OCTOBER IN THE GOLDEN AGE Unless otherwise noted all times are Eastern Time Zone
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OCT 1 1921 Westinghouse opens WJZ/Newark and four days later broadcasts play-by-play reports of the New York Giants vs. New York Yankees World Series.
OCT 1 1931 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer tests the promotional value of radio with a half-hour variety show starring Jimmy Durante in the 12 station Don Lee network from KHJ/Los Angeles.
OCT 1 1932 Independent station KNX/Los Angeles increases power from 10,000 to 50,000 watts.
OCT 1 1933 Chevrolet increases the number of NBC affiliates for its Jack Benny Show to 59. (See The 1933-34 Season.)
OCT 1 1933 CBS restores 7½% of the 15% pay cut ordered for all employees in June, 1932.
OCT 1 1934 The Mutual Broadcasting System, (fka The Quality Group), is incorporated with founding stations WOR/Newark, WGN/Chicago and affiliates WLW/Cincinnati and WXYZ/ Detroit. (See Mutual Led The Way.)
OCT 1 1934 WLW/Cincinnati, operating with 500,000 watts, raises its basic one hour rate from $1,000 to $1,200.
OCT 1 1934 FCC approves the move of 100 watt KICK at 1370 kc. from Carter Lake to Davenport, Iowa, and the change of its call sign to WOC. (See Three Letter Calls.)
OCT 1 1935 Kate Smith begins a year of 15 minute shows on CBS Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday nights for A&P Stores. (See Kate’s Great Song.)
OCT 1 1936 After seven years sponsorship by its Fleischmann Margarine, Standard Brands switches sponsorship of Rudy Vallee’s Variety Hour on NBC to its Royal Gelatins and Puddings. (See Thursday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 1 1937 Chicago Tribune European correspondent William L. Shirer is appointed Central European representative for CBS News.
OCT 1 1938 Tommy Riggs with his Betty Lou alter ego begin the first of four short multi-network series. .
OCT 1 1938 Jack Benny’s Sunday night NBC show leads all network programs with 113 stations carrying it, Al Jolson’s Lifebuoy Show and Edward G. Robinson’s Big Town, both Tuesday night on CBS, are each second with 112 stations. (See Big, Big Town.)
OCT 1 1939 The NAB puts its sweeping self-regulatory code into effect for all members governing news, controversial issues, children‘s, educational and religious programs and length of commercials.
OCT 1 1939 Mr. District Attorney, Bob Hope’s successful summer replacement, begins a six month run on Blue before moving to NBC for eleven seasons. (See Mr. District Attorney and Wednesday’s All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 1 1940 General Electric assumes control of its WGY/Schenectady after nine years of NBC management but the network continues to manage GE”s KGO/San Francisco and KOA/Denver.
OCT 1 1940 Cesaro Petrillo, brother of AFM President James Petrillo, is named Music Director of CBS-owned WBBM/Chicago. (See Petrillo!)
OCT 1 1941 Pioneer Westinghouse station KDKA/Pittsburgh shifts from Blue to NBC but retains the Lowell Thomas nightly newscast on Blue. Former NBC affiliate WCAE moves to Mutual and indie KQV becomes Blue’s affiliate.
OCT 1 1941 Red Barber, Bob Elson and Bill Corum announce Gillette’s broadcasts of the “subway” World Series between the New York Yankees and Brooklyn Dodgers on Mutual which registers an overall 32.8 CAB rating.
OCT 1 1941 The labor dispute between the AFM and NBC affiliate WSMB/New Orleans is settled allowing NBC to promptly reinstate late night dance band remotes on the full network. (See Big Band Remotes.)
OCT 1 1941 Vocalist Ginny Simms, 28, leaves the Kay Kyser troupe for a successful solo career. (See Kay Kyser.)
OCT 1 1942 The U.S. Office of War Information buys eight hours daily on four stations in Anchorage, Fairbanks, Juneau and Ketchikan to entertain and communicate with troops stationed in Alaska.
OCT 1 1942 Crossley’s Cooperative Analysis of Broadcasting, (CAB), radio listening surveys add telephone coincidental polling to its established recall method. (See Radio's Rulers: Crossley, Hooper & Nielsen.)
OCT 1 1943 Art Linkletter, 31, becomes the host of People Are Funny for the stunt show’s next 18 successful years. (See People Are Funny.)
OCT 1 1943 A second round of newsprint limits mandated by The Federal Printing & Publishing General Limitation Order of 1942 takes effect forcing newspapers to reduce their size.
OCT 1 1944 The elaborate Radio Hall of Fame opens its second season on Blue with a bi-coastal program featuring Ed Wynn, his son Keenan, the Andrews Sisters, Ted Husing, Alexander Knox, Geraldine Page, Alfred Newman’s orchestra and Paul Whiteman’s orchestra. (See Radio Hall of Fame.)
OCT 1 1944 Jack Benny opens the 1944-45 season on NBC for his new sponsor, American Tobacco’s Lucky Strike cigarettes, with guest Fred Allen while General Foods’ Kate Smith Hour on CBS counters with the cast of Can You Top This? and Helen Hayes as guests. (See Lucky Gets Benny and Sunday At Seven.)
OCT 1 1944 CBC’s Trans-Canada network carries the new Jack Benny show without commercials because American Tobacco doesn’t market products in the country.
OCT 1 1944 Fred Allen, 50, ordered by doctors not to resume his Texaco Star Theater on NBC, is replaced by tenor James Melton and pianist Alec Templeton. (See The Feud and Mr. Allen Meets Mr. Benny.)
OCT 1 1944 Like NBC’s earlier move, CBS bans “cow-catcher“ and “hitch-hike” commer-cials at the beginning and end of its programs.
OCT 1 1944 Ted Cott’s Crime Quiz becomes the first program from WNEW/New York City to be adapted on WABD(TV) in an agreement that will feature a television version of one of the radio station’s programs every three weeks.
OCT 1 1945 The first Armed Forces Radio Service station within the Japanese home-land, Radio Okinawa, begins operations.
OCT 1 1945 FCC rescinds its 1942 wartime order and mandates all stations resume full-power operation.
OCT 1 1945 Newspaper acquisitions of radio stations continue as The Philadelphia Bulletin buys WFIL/Philadelphia for $1,900,000 and The Boston Herald -Traveler pur-chases WHDH/Boston for $850,000.
OCT 1 1945 After 15 years on the CBS weekday morning schedule, the network moves its 30 minute American School of The Air to 5:00 p.m.
OCT 1 1945 NBC’s Carnation Contented Hour broadcast is cancelled when its musicians fail to appear on orders from AFM President Petrillo claiming that the network’s New Orleans and Chattanooga affiliates are “unfair.” (See Petrillo!)
OCT 1 1946 Miles Laboratories drops John W. Vandercook from its nightly NBC News of The World and names Morgan Beatty its anchor. (See Multiple Runs All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 1 1947 Billed as the first major attraction to be offered to local stations on a co-op basis, ABC debuts The Abbott & Costello Show at a reported average cost per affiliate of $300.
OCT 1 1947 Jack Benny’s former summer replacement, The Jack Paar Show, begins a 13 week run on ABC.
OCT 1 1947 AFRA refuses to allow Cecil B. DeMille to appear on ABC’s Vox Pop because the union expelled him three years earlier.
OCT 1 1947 AFM head Petrillo lifts his ban on the Rochester Symphony Orchestra appearing on the Continental FM Network after sponsor Stromberg-Carlson defies the ban with non union musicians. (See Petrillo!)
OCT 1 1947 NBC-TV refuses to carry a video version of Mutual’s Meet The Press, claiming the program is, “…too controversial.”
OCT 1 1948 Dinah Shore rejoins Eddie Cantor’s NBC show for $1,250 a week with the option to appear anywhere else she wants. (See Sunday's All Time Top Ten and Wednesday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 1 1948 CBS discontinues its shortwave service to the 126 station Cadena de los Americas network serving Central and South America.
OCT 1 1948 The U.S. State Department takes over programming The Voice of America from NBC and CBS and supervision of the 225 employees involved.
OCT 1 1948 William Sweets, National President of the Radio & Television Directors Guild union, resigns after refusing to sign the group’s non-Communist affidavit.
OCT 1 1949 Carnation Contented Hour star Buddy Clark, 37, is killed in a Los Angeles private plane crash. (See The 1949-50 Season.)
OCT 1 1950 NBC-TV interconnects 14 more stations bringing live network television to 47 cities - reaching as far west as Kansas City and Jacksonville to the south.
OCT 1 1951 Chicago stations WLS and WENR readjust their time sharing of the 50,000 watt facility at 890 k.c. - Prairie Farmer magazine’s WLS has weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., 6:00 to 6:30 and 7:00 to 8:00 p.m., all day Saturdays and Sundays from 8:00 a.m. until noon. ABC’s WENR has all the remaining hours.
OCT 1 1951 Mutual reports that 3,250 local sponsors bought its Game of The Day broad-casts on a co-op basis during the 1951 baseball season.
OCT 1 1951 Switching problems at KELP/El Paso are blamed for the mayor’s speech on city water problems being fed for broadcast to 182 Liberty Broadcasting System affiliates.
OCT 1 1951 CBS-TV carries the first baseball game seen coast-to-coast, the New York Giants vs. Brooklyn Dodgers National League playoff game.
OCT 1 1952 Gillette sponsors the World Series on 560 Mutual affiliates plus 100 inde-pendent stations in addition to 64 NBC-TV affiliates and four television stations with ownership interests in Mutual.
OCT 1 1952 DuPont introduces the television adaptation its legendary 18 year radio series, Cavalcade of America, on NBC-TV.
OCT 1 1952 Ralph Edwards adapts his NBC human interest radio show, This Is Your Life, on NBC-TV.
OCT 1 1952 The FCC’s first competitive television license “post thaw” hearings since September, 1948, begin in Washington.
OCT 1 1952 Comedian Abe Burrows is among 41 persons linked with the Communist party in U.S. House Un-American Activities Committee hearings into party infiltration in broadcasting.
OCT 1 1953 Singer Frank Munn, 58, billed for years as The Golden Voice of Radio, dies of a heart attack. (See Frank Munn’s Golden Voice.)
OCT 1 1953 U.S. Treasury Department reports 2,900 stations donate 15 minutes each week for its transcribed Guest Star program to sell Defense Bonds.
OCT 1 1953 Sportscaster Vin Scully, 26, replaces Red Barber for NBC-TV’s World Series coverage when Barber refuses to work for $250 a game.
OCT 1 1953 Mutual begins its new schedule of 18 “Star“ programs given to affiliates for local sale in lieu of cash payment for carrying network shows. Included in the weekly package are Mr. District Attorney, Counterspy, Bulldog Drummond, High Adventure with George Sanders, Starlight Theater starring Madeline Carroll and Edward Arnold’s Spotlight Story.
OCT 1 1953 The NBC Research Department estimates that 25.23 Million television sets are in use across the country and 55% of American homes are equipped with receivers.
OCT 2 1932 Elaine Carrington’s longtime multi-network weekday serial Pepper Young’s Family begins as the weekly half-hour drama Red Davis on Blue. (See Soft Soap & Hard Sell.)
OCT 2 1932 Columbia Records offers local stations an early form of "Per Inquiry" com-mercials: Four minute transcribed programs selling its records through the stations for 25 cents each with the stations keeping 8½ cents of every sale.
OCT 2 1933 The Columbia News Service opens under the direction of former CBS publicity chief Paul White in response to the Associated Press edict banning its members from providing news to broadcasters.
OCT 2 1935 Ford Motors sponsors the Detroit Tigers vs. Chicago Cubs World Series on 194 U.S. and Canadian stations, paying $100,000 to Major League Baseball for the rights and $225,000 to the four networks.
OCT 2 1935 Transradio Press posts a reporter and shortwave transmitter at World Series games to provide play by play accounts of the games to its clients.
OCT 2 1935 WGN/Chicago unveils its new $600,000 studio complex and 588 seat theater in the downtown Loop next to its ten year old studios in the Tribune Tower.
OCT 2 1938 Meredith Willson’s Signal Oil Carnival, a weekly NBC West Coast program, becomes the first show originated from the network’s new Hollywood studios at Sunset & Vine. (See Meredith Willson.)
OCT 2 1939 With increased expenses covering the European war, United Press invokes the emergency clause in its contracts calling for a 12½% increase in subscription fees; International News Service follows with a 15% increase.
OCT 2 1939 NBC issues new network rate card raising the rates for 30 affiliates and lowering them for 15. (See NBC's Chinese Menu.)
OCT 2 1939 Carleton E. Morse’s I Love A Mystery opens sporadic eight season multi-network run. (See I Love A Mystery and I Love A Sequel.)
OCT 2 1939 Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce recreate their signature film roles as Holmes and Watson on Blue in the first of seven multi-network seasons of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. (See Sherlock Holmes.)
OCT 2 1940 FCC authorizes KYW/Philadelphia to increase its power to 50,000 watts.
OCT 2 1940 Gillette pays Major League Baseball $100,000 for broadcast rights to the Cincinnati vs. Detroit World Series and another reported $150,000 for Mutual’s 253 station network to carry the games reported by Bob Elson and Red Barber.
OCT 2 1940 For the second year, Mutual permits General Electric’s two shortwave stations, WGEO and WGEA, to relay its World Series broadcasts to Europe.
OCT 2 1940 DuPont announces signing noted playwrights Maxwell Anderson, Robert Sherwood and Marc Connely along with screen stars Loretta Young, Edward Arnold and Charles Laughton for its Cavalcade of America series on NBC. (See The Cavalcade of America.)
OCT 2 1940 WNEW/New York City advertises its disc jockey Martin Block as earning one of the 500 highest salaries in the United States.
OCT 2 1941 Eddie Cantor returns to NBC from CBS for his remaining 14 years in Network Radio. (See Network Jumpers, Sunday's All Time Top Ten and Wednesday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 2 1941 Fanny Brice reunites with Frank Morgan on NBC’s Maxwell House Coffee Time. (See Baby Snooks and Good News.)
OCT 2 1941 Garry Moore, 26, opens Blue’s 26 week Thursday night quiz from Army camps, Service With A Smile.
OCT 2 1942 The FTC orders the makers of Dr. Lyons Tooth Powder to stop using the statement in its radio commercials, “Do as your dentist does - use powder.”
OCT 2 1942 Network Radio prime time program production costs are released - NBC’s Jack Benny at $18,000 is the most expensive per week, Major Bowes’ Original Amateur Hour tops the CBS list at $17,000 and Blue’s is $5,000 for Walter Winchell’s Jergens Journal. (See Major Bowes' Original Money Machine and Walter Winchell.)
OCT 2 1943 The Third War Loan Drive ends with Kate Smith named radio’s top sales-person with $37.0 Million in bonds sold and Ralph Edwards' Truth Or Consequences the runnerup with $34.0 Million in sold bonds to its credit. (See Kate's Great Song and Truth Or Consequences.)
OCT 2 1943 Can You Top This? celebrates its first anniversary on NBC with a special Saturday night “testimonial dinner” broadcast honoring 18th Century joke book king Joe Miller from the historic Murray Hill Hotel beginning at midnight. (See Can You Top This?and Saturday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 2 1944 The NAB announces that it will distribute recordings of The Liberty Bell chiming to all member stations for play on V-E Day. (See V-E Day (Very Early).)
OCT 2 1944 FCC approves the sale of WLIB/New York City to The New York Post for $250,000.
OCT 2 1944 The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation cancels The Jack Benny Program when sponsor Lucky Strike is mentioned outside of regular commercial time which the CBC normally covers with public service spots.
OCT 2 1944 Six members of Ray Noble’s Chase & Sanborn Hour orchestra escape injury in the California forced landing of their Army transport when returning from the NBC broadcast at a New Mexico air base.
OCT 2 1945 Bob Hope’s Pepsodent Show begins the first postwar contest offering major prizes: 20 new Jeeps for best completions of the sentence, “We should not cash in our War Bonds because….” (See Tuesday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 2 1945 Judge Justin Miller succeeds J. Harold O’Brien as NAB President.
OCT 2 1945 Random network work stoppages by the musicians union spur reports that AFM President Petrillo is attempting to form a coalition with the major technical unions - NABET and IBEW - with himself as its head. (See Petrillo!)
OCT 2 1946 Kay Kyser’s College of Musical Knowledge, an hour long program on NBC for nine years, is trimmed to 30 minutes. (See Kay Kyser and Wednesday’s All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 2 1946 After five year hiatus, sponsor Lewis-Howe’s Tums returns giveaway show Pot O Gold to Network Radio on ABC - but cancels after 26 weeks. (See First Season Phenoms.)
OCT 2 1946 Information Please leaves NBC after six seasons and moves to CBS where it plummets in the ratings out of the season’s Top 100. (See Information Please.)
OCT 2 1947 C.E. Hooper conducts its first telephone coincidental survey of television viewers in New York City during the third World Series game between the New York Yankees and Brooklyn Dodgers carried by all three local TV stations for a 34.5 rating.
OCT 2 1947 Al Jolson, 61, returns to The Kraft Music Hall after a 13 year absence, replacing Bing Crosby as the show’s host for two seasons. (See Thursday’s All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 2 1948 A ten-year old girl, taken to a Boston remote of the CBS quiz show Give & Take by her mother, is spotted in the audience by host John Reed King and asked to identify the show’s jackpot sound. She replied, "a pencil sharpener", and won $5,750.
OCT 2 1948 The machine-operated NBC chimes malfunction and continue ringing through the first three minutes of the network’s Morton Downey Show.
OCT 2 1948 Twin City taverns equipped with television sets charge a $2.50 “minimum” during KSTP-TV’s broadcast of the Minnesota vs. Nebraska football game.
OCT 2 1949 Edgar Bergen and Red Skelton join Jack Benny and Amos & Andy by moving from NBC to CBS. (See Network Jumpers and The 1949-50 Season.)
OCT 2 1949 Aldrich Family creator Clifford Goldsmith writes the initial episode of the television adaptation of his sitcom for NBC-TV. (See The Aldrich Family and Thursday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 2 1949 NBC’s KNBH(TV)/Los Angeles expands its operations from five to seven days a week.
OCT 2 1950 Liberty Broadcasting System begins fulltime service offering 10½ hours of programs to its 240 affiliates.
OCT 2 1950 CBS weekday giveaway show Strike It Rich broadcasts for five days from the New England Foods Show at Boston Garden.
OCT 2 1950 A video version of Horace Heidt’s Youth Opportunity Program debuts on CBS-TV.
OCT 2 1950 A six week Pittsburgh newspaper strike stimulates a marked increase in newscasts from the city’s radio and television stations and results in a revenue windfall.
OCT 2 1951 The U.S. State Department confirms the building of ten high powered antennas to combat Soviet jamming and increase the coverage of The Voice of America 14 fold at a cost of $41.2 Million.
