week season of the NBC Symphony led by Arturo Toscanini for $300,000.
NOV 28 1953 New York radio and television stations increase news coverage as union employees at six of the city’s seven daily newspapers go on an eleven day strike.
NOV 29 1933 KFWB/Los Angeles announces that it will accept liquor advertising after 9:00 p.m. nightly.
NOV 29 1937 CBS-owned WABC/New York City moves its weekday sign-on back one hour to 6:30 a.m. and begins to accept transcribed program elements until 9:00 a.m.
NOV 29 1937 Texas Congressman W.D. McFarlane condemns FCC Chairman Frank McNinch for not answering his question where the Commission got the authority to unseat Commissioner George Payne.
NOV 29 1938 Canada ratifies The North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement, joining the United States and Cuba, leaving Mexico as the only holdout. (See The March of Change.)
NOV 29 1938 KSRO/Santa Rosa, California, is first on the scene after a United Airlines DC-3 crashes into the Pacific Ocean off Point Reyes, killing five persons. KFRC/San Francisco follows and provides reports to Mutual.
NOV 29 1939 FCC permits Arde Bulova to keep WOV as the call sign for his new 5,000 watt station at 1100 kc. in New York City, noting that only 84 stations remain with three call letters. (See Three Letter Calls.)
NOV 29 1941 Durwood Kirby of WENR/Chicago wins the $300 H.P. Davis Award as “America’s Best Announcer” in a 15 minute broadcast carried by NBC and Blue.
NOV 29 1943 Firestone Tire & Rubber celebrates the 15th anniversary of its Voice of Firestone on NBC and launches the Voice of Firestone Televues filmed series on WNBT(TV)/New York City. (See Monday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 29 1943 CBS boasts 17 house-built programs are sold to sponsors although eleven are newscasts or commentaries and two are concerts - leaving Let’s Pretend, The Man Behind The Gun, Mother & Dad and Suspense. (See CBS Packages Unwrapped.)
NOV 29 1944 Procter & Gamble cancels I Love A Mystery after an 18 month weeknight run on CBS. (See I Love A Mystery and I Love A Sequel.)
NOV 29 1944 Aldrich Family star Ezra Stone publishes Coming, Major!! - a humorous novel about his life in the Army. (See The Aldrich Family and Thursday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 29 1944 The U.S. Senate Interstate Commerce Committee reports out a bill prohibiting the AFM from interfering with the broadcasts of non-commercial programs by educational institutions. (See Petrillo!)
NOV 29 1946 AFRA and the networks settle their differences - particularly the “unfair stations” clause demanded by the union - and avert a nationwide strike.
NOV 29 1946 Mutual reports its nightly Fulton Lewis, Jr., newscast, the most successful co-op program in radio, is broadcast and sponsored locally by 210 stations.
NOV 29 1946 FCC reverses its decision that KGFJ/Los Angeles violated its Blue Book provisions and grants a three year license renewal to the station.
NOV 29 1946 FCC grants a 90 day permit to DuMont’s commercial station WTTG(TV)/ Washington, D.C. using the equipment from the company’s experimental W3XWT.
NOV 29 1947 Gillette moves its prized Army vs. Navy football broadcast from NBC to Mutual.
NOV 29 1948 Witnesses at an FCC hearing charge that the networks are pressuring affiliates to take over the national sales representation for their radio and television stations.
NOV 29 1948 Texaco sponsors ABC-TV’s telecast of the full length Metropolitan Opera production of Verdi’s Otello.
NOV 29 1950 Dr. I.Q., The Mental Banker is cancelled by ABC after an eleven year multi-network run. (See Dr. I.Q.)
NOV 29 1950 Singer Dick Haymes and announcer George Fenneman are teamed in the 26-week ABC adventure series, I Fly Anything.
NOV 29 1950 DuMont is the only television network to broadcast Secretary of State Dean Acheson’s prime time speech charging Communism’s threat to world peace and 27 affiliates of the other networks accept its invitation to carry it.
NOV 29 1951 NBC affiliates reject the network’s Economic Study Formula affecting station compensation by a vote of 72 to 22 delegates attending the group’s convention.
NOV 29 1951 Tallulah Bankhead, star of NBC’s Big Show, forces the National Newspaper Service to rename the lead character in its comic strip from Tallulah to Jezebel. (See Tallulah’s Big Show.)
NOV 29 1951 WHLI/Hempstead, Long Island, presents a memorial program for its founder, Elias Godofsky, who died suddenly of a heart attack two days earlier at age 39.
NOV 30 1931 In a rare turnabout, KFAB/Lincoln, Nebraska, drops its NBC affiliation and becomes and independent station.
NOV 30 1938 Columbia Pictures releases Blondie, the first of its 28 films based on the Chic Young comic strip, starring the leads from the popular Blondie radio series, Penny Singleton and Arthur Lake. (See Bloon…deee! and Radio Goes To The Movies.)
NOV 30 1938 NBC West Coast Music Director Meredith Willson, 36, resigns to devote his full time to his duties on NBC programs Good News and The Signal Carnival. (See Meredith Willson.)