OCT 2 1952 The Democratic Party complains to the FCC about the Republicans’ $2.0 Million saturation spot campaign for candidate Dwight Eisenhower in 12 key states, charging collusion among major advertisers who control most of radio and television prime time allowing the GOP’s commercial blitz.
OCT 2 1952 ABC-owned WJZ-TV/New York City uses the premiere of The March of Time to advertise sponsorship of its program with newsman Taylor Grant doing commercials offering it, “…for only $2,300 per week plus time charges.”
OCT 2 1953 NBC changes its system cue preceding its familiar chimes from, “This is NBC, the National Broadcasting Company,” to, “This is the NBC Radio Network.”
OCT 2 1953 CBS introduces Stage Struck, an hour long revue of Broadway attractions hosted by Mike Wallace.
OCT 2 1953 Ziv’s World Broadcasting System sets a new record for transcription services with 1,000 subscribing stations. (See Fred Ziv - King of Syndication.)
OCT 2 1953 Capitol Records ends terminates its transcription service after seven years and proposes to sell the library’s 700 recordings to its subscribing stations. (See “By Transcription…”.)
OCT 2 1953 Edward R. Murrow introduces his interview show, Person To Person, on CBS-TV, beginning the popular half-hour’s eight season run.
OCT 3 1932 NBC boasts that its first nine months’ advertising revenue beats The Saturday Evening Post’s billings for the same period, $20.49 Million to $18.87 Million.
OCT 3 1932 Bulova Watches reports it spends $250,000 annually for ten-second time signal radio announcements.
OCT 3 1934 Ford pays $100,000 to Major League Baseball for the rights to the Detroit Tigers vs. St Louis Cardinals World Series broadcast by CBS, NBC and Blue which add another estimated $275,000 to the auto company’s total bill.
OCT 3 1934 Proponents of non-commercial, educational and religious broadcasting conclude the first week of FCC hearings for their demands to be allocated 25% of broadcast frequencies with the President of The National Educational Association warning of, “…a great and growing dissatisfaction with commercial radio.”
OCT 3 1934 Actress Mary Pickford debuts in a successful 26 week dramatic anthology series on NBC.
OCT 3 1935 More stations leave the Press-Radio Bureau as its rigid structure delays news from the Italian-Ethiopian War. (See The Press-Radio Bureau.)
OCT 3 1935 Chrysler Corp. assembles a 34 station network headed by WOR/Newark and CKLW/Windsor-Detroit for an hour long noontime program headlined by Amos & Andy and Lowell Thomas to introduce its new Plymouth automobile models.
OCT 3 1935 FCC determines the contested 1400 kc. frequency in Brooklyn, New York, be split between the existing WBBC and a new station to be constructed by The Brooklyn Eagle.
OCT 3 1935 Harry Engman Charlot, creator of The Shadow radio series in 1930, is found dead in a New York hotel room at age 31. (See The Shadow Nos.)
OCT 3 1936 Saturday Night Serenade, Pet Milk’s answer to competitor Carnation’s Contented Hour, begins nine season run on CBS.
OCT 3 1937 International Silver's dramatic anthology Silver Theater begins its sporadic ten year run late Sunday afternoons on CBS
OCT 3 1937 Hollywood Playhouse with rotating leads Tyrone Power, Charles Boyer and Herbert Marshall opens on Blue for two season run before moving to NBC for an additional year.
OCT 3 1938 CBS and NBC estimate that that 18 day European crisis in September cost a combined $160,000 in direct expenses plus another $40,000 in rebates to advertisers whose programs were interrupted or preempted.
OCT 3 1938 The Rochester, New York school board cancels its weekly Let’s Sing program for elementary school children on WHEC when the AFM local insists that a standby union piano player be employed. (See Petrillo!)
OCT 3 1939 The NAB Code Committee rules the controversial broadcasts of Catholic priest Charles Coughlin, Unitarian minister Walton Cole and Jehovah Witness spokesman Joseph Rutherford violate the code by blasting other religions and advocating social change. (See Father Coughlin.)
OCT 3 1939 WNEW/New York City cancels Martin Block’s Tuesday night big band remotes when the AFM prohibits the broadcasting of one night stands.
OCT 3 1940 Former Louisiana Governor James Noe, owner of WNOE/New Orleans, is indicted by a Federal Grand Jury for income tax evasion.
OCT 3 1941 NBC surprises the industry by replacing late night band remotes with programs produced by its owned stations and local affiliates. (See Big Band Remotes.)
OCT 3 1941 Bob Hope files for an injunction to prevent his gag writer, Jack Douglas, from submitting material to Red Skelton’s NBC show. (See Tuesday's All Time To Ten.)
OCT 3 1942 The AFM’s recording ban causes General Foods to cancel the Saturday morning transcribed repeats of its Thursday night Aldrich Family broadcasts on 55 stations. (See The Aldrich Family and Thursday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 3 1942 Can You Top This? begins its eleven season multi-network run on NBC for Colgate Palmolive Peet while remaining on WOR/New York City once a week for Colgate‘s Kirkman Soap. (See Can You Top This? and Saturday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 3 1943 General Foods announces a week’s delay starting the new season of Jack Benny’s program on NBC due to the comedian’s extended tour entertaining troops overseas.
OCT 3 1944 Elaine Carrington’s weekday soap opera Rosemary begins its eleven year multi-network run on NBC. (See Soft Soap & Hard Sell.)
OCT 3 1945 Claiming “typographical errors” in its September 20th commercial television channel allocation decree, the FCC “discovers” 90 corrections needed in the 140 metro-politan areas.
OCT 3 1946 NBC-TV pays $6,500 for the Brooklyn Dodgers vs. St. Louis Cardinals playoff game won by St. Louis for the National League championship.
OCT 3 1946 Singer-comedian Dennis Day, 30, debuts in his successful sitcom, A Day In The Life of Dennis Day, destined for five year run on NBC. (See Saturday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 3 1947 FCC announces a record six month schedule of 346 application hearings to be held for new AM, FM and TV stations.
OCT 3 1948 International Silver moves its Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet from NBC to CBS. (See Ozzie & Harriet and Friday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 3 1948 NBC’s Fred Allen offers $5,000 to any listener who can prove he or she lost a prize on his competing program, ABC’s Stop The Music!, as a result of listening to him. (See Stop The Music!)
OCT 3 1948 The prestigious Philco Television Playhouse with a total budget of $17,000 per week debuts on NBC-TV, fed live to seven stations and sent by kinescope film to another ten.
OCT 3 1948 Network Radio veteran Russ Morgan stars in television’s first big band show, a weekly half-hour on NBC-TV sponsored by Admiral Radio & Television Corp.
OCT 3 1949 The Liberty network introduces a two hour game show, Musical Bingo, to fill the afternoon time occupied by baseball broadcasts during the summer.
OCT 3 1949 Cowles Broadcasting sells jts WOL/Washington, D.C., to competitor WWDC.
OCT 3 1949 Mutual revives Carleton E. Morse’s I Love A Mystery for a three season nightly run of new transcribed productions of Morse’s previously broadcast scripts. (See I Love A Mystery and I Love A Sequel.)
OCT 3 1951 CBS makes an unprecedented Network Radio move by offering its Wednesday night Red Skelton Show available for single broadcast sponsorship at a total cost of $23,500 for one show.
OCT 3 1951 NBC gives its affiliates 40 seconds for a “cowcatcher” local commercial prior to the beginning of ten sustaining network programs.
OCT 3 1951 William Gargan begins his five year contract with NBC starring as Barrie Craig, Confidential Investigator on both radio and television. (See The 1951-52 Season.)
OCT 3 1951 Hadacol maker LeBlanc Corporation files for Chapter 10 reorganization in New York City after the FTC charges it with false advertising in claims that it treats cancer, tuberculosis and heart disease. (See Hadacol.)
OCT 3 1952 FCC Broadcast Bureau issues its opposition to the merger of ABC with United Paramount Theaters citing conflicts of interests.
OCT 3 1952 Three bandits raid the New York offices of NBC during the lunch hour and escape with $4,000 in cash.
OCT 3 1952 CBS-TV’s My Friend Irma becomes the first program to originate from the new CBS Television City in Los Angeles. (See My Friend Irma and Monday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 3 1952 Eve Arden and her CBS Radio cast, (Gale Gordon, Richard Crenna, Robert Rockwell, Gloria McMillian and Jane Morgan), bring their hit sitcom Our Miss Brooks to CBS-TV. (See Our Miss Arden.)
OCT 3 1952 Ozzie & Harriet (Nelson) with their two sons, David & Ricky, begin the television adaptation of their radio sitcom on ABC-TV. (See Ozzie & Harriet.)
OCT 3 1952 Ten year radio hit Mr. & Mrs. North debuts on CBS-TV with its radio co-stars, Richard Denning and Barbara Britton. (See Married Sleuths and Tuesday’s All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 4 1922 WJZ/Newark feeds its coverage of the New York Yankees vs. New York Giants World Series to WGY/Schenectady for rebroadcast.
OCT 4 1933 Movie actress Irene Rich,42, begins her eleven year multi-network series of programs for Welch’s Grape Juice on Blue
OCT 4 1935 Striking engineers shut down WDAS/Philadelphia from 1:30 p.m. until 9:15 p.m. when station management signs a new union contract.
OCT 4 1935 Attorneys for KFWB/Los Angeles disc jockey Al Jarvis notify WNEW/Newark that Jarvis has copyrighted the term, “The World’s Largest Make Believe Ballroom,” used by WNEW’s Martin Block.
OCT 4 1936 General Foods moves Jack Benny’s Sunday evening show from the Blue Network to NBC. (See Sunday At Seven.)
OCT 4 1936 Phillips H. Lord introduces his human interest show, We The People on Blue, beginning 15 year multi-network run.
OCT 4 1936 Singing bandleader/comedian Phil Harris debuts as a cast member on the Jack Benny Program.
OCT 4 1937 Frank McNinch becomes Chairman of the FCC and pledges, "...an open and transparent commission."
OCT 4 1937 Mary Margaret McBride, previously known to listeners as Martha Deane on WOR/New York City, begins a CBS commentary series under her own name.
OCT 4 1937 Barney Pressman, owner of Barney’s Clothes, Inc., sues WNEW/New York City for $106,000 claiming the station shorted his series of sponsored programs from two to four minutes each from 1934 to 1936.
OCT 4 1938 FCC backs down and votes to reconsider its profanity test case against WTCN/Minneapolis-St. Paul for carrying the Blue Network dramatization of Eugene O’Neill’s Beyond The Horizon containing the words “damn” and “hell”.
OCT 4 1939 Mutual begins exclusive coverage of the World Series on 151 stations - including 43 NBC affiliates and eleven CBS stations - sponsored by Gillette which paid $225,000 for the rights.
OCT 4 1939 Sponsor Grove Laboratories begins Wednesday night transcribed rebroadcasts of its Monday night Blue Network Adventures of Sherlock Holmes on WOR/New York City. (See Sherlock Holmes.)
OCT 4 1940 NBC’s Board of Directors meets to make its disposed programming chief John F. Royal the new Vice President in charge of Television, Shortwave, FM and Facsimile.
OCT 4 1940 Brown & Williamson’s Wings cigarettes opens its Friday night aviation melodrama Wings of Destiny on NBC with the weekly giveaway of a new Piper Cub airplane to the listener who writes a winning testimonial letter and then answers the telephone when the program calls.
OCT 4 1941 Armstrong Cork Company’s light drama anthology, Theater of Today, begins its 13 year run at noon Saturdays on CBS.
OCT 4 1942 The transcribed West Coast rebroadcast of NBC’s Jack Benny Program is cancelled when the AFM demands that “live talent” be used, despite the show’s offer to double the musicians‘ pay. (See Petrillo!)
OCT 4 1942 Fred Allen’s Texaco Star Theater on CBS is cut from 60 to 30 minutes. (See Sunday's All Time Top Ten and The 1942-43 Season.)
OCT 4 1942 Arthur Godfrey, morning personality on CBS-owned WJSV/Washington and WABC/New York City, joins the cast of Fred Allen’s Texaco Star Theater until Allen fires him after six weeks . (See Arthur Godfrey.)
OCT 4 1942 First Nighter moves from CBS to Mutual - the program’s fourth network in twelve years. (See Friday’s All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 4 1944 President Roosevelt wires a request to AFM chief Petrillo asking that the union’s two year ban on recording be abolished. (See Petrillo!)
OCT 4 1944 Don Dunphy, Bill Slater and Bill Corum cover the Detroit Tigers vs. St.Louis Cardinals World Series on Mutual to over 300 U.S. stations, 47 Canadian outlets and AFRS relays worldwide via six shortwave stations.
OCT 4 1945 Frank Morgan becomes substitute host of NBC’s Kraft Music Hall when Bing Crosby refuses to perform after the network and sponsor refuse to let him pre-record the program. (See Frank Morgan and Thursday’s All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 4 1947 NBC relaxes its ban on recorded programs and allows Truth Or Consequen-ces’ 8:30 p.m. broadcast to be transcribed for later replay on its Pacific Coast network. (See The Late Shift.)
OCT 4 1947 Campana transplants its 17 year old Chicago based anthology series First Nighter to Hollywood and returns it to the CBS Saturday night schedule after an 18 month absence from the air. (See Friday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 4 1947 F. Chase Taylor as Colonel Stoopnagle joins Vaughn Monroe’s Camel Caravan show on CBS in what would be his last two years in Network Radio.
OCT 4 1948 Kay Kyser’s College of Fun & Knowledge debuts as a weekday half-hour at 11:00 a.m. on ABC. (See Kay Kyser.)
OCT 4 1948 Broadway and movie singing star Gordon MacRae, 27, opens The Railroad Hour on ABC for a six year multi-network run. (See The Railroad Hour.)
OCT 4 1948 Bulova’s bi-lingual WOV/New York City opens a production studio in Rome, Italy, to record programs.
OCT 4 1948 Popular bandleader Jan Savitt, 35, dies of a cerebral hemorrhage.
OCT 4 1948 The Original Amateur Hour with host Ted Mack debuts on ABC-TV.
OCT 4 1949 Eddie Cantor begins his series of semi-monthly variety shows on NBC-TV.
OCT 4 1949 The first television version of The Life of Riley begins a one season run on NBC-TV with Jackie Gleason replacing William Bendix in the title role.
OCT 4 1950 CBS introduces A Dollar A Minute with host Bill Goodwin for a 39 week run, inviting listeners to pay a dollar a minute to expound on any subject they choose.
OCT 4 1950 ABC-TV, CBS-TV and NBC-TV each chip in $50,000 to broadcast the 1950 World Series sponsored by Gillette which pays $800,000 for the rights to the games between the New York Yankees vs. Philadelphia Phillies.
OCT 4 1951 NBC-TV begins its four year contract with Gillette for exclusive World Series television coverage.
OCT 4 1951 CBS settles out of court a $750,000 lawsuit brought by Haven MacQuarrie who claimed the network stole the concept for his Noah Webster Says for its short lived We Take Your Word. (See CBS Packages Unwrapped.)
OCT 4 1952 NBC-TV celebrates the opening of its Burbank studios with an hour long special edition of its Saturday night All Star Revue.
OCT 4 1953 NBC introduces Weekend, a two-hour Sunday afternoon news and feature program that continues until the network premieres Monitor on June 25, 1955.
OCT 4 1953 A.C. Nielsen reports that the fifth World Series game between New York and Brooklyn was the most watched sports event ever with an estimated 14,776,000 homes tuned to the event on NBC-TV.
OCT 5 1930 Controversial Detroit priest Charles Coughlin begins six months of Sunday afternoon lectures on CBS before forming his own private networks for the next ten years.
(See Father Coughlin.)
OCT 5 1931 Phillips H. Lord begins a 60 city appearance tour as his radio character, Seth Parker, to promote his new RKO movie, Other People’s Business.
OCT 5 1932 The Shadow becomes the title character in mystery series for one season on NBC followed by another on CBS. Series shift to Mutual and introduction of Lamont Cranston doesn’t occur until 1937. (See The Shadow Nos.)
OCT 5 1934 Hollywood Hotel hosted by Louella Parsons and Dick Powell begins its five year run on CBS, taking advantage of AT&T’s newly lowered line charges that encourage West Coast program originations. (See Dick Powell and Friday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 5 1935 The Associated Press accesses member newspapers that broadcast local news an additional 5% fee.
OCT 5 1935 Anheuser Busch awards cash prizes for new instruments to five municipal bands in Iowa who turn in the most Budweiser bottle caps in a contest sponsored by KRNT/Des Moines over the protests of temperance groups.
OCT 5 1936 FCC begins reallocation hearings in Washington attended by over 250 representatives of networks and stations.
OCT 5 1936 Ford again pays Major League Baseball $100,000 for broadcast rights and sponsors the New York Giants vs. Yankees World Series on all networks.
OCT 5 1936 Lever Brothers buys pre-game and post game spots over CBS stations on World Series opening day to plug that evening’s Lux Radio Theater adptation of the baseball comedy Elmer The Great with Joe E. Brown. (See Lux...Presents Hollywood!)
OCT 5 1936 KHQ/Spokane begins construction of its new 793 foot transmitter tower, the tallest un-guyed tower in the world.
OCT 5 1936 The first coaxial cable is installed between New York and Philadelphia.
OCT 5 1937 MGM balks at Kate Smith’s asking price of $12,500 a week in its search for Marie Dressler’s successor.
OCT 5 1939 FCC officials express immediate and vehement resentment toward a Fortune magazine charge that it conspired with equipment manufacturers, patent holders and broadcasters to retard the technology’s advancement.
OCT 5 1939 After four years on NBC, Parks Johnson and Wally Butterworth move their Vox Pop interview show to CBS for the next eight seasons. (See Monday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 5 1939 A non-broadcast performance of Dr. I.Q. with Lew Valentine draws a capacity audience of 9,000 at the Omaha Municipal Auditorium. (See Dr. I.Q.)
OCT 5 1940 Philco televises the football game between Pennsylvania and Maryland from Philadelphia’s Franklin Field on experimental station W3XE to a downtown hotel where it’s viewed by the press on a nine by seven inch screen.
OCT 5 1941 NBC allows transcriptions of its Jack Benny Program to be used for West Coast delayed broadcasts - but only on its Blue Network affiliates. (See Benny’s Double Plays.)
OCT 5 1941 Jack Benny and Eddie Cantor headline an all-star cast at the It’s Fun To Be Free patriotic rally attended by 17,000 at New York City’s Madison Square Garden.
OCT 5 1942 The AFM bans NBC’s transcribed rebroadcasts of Jack Benny’s show and Duffy’s Tavern on the West Coast. (See The Late Shift.)
OCT 5 1942 Plough, Inc., buys six hours a week on the newly formed ten station Atlantic Coast Network including WNEW/New York City, WPEN/Philadelphia, WWDC/Washington and WFBR/Baltimore.
OCT 5 1942 Standard Brands revives weekday serial The O’Neills for an encore season on NBC. (See Soft Soap & Hard Sell.)
OCT 5 1943 Gillette pays $100,000 to a charity pool designated by Major League Baseball for broadcast rights to the New York Yankees vs. St. Louis Cardinals World Series on Mutual and also shortwaved to Europe and Latin America.
OCT 5 1943 The War Department allows Army Private Mel Allen to join Red Barber in Mutual’s coverage of the World Series.
OCT 5 1943 BBC begins daily reports of the World Series narrated by Mutual’s Don Dunphy on its shortwave stations for the benefit of U.S. Armed Forces personnel stationed overseas.
OCT 5 1943 Newspaper drama Big Town begins its second run. Edward Pawley replaces Edward G. Robinson in the lead role for the next ten seasons on CBS and NBC. (See Big Big Town and Tuesday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 5 1943 President Roosevelt opens the National War Fund campaign with a five minute speech broadcast by the four networks and most independent stations.
OCT 5 1944 America’s Town Meeting on Blue becomes a one time simulcast when produced and televised at WRGB(TV)/Schenectady.
OCT 5 1945 Producers Martha Roundtree and Lawrence Spivak introduce Meet The Press on Mutual, “…to show how press conferences really work.”
OCT 5 1945 Musicians union boss Petrillo threatens to continue pulling members from network broadcasts if disputes aren’t settled with NBC affiliate WAPO/Chattanooga and CBS affiliate WRBL/Columbus, Georgia. (See Petrillo!)
OCT 5 1946 Roy Rogers, Dale Evans and Gabby Hayes begin a 26 week run on NBC replacing The National Barn Dance.
OCT 5 1947 A three way circuit is employed as Jack Benny in Hollywood and Fred Allen in New York participate in ABC’s Quiz Kids program originating from Chicago. (See The Quiz Kids.)
OCT 5 1947 The hour-long Ford Theater hosted by Howard Lindsay debuts on NBC at 5:00 p,m. representing a $1.5 Million investment by the automaker in film, stage and book dramatizations.
OCT 5 1947 Doctors allow comic actress Minerva Pious, suffering from bronchial pneumonia, to perform her role as Mrs. Pansy Neusbaum on the Fred Allen Show if accompanied by a nurse.
OCT 5 1947 President Truman appears in the first telecast from the White House addressing the nation on food conservation. The broadcast is relayed to stations in Washington, New York City, Philadelphia and Schenectady.
OCT 5 1948 Reversing past policy, the FCC denies Special Temporary Authorizations to daytime-only stations to operate past sunset on Election Night.
OCT 5 1949 FM inventor Edwin Armstrong applies to the FCC to increase the power of his WFMN/Alpine, New Jersey to 100,000 watts, enabling his station to cover New York City.
OCT 5 1949 Groucho Marx takes his You Bet Your Life comedy quiz from ABC to CBS. (See Network Jumpers and Wednesday’s All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 5 1949 DuMont feeds its telecast of the World Series to 49 stations which accepted sponsor Gillette’s proposal to broadcast the games at no charge. Mutual lines up 695 stations for its radio coverage of the Series.
OCT 5 1949 Dr. Allen DuMont of DuMont Laboratories predicts that color television will not be commercially available for ten to 20 years. (See Dr. DuMont’s Predictions.)
OCT 5 1950 Groucho Marx begins his eleven season run of 202 episodes of You Bet Your Life on NBC-TV. (See The One, The Only…Groucho! and A John Guedel Production.)
OCT 5 1951 Senior NBC commentator Richard Harkness urges the Truman adminis-tration to assure the press that the World War II Office of Censorship would not be revived for the Korean War.
OCT 5 1951 NBC announces its intent to add 100 to 200 new radio affiliates and restructures its rates to allow advertisers more flexibility in selecting the stations to be used for their programs.
OCT 5 1951 Bandleader Sammy Kaye’s two volume Sunday Serenade Books of Poetry - based on his weekly ABC program - is reported to have sold 250,000 copies for $750,000.
OCT 5 1952 Inner Sanctum Mysteries leaves the air after eight multi-network seasons. (See Inner Sanctum and Monday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 5 1952 Walter Winchell brings his Sunday night Journal to ABC-TV and registers a 14.2 Trendex rating against the 9.2 scored by Edward R. Murrow’s See It Now on CBS-TV. (See Walter Winchell.)
OCT 5 1953 ABC’s Pyramid Plan, the CBS Power Plan, Mutual’s Multi-Message Plan and NBC’s Tandem Plan all are reported successful in convincing advertisers to buy participating spots in Network Radio programs.
OCT 5 1953 Mutual research estimates 27½ million homes were tuned to one or more of its World Series broadcasts and NBC-TV claims 25 million homes watched its coverage of each game.
OCT 5 1953 Fibber McGee & Molly and Can You Top This? are converted by NBC to 15 minute strip shows, broadcast as a block on Monday through Friday nights from 10:00 to 10:30.
OCT 5 1953 NBC introduces The Three Plan, offering participation spots on three of its quarter-hour weekday shows, Second Chance, It Pays To Be Married and Fibber McGee & Molly for as low as $2,000.
OCT 5 1953 Forty CBS affiliates lose the last seven minutes of Suspense when master control at WTOP/Washington suffers a blackout. (See Sus…pense! and Thursday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 5 1953 ABC introduces two 15 minute serials on weeknights, Hollywood Starway and Mike Malloy, Detective.
OCT 6 1924 The third National Radio Conference is convened in Washington, D.C.
OCT 6 1930 Both CBS and NBC announce the banning of phonograph records from network broadcast.
OCT 6 1932 Maxwell House Showboat opens its successful five year run on NBC’s Thursday schedule. (See Thursday’s All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 6 1937 Ford’s refusal to renew its sponsorship agreement with Major League Baseball forces the four networks to broadcast the World Series games as sustaining programs.
OCT 6 1937 Dave Elman’s Hobby Lobby moves from WOR/New York City to CBS, beginning its sporadic 13 year multi-network run.
OCT 6 1937 Colgate-Palmolive-Peet cancels Beauty Box Theater after four multi-network seasons, two in the Annual Top Ten.
OCT 6 1937 Variety reports that CBS, NBC and Blue produce 64 shows a week for studio audiences in New York City with a combined free ticket count of 70,000.
OCT 6 1940 General Foods reduces seven local stations from Jack Benny’s 1940-41 lineup, claiming that the markets affected are sufficiently covered by high powered NBC affiliates in the region. (See Sunday At Seven.)
OCT 6 1940 Listener “whodunit” calls flood WJR/Detroit when a line failure blocks the climax of The Helen Hayes Theater mystery, Love From A Stranger on CBS, forcing the station to obtain the play’s conclusion via teletype to satisfy the callers‘ questions.
OCT 6 1940 Columnist Dorothy Thompson begins a series of Sunday night 15 minute co-op commentaries on Mutual.
OCT 6 1941 AFM boss James Petrillo prohibits dance bands from late night remotes on Blue in retaliation for NBC’s cancellation of remotes. NBC and Blue temporarily share the same affiliate produced programs after 11:30 p.m.
OCT 6 1941 Despite reported threats from the AFM, the non-union Royal Canadian Air Force Band begins a series of bi-weekly concerts on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation network. (See Petrillo!)
OCT 6 1941 Time magazine admits its August error in claiming a radio loss of audience based on Crossley and Hooper survey data. (See Radio's Rulers: Crossley, Hooper & Nielsen.)
OCT 6 1942 Kate Smith makes 30 appearances on CBS owned WABC/New York City from 6:00 a.m. until 2:00 a.m. the following morning and sells $2 Million in U.S. War Bonds. (See Kate's Great Song and Friday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 6 1942 Suspenseful series Lights Out which left NBC in 1939, begins a year’s run on CBS Thursday nights. (See Lights Out.)
OCT 6 1942 A Spanish version of Blue’s crime drama Counterspy begins a Thursday shortwave schedule for rebroadcast by Latin American stations to demonstrate anti-espionage activities in the United States.
OCT 6 1943 Paul W. Kresten, 45, General Manager of CBS, is named its Executive Vice President.
OCT 6 1943 NBC announces its eight year old rule prohibiting NBC staff announcers from performing commercials on Blue and vice-versa will be strictly enforced when the FCC approves the sale of Blue to Edward Noble.
OCT 6 1944 FCC proposes a rule requiring “complete” sponsor identification at the beginning and end of all “non-political” programs distributed on transcription free of charge to stations by political groups.
OCT 6 1945 Meet The Press co-creator Martha Roundtree introduces Leave It To The Girls on Mutual for a four season run.
OCT 6 1945 Truth Or Consequences reunites contestants via shortwave radio with family members and sweethearts serving in the Armed Forces in Japan with a hookup to AFRS facilities in Tokyo. (See Truth Or Consequences and Saturday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 6 1945 Danny Kaye leaves his CBS show for a European tour and guest hosts substitute in his six week absence: Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, Jack Benny, Burns & Allen, Easy Aces and Ed Gardner.
OCT 6 1946 Gillette pays $175,000 plus line charges for the Cardinals vs. Red Sox World Series on Mutual which causes a firestorm of criticism aimed at the announcers chosen by Commissioner Happy Chandler, Jim Britt and Arch McDonald.
OCT 6 1946 The Incomparable Hildegarde leaves NBC’s Raleigh Room to host The Campbell Room for six months on CBS.
OCT 6 1947 The CBS weekday afternoon quiz Winner Take All is offered to affiliates as a co-op program.
OCT 6 1947 Mutual claims its full network coverage of the World Series augmented by 50 independent stations and a 64 Canadian stations reached over 30 million listeners, scoring a seven day average rating of 36.7.
OCT 6 1947 FM inventor Edwin Armstrong files a brief with the FCC charging that the Commission and RCA colluded to hold back the growth of FM.
OCT 6 1948 Gillette pays a record $600,000 for radio and television rights to the Boston Braves vs. Cleveland Indians World Series.
OCT 6 1948 The World Series is again made available to all television stations with access to AT&T network connections - but games in Cleveland are limited to seven cities on its Midwest network and games in Boston are only seen in the eight cities on its East Coast network.
OCT 6 1948 Adolphe Menjou hosts the inaugural five hour program on KFI-TV/Los Angeles debuting on Channel 9.
OCT 6 1949 CBS, led by inventor Dr. Peter Goldmark, officially demonstrates its color television system to the FCC.
OCT 6 1950 Arthur Godfrey hosts General Dwight Eisenhower in a one-time special CBS program, Crusade For Freedom. (See Arthur Godfrey.)
OCT 6 1950 FCC proposes its first “anti-monopoly” ruling since 1942 in limiting any television network from dominating programming in markets with less than four stations
OCT 6 1951 NBC premieres Talent Search - Country Style for a 13 week Saturday night run.
OCT 6 1951 WSM/Nashville reports one announcement on its Grand Ole Opry offering a free picture of singer Jimmy Dickens received 24,964 responses from 31 states. (See Saturday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 6 1951 For the first time in its ten year history Broadcast Music Inc. (BMI) places five songs in Billboard’s Top Ten, led by Because of You, I Get Ideas and Cold, Cold Heart in the top three positions.
OCT 6 1952 Bert Parks brings Double Or Nothing to CBS-TV on Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons while Walter O”Keefe remains host of the show’s radio version on NBC.
OCT 6 1953 Frank Sinatra opens a 26 week run as adventurer Rocky Fortune on NBC.
OCT 7 1922 The first chain broadcast is made via telegraph lines between WJZ/New York City and WGY/Schenectady - the fourth game of the World Series in which the New York Giants defeated the New York Yankees, 4 to 3.
OCT 7 1932 Protests are filed with the State Department over Mexico’s granting 500,000 watts to border station XER/Villa Acuna controlled by infamous “goat gland doctor” John Brinkley.
OCT 7 1934 Eddie Cantor begins the final eight weeks of his contract to host NBC’s highly rated Chase & Sanborn Hour before switching sponsors and networks. (See Network Jumpers and The 1934-35 Season.)
OCT 7 1934 The Ford Sunday Evening Hour of classical concerts begins its eight season run on CBS.
OCT 7 1935 NBC replaces its four daily Press-Radio reports on its seven owned and operated stations east of the Mississipi with newscasts using United Press material and sponsored by Standard Oil of New Jersey aka Esso. (See The Press-Radio Bureau.)
OCT 7 1935 Procter & Gamble begins to trade transcriptions of its serial, Ma Perkins, to small market stations in isolated areas for the time required to broadcast them every weekday. (See Soft Soap & Hard Sell.)
OCT 7 1938 Hearst Radio sells WINS/New York City to advertising executive Milton Biow for $200,000 pending FCC approval.
OCT 7 1939 Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One starts five month run on NBC with host Milton Berle. The short lived show is forerunner to the long-running Can You Top This? (See Can You Top This?)
OCT 7 1940 General Foods introduces its weekday serial Portia Faces Life for its eleven season run alternating between CBS and NBC. (See Soft Soap & Hard Sell.)
OCT 7 1940 Over 1,500 Texas schools endorse the weekday 15 minute Texas School of The Air, produced by the state’s Education Department and broadcast by WFAA/Dallas, KPRC/Houston, WBAP/Fort Worth and WOAI/San Antonio.
OCT 7 1941 Red Skelton, 28, begins his 12 year multi-network run in NBC’s highly rated Tuesday night lineup. (See Tuesday’s All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 7 1941 Lever Brothers introduces its Swan Soap in the premiere of the new Burns & Allen sitcom format on NBC identifying the couple as husband and wife. (See Network Jumpers and Wednesday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 7 1941 Leopold Stokowski, 59, begins an eight week contract to conduct the NBC Symphony’s Tuesday broadcasts on Blue while continuing his guest appearances as conductor of the New York Philharmonic’s Sunday broadcasts on CBS.
OCT 7 1942 CBS introduces The Man Behind The Gun for an 18 month run profiling American troops using U.S. manufactured weapons at war.
OCT 7 1943 FCC Chairman James Fly publicly criticizes the CBS decision to keep opinions out of its newscasts.
OCT 7 1943 AFRA protests the CBS and Blue Network performances of the Blue Jacket Choir of 50 non-union Navy sailors from Great Lakes Naval Training Station.
OCT 7 1945 FCC closes applications for new FM stations.
OCT 7 1945 AFM boss James Petrillo forbids a union organist from playing on a televised Rosh Hashana religious service in Chicago because it would break his “no television” rule. (See Petrillo!)
OCT 7 1945 NBC pre-empts an hour of its afternoon programming for The Parade of Stars promoting its fall lineup.
OCT 7 1945 CBS debuts Request Performance - similar to AFRS’ Command Perfor-mance - with the cooperation of the Masquers Club of show business personalities. (See Command Performance.)
OCT 7 1945 AFM’s Petrillo pulls union musicians from The Prudential Family Hour forcing cancellation of the CBS show because of disputes with CBS affiliates in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Albany and Columbus, Georgia. (See Petrillo!)
OCT 7 1945 After four seasons on CBS and a year’s sabbatical, Fred Allen returns to NBC and to the Annual Top Ten for the first time since 1938. (See Sunday’s All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 7 1946 The Soviet Union denies use of its shortwave facilities to U.S. Network Radio correspondents for direct reports from Moscow.
OCT 7 1947 C.E. Hooper releases its television viewership estimates for the 1947 World Series seen in New York, Philadelphia, Washington and Schenectady - 447,587 viewers in homes, 3,514,749 viewers in bars.
OCT 7 1948 ABC purchases the 20 acre Vitagraph Studios lot in Hollywood from Warner Brothers as the future site for its West Coast radio and television operations.
OCT 7 1949 Niles Trammell, 55, President of NBC since 1940, becomes Board Chairman of the network replacing David Sarnoff who remains Chairman of RCA. Trammell is succeeded by NBC Vice President Joseph McConnell, 43.
OCT 7 1949 Illinois Congressman Noah Mason vows to close the tax loophole that allows Ed Gardner to record NBC’s Duffy’s Tavern in Puerto Rico and evade U.S. taxes. (See Duffy Ain’t Here.)
OCT 7 1949 KVI/Seattle goes off the air for seven hours when its IBEW engineers walk out on strike.
OCT 7 1949 Gillette and NBC-TV carry the World Championship Rodeo from Madison Square Garden for three weeks instead of their normal Friday Night Fights from the arena.
OCT 7 1950 Sing It Again, a CBS Saturday night feature for two seasons, begins a simulcast schedule on CBS-TV.
OCT 7 1952 Mutual claims an average of 22½ million homes tuned to its broadcasts of the World Series.
OCT 7 1952 Lorillard’s Old Gold cigarettes debuts the edited week-old audio of its NBC-TV quiz show Two For The Money starring Herb Shriner on NBC Radio.
OCT 7 1952 CBS-TV introduces the short-lived sitcom, Leave It To Larry starring Eddie Albert, which critics universally pan.
OCT 8 1932 University of Southern California tells Los Angeles stations that only those “recommended by newspapers” will be allowed to broadcast its football games.
OCT 8 1933 Joe Penner, 29, begins his seven year multi-network run on Blue with Fleischmann Yeast ‘s Bakers Broadcast. (See The 1933-34 Season.)
OCT 8 1934 CBS and NBC install teletype machines at Chicago daily newspapers for the prompt delivery of network program changes and press releases.
OCT 8 1935 Future sitcom stars - bandleader Ozzie Nelson, 29, and his band’s vocalist, Harriet Hilliard, 26, are married. (See Ozzie & Harriet and Friday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 8 1937 Dramatic anthology Grand Central Station debuts on Blue and begins its multi-network run spanning 17 years.
OCT 8 1937 The Pennsylvania Supreme Court upholds a lower court ruling in the case of Fred Waring vs. WDAS/Philadelphia and rules that a radio station can’t play an artist’s phonograph records without permission.
OCT 8 1937 A variation of Bingo broadcast on WTHT/Hartford attracts a sudden rush of 27,000 calls in 15 minutes, overloads the city’s phone system and temporarily knocks it out of commission.
OCT 8 1939 Bill Stern begins The Colgate Sports Newsreel’s twelve year multi-network run on Blue. (See Bill Stern.)
OCT 8 1939 The weekly 15 minute sitcom, The Parker Family, starts its five season run on Blue.
OCT 8 1939 Tenor/comedian Dennis Day replaces Kenny Baker in Jack Benny’s cast.
OCT 8 1941 Scores of NBC employees are temporarily denied permission to enter the network’s New York City headquarters when a “bomb scare” causes NBC pages to require network issued identification cards for entrance.
OCT 8 1941 Standard Brands signs comics Bud Abbott & Lou Costello to appear in skits on NBC’s Chase & Sanborn Hour for a reported $1,800 per broadcast.