NOV 30 1930 The Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. sues WHOM/New York City for $250,000, charging ten causes of libel, delivered in Italian.
NOV 30 1941 New York City stations WNEW and WOV swap facilities - WNEW moving to 1130 kilocycles at 10,000 watts and WOV shifting to 1280 at 5,000 watts.
NOV 30 1941 WOR/New York City pioneers a wireless network from its experimental FM station, W71NY, to six other FM outlets.
NOV 30 1943 FCC Commissioner T.A.M. Craven charges that the Commission. “…is one place where you won’t get freedom of speech,” and, “Government control of radio is the worst control.”
NOV 30 1944 CBS-owned WCBW/(TV) New York City presents a 45 minute all-star music show to benefit the Sixth War Loan Drive featuring Richard Rodgers, Jay C. Flippen, Paul Draper and Frank Parker.
NOV 30 1945 FCC begins acting on its backlog of 700 applications for new stations by granting 13 new 250 watt stations in areas it considers to be “radio poor.”
NOV 30 1945 Mutual broadcasts correspondent Arthur Gaeth‘s recording of Rudolph Hess denying that he’s crazy at the Nuremberg Nazi war criminal trials.
NOV 30 1945 The Lone Ranger from WXYZ/Detroit celebrates its 2,000th consecutive broadcast. (See The Lone Ranger and Multiple Runs All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 30 1946 Your Hit Parade, a New York City based show since it began in 1935, moves to the West Coast. (See Saturday’s All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 30 1947 Longtime CBS commentator William L. Shirer returns to the air with a weekly broadcast on Mutual.
NOV 30 1948 The Philadelphia city council proposes a 5% amusement tax on the gross receipts of all bars and taprooms equipped with television sets.
NOV 30 1949 NBC’s $1.25 Million offer to buy KMPC/Los Angeles is turned down when the network makes “impossible” technical demands.
NOV 30 1949 NBC-TV presents a new two-year contract to its affiliates eliminating charges for its sustaining programs.
NOV 30 1950 Transcription companies and AFRA agree on a new two-year contract guaranteeing union talent a 175% average increase in performance fees. (See “By Transcription…”)
NOV 30 1950 St. Louis stations KSD and KXOK are forced off the air for an hour when a fire melts an electrical cable leading to their transmitters in nearby National City, Illinois.
NOV 30 1951 Transradio Press ceases operations after 17 years of providing news service to broadcasters. (See The Press Radio Bureau.)
NOV 30 1951 WHAS/Louisville censors a portion of Arthur Godfrey Time, (recorded from CBS for afternoon broadcast), in which Godfrey jokingly quizzes a woman about Lydia Pinkham’s tonics for menstrual and menopausal pain. (See Arthur Godfrey.)
NOV 30 1951 NBC Radio announces it will proceed with its Guaranteed Listenership Plan to be offered to advertisers over the objections of its affiliates.
NOV 30 1952 Colgate’s Lustre Crème Shampoo introduces a contest on its CBS sitcom Our Miss Brooks to find America’s Most Beautiful School Teacher. (See Our Miss Arden.)
NOV 30 1953 NBC celebrates the 25th anniversary of The Voice of Firestone with a special simulcast on its radio and television networks. (See Monday's All Time Top Ten.)
NOV 30 1953 Former Michigan Governor Kim Sigler, 59, and three passengers are killed when the plane he was piloting strikes the television tower of WBCK-TV/Battle Creek, near Augusta, Michigan.
GLOSSARY
AAAA = American Association of Advertising Agencies - ABC = American Broadcasting Company - AFL = American Federation of Labor - AFM = American Federation of Musicians - AFRA = American Federation of Radio Artists - AFRS = Armed Forces Radio Service - AFTRA = American Federation of Radio & Television Artists - AGVA = American Guild of Variety Artists - ANA = Association of National Advertisers - ANPA = American Newspaper Publishers Association - AP = Associated Press - ASCAP = American Society of Composers, Authors & Publishers - BBC = British Broadcasting Corporation - BMB = Broadcast Measurement Bureau - BMI = Broadcast Music, Inc. - CAB = Cooperative Analysis of Broadcasting - CBC = Canadian Broadcasting Corporation - CBS = Columbia Broadcasting System - CIO = Congress of Industrial Organizations - CST = Central Standard Time - CWA = Communications Workers of America - EST = Eastern Standard Time - FCC = Federal Communications Commission - FRC = Federal Radio Commission - FTC = Federal Trade Commission - IBEW = International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers - ILGW = International Ladies Garment Workers - INS = International News Service - LBS = Liberty Broadcasting System - MBS = Mutual Broadcasting System - MST = Mountain Standard Time - NAB = National Association of Broadcasters - NBC = National Broadcasting Company - NCAA = National Collegiate Athletic Association - NLRB = National Labor Relations Board - PST = Pacific Standard Time - RCA = Radio Corporation of America - SESAC = Society of European Stage Authors & Composers - TVA = The Television Authority (union) - UAW = United Auto Workers - UP = United Press
Copyright © 2017, Jim Ramsburg, Estero FL Email: [email protected]