OCT 8 1942 OWI Director Elmer Davis estimates that radio’s contribution in time to the war effort to date - at 1942 commercial rates - is worth $64.0 Million.
OCT 8 1942 Bud Abbott & Lou Costello begin their first full season of shows on NBC for R.J. Reynolds‘ Camel cigarettes.
OCT 8 1942 Transcribed rebroadcast of NBC’s Rudy Vallee Show on Blue’s 13 Pacific Coast affiliates is cancelled in reaction to threats by musicians union boss James Petrillo. (See Petrillo!)
OCT 8 1942 Ten year old KXKX/Kansas City, (fka KITE), suspends operations and leaves the air.
OCT 8 1943 A New York jury awards Grombach Productions $13,000 in its suit against Fred Waring, Grove Laboratories and Stack-Gobel Advertising for stealing the program concept Your Song.
OCT 8 1943 Walter Winchell declines an invitation to debate CBS News Director Paul W. White over the CBS “un-opinionated” newscast policy. (See Walter Winchell.)
OCT 8 1943 After 14 years in daily 15 minute serial form, Amos & Andy is reintroduced on NBC as a weekly half hour sitcom. (See Multiple Runs All Time Top Ten and Sunday’s All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 8 1943 Jimmy Durante, 50, and Garry Moore, 28, are rewarded by sponsor Camel cigarettes for their seven months of substituting for Abbott & Costello - with their own series on CBS for three seasons. (See Goodnight, Mr. Durante.)
OCT 8 1944 WOR/New York City carries joke book king Joe Miller’s 229th birthday party attended by 200 guests at the Park Lane Hotel, hosted by former Mayor Jimmy Walker and the cast of Can You Top This? beginning at 12:30 a.m. (See Can You Top This?)
OCT 8 1944 The networks interrupt programs to announce the death of 52 year old Wendell Willke, 1940 Republican Presidential candidate.
OCT 8 1944 The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet (Nelson) opens on the CBS Sunday schedule, beginning a ten year multi-network run. (See Ozzie & Harriet and Friday’s All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 8 1944 American Tobacco pays an additional $12,000 in talent fees, studio charges and line costs to bring in Frank Sinatra and Alex Stordahl’s orchestra from New York to guest on Jack Benny’s Hollywood based show. (See Lucky Gets Benny.)
OCT 8 1945 Casts of the CBS interview show Vox Pop and Kay Kyser’s College of Musical Knowledge from NBC arrive in Annapolis for broadcasts celebrating the U.S. Naval Academy’s 100th Anniversary.
OCT 8 1945 Bing Crosby declines a General Motors offer of $25,000 a week to headline an NBC half-hour on Sundays at 5:30 p.m.
OCT 8 1946 ABC, CBS, Mutual and NBC interrupt regular programming throughout the day to report verdicts from the Nuremberg War Crimes trials.
OCT 8 1947 FCC Chairman Charles Denny resigns to become Vice President and General Counsel of NBC.
OCT 8 1948 Mutual President Ed Kobak tells the FCC that giveaway programs that “bribe” listeners to listen instead of entertaining them, “Are not good for radio.”
OCT 8 1948 After a year on NBC’s Sunday afternoon schedule, the prestigious Ford Theater moves to CBS on Friday nights with a premiere adaptation of Madame Bovary starring Marlene Dietrich, Claude Rains and Van Hefflin.
OCT 8 1948 NBC debuts its highly promoted two hour block of Friday night comedy shows starring Jimmy Durante, Eddie Cantor, Red Skelton and William Bendix in The Life of Riley.
OCT 8 1951 To avoid a Justice Department complaint, Major League Baseball drops its “territorial” rules and relinquishes individual control of radio and television rights to each of its teams.
OCT 8 1951 Coca-Cola moves its four-month old Mario Lanza Show from CBS to NBC for a one season run.
OCT 8 1951 Mormon owners of KSL-TV/Salt Lake City refuse to air the CBS programs with beer sponsors: Amos & Andy, Schlitz Playhouse of Stars, The Ken Murray Show and Pabst Wednesday Night Fights.
OCT 8 1952 FCC refuses the Democratic party’s request to investigate Republicans‘ broadcast advertising blitz for the Eisenhower presidential campaign.
OCT 8 1952 The National Television System Committee, (NTSC), tells the Society of Motion Picture & Television Engineers’, (SMPTE), convention that it will unveil a successful compatible color television system in 1953.
OCT 8 1952 NBC executive Ted Cott predicts that 700 radio stations will be “...chased off the air” by television.
OCT 8 1953 Nigel Bruce, famous as Dr. John Watson in Sherlock Holmes movies and radio mysteries, dies at 58. (See Sherlock Holmes.)
OCT 9 1933 NBC begins its month long move to its new ten story, 100,000 sq. foot headquarters at Radio City.
OCT 9 1935 DuPont Chemical’s historical series Cavalcade of America begins four seasons on CBS before moving to NBC for another 13 seasons. (See The Cavalcade of America.)
OCT 9 1937 Movie comedian Jack Haley begins his successful six year Network Radio career.
OCT 9 1937 Censured by his superiors, Detroit priest Charles Coughlin cancels plans to resume his Sunday afternoon series of sermons on an independent network of 36 stations. (See Father Coughlin.)
OCT 9 1939 CBS correspondent Bill Henry and Mutual’s Arthur Mann of Mutual become the first reporters to leave England to cover World War II in France.
OCT 9 1939 Singer Kate Smith begins her 15 minute weekday commentary/interview program, Kate Smith Speaks. The noontime program runs for eight seasons on CBS followed by four seasons on Mutual.
OCT 9 1939 CBS moves its weekday educational half-hour American School of The Air from 2:30 p.m. to 9:15 a.m. with instructions that its affiliates may record it for broadcast at “...more convenient times.”
OCT 9 1939 Veteran network singer Lanny Ross, 33, opens his three year series of weeknight Multiple Run shows on CBS.
OCT 9 1939 Supporters of Detroit priest Charles Coughlin claim that the NAB’s ban against him is ineffective because it doesn’t apply to paid programs already under contract to stations. (See Father Coughlin.)
OCT 9 1939 A.C. Nielsen is reported to be field testing its new Audimeter listener polling device in 200 Midwest homes. (See Radio's Rulers: Crossley, Hooper & Nielsen.)
OCT 9 1941 NBC establishes a strict visitor’s pass policy for technical operations areas of its network headquarters to prevent sabotage.
OCT 9 1941 NBC relaxes its ban against recorded elements, war scenes and actors impersonating world leaders as The March of Time returns to its Blue network after a two year hiatus. The network also agrees to transcribe each week’s program for rebroadcast on GE shortwave stations WGEO/Schenectady and KGEI/San Francisco. (See The March of Time.)
OCT 9 1942 RKO releases Here We Go Again! the sequel to its earlier hit, Look Who’s Laughing, with NBC's Edgar Bergen, Jim & Marian Jordan as Fibber McGee & Molly and Hal Peary as Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve.(See Radio Goes To The Movies.)
OCT 9 1942 NBC commentator Bill Henry leaves for the South Pacific on assignment for The Los Angeles Times.
OCT 9 1942 Mutual commentator Fulton Lewis, Jr., addresses 1,200 at the dedication of WPDQ/Jacksonville on the subject, Are We Winning The War?
OCT 9 1943 Capitol Records follows Decca’s lead and agrees to the AFM's terms of a half-cent royalty per disc to end the recording ban against it. (See Petrillo!)
OCT 9 1944 FCC approves the sale of two Arde Bulova stations, WCOP/Boston and WNBC/Hartford, for $425,000.
OCT 9 1944 Time, Inc., owner of 12.5% of the Blue Network’s stock, moves its March of Time from NBC to Blue. (See The March of Time.)
OCT 9 1944 W.E. Macfarlane, Mutual Board Chairman and the network’s first President, (duties he performed as Business Manager of The Chicago Tribune), dies of a heart attack at age 60.
OCT 9 1946 Former AFRS newscaster Gordon McLendon, 25, and his father apply for a new station in the Dallas suburb of Oak Cliff which will eventually become the Liberty network’s anchor station, KLIF. (See Top 40 Radio's Roots.)
OCT 9 1948 Philco installs a home television set in a Capital Airlines DC-4 airliner and 44 passengers see the complete Game 4 of the World Series from stations along their route from Washington, D.C. to Chicago.
OCT 9 1948 Inaugural program for ABC owned WXYZ-TV/Detroit headlined by Georgie Price, Paul Whiteman and Frances Langford, is networked to five Midwest stations affiliated with ABC-TV.
OCT 9 1950 Commentator Mary Margaret McBride leaves NBC after nine years to join ABC.
OCT 9 1951 RCA begins ten days of public demonstrations of its color television system in New York City and Washington, D.C.
OCT 10 1923 WEAF/New York City feeds its World Series broadcasts by wire to WGY/Schenectady.
OCT 10 1932 Frank & Anne Hummert’s soap opera Betty And Bob begins its eight year multi-network run for sponsor General Mills. (See Soft Soap & Hard Sell.)
OCT 10 1932 Variety divulges the weekly salaries of Network Radio’s top singers - Kate Smith commands $7,500, Rudy Vallee, Ruth Etting and Morton Downey each make $4,500 and Bing Crosby earns $3,000.
OCT 10 1933 WGN/Chicago begins feeding its weekday soap opera Painted Dreams to CBS as well as supplying Little Orphan Annie, The Singing Lady and Clara, Lu & Em to NBC.
OCT 10 1934 FCC adopts its Regional Station Quota System to allocate station grants based on state populations.
OCT 10 1936 CBS announces the purchase of a city block at Sunset and Gower in Hollywood to house its West Coast headquarters and KNX/Los Angeles.
OCT 10 1936 FDR’s mid-term election speech on CBS, Mutual and NBC draws a 24.6 CAB rating. (See Radio's Rulers: Crossley, Hooper & Nielsen.)
OCT 10 1937 KOL/Seattle switches from CBS to Don Lee/Mutual on short notice and KIRO picks up the CBS affiliation with no loss of network programs while KVI/Tacoma remains the market’s second CBS affiliate. (See Three Letter Calls.)
OCT 10 1939 The Aldrich Family begins its successful 13 year multi-network run on Blue. (See The Aldrich Family and Thursday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 10 1939 CBS gives The Los Angeles Times free use of its shortwave connection to the European War Zone for correspondent Bill Henry’s daily reports and receives print credit for Henry’s dispatches on KNX in return.
OCT 10 1940 BMI announces its catalog of non-ASCAP songs has grown to 240,000 titles.
OCT 10 1941 Gangbusters begins a new season on Blue with network orders that it cannot deal with any espionage or sabotage crimes. (See Saturday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 10 1942 NBC uses three control rooms to manage three simultaneous live perform-ances of Edna St Vincent Millay‘s narrative, The Murder of Lidice, accompanied by the NBC Symphony, broadcast in English for network audiences plus Spanish and Portuguese for shortwave listeners in Latin and South America.
OCT 10 1943 Sponsor Serutan laxative increases the size of the Blue Network for Drew Pearson’s Sunday evening commentaries from 55 to 110 affiliates. (See Nets To Order.)
OCT 10 1943 Frank Sinatra’s Broadway Bandbox moves from Monday to Sunday on CBS opposite Edgar Bergen & Charlie McCarthy on NBC and is gone after three broadcasts.
OCT 10 1944 AFM boss Petrillo rejects President Roosevelt’s request to end the two year recording strike. (See Petrillo!)
OCT 10 1944 DuMont Laboratories offers 225,000 shares of its stock for sale at $7.37 per share to fund increased production of television transmitting and receiving equipment. (See Dr. DuMont’s Predictions.)
OCT 10 1945 CBS successfully broadcasts a 525 line, high-frequency color television signal in New York City.
OCT 10 1945 New York Congressman Emanuel Celler introduces a bill to make broad-casting a public utility with the FCC exercising rigid control over programming and award-ing licenses to applicants who promise less commercials.
OCT 10 1945 WDOD/Chattanooga yields to pressure and hires seven union musicians for non-existent jobs. (See Petrillo!)
OCT 10 1946 FCC denies The Press Wireless Service use of domestic shortwave facilities to transmit program material to its client stations.
OCT 10 1948 Standard Oil of New Jersey pays $1.2 Million to sponsor the New York Philharmonic’s Sunday afternoon season of 90 minute concerts on CBS.
OCT 10 1948 Amos & Andy, the first headliners recruited in Bill Paley’s “talent raid” on NBC, premiere on CBS. (See Network Jumpers, Sunday's All Time Top Ten and Multiple Runs All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 10 1949 RCA’s demonstration of its compatible color television system before the FCC is termed “disappointing” - complicated by the late arrival and setup of equipment.
OCT 10 1949 CBS-TV makes its weekday period from 4:00 to 5:30 p.m. available for participating sponsors similar to an earlier move by NBC for three hours every Saturday evening.
OCT 10 1951 Mystery series The Casebook of Gregory Hood is cancelled after four multi-network seasons.
OCT 10 1951 FCC permits Paramount Pictures to test Juke Box Television - a pay TV system using a coin operated device to unscramble video pictures - for 90 overnight periods on its KTLA(TV)/Los Angeles.
OCT 10 1952 Signifying the growing use of filmed programs for television, 32 production companies report the filming of 41 shows for the networks and syndication.
OCT 10 1952 The television version of CBS’s Life With Luigi creates controversy among Italian-American groups for creating “unsympathetic” stereotypes. (Life With Luigi and Tuesday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 10 1953 NBC introduces the quiz show Know Your NBC’s, challenging contestants on their knowledge of the radio network’s programs and personalities.
OCT 10 1953 Liggett & Myers boasts that its Chesterfield cigarettes sponsored Dragnet theme song is a big enough hit to be played on Your Hit Parade, sponsored by competitor American Tobacco’s Lucky Strike. (See Jack Webb's Dragnet and Smoke Gets In Your Ears.)
OCT 11 1931 The American Album of Familiar Music begins its 19 year run on NBC followed by a 20th encore season on ABC. (See Gus Haenschen on this site.)
OCT 11 1932 Helen Morgan, Willie & Eugene Howard and Leon Janney headline CBS Talkies of The Air a two hour demonstration of inventor Elmer Myers’ “cold light” television production process, transmitted to a single 26-inch tube receiver by CBS experimental station W2XAB/New York City.
OCT 11 1933 Over network objections the NAB convention votes to petition the FRC to adopt a shortened statement required to identify all transcribed program elements and phonograph records.
OCT 11 1935 A spanner wrench used in aircraft is found on the grounds of WNEW’s transmitter in Carlstadt, New Jersey, and believed to have been dropped from a plane, breaking the 300 pound red beacon atop the station’s 424 foot tower.
OCT 11 1937 Calling AFRA, “..a union of no importance,” Chicago AFM local president James Petrillo enrolls 28 CBS employees and aims to organize all announcers, producers and sound effects men as AFM associate members. (See Petrillo!)
OCT 11 1939 Kate Smith & Ted Collins file a $100,000 suit for unauthorized use of her name against The Smith Company, manufacturers of lingerie sold as Kate Smith Stouts.
OCT 11 1941 FCC votes 4-2 to ban network option time beginning November 15 - both CBS and NBC plan to protest.
OCT 11 1943 Bob Hope appears on NBC’s Cavalcade of America to report on his recent trip entertaining troops in England, Africa, Sicily and Iceland. (See Hope From Home.)
OCT 11 1944 Muzak proposes to the FCC allocation hearings the establishment of three FM channels for its non-commercial, “nickel a day”, subscription service offering classical music, pop music and talk programs.
OCT 11 1944 NBC loses the first three minutes of Eddie Cantor’s Time To Smile remote broadcast from an Army camp when a fuse blows in the program line.
OCT 11 1945 CBS throws the FCC television hearings into chaos with its successful demonstration of a high-frequency color system and the announcement that manufacture of the system’s components has begun.
OCT 11 1946 Newsman Don Goddard, fired by NBC in February, sues the network for $78,270 in back wages from his four lost sponsored programs.
OCT 11 1946 NABET engineers end their 17 day strike against Westinghouse stations and settle for a $7 a week raise.
OCT 11 1947 The Joan Davis Show becomes the first variety show offered by CBS for local co-op sponsorship.
OCT 11 1948 Arthur Godfrey, 45, announces that he’s leaving his local morning radio shows on CBS-owned WTOP/Washington and WCBS/New York City, (that pay him $200,000 annually), to focus on his CBS network programs. (See Arthur Godfrey.)
OCT 11 1948 Daytime serial The Brighter Day begins its eight year multi-network run on NBC.
OCT 11 1948 Westinghouse fails in its attempt to link AT&T’s East Coast and Midwest television networks for the final World Series game in Boston using its B-29 Stratovision plane flying over Pennsylvania and trying to connect with WEWS(TV)/Cleveland.
OCT 11 1948 The U.S. Supreme Court refuses to hear the case of WSAY/Rochester, New York against the ABC and Mutual networks which affiliated with the station’s com-petitors rather than sell programs to WSAY on an ala carte basis.
OCT 11 1949 Sponsor Lever Brothers allows Bob Hope to pre-record his NBC show on an experimental basis. (See Tuesday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 11 1949 WOR-TV/New York City goes on the air over Channel 9 with a two hour daily schedule.
OCT 11 1950 Former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt celebrates her 66th birthday by beginning a 45 minute weekday talk show on WNBC/New York City with guests David Sarnoff and Fred Allen.
OCT 11 1950 By a 5-2 vote the FCC reaffirms its decision favoring the CBS system of color television technology effective November 20 - RCA promptly files suit against the decision in federal court.
OCT 11 1950 CBS signs Procter & Gamble to sponsor television’s first weekday soap opera, The First Hundred Years, scheduled for a December premiere.
OCT 11 1950 A U.S. Army Psychological Warfare spokesman suggests broadcasting propaganda from guided missiles over foreign countries.
OCT 11 1951 General Tire announces plans to merge its Yankee and Don Lee networks with R.H. Macy’s WOR AM-FM-TV/New York City, which will give it 58% ownership of Mutual.
OCT 11 1953 After 15 years at 8:00 p.m. on the NBC and CBS Sunday night schedules, Edgar Bergen & Charlie McCarthy are moved 90 minutes ahead to 9:30 on CBS.
OCT 12 1932 Goodman and Jane Ace make an undisclosed cash settlement to Arthur Church, Manager of KMBC/Kansas City, releasing Easy Aces from the exclusivity contract that Church held on their program. (See Easy Aces.)
OCT 12 1933 CBS begins a 13 week contract with General Motors for a mix of 15 minute programs six nights a week at 9:15 p.m.
OCT 12 1934 Former NBC Vice President George McClelland, 39, commits suicide with a pistol in his New York City office.
OCT 12 1934 The CBS Artists Bureau boosts its commission rate paid by talent for its booking agency services to 20%.
OCT 12 1934 KVOS/Bellingham, Washington, is reported to have lifted World Series broadcasts off the air from Canada, broadcast them and inserted local commercials to replace network originated Ford commercials.
OCT 12 1937 Frank & Anne Hummert’s mystery melodrama Mr. Keen, Tracer of Lost Persons debuts on Blue as a 15 minute weeknight strip show, beginning five season run before moving to CBS..
OCT 12 1939 The Music Publishers Protective Assn. joins the AFM in protesting RCA-Victor and Decca Records’ plans to charge stations for playing their records.
OCT 12 1940 Cowboy star Tom Mix, 60, dies in a car wreck - but the Blue Network announces that its weekday kids’ serial, The Tom Mix Ralston Straight Shooters will continue, “…as a tribute to his memory.” (See Serials, Cereals & Premiums.)
OCT 12 1940 Crosley Broadcasting dedicates its new 50,000 watt shortwave station WLWO with a directional beam toward South America with an effective power of 600,000 watts.
OCT 12 1942 AFM President Petrillo brags, “The ban stands!” when a Chicago Federal Judge rules against the government’s anti-trust suit to end the lengthy strike against record and transcription companies. (See Petrillo!)
OCT 12 1942 NBC and P. Lorillard’s Old Gold cigarettes donate the winning bid of $71,200 for broadcast rights to the Sgt. Joe Louis vs. Pvt. Billy Conn Heavyweight Championship fight to the Army Emergency Relief Fund. The afternoon bout is recorded for shortwave broadcast later by GE’s WGEA and WGEO/ Schenectady.
OCT 12 1942 British stage and radio star Gracie Fields 44, debuts on U.S. Network Radio with a nightly five-minute show on Blue.
OCT 12 1942 NBC introduces Victory Volunteers, a weekday morning patriotic series featuring casts of its daytime serials in specially written five chapter, quarter hour dramas.
OCT 12 1942 KODK, a ten watt station operated by civilians and soldiers based in Kodiak, Alaska, reports receiving records and transcriptions, “..by the bushels,” after its appeal to the radio industry for program material.
OCT 12 1942 President Roosevelt’s Fireside Chat on all networks regarding ships and shipping registers a 55.8 Crossley/CAB rating. (See Radio's Rulers: Crossley, Hooper & Nielsen.)
OCT 12 1943 FCC approves NBC’s sale of its Blue Network to Edward Noble for $8.0 Million.
OCT 12 1943 The U.S. Office of Censorship relaxes its ban on broadcasting weather reports, allowing government issued forecasts only and restricting mention of barometric pressure or wind direction.
OC 12 1943 The radio industry begins a month long promotional tour of 116 cities with sales presentations touting broadcast advertising to retailers.
OCT 12 1944 The International Ladies Garment Union becomes the first labor union to buy network time for a political cause - 15 minutes on four consecutive Thursday nights advocating the re-election of President Roosevelt.
OCT 12 1945 The NAB complains to that the FCC's proposed regulation requiring all television stations to broadcast programs for six hours a day, seven days a week, would be currently impossible to honor.
OCT 12 1946 C.E. Hooper founding stockholder and Vice President John Whitridge, 41, drowns near Northport, Long Island, when his boat overturns in high wind.
OCT 12 1947 Captain Tom Healy, conductor of early radio’s Stamp Club programs which claimed as many as 3.0 Million members, dies in a Fort Worth hospital at 56.
OCT 12 1948 Negotiations collapse to end the nine month AFM strike against record and transcription companies. (See Petrillo!)
OCT 12 1950 Newspaper editorial criticism of the FCC’s decision favoring the CBS color television system is immediate, estimating that conversion costs to current set owners would be $500 Million.
OCT 12 1950 George Burns & Gracie Allen begin their eight season sitcom run on CBS-TV. (See The 1950-51 Season.)
OCT 12 1951 Congressional action barring use of Government funds to be used for recruitment forces the Armed Services to cancel a planned $1.5 Million in radio and television advertising in the 1951-52 season.
OCT 12 1951 FCC majority declares the National Citizens Advisory Board For Radio & Television proposed by Connecticut Senator William Benton to be “undesirable” and “involves the dangers of censorship.”
OCT 12 1951 Arthur Godfrey establishes a foundation for American University in Washington, D.C., to give aviation students 35 hours of flying time instruction. (See Arthur Godfrey.)
OCT 12 1952 Arthur Godfrey hosts the Sunday afternoon 60-minute Red Cross blood appeal, Roll Up Your Sleeves, broadcast by the four radio networks plus NBC-TV and CBS-TV.
OCT 12 1953 Mutual approves the delayed broadcast of its nightly half hour adventure shows at 9:30 a.m. by affiliate KSUN/Bisbee, Arizona, because many of the station’s listeners work overnight shifts in local copper mines.
OCT 13 1934 Detroit broadcaster George Storer opens the American Broadcasting Sys-tem network in 14 Eastern and Midwest cities anchored by WMCA/New York, WJJD/ Chicago, WJBK/Detroit, WIP/Philadelphia and WOL/Washington.
OCT 13 1935 Interview show Vox Pop begins its 14 year multi-network run.
OCT 13 1937 FCC votes to abandon its three division structure governing broadcasting, telephone and telegraph - placing all responsibilities and decisions on the seven person commission.
OCT 13 1938 NBC slashes rates on its Blue Network offering discounts up to 20% for complete network coverage.
OCT 13 1938 FCC Chairman Frank McNinch attempts to exclude Commission staff members from the Civil Service merit system which would enable him to fire employees.
OCT 13 1939 NBC appoints retired Brig. Genral Henry Reilly a military correspondent based in Europe.
OCT 13 1939 The NAB Code Committee condemns the broadcasts of militant Detroit priest Charles Coughlin and urges the 44 stations carrying his broadcasts to cancel them.
(See Father Coughlin.)
OCT 13 1939 The NAB Code Committee cites Elliott Roosevelt’s Mutual commentaries for violations by expressing controversial opinion.
OCT 13 1939 The Detroit Street Railway system begins construction of a 250 watt high frequency station to communicate with its drivers.
OCT 13 1940 Newsmen Drew Pearson and Robert Allen introduce the Government of Brazil as their new sponsor on Blue with, “…in the event of any trouble in the Far East, Brazil will be found as always standing shoulder to shoulder with the United States.”
OCT 13 1941 President Roosevelt appoints Alabama lawyer Clifford Durr who has no broadcasting experience to the FCC succeeding Fred Thompson.
OCT 13 1941 NBC stations in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Pitts-burgh, Nashville, Cincinnati, Buffalo, Omaha, Hartford, Oklahoma City, Omaha contribute 38 programs a week replace big band remotes on NBC and Blue.
OCT 13 1942 Veteran actor Roland Young hosts Mutual’s all-star program, Bundles For America’s Gala Radio Show, to encourage used clothing donations for needy families during wartime.
OCT 13 1943 The networks broadcast news of Italy’s declaration of war against Germany with shortwave reports from correspondents in Algiers.
OCT 13 1943 NBC-owned KPO/San Francisco goes off the air for 45 minutes after a tractor’s plow severs the underground cable carrying its signal at its transmitter in Belmont, California.
OCT 13 1944 Professor Joseph Maddy, head of the Interlochen Music Camp, blasts the AFM’s chief James Petrillo at the FCC Allocation Hearings calling him, “…the dictator of American music.” (See Petrillo!)
OCT 13 1947 WWDC/Washington, D.C., asks the FCC for permission to broadcast horse race results and betting prices paid - previously denied by the Commission but broadcast by WWDC competitors WOL, WEAM and WGAY.
OCT 13 1948 AVCO subsidiary Crosley Broadcasting files application with the FCC to purchase WHAS/Louisville from The Louisville Courier-Journal for $1.9 Million.
OCT 13 1948 The International Ladies Garment Workers Union withdraws it applications for FM stations in Boston, Philadelphia and St. Louis but proceeds with its stations in New York City, Los Angeles and Chattanooga.
OCT 13 1949 NBC is reported in negotiation to buy 50,000 watt KMPC/Los Angeles as its West Coast anchor for $1.25 Million replacing long time affiliate KFI.
OCT 13 1950 FCC votes 4-2 to revoke the license of WTUX/Wilmington, Delaware, for carrying horserace results, “…in such a way that would assist bookie operations.”
OCT 13 1950 A Television Broadcasters Association spokesman claims that only one of the country’s 107 stations is equipped to transmit the FCC-approved CBS color system and less than 100 of the nation’s 8,000,000 sets are able to receive it.
OCT 13 1952 CBS correspondent Lou Cioffi, 26, suffers leg wounds while interviewing American servicemen at the Korean war front.
OCT 13 1952 NBC brings Burr Tillstrom & Fran Allison’s TV hit, Kukla, Fran & Ollie, to NBC Radio for a ten-minute weekday afternoon show.
OCT 13 1953 FM inventor Edwin Armstrong introduces FM multiplexing and successfully demonstrates his concept at a news conference.
OCT 13 1953 Longtime Buffalo NBC affiliate WBEN AM&TV switches to CBS following the same move by Norfolk’s WTAR AM&TV - stirring speculation of a CBS raid on NBC for affiliates.
OCT 14 1932 Paramount Pictures releases The Big Broadcast starring CBS personalities Bing Crosby, Burns & Allen, Kate Smith and the Mills Brothers.
OCT 14 1934 Lux Radio Theater debuts on Blue as a Sunday afternoon program from New York with its adaptation of Seventh Heaven starring John Boles and Miriam Hopkins. (See Lux…Presents Hollywood! and Monday's All Time Top Ten)
OCT 14 1934 Jack Benny begins his 21 year string of programs broadcast on Sunday evenings at 7:00 p.m. for a reported opening salary of $5,750 per week. (See Sunday At Seven and Benny’s Double Plays.)
OCT 14 1934 NBC reports a completely sold out status for the first time from 1:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. (See The Gold In The Golden Age.)
OCT 14 1935 Crossley (CAB) polling changes its method from next day recall to same day recall with operators placing calls from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. (See Radio's Rulers: Crossley, Hooper & Nielsen.)
OCT 14 1935 Ohio State University psychology teacher Dr. Frank Stanton, 27, joins the CBS Marketing Research Department. He will become President of the network in eleven years.
OCT 14 1935 General Mills, through its Blackett-Sample-Hummert agency, states that it wants to sponsor as many baseball broadcasts as $500,000 will buy for its Wheaties cereal during the 1936 season .
OCT 14 1937 After six seasons on CBS, The March of Time moves to Blue’s Thursday night schedule. (See The March of Time.)
OCT 14 1939 The first picture of Earl Graser without his Lone Ranger mask appears in a Saturday Evening Post story about the program. (See The Lone Ranger.)
OCT 14 1939 NBC launches a half hour of The Grand Ole Opry from WSM/Nashville on its Saturday night schedule. The program remains on the network for 18 years. (See Saturday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 14 1940 Seven BBC employees are killed when a German bomb hits London‘s Broadcasting House.
OCT 14 1940 WGN/Chicago moves its daily sign-on time back from 7:00 a.m. to 5:30 a.m. to attract a greater farm audience but Prairie Farmer magazine-owned WLS/Chicago remains ahead at 5:00 a.m.
OCT 14 1940 FCC holds an extraordinary closed door meeting with shortwave broad-casters to negotiate rules to prevent facilities from becoming tools of, “…alien propagan-dists, spies and agitators.”
OCT 14 1940 Mutual rules that all 30 minute band remotes must contain at least four BMI or non-ASCAP songs - one more than demanded by Blue, CBS and NBC.
OCT 14 1940 AFM President James Petrillo bans union musicians from playing on late night CBS dance band remotes because of a labor dispute with CBS affiliates WGBI/ Scranton and WADC/Akron. (See Big Band Remotes.)
OCT 14 1941 FCC grants owners of KSFO/San Francisco a license to construct a 100,000 watt shortwave station directed to the Far East and South America to combat
Axis propaganda.
OC 14 1941 WKRC/Cincinnati agrees to broadcast games of the Cincinnati Reds, joining WSAI and WCPO in that city which have covered the team with separate announcing teams for a decade.
OCT 14 1942 WJR/Detroit develops a system using the heat generated by its transmitter tubes to help warm its building and save heating oil.
OCT 14 1943 Edward J. Noble takes control of the Blue Network from RCA, retaining its President Mark Woods and Executive Vice President Ed Kobak.
OCT 14 1943 Jimmy Durante & Garry Moore continue substituting on NBC’s Thursday night Abbott & Costello Show while doing their own new CBS show on Friday nights. Their two show a week schedule for Camel cigarettes continues until mid-November. (See Goodnight, Mr. Durante…)
OCT 14 1944 In a rare Saturday session of the FCC Allocation Hearings, Joseph Ream of CBS asks a delay on any television channel assignments because his network has ordered a high-frequency transmitter capable of quality color pictures and sound on the same channel.
OCT 14 1944 NBC promotes its news coverage by offering “Election Score Cards” to listeners who request them.
OCT 14 1946 President Truman’s speech lifting meat price controls scores a 57.6 Hooperating - equivalent to an estimated 44.5 million adults, his greatest total audience to date. (See Radio's Rulers: Crossley, Hooper & Nielsen.)
OCT 14 1946 Nineteen applicants bid for Los Angeles FM stations at FCC hearings including owners of AM stations KFAC, KFI, KFVD, KFWB, KIEV, KLAC, KNX and KRKD
OCT 14 1947 NBC News of The World scoops the competition in the Coast Guard rescue of 69 persons from a disabled flying boat in the North Atlantic with shortwave reports from the rescue ship. (See Multiple Runs All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 14 1949 FCC Commissioners receive a 50% raise to $15,000 annually.
OCT 14 1949 The Chicago Fedration of Labor shuts down its WCFL-FM which had been simulcasting programs from WCFL-AM.
OCT 14 1949 Paramount Pictures releases My Friend Irma based on the CBS sitcom with its star, Marie Wilson, and the popular new comedy team of Dean Martin, 32, & Jerry Lewis, 23. (See My Friend Irma and Monday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 14 1950 RCA-Victor distributes a letter to its 25,000 dealers protesting the FCC’s adoption of the “...incompatible and inferior (CBS) color television system…scientifically unsound and against public interest.”
OCT 14 1951 ABC begins programming Studio 52, a short-lived series of 60 minute, non-commercial dramas from the CBC on Sunday nights..
OCT 14 1953 Arthur Godfrey’s featured singer, Julius LaRosa, signs with agent General Artists Corporation, despite Godfrey’s warnings that it would violate their working agreement. (See Arthur Godfrey.)
OCT 15 1931 Trade magazine Broadcasting publishes its first issue.
OCT 15 1933 After two and a half years on WMAQ/Chicago, The University of Chicago Roundtable begins its 22 year on NBC.
OCT 15 1934 Decca introduces its low cost, 35 cent phonograph records with a roster of popular radio names including Bing Crosby, Guy Lombardo, the Mills Brothers, Jane Froman, Ethel Waters, Glen Gray and Arthur Tracy.
OCT 15 1934 British bandleader Ray Noble, denied the right to broadcast in the United States by the AFM, signs with Paramount Pictures as a composer-conductor.
OCT 15 1935 FCC’s Broadcast division proposes a plan for creating 25 “super-power” stations of 500,000 watts.
OCT 15 1937 FCC relaxes its requirement of station identification every half-hour by five minutes on either side of the hour, (:55 to :05), and half hour, (:25 to :35).
OCT 15 1937 Chicago musicians union chief James Petrillo confirms that he’s attempting to start a new union for radio announcers, producers and sound effects technicians to compete with AFRA. (See Petrillo!)
OCT 15 1937 RCA introduces its famous Model 77 Uni-Directional (Silver Bullet) microphone.
OCT 15 1937 RCA television images projected to a three by four foot screen in a press demon-stration are called, “…greenish faint and eye-repellent.“
OCT 15 1937 Jim & Marian Jordan as Fibber McGee & Molly appear in their first film, Paramount’s This Way Please. (See Fibber McGee Minus Molly and Radio Goes To The Movies.)
OCT 15 1939 RCA announces its new Orthacoustic high fidelity recording system for transcription services.
OCT 15 1939 Lou Costello rents the Patterson, New Jersey armory seating 8,000 and organizes a benefit show starring Kate Smith, Olson & Johnson and several top band leaders to help the dilapidated church of his childhood to rebuild.
OCT 15 1940 Texaco agrees to sponsor the Saturday afternoon broadcasts of the Metropolitan Opera on Blue beginning in December for a total season cost of $250,000.
OCT 15 1941 Officials from CBS and NBC meet with their affiliates in Chicago in efforts to arrange an agreement with ASCP and avoid the boycott of ASCAP music due to begin on January 1st.
OCT 15 1941 Station trade organization formerly known as The Major Market Group reorganizes as Independent Broadcasters, Inc., with membership limited to network affiliates not owned by any network and not on a clear channel. The group’s first act is to reject ASCAP’s proposals for payment.
OCT 15 1941 All networks give extensive coverage to the two week U.S. Army war maneuvers in Louisiana.
OCT 15 1942 WSIX/Nashville attempts to terminate its five year Mutual affiliation agreement with three years remaining in its contract.
OCT 15 1943 The U.S. government drops all anti-trust suits and monopoly charges against the networks and Mutual cancels its $10.2 Million lawsuit against RCA and NBC for unlawful competition.
OCT 15 1943 CBS replaces its weekly Our Secret Weapon propaganda analysis series with Eyewitness, recreating and dramatizing the week’s top news stories narrated by Robert Trout.
OCT 15 1944 The American Radio Warblers - singing canaries accompanied by organist Helen Westcott - begin their four seasons of Sunday quarter hour shows on Mutual.
OCT 15 1946 Mutual’s coverage of the World Series registers an average 32.1 rating for the seven daytime games.
OCT 15 1946 FCC agrees to the TBA’s request and postpones until January 1, 1947, its regulation that television stations must broadcast programming at least 28 hours per week.
OCT 15 1947 The U.S. Government renews its prosecution of AFM chief James Petrillo for violation of The Lea Act in connection with the musicians strike against WAAF/Chicago in May, 1946. (See Petrillo!)
OCT 15 1947 CBS and sponsor Campbell Soup both praise Double Or Nothing emcee Walter O’Keefe for his fast thinking in cutting off a female contestant’s telling of a risqué experience that resulted in a flood of listener complaint calls.
OCT 15 1948 Standard Transcription service completes production of the first 160 of 350 songs recorded in France to skirt the AFM recording ban. (See “By Transcription…” )
OCT 15 1948 Arch Oboler returns from his eight month tour of Africa with 13 reels of movie film and 180 hours of taped sound effects for producer Fred Ziv who funded the trip. (See Fred Ziv - King of Syndicaton.)
OCT 15 1949 Your Hit Parade with Frank Sinatra and Dorothy Kirsten originates at Richmond, Virginia’s Tobacco Bowl celebration before a stadium audience of 20,000. (See Saturday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 15 1951 The U.S. Supreme Court agrees to rule on the Constitutionality of Transit Radio, requested by WWDC/Washington, D.C. whose FM broadcasts to public transit vehicles were ruled in violation of the Constitution by a lower court.
OCT 15 1951 ABC and NBC present the first international network telecasts, covering the visit of Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh to Windsor, Ontario.
OCT 15 1951 Classic sitcom I Love Lucy starring Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz debuts on CBS-TV.
OCT 15 1952 Mutual proposes cutting nighttime rates by 30% in television markets and 10% in cities without TV.
OCT 15 1953 The National Television System Committee, (NTSC), and networks conduct a full scale demonstration of their recommended compatible color television systems at New York’s Waldorf Astoria Hotel for the FCC and the U.S. House Interstate & Foreign Commerce Committee.
OCT 15 1953 Kraft Foods, sponsor of NBC-TV’s weekly Kraft Television Theater, adds an additional hour-long drama each week on ABC-TV, increasing its annual television budget to $8.0 Million.
OCT 16 1932 Rebuffed by the networks, Detroit priest Charles E. Coughlin begins a 27 week series of addresses on an independent hookup of 26 major market stations. (See Father Coughlin.)
OCT 16 1933 With a new contract calling for $1,750 per program, Bing Crosby debuts as star of The Woodbury Show on CBS for two seasons.
OCT 16 1933 The Washington Star, stating editorially that, “…it wasn’t fair to CBS,” reinstates the program listings and items pertaining to CBS and its WJSV which the paper had cancelled two weeks earlier.
OCT 16 1935 At the orders of American Tobacco’s George Washington Hill, the cast members of Your Hit Parade are handed their two week notices when returning to New York City from a month in California. (See Saturday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 16 1935 Blackface actress Tess Gardella sues General Foods for $200,000 claiming infringe-ment for using of her stage name Aunt Jemima on NBC’s Log Cabin Revue.
OCT 16 1936 FCC, bowing to political pressure, reverses its earlier decision and allows 100 watt WOL/Washington, D.C. to move from 1310 to 1230 kc. and boost its power to 1,000 watts.
OCT 16 1938 The Blue Network broadcasts Winston Churchill’s address from London attacking The Munich Agreement.
OCT 16 1938 Former NAB President Harry Shaw, 52, is found dead in his Sarasota, Florida, home of a gunshot wound.
OCT 16 1939 Irna Phillips’ daytime drama The Right To Happiness begins its 21 season multi-network run. (See Soft Soap & Hard Sell.)
OCT 16 1939 Peabody Award winning serial Against The Storm starts its three year run on NBC. (See Soft Soap & Hard Sell.)
OCT 16 1939 KGKY/Scottsbluff, Nebraska, is informed by the telephone company that it will be at least six months before a Mutual line can be established to the nearest network affiliate in Denver.
OCT 16 1939 NBC orchestra conductor Joseph Green, co-inventor of the vibraphone, dies in New York City of pneumonia at age 43.
OCT 16 1940 RCA President David Sarnoff explains his company has obtained $15 Million in loans at 1½% annual interest to expand its facilities for the rush of national defense manufacturing orders.
OCT 16 1940 Thousands of men in the radio industry are required along with other young males to register for the draft under the nation’s first peacetime conscription law.
OCT 16 1940 WSM/Nashville turns the entire station over to its women employees and gives all of its men the day off to register for the draft.
OCT 16 1940 FCC rules that all U.S. shortwave stations must make and keep transcriptions of all broadcasts and English translations of all foreign language programs.
OCT 16 1942 Neville Miller remains President of the NAB after a 10-10 tie vote to remove him by its Board of Directors.
OCT 16 1942 CBS Director of Television Richard Hubbell tells the press that World War II will have advanced video technology by 15 years.
OCT 16 1944 Broadcasters and reporters attending the FCC Allocation Hearings complain that they are expected to stand whenever the commissioners enter the room.
OCT 16 1944 Lux Radio Theater celebrates its 10th anniversary an adaptation of Seventh Heaven, the same production that opened the series in 1934. (See Lux…Presents Hollywood! and Monday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 16 1945 Academy Award winner Barry Fitzgerald, 57, begins a 26 week run as His Honor, The Barber on NBC.
OCT 16 1945 Bob Hope welcomes the Third Fleet home by performing his NBC show from the USS Dakota docked in San Francisco Bay. (See Hope From Home and Tuesday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 16 1946 Bing Crosby debuts his recorded Philco Radio Time with guest star Bob Hope on 217 ABC affiliates and 94 independent stations, scoring a 24.0 Hooperating. (See Wednesday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 16 1950 A.A. (Abe) Schechter resigns his five year post as Mutual’s Vice President of News and Special Events to join Crowell-Collier Publishing in an executive capacity.
OCT 16 1950 CBS-TV launches daytime programming from 1:30 to 6:00 p.m. Monday through Friday.
OCT 16 1953 The U.S. Supreme Court agrees to hear arguments over the FCC’s 1949 ban of giveaway programs which was suspended until declared legal by the courts.
OCT 16 1953 Gordon McLendon sells KLBS/Houston, an anchor station for his defunct Liberty Broadcasting System, for $300,000.
OCT 16 1953 AFM’s James Petrillo tells Edward R. Murrow on CBS-TV’s Person To Person, “Many musicians aren’t working because unpaid school children exploited by cheap politicians are performing in their places.” (See Petrillo!)
OCT 17 1919 Radio Corporation of America, (RCA), is formed by General Electric, Westing-house, AT&T and United Fruit. (See Alchemists of The Air.)
OCT 17 1919 American Marconi sells its interest in the newly formed RCA to its partners.
OCT 17 1919 Marconi executive David Sarnoff, 28, is named RCA General Manager.
OCT 17 1919 Westinghouse engineer Frank Conrad begins operating 8XK in Pittsburgh, the predecessor to KDKA.
OCT 17 1937 NBC opens its $2.0 Million Los Angeles broadcast center at Sunset & Vine in Hollywood.
OCT 17 1937 NBC’s Chase & Sanborn Hour introduces two George Gershwin songs posthumously, A Foggy Day and Nice Work If You Can Get It, both written for the RKO film, Damsel In Distress.
OCT 17 1937 Because Canadian radio law prohibits alcoholic advertising, CKLW/ Windsor, Ontario, carries Mutual’s 30 Minutes In Hollywood without commercials while WXYZ/Detroit carries the same show simultaneously for Goebbel’s Beer.
OCT 17 1938 FCC subcommittee of Commissioners Payne, Craven and Case recommends termination of the 500,000 watt experimental license of WLW/Cincinnati and that the station revert back to 50,000 watts.
OCT 17 1938 Civil Service Commission refuses FCC Chairman Frank McNinch’s request to exempt FCC staff members from rules preventing what the press called a “political purge” of the FCC.
OCT 17 1938 Scripps-Howard columnist Hugh Johnson blasts: “The row in the FCC is beginning to smell…It’s actually over whether that quasi-legislative body is a seven-man commission or a one-man czardom…Mr. McNinch was selected its chairman to iron issues out … Instead his arbitrary and cantankerous nature has made them worse.”
OCT 17 1939 A labor dispute shuts down WPEN/Philadelphia from 7:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. the following day.
OCT 17 1939 Hal Peary, 31, debuts as Fibber McGee & Molly’s next door neighbor, Throckmorton P Gildersleeve. (See The Great Gildersleeve(s) and Wednesday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 17 1939 Demonstrating that television signals travel in a straight line, RCA celebrates its 20th anniversary by picking up the video signal from New York City’s Empire State Building aboard two DC-3’s flying over Washington, D.C.
OCT 17 1940 FCC Chairman James Fly tells a Town Hall audience that he doesn’t see much change in broadcasting if war comes and professes that the government should not take over U.S. shortwave stations.
OCT 17 1940 NBC begins a series of heartwarming 15 minute programs allowing British refugee children to talk with their parents in England via radio.
OCT 17 1942 Philadelphia stations WCAU-AM, W69PH-FM and WPTZ(TV) make history by simultaneously covering the Penn-Princeton football game in a three-way broadcast.
OCT 17 1944 WJNO/West Palm Beach, Florida, begins its 48 hour emergency duty during a Category Four hurricane with a direct line to the U.S. Weather Bureau for frequent reports.
OCT 17 1947 Maine stations carry first reports of a forest fire seen near Bar Harbor. The stations assume emergency status as the fire grows to immense proportions, destroying 250,00 acres and nine towns over two weeks, leaving 2,500 persons homeless.
OCT 17 1947 In the first case of its kind in five years, the FCC orders WARL/Arlington, Virginia, to show cause why its Dollars For Answers quiz isn’t a lottery in violation of the Commission’s broad interpretation of the term.
OCT 17 1949 Your Hit Parade orchestra conductor Mark Warnow dies of a heart attack at age 47. (See Saturday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 17 1949 ASCAP signs blanket music contracts with the ABC, CBS, DuMont and NBC television networks.
OCT 17 1949 The Cities Service Band of America, a 22 year feature of NBC Radio, begins four weeks of simulcasts on 16 NBC-TV stations. (See Monday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 17 1950 RCA files suit in Chicago against the FCC’s color television decision favoring the CBS system.
OCT 17 1950 C.E. Hooper introduces a new mechanical recording device promised to instantly record and report AM, FM and TV program popularity in homes. (See Radio's Rulers: Crossley, Hooper & Nielsen.)
OCT 17 1950 Professional wrestlers on the West Coast form The American Sportsmen Television Equity Society to set minimum pay and establish fees for rehearsal time.
OCT 17 1952 Mutual joins the other three networks and cuts its nighttime rates by 25%.
OCT 17 1952 Keystone Broadcasting System transcription network reports its number of affiliates reaches 500 stations.
OCT 17 1952 Associated Transcription Service announces that it will record no new releases as it “re-evaluates” its business. (See “By Transcription…”)
OCT 17 1952 CBS, owner of WCBS-TV/New York City and KNXT(TV)/Los Angeles and minority owner of television stations in Washington, D.C., Pittsburgh and Minneapolis-St. Paul, applies to the FCC to build a station on Channel 4 in St. Louis.
18 1931 Thomas Alva Edison, known universally as The Father of The Electrical Age, dies in New Jersey at age 84. (See Alchemists of The Air.)
OCT 18 1933 Admiral Richard Byrd makes the first of his CBS Antarctic Expedition broadcasts off the west coast of South America. (See The 1933-34 Season .)
OCT 18 1934 NBC’s WMAQ/Chicago buys KYW’s 50,000 watt transmitter when Westinghouse moves the station from Chicago to Philadelphia.
OCT 18 1935 The pilot of a single engine plane lost in fog is killed when his wing catches WLW’s 831 foot tower at the 600 foot level and he crashes at Mason, Ohio.
OCT 18 1937 AFM Chicago local President James Petrillo obtains a 20% raise in the weekly minimum pay for the union’s new associate members at CBS in Chicago: Announcers, $50, Producers, $60, and Sound Effects Techs, $45. (See Petrillo!)
OCT 18 1937 The first Monday night broadcast of Kay Kyser’s College of Musical Knowledge on WGN/Chicago draws 2,800 pieces of mail vying for small cash prizes. (See Kay Kyser and Wednesday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 18 1939 AFM Chicago local boss James Petrillo retreats from his attempt to organize announcers and assigns his contracts with CBS announcers to AFRA, but he retains his ability to organize producers and sound effects technicians.
OCT 18 1940 CBS subsidiary Columbia Records meets resistance from broadcasters in its proposal to supply stations with enough Masterworks classical records for five half-hour shows a week in exchange for ten, 125 word commercials.
OCT 18 1941 Kate Smith hosts a 60 minute CBS program celebrating the network’s anchor, WABC/New York City, increasing its power to 50,000 watts. (See Kate's Great Song.)
OCT 18 1943 Earle Stanley Gardner’s Perry Mason debuts as a weekday serial beginning a twelve year run on CBS.
OCT 18 1943 Russ Hodges is named Mutual’s lead football announcer.
OCT 18 1947 Movie star and former sportscaster Ronald Reagan presents a $75,000 grant to his alma mater, Eureka (Illinois) College and does the play by play of the city’s Pumpkin Bowl football game on local radio.
OCT 18 1950 NBC President Joseph McConnell tells his affiliates that the network has a $9.0 Million annual investment in radio talent and program properties.
OCT 18 1950 FCC shuts down the first reported “bootleg” television station, Sylvania Electric Corp.’s unlicensed transmitter near Emporium, Pennsylvania, rebroadcasting on Channel 7 the programs from WJAC (TV)/Johnstown, 90 miles away.
OCT 18 1952 The New York Post announces a $1.5 Million libel suit against ABC commentator Walter Winchell which it settles three years later for $30,000. (See Walter Winchell and Sunday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 18 1953 Orson Welles is a critical triumph in his 90-minute television performance as Shakespeare’s King Lear on CBS-TV.
OCT 19 1934 FCC is swamped with 91 applications for new 100 watt local stations under the more liberal rules of the Communications Act of 1934.
OCT 19 1934 AFM protests any FCC liberalization of rules requiring stations to identify transcribed elements or phonograph records,
OCT 19 1935 The American Federation of Labor convention adopts a proposal to nationalize broadcasting.
OCT 19 1935 WLW/Cincinnati cancels Drew Pearson & Robert Allen’s Washington MerryGoRound commentary from Mutual for its controversial content.
OCT 19 1937 Edward G. Robinson debuts as the star in the initial five season run of newspaper drama Big Town on CBS. (See Big Big Town and Tuesday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 19 1937 New York stations WEAF and WHN exercise an agreement to simulcast selected programs of NBC’s Packard Hour starring Gladys Swarthout and Lanny Ross.
OCT 19 1941 Catholic Archbishop Francis Beckman of Dubuque, Iowa, causes a sensation on an NBC broadcast with his vehement diatribe against the Roosevelt administration and anti-Semitic castigation of Nazi critics.
OCT 19 1942 General Mills begins its Write A Fighter Corps campaign on Blue’s Jack Armstrong network of 111 stations, encouraging kids to write servicemen and women they know with news from home.
OCT 19 1942 The FTC orders Zenith Radio Corp. to stop advertising that its receivers are capable of bringing in programs from all parts of the world with clarity, “… regardless of weather conditions.”
OCT 19 1942 Lady Esther Cosmetics begins its five year sponsorship of Screen Guild Players on 65 CBS affiliates, pledging $8,500 per week to the Motion Picture Relief Fund in lieu of talent fees. (See Acts of Charity and Monday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 19 1943 Non-Mutual stations complain to C.E. Hooper that its ratings were taken during World Series week which skewed the audience figures to Mutual’s advantage.
OCT 19 1944 Bob Hope becomes the only show business personality inducted into the Smithsonian Institution’s Living Hall of Fame - in recognition for his work entertaining Allied troops overseas. (See Hope From Home and Tuesday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 19 1944 An AT&T mix-up is blamed for the West Coast rebroadcast of NBC’s Bob Burns Show covering the first three minutes of the network’s Sealtest Village Store intended for Eastern and Midwest stations at 9:30 p.m. (See Bob Burns.)
OCT 19 1945 Correspondents Ted Malone of ABC, NBC’s Robert McCormick, Robert Trout of CBS and Mutual’s Dave Driscoll leave on the second Globester flight around the world.
OCT 19 1945 Members of the radio industry join those in motion pictures to form the Mobilization Against Thought Police In The USA, protesting the U.S. House Un-American Activities Committee’s call for two months of scripts from seven network commentators.
OCT 19 1945 Ed Noble buys out his partners, Chet LaRoche and Time, Inc. for $1,0 Million to become sole owner of ABC.
OCT 19 1945 Colonel Tom Lewis, commander of AFRS since the spring of 1942, returns to civilian life.
OCT 19 1946 With NBC and sponsor Wildroot Cream Oil’s differences settled, the Nat King Cole trio begins a 5:45 p.m. Saturday afternoon quarter hour show on 144 stations.
OCT 19 1947 CBS cancels Crime Doctor after a seven year run. (See Radio Goes To The Movies.)
OCT 19 1947 AFM boss Petrillo announces that the union’s members will stop performing for recordings and transcriptions on December 31st and, “…never again make them because they‘re making their own competition.” (See Petrillo!)
OCT 19 1948 A battery of ten lawyers argue the networks’ case before the FCC against the Commission’s controversial interpretation of lottery laws banning giveaway shows.
OCT 19 1948 A Ravenna, Ohio, farmer shoots and kills a tenant while arguing the entertainment merits of radio comedians versus giveaway shows - specifically NBC’s Jack Benny and ABC’s Go For The House.
OCT 19 1949 To save money ABC-TV drops sustaining programs and temporarily cuts back its hours of operations.
OCT 19 1950 WTMJ/Milwaukee cancels the radio and television versions of ABC’s Stop The Music! after Wisconsin’s Attorney General rules the program to be a lottery. (See Stop The Music!)
OCT 19 1951 The NARTB proposes a new and more stringent code of conduct for its member television stations.
OCT 19 1951 U.S. District Court rules in favor of NBC radio and television star Roy Rogers and prohibits Republic Pictures from releasing his 81 movies to television.
OCT 19 1951 U.S. Office of Defense Mobilization requests a halt to color television broadcasting and set manufacturing, “…for the duration of the (Korean war) emergency..”
OCT 19 1953 Arthur Godfrey fires his CBS programs’ popular singer Julius LaRosa on the air during his weekday morning show. (See Arthur Godfrey.)
OCT 20 1932 CBS opens WJSV/Alexandria, Virginia, serving Washington, D.C.
OCT 20 1933 Jack Pearl makes his feature film debut as Baron Munchausen in MGM’s Meet The Baron. (See First Season Phenoms and Radio Goes To The Movies.)
OCT 20 1934 FCC concludes three weeks of hearings regarding non-commercial groups demanding 25% of station allocations for educational, religious or public service purposes with network spokesmen testifying that the current system is sufficient for the public‘s needs.
OCT 20 1936 CBS buys 50,000 watt WOAI/San Antonio from Southland Industries for $550,000.
OCT 20 1939 An engineers’ walkout takes KFSD/San Diego off the air for 13 minutes until its manager grabs its controls and restores power.
OCT 20 1940 A fire of suspicious origin at its transmitter disables powerful shortwave station WLWO/Cincinnati for 24 hours.
OCT 20 1941 An Army pilot is killed when his training plane crashes after striking the transmission wires of New York City stations WNEW and WINS at East Rutherford, New Jersey, shutting both stations off the air for 45 minutes.
OCT 20 1941 NBC discloses that its “bomb scare” of October 8th was caused by the discovery of a large container of acid outside its Master Control, enough to burn out the entire wiring system. Pinkerton guards were immediately hired and strict check of network issued identity cards was ordered.
OCT 20 1941 The U.S. Office For Emergency Management begins production of its transcribed radio adaptation of Douglas Miller’s book You Can’t Do Business With Hitler for weekly distribution to 400 stations.
OCT 20 1942 WWJ/Detroit announces its intent to dismantle its two 200 foot towers atop The Detroit News building, unused since 1938, to provide 26 tons of steel for the Ford defense plant smelters.
OCT 20 1942 Information Please circumvents the AFM ban on recorded music within its Tuesday night transcribed West Coast broadcasts of Friday night’s NBC shows by inserting live musicians into the recordings when called for. (See Information Please.)
OCT 20 1942 Dr. Frederick Stock, 66, called The Dean of American Conductors, dies of a heart attack in his 38th year of leading the Chicago Symphony Orchestra heard often in local and network broadcasts.
OCT 20 1943 Longtime Network Radio bandleader and comedian Ben Bernie, 52, dies after a long illness. (See Tuesday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 20 1943 Transcription firms Associated, Lang-Worth, MacGregor and Standard settle with the AFM to end the union's 14 month strike. (See “By Transcription…”)
OCT 20 1944 Blue network Executive Vice President Ed Kobak is named President of Mutual, eventually taking the network to record high billings and numbers of affiliates.
OCT 20 1944 U.S. General MacArthur’s return to the Philippines is flashed to the networks from a floating broadcast station off Leyte.
OCT 20 1944 WGAR/Cleveland is first on the scene with eyewitness reports from the aftermath of the mid-afternoon gas leak explosion that killed 130 persons and destroyed a square mile of the city’s east side.
OCT 20 1945 Big money quiz Break The Bank premieres on Mutual, beginning its nine season multi-network run.
OCT 20 1947 ABC newscaster Taylor Grant trips and falls on the stairs at home requiring casts on both arms and causing network friends to jokingly compare him to Sheridan Whiteside in The Man Who Came To Dinner. (See Monty Woolley.)
OCT 20 1948 FCC approves CBS selling 55% of WTOP/Washington to The Washington Post and acquiring full ownership of KQW/San Francisco.
OCT 20 1948 Emerson Radio & Phonograph Corp. introduces its Conqueror table model FM radio intended to, “…bring FM to the masses,” for $29.95.
OCT 20 1949 First Nighter broadcasts its last live performance on CBS after an 18 year multi-network run - all sponsored by Campana Balm hand lotion. (See Friday’s All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 20 1950 General Tire & Rubber buys the Don Lee Broadcasting System including KHJ AM&FM/Los Angeles, KFRC/San Francisco, KGB/San Diego, KDB/Santa Barbara, the Don Lee Radio Network of 41 affiliates and KTSL(TV)/Los Angeles for $12.3 Million.
OCT 20 1950 CBS agrees to buy KTSL(TV)/Los Angeles from General Tire for $3.0 Million, contingent on the network selling its 49% of KTTV (TV)/Los Angeles.
OCT 20 1950 FCC reports receiving its greatest amount of mail in history on its “anti-giveaway” decision - running eight to one in favor of the Commission’s controversial ban. (See Stop The Music!)
OCT 20 1950 NBC President Joseph McConnell tells his affiliates’ convention in White Sulpher Springs that the network is spending $9.0 Million in radio personalities and properties to regain its leadership over CBS.
OCT 20 1950 CBS hires writer-producer Fred Friendly, 35, away from NBC with a five year contract. Friendly had previously produced Edward R. Murrow’s Columbia Records album, I Can Hear It Now.
OCT 20 1950 Cash-strapped ABC borrows $1.0 Million on a five year note from New York Trust Co.
OCT 20 1950 CBS President Frank Stanton ignites a controversy by warning consumers against buying black and white television sets that can’t be converted to receive color with the use of an adapter.
OCT 20 1951 CBS-TV introduces its famous “Eye” logo on the network’s system cues.
OCT 20 1953 Three hundred broadcasting, film and associated industry leaders are gathered in Washington by The American Heritage Foundation to plan a $10 Million drive to operate Radio Free Europe.
OCT 21 1936 FCC Reallocation Hearings adjourn after 13 days and 500,000 words of testimony with no decisions expected until 1937.
OCT 21 1936 FCC authorizes WNEW to move its main studio and city of license from Newark to New York City.
OCT 21 1938 FCC refuses to permit CBS to lease KSFO/San Francisco, casting doubt on the future of all lease arrangements.
OCT 21 1940 Procter & Gamble’s Chicago based weekday serial Lone Journey expands from an NBC regional network to the full network originating from New York City. (See Soft Soap & Hard Sell.)
OCT 21 1943 CBS agrees to pay AFRA union “standby” singers for the U.S. Navy per-sonnel who perform free of charge on the Sunday morning Blue Jacket Choir program.
OCT 21 1943 WSAY/Rochester settles its dispute with AFM by agreeing to hire four new musicians.
OCT 21 1943 Mutual broadcasts a late night memorial program honoring Ben Bernie hosted by former New York City Mayor Jimmy Walker and featuring many show business luminaries.
OCT 21 1946 Record manufacturers agree to a 37½% pay raise for AFM musicians to avert a strike.
OCT 21 1946 FM inventor Edwin Armstrong tells the NAB convention that a drive for more FM channels and an increase in FM operations is the broadcast industry’s best chance to fight engineering restrictions and government controls.
OCT 21 1946 NBC’s nightly News of The World increases its domestic news coverage with reports from local affiliates and boosts its Hooperating from 5.2 to 7.7 in two weeks. (See Multiple Runs All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 21 1947 FCC votes 5-1, (one member absent), to revoke WORL/Boston’s license for alleged misrepresentation of its stock.
OCT 21 1947 A District Court rules that WGST/Atlanta will remain a CBS affiliate for one more year before the network can link with the more powerful WAGA.
OCT 21 1947 Citing listener response to the program’s summer run, CBS slots its historical series CBS Is There on the the network’s Tuesday night schedule. (See You Are There.)
OCT 21 1948 General Foods begins 40 weeks of switching from The Aldrich Family's New York City studio to NBC in Hollywood for live commercials performed by Meredith Willson’s Talking People at a total cost of $21,500 in extra line charges. (See Meredith Willson and The Aldrich Family.)
OCT 21 1948 RCA, NBC and Eastman Kodak introduce the high speed Ultrafax facsimile system combining television, radio relays and photography.
OCT 21 1949 The American Council of Christian Churches complains to the FCC that CBS, “…discriminates against significant minority denominations,” in its Church of The Air program.
OCT 21 1951 NBC launches its Silver Jubilee series of four half hour programs hosted by Bob Hope to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of Network Radio news.
OCT 21 1952 Gene Autry and KMPC/Los Angeles General Manager Bob Reynolds file papers to form a new corporation to buy the 50,000 watt station.
OCT 21 1953 Arthur Godfrey explains he fired Julius LaRosa from his CBS radio and television shows for signing with a talent agency and bandleader Archie Bleyer for making a record with ABC’s Don McNeill. (See Arthur Godfrey.)
OCT 22 1933 Detroit priest Charles Coughlin returns for 26 weeks in a second year of hour long Sunday broadcasts over a 23 station independent network. (See Father Coughlin.)
OCT 22 1934 Mutual begins prime time programming with remote pickups of the Wayne King and Jan Garber orchestras from Chicago’s Aragon and Trianon ballrooms. (See The Aragon’s Last Stand and Big Band Remotes.)
OCT 22 1934 FCC opens hearings of 14 applicants wanting to share clear channel 640 kc. with KFI/Los Angeles.
OCT 22 1935 WLW/Cincinnati reinstates the broadcasts of Drew Pearson & Robert Allen’s Washington Merry Go Round from Mutual after listener allegations of censorship are sent to Congress and the FCC.
OCT 22 1938 In reporting the Princeton vs. Navy football game, CBS Sports Director Ted Husing fails to see that a 45 yard Princeton run resulted in a touchdown and not just a first down.
OCT 22 1939 Mutual introduces Calling America, a unique Sunday evening half hour co-op show originating in Washington and New York City, with commentators Drew Pearson and Robert Allen, singers Mary Small and The Tune Twisters plus Erno Rapee’s 30 piece orchestra.
OCT 22 1941 ASCAP’s settlement with broadcasters appears near as BMI reports its growth to 733 member stations.
OCT 22 1941 Fred Waring wins dismissal of a $60,000 plagiarism suit brought against him by Grombach Productions involving a feature that encouraged listeners to write to Waring about important songs in their lives.
OCT 22 1941 Frank & Anne Hummert’s American Melody Hour opens for a 26 week run on Blue before moving to CBS for six years.
OCT 22 1942 All Puerto Rican radio stations are placed under the control of the U.S. War Department.
OCT 22 1943 It Pays To Be Ignorant from WOR/New York City receives its first network exposure as part of The Kate Smith Hour on CBS. (See It Pays To Be Ignorant.)
OCT 22 1945 After three years in World War II service, Colonel William S Paley returns to the Presidency of CBS.
OCT 22 1945 FCC issues 64 conditional grants for new FM stations in 21 states, the first since its construction freeze went into effect in 1942. Another 600 FM applications are left to be processed.
OCT 22 1947 Mutual President Ed Kobak criticizes the NAB endorsed Broadcast Measurement Bureau saying, “Any audience research that takes over a year to do and takes further time to get out isn’t worth the money.”
OCT 22 1947 CBS buys the Housewives Protective League Productions, a combination consumer group and program producer, for $1.0 Million.
OCT 22 1947 FCC cancels the ten month old construction permit for WWPN/ Middlesboro, Kentucky, charging its backers with financial misrepresentation.
OCT 22 1947 Clear Channel Broadcasting Services presents a controversial plan to the FCC that would convert 20 existing 50,000 watt stations to super-power status of 750,000 watts to better serve rural areas.
OCT 22 1948 Quiz show Break The Bank becomes a radio-television simulcast on ABC.
OCT 22 1950 CBS settles a $150,000 lawsuit out of court for a Chicago couple’s claim that the network stole the concept for Hit The Jackpot from their format called Watch Your Step.
OCT 22 1952 CBS Radio adds its 215th affiliate: Gene Autry’s KNOG/Nogales, Arizona.
OCT 23 1932 Fred Allen, 38, begins his 17 year multi-network run with The Linit Bath Club Revue on CBS. (See Sunday's All Time Top Ten and Wednesday's All Time Top Ten on this site.)
OCT 23 1933 Comedian Ed Wynn resigns as President of the Amalgamated Broad-casting System.
OCT 23 1933 Humorist Harry Hershfield bans studio audiences from his nightly quarter-hour on WOR/Newark because, “…they’re dumb and unmannerly.”
OCT 23 1936 Pepsodent launches its month long Name Amos & Ruby’s Baby contest on NBC’s Amos & Andy, offering $34,000 in prizes with a $5,000 U.S. Savings Bond for the first place winner. (See Amos & Andy - Twice Is Nicer.)
OCT 23 1937 NAB reminds its members that no blanket agreement has been signed and none is recommended to be signed with the AFM.
OCT 23 1942 U.S. Senator D. Worth Clark of Idaho proposes legislation aimed at the AFM outlawing its interference with the manufacture of records or transcriptions. (See Petrillo!)
OCT 23 1942 North Dakota Senator Gerald Nye praises Kay Kyser’s efforts to sell bonds and entertain troops in a floor speech then questions the draft status of radio and show business personalities. (See Kay Kyser and Wednesday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 23 1946 The radio networks plus New York City television stations WNBT(TV) and WCBS-TV give all day coverage to the opening of the United Nations General Assembly at the World’s Fair grounds in Flushing, New York.
OCT 23 1946 CBS petitions the FCC to adopt standards and authorize commercial operation of UHF television stations broadcasting in color although the country already has six stations operating in the low frequency black and white bands with another 72 under construction.
OCT 23 1950 Legendary singer-showman Al Jolson dies of a heart attack at 64. (See Tuesday's All Time Top Ten.)
OC 23 1950 KTTV(TV)/Los Angeles broadcasts a “secret sneak preview” of the pilot to an Amos & Andy television sitcom at 1:00 a.m. so Freeman Gosden & Charles Correll can see what it looks like in their homes.
OCT 23 1950 Television set manufacturer Hallicrafters releases a poll reporting that 54 of the country’s 107 television stations have no plans to use the FCC approved CBS color system.
OCT 23 1950 Arthur Godfrey upsets sponsor Lever Brothers by parroting CBS President Frank Stanton’s public caution against buying black and white television sets that can’t be adapted to receive color. (See Arthur Godfrey.)
OCT 24 1929 Rudy Vallee premieres The Fleischmann Hour on NBC beginning his 20 year multi-network career. (See Thursday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 24 1930 Freeman Gosden & Charles Correll appear as Amos & Andy on NBC’s RKO Hour to promote their RKO movie, Check & Double Check, opening the next day at theaters across the country. (See Amos & Andy: Twice Is Nicer and Multiple Runs All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 24 1938 Contrary to the trend, Procter & Gamble moves production of its CBS and NBC soap opera, The Road of Life, from New York to Chicago, home of the dual network drama's creator, Irna Phillips. (See Soft Soap & Hard Sell.)
OCT 24 1938 FCC grants a construction permit to DuMont Laboratories to build a television station in Montclair, New Jersey. (See Dr. DuMont’s Predictions.)
OCT 24 1941 The U.S. Office of The Coordinator of Information establishes program lines linking all shortwave stations east of the Mississippi, allowing them to broadcast the same program simultaneously if necessary.
OCT 24 1941 Sportscaster Russ Hodges, 31, is hospitalized with injuries from an auto accident when leaving his going away party at WBT/Charlotte and misses his Mutual debut covering the Washington vs. Cleveland NFL game.
OCT 24 1942 Contracts are sent to the owners of the country’s 14 shortwave stations to formalize the government’s takeover of the facilities for the duration of World War II.
OCT 24 1942 A contestant is challenged to sell $10,000 in War Bonds with an ad-libbed 30 second commercial on Truth Or Consequences’ West Coast feed to 22 NBC stations. She sells over $107,000 worth and wins a call to one son serving in Hawaii and a trip to see another at a Mississippi training camp. (See Truth Or Consequences and Saturday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 24 1943 Frank Sinatra abandons Sunday night’s Broadway Bandbox on CBS for the 15 minute Songs By Sinatra at 7:15 p.m. opposite Jack Benny on NBC.
OCT 24 1943 We The People on CBS originates from Admiral Farragut’s frigate Hartford in the Washington Navy Yard with guests Lieutenant Tyrone Power and Lieutenant Commander Robert Montgomery.
OCT 24 1945 Comedienne Sara Berner sues Rudy Vallee for $19,500 claiming he reneged on his agreement to put her on NBC’s Rudy Vallee Show for a talent fee of $500 per week. (See Thursday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 24 1947 The NAB creates the Industry Music Committee of 35 executives representing the radio, television and recording industries to form a united front against musician union threats.
OCT 24 1947 The Radio Pioneers Club, comprised of 20 year veterans in the industry, is founded in New York and elects ABC President Mark Woods as its first President and NBC’s H.V. Kaltenborn its Vice President.
OCT 24 1949 Writer Charles Carneval sues Campbell Soup and NBC for $457,000 claiming that they stole his program concept American Sweepstakes for the quiz show Double Or Nothing.
OCT 24 1949 NBC bans Cole Porter’s Six Times A Week And Twice On Sunday as “Too suggestive.”
OCT 24 1951 Over broadcasters’ protests, President Truman signs a controversial amendment to The Communications Act giving him power to seize radio and television stations with signals that could become homing devices for enemy aircraft.
OCT 24 1952 Jack Bailey crowns his 2,000th Queen For A Day on Mutual’s weekday giveaway program.
OCT 25 1930 Freeman Gosden & Charles Correll appear for the first and only time as Amos & Andy in the RKO film, Check & Double Check, a story written by composers Bert Kalmar & Harry Ruby.
OCT 25 1931 NBC establishes its second five station West Coast , (aka Gold), network by linking KPO/San Francisco with KECA/Los Angeles, KEX/Portland, Oregon, KJR/Seattle and KGA/Spokane. It is designed to compliment NBC’s previously established Orange Network consisting of KGO/San Francisco, KFI/Los Angeles, KGW/Portland, KOMO/ Seattle and KHQ/Spokane.
OCT 25 1937 Hearst Universal News Service journalist Fulton Lewis, Jr. begins his 20 year broadcasting career at WOL/Washington.
OCT 25 1938 FCC orders its legal department to conduct a study of station complaints with an emphasis on profane language and possible lotteries.
OCT 25 1938 The Mexican Senate refuses to ratify The North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement already approved by the United States and Cuba with Canada yet to act. (See The March of Change.)
OCT 25 1940 The WCAU/Philadelphia mobile unit is stolen from a parking lot and used as the getaway vehicle in two holdups.
OCT 25 1943 Mentalist Joseph Dunninger, whose weekly program is carried by 198 Blue affiliates, cancels his personal appearances with a St. Louis circus when he’s denied star billing. (See Dunninger.)
OCT 25 1943 NBC’s WNBT(TV)/New York City presents its first live telecast in 16 months, a single camera view of the rodeo from Madison Square Garden.
OCT 25 1944 Citing poor ratings and dissatisfaction with Mutual, sponsor Campana cancels its First Nighter after a 14 year multi-network run. (See Friday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 25 1944 Bert Gordon drops his identification as Eddie Cantor’s Mad Russian on NBC’s Time To Smile and becomes Cantor’s “neighbor” Boris Tsoris. (See The Two Stooges.)
OCT 25 1945 Trade groups NAB and FM Broadcasters, Inc., merge and prepare to fight the AFM mandate that requires two crews of its members be hired for AM-FM simulcasts.
OCT 25 1945 FCC refuses to act when CBS executive Paul Keston charges AFM boss James Petrillo with delaying the growth of FM by demanding twice the number of union members necessary be employed for AM-FM simulcasts. (See Petrillo!)
OCT 25 1945 RCA introduces its Image Orthicon tube which will become an industry standard in television cameras for over 20 years.
OCT 25 1947 Al Pearce & His Gang is cancelled by ABC ending the comedian’s 13 year multi-network run.
OCT 25 1947 The first Notre Dame home football game ever televised, (against Iowa), is sent by microwave to Chicago and broadcast by WBKB(TV).
OCT 25 1948 Can You Top This? regular Harry Hershfield begins a nightly half-hour interview show on WOR/New York City from various nightclubs beginning at midnight.
OCT 25 1949 WPEN/Philadelphia’s regional chain, The Sports Broadcasting Network, carrying games of Philadelphia Eagle football and Warrior basketball games plus prize fights, boasts a surprising 116 affiliates from Vermont to Mississippi.
OCT 25 1949 Television producers label AFM President Petrillo’s lengthy demands to end his ban on union musicians playing for films totally unworkable and organize to oppose them. (See Petrillo!)
OCT 25 1950 General Electric slams CBS President Frank Stanton’s remarks that buyers should hold off buying black and white television sets incapable of adapting to color in a New York Times full page ad.
OCT 25 1951 A Seattle court awards damages of one dollar to the plaintiff in a $35,000 libel suit against Mutual commentator Fulton Lewis, Jr.
OCT 25 1951 NBC-TV announces a delay in the start of its new early morning show, Today, (originally titled Rise & Shine), from November 1st until mid-January.
OCT 25 1952 Kansas City Star owned WDAF/Kansas City bends its ban against alcohol advertising to broadcast concerts by the Kansas City Symphony sponsored by Goetz Beer.
OCT 26 1932 Bowing to their newspaper clients’ demands, both AP and UP refuse to supply returns from the November 8th Presidential Elections to CBS or NBC.
OCT 26 1936 CBS demands a 20% commission from its announcers and contract employees for any outside work they perform.
OCT 26 1936 Network comedians and their writers are cautioned not to mention Wallis Simpson's name in deference to British listeners.
OCT 26 1942 CBS introduces Victory Front, like NBC’s Victory Volunteers, a weekday morning 15 minute series with patriotic themes featuring casts of its daytime serials in specially written five chapter dramas.
OCT 26 1944 Blue correspondent Clete Roberts is wounded by shrapnel in a Japanese bombing attack on Leyte.
OCT 26 1945 FCC authorizes tests of the Westinghouse Stratovision plan to relay television and FM signals from planes flying in fixed circular courses at 30,000 feet.
OCT 26 1945 Joe E. Brown is awarded the Army’s Bronze Star, its highest civilian award, for his service entertaining troops overseas. Brown and his wife already hold the Gold Star honoring their son who was killed in a bomber crash.
OCT 26 1946 Lang-Worth transcription service breaks ranks with its competitors and gives in to the musicians’ union demand for a 50% pay raise. (See “By Transcription…”)
OCT 26 1946 The Parent-Teachers Association of New York announces its campaign to force the networks to tone down their police shows that, “…definitely contribute to juvenile delinquency.”
OCT 26 1948 The Radio Writers Guild calls a strike against 70 Network Radio shows
OCT 26 1949 San Francisco’s KCBS and KSFO drop their plans to swap facilities filed before the war with the FCC.
OCT 26 1949 ABC-TV eliminates sustaining programs and cuts its film purchases due to an expected $3.5 Million loss - most of which is covered by the network’s radio profits.
OCT 26 1950 The FBI arrests a former mental patient who admits to the September 17th bombing of the Voice of America radio tower in Mason, Ohio.
OCT 26 1951 Music publisher Santly-Joy, Inc. charges American Tobacco with an unauthorized Lucky Strike commercial parody of the hit song My Truly, Truly Fair on Jack Benny’s program and demands a $250 fee for each of the 191 stations that carried the commercial - a total of $47,750. (See Unfiltered Cigarette Claims.)
OCT 26 1951 The NARTB reports a three fold growth in the number of radio stations in nine years and an annual average station income increase of 11% to $166,000.
OCT 26 1952 Academy Award winning actress Hattie McDaniel, former star of Beulah on CBS Radio and ABC-TV, dies at age 57. (See Multiple Runs All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 26 1952 Legendary World War II documentary series Victory At Sea debuts on NBC-TV.
OCT 26 1953 Longtime news commentator and former head of the Office of War Infor-mation, Elmer Davis, 63, retires from his nightly ABC radio newscasts due to ill-health.
OCT 27 1920 The Department of Commerce awards the first radio station license and call sign to Westinghouse Electric’s KDKA/Pittsburgh. (See Alchemists of The Air.)
OCT 27 1933 FCC approves the Westinghouse application to move of KYW/Chicago at 1020 kc. to Philadelphia.
OCT 27 1935 Both CBS and NBC participate in the globe circling network broadcast involving 31 countries, Youth Sings Across Borders.
OCT 27 1936 Polish Count Anten Potocki sues WJBK/Detroit for $10,000 charging defamation of character in a Polish language newscast, then settles for $500.
OCT 27 1939 NBC continuity writer Raymond Scudder, 38, is killed when struck by a New York City subway train.
OCT 27 1941 President Roosevelt’s speech on National Defense broadcast on all networks and most independent stations registers a 51.9 Hooperating. (See Radio's Rulers: Crossley, Hooper & Nielsen.)
OCT 27 1942 Wartime measures affect major radio and movie stars when U.S. Director of Economic Stabilization James F. Byrnes rules that no incomes in 1943 and beyond can exceed $25,000 after federal income tax and certain deductions.
OCT 27 1943 AFM boss James Petrillo allows union members to resume recording V-Discs for U.S. Armed Forces. (See Petrillo!)
OCT 27 1943 The Church League of America files a $1.0 Million libel suit against Walter Winchell, sponsor Andrew Jergens Co. and the Blue network for Winchell’s questioning the patriotism of the group. (See Walter Winchell and Sunday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 27 1944 Major Glenn Miller’s Army Air Force band is reported beaming propaganda broadcasts into Germany from London. (See In The Miller Mood.)
OCT 27 1944 NBC’s Cities Service Concerts, a network fixture since February, 1927, lightens its classical music format and changes its name to Highways In Melody. (See Friday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 27 1946 A new trade group, The National Association of Radio News Directors, is formed Cleveland.
OCT 27 1947 Musicians union president James Petrillo orders members, “…never to make records again.” (See Petrillo!)
OCT 27 1947 Daytime serial This Is Nora Drake opens its twelve year multi-network run on NBC. (See Soft Soap & Hard Sell.)
OCT 27 1947 Fred VanDeventer buys out producer Charles Stark’s interest in Twenty Questions for an undisclosed sum after a lengthy battle over the Mutual panel show’s ownership. (See Twenty Questions.)
OCT 27 1947 Groucho Marx, 57, hosts the new comedy quiz You Bet Your Life on ABC, beginning nine year multi-network run. (See The One, The Only…Groucho! and Wednesday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 27 1950 CBS issues a one sentence memo stating that Margaret (Mug) Richardson, Arthur Godfrey’s secretary and personal assistant for 16 years, “…has resigned.” (See Arthur Godfrey.)
OCT 27 1950 The nine ABC Radio affiliates in Wisconsin keep Stop The Music! on the air after conferring with the state’s Attorney General regarding the program’s status as a lottery. (See Stop The Music!)
OCT 27 1950 Wisconsin’s only television station, WTMJ-TV/Milwaukee, cancels Stop The Music!, Break The Bank, Toni Twin Time, What’s My Name and Chance of A Lifetime in fear of the state‘s lottery laws.
OCT 27 1950 CBS-produced mystery drama Pursuit begins a two-season run on CBS. (See CBS Packages Unwrapped.)
OCT 27 1951 Jane Ace, Disc Jockey replaces Monty Woolley’s Magnificent Montague on the NBC Saturday night schedule. (See Monty Woolley and Easy Aces.)
OCT 27 1951 CBS-TV drops its color telecasts of college football games and substitutes black-and-white coverage of Saturday afternoon Roller Derby matches.
OCT 27 1952 CBS dismisses Freeman Gosden & Charles Correll’s announcement that they will be retiring as Amos & Andy at the end of the season. (See Sunday's All Time Top Ten and Multiple Runs All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 28 1928 AT&T pioneers long-distance remote broadcasts with reports of the Princeton vs. University of Chicago football game from Stagg Field in Chicago to WEAF/New York City.
OCT 28 1934 Controversial Detroit priest Charles Coughlin assembles a network of 29 stations for 26 weeks of his Sunday afternoon sermons titled, The Golden Hour of The Little Flower. (See Father Coughlin.)
OCT 28 1937 NBC’s Maxwell House Showboat leaves the air after 265 consecutive weeks without a break. (See Thursday’s All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 28 1937 CBS presents a 90 minute salute to Eddie Cantor on the comedian’s 25th anniversary in show business. (See Sunday's All Time Top Ten and Network Jumpers.)
OCT 28 1938 A Pittsburgh jury fines NBC $15,000 for remarks made by Al Jolson critical of “…a rotten hotel,” in nearby Uniontown, Pennsylvania. (See Tuesday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 28 1938 The NAB distributes its How To Use Radio booklet to member stations for political candidates which warns readers against, “…shouting, arm waving and floor stalking away from the microphone.”
OCT 28 1940 One Man’s Family organist Paul Carson introduces his composition Waltz Patrice as the show’s replacement theme song for Destiny Waltz during the anticipated ASCAP boycott. (See Sunday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 28 1940 Comedian Henry Morgan begins his ten year sporadic multi-network run on Mutual.
OCT 28 1941 Listeners to KIRO/Seattle’s morning show donate more than a ton of clothing and toys to be shipped to Great Britain and distributed to children by Royal Air Force pilot Ken Stofer, a former KIRO personality.
OCT 28 1941 FDR’s Navy Day address broadcast on all four networks and many independent stations scores a 51.9 Hooperating.
OCT 28 1942 CBS avoids a 9:00 p.m. strike deadline by arriving at a five dollar a week wage increase for technicians in the IBEW union.
OCT 28 1943 Jack Benny, Phil Baker, Walter Winchell, Paul Whiteman, Damon Runyon and Moss Hart are among the honorary pall bearers as an estimated 1,300 mourners attend the funeral of Ben Bernie.
OCT 28 1944 CBS follows NBC’s lead to promote its election coverage by offering “score cards” to listeners.
OCT 28 1945 Each network broadcasts its own special program to kick off the Treasury Department’s Victory Loan Drive.
OCT 28 1945 His exclusive contract with Mutual prevents Queen For A Day host Jack Bailey from starring in ABC’s new Movie Quiz show.
OCT 28 1946 Longtime CBS sportscaster Ted Husing, 45, begins eight years as a disc jockey on WHN/New York City for a reported minimum of $260,000 per year.
OCT 28 1946 Kids’ weekday afternoon serial Sky King begins its eight year multi-network run on ABC. (See Serials, Cereals & Premiums.)
OCT 28 1948 The AFM and record companies reach an accord to end the union’s ten month strike. (See Petrlllo!)
OCT 28 1950 NBC carries WLW/Cincinnati’s celebration of the 20th anniversary and 7,300th broadcast of its late night hour of soft music and poetry, Moon River, with a guest appearance by its first host, Jay Jostyn, aka Mr. District Attorney.
OCT 28 1950 Jack Benny makes his television debut on CBS-TV in a 45 minute show with Eddie (Rochester) Anderson, Don Wilson, Mel Blanc and Artie Auerbach from his radio cast and guest Dinah Shore, scoring a ten city 41.5 Hooperating.
OCT 28 1951 CBS changes the call sign of its Los Angeles television flagship from KTSL to KNXT.
OCT 29 1935 Jimmy Durante, 42, opens Texaco’s elaborate Jumbo Fire Chief Program on NBC - the expensive program is cancelled after four months. (See Goodnight, Mr. Durante…)
OCT 29 1936 WSM/Nashville signs a five year affiliation renewal with NBC which allows it to also carry programs from Mutual.
OCT 29 1937 Hollywood commentator Jimmie Fidler claims that film studios can’t cut off his supply of news and gossip because, “…I have 24 tipsters in key studio positions on my payroll known only to me - I don’t have to go near the studios for my for news.”
OCT 29 1940 The networks give full coverage to the Selective Service lottery ceremonies at noon. NBC and Blue follow twelve hours later at midnight with a special three hour program repeating in order all 8,500 numbers drawn in the lottery.
OCT 29 1941 NBC President Niles Trammell invites the executives from 14 NBC and Blue Network stations to a conference in New York City in advance of establishing an Affiliates Advisory Board.
OCT 29 1942 Kate Smith appears in 19 hour marathon broadcast on WJSV/Washington and sells $1.0 Million in U.S War Bonds, (See Kate’s Great Song.)
OCT 29 1942 Edgar Bergen, his Charlie McCarthy and cast of NBC’s Chase & Sanborn Hour begin a month long tour of East Coast service camps, originating four Sunday night broadcasts from them. (See Sunday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 29 1942 Claiming to be more representative of industry interests than the NAB, the fledgling trade group American Broadcasters Association, begins a mail campaign to all stations.
OCT 29 1943 Blue network executives are reported meeting with U.S. and Mexican officials to propose increasing Blue’s Southern California coverage by operating a 100,000 watt bilingual station located in Tijuana.
OCT 29 1943 Most record companies except Columbia and RCA-Victor follow the pattern set by Decca and come to terms with the American Federation of Musicians to settle the lengthy recording strike. (See Petrillo!)
OCT 29 1943 Republic Pictures releases Here Comes Elmer starring Al Pearce in the dual role of himself and his radio character, Elmer Blurt, and featuring members of his long-running Al Pearce’s Gang program.
OCT 29 1944 NBC records for broadcast the first Jewish service conducted inside Germany since the return of religious freedom. Held near Aachen, the service featured a rabbi and 50 voice choir from the U.S Army.
OCT 29 1944 Silent screen legend Harold Lloyd, 51, begins a season’s run as star and director of NBC’s Comedy Theater.
OCT 29 1945 The Mississippi Valley network of 75 Midwest stations begins operations with a daily hour of farm news.
OCT 29 1945 The UAW demands an FCC investigation into Detroit stations WWJ and WXYZ for turning down commercials for union Vice President Richard Frankensteen’s mayoral campaign.
OCT 29 1945 Ralph Edwards begins his fifth cross-country tour of NBC’s Truth Or Consequences to sell War Bonds, performing the show in broadcast and stage appearances in 15 cities over five weeks. (See Truth Or Consequences and Saturday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 29 1946 Philco’s WPTZ(TV)/Philadelphia signs television’s first network affiliation contract with NBC.
OCT 29 1946 Transcription companies bow to the AFM’s threat of a strike and agree to a 50% pay increase for union musicians. (See Petrillo!)
OCT 29 1947 After eight months of negotiation the networks and Radio Writers Guild sign a six year contract paying writers a base of $360 for a 15 minute commercial program and $500 for a half hour commercial show.
OCT 29 1947 FCC follows the course of its AVCO Ruling by rejecting the bid of a California broadcaster to buy KMED/Medford, Oregon, and approving the station’s purchase by a group of local businessmen.
OCT 29 1947 NBC-TV changes its rules and allows advertising agency personnel to produce programs for their clients instead of turning them over to network personnel for broadcast.
OCT 29 1947 WCBS-TV/New York City tests its daytime show The Missus Goes A'Shopping on location from a supermarket.
OCT 29 1948 A Georgia State Court of Appeals rules that the FCC cannot interfere with the private operation of a station or annul any contracts its owners enter into.
OCT 29 1948 KLZ/Denver and KOVR/Colorado Springs are sold by Gaylord Publications to a group of Colorado business executives for $1.0 Million.
OCT 29 1948 C.E. Hooper reports that Milton Berle’s Texaco Star Theater on NBC-TV in October broke all New York City radio and television records for a commercial program with a 63.2 average rating and a 92.4% share of audience.
OCT 29 1949 Billy Artzt, veteran composer-conductor of the Blondie sitcom series for nine years, dies at 53. (See Bloon-dee!)
OCT 29 1950 NBC declares Ben Grauer Day honoring the veteran announcer’s 20th anniversary on the network with tributes on all of its shows.
OCT 29 1950 President Truman’s daughter Margaret makes her television debut on Ed Sullivan’s Toast of The Town. Trendex surveys in twelve cities give the hour on CBS-TV a huge 48.4 rating.
OCT 29 1951 Lee Carpets becomes the first sponsor of a CBS-TV color program with spots in the weekday morning Mike & Buff Show, (Mike Wallace & wife Buff Cobb), seen in New York City, Boston, Baltimore and Washington, D.C.
OCT 29 1952 FCC rescinds its controversial “rebroadcast” decision which forced radio and television stations to allow the rebroadcast of their programs by competitors.
OCT 29 1952 Nielsen reports that If daytime and nighttime Network Radio rankings were combined, five soap operas - The Right To Happiness, Backstage Wife, The Romance of Helen Trent, The Guiding Light and Pepper Young’s Family - would be in October's Top Ten. (See Soft Soap & Hard Sell.)
OCT 29 1952 NBC begins the 13-week run of Jason & The Golden Fleece starring MacDonald Carey to fill the Wednesday 10:00 p.m. timeslot until Bob Hope takes it in January.
OCT 30 1931 RCA owned W2XBS begins 120-line television broadcasts from its Empire State Building transmitter;
OCT 30 1932 Eddie Cantor begins his record setting ratings run on NBC’s Chase & Sanborn Hour - resulting in a first season Crossley rating average of 55.7. (See The 1932-33 Season and Sunday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 30 1933 Frank & Anne Hummert’s daytime serial The Romance of Helen Trent begins its 27 year run on CBS. (See Soft Soap & Hard Sell.)
OCT 30 1933 Daily newspapers in Denver and Charlotte drop all radio program listings and the mention of stations in protest to the new CBS News Bureau.
OCT 30 1933 Bing Crosby wins his battle with sponsor Woodbury Soap, insisting that his theme, Where The Blue of The Night, be used on his CBS show and not Woodbury’s corporate theme, Lovliness.
OCT 30 1937 A Federal grand jury finds Groucho and Chico Marx guilty of plagiarism in a suit brought by writers of the radio skit, Mr. Dibble & Mr. Dabble. The brothers are each fined $1,000 and appeal the verdict. (See The One, The Only...Groucho!)
OCT 30 1937 Westinghouse conducts a series of celebrations in Pittsburgh to introduce KDKA’s new 718 foot transmitting tower which the station claims will increase its coverage ten-fold.
OCT 30 1937 NBC bars a sweepstakes winner from appearing on Ripley’s Believe It Or Not for fear of violating Section 316 of The Communications Act which prohibits broad-casting information about lotteries. (See Believe It Or Not.)
OCT 30 1937 Variety quotes a slogan heard on “goat gland doctor” John Brinkley’s broadcast from high powered XER on the Texas/Mexico border: “No man wants to be a capon.”
OCT 30 1938 RCA’s Magic Key broadcast on Blue includes an overhead description of the Treasure Island site of San Francisco’s 1939 Golden State Exposition broadcast from a Pan American flying boat by announcer Hal Gibney. (See The Magic Key.)
OCT 30 1938 CBS broadcasts Orson Welles’ infamous War of The Worlds drama. (See The War of The Worlds.)
OCT 30 1940 The fatal heart attack of veteran WSB/Atlanta transmitter engineer Harold Kelly delays the station’s 5:30 a.m. sign-on until emergency crews arrive at the scene 40 minutes later.
OCT 30 1940 Kay Kyser records a test of his College of Musical Knowledge playing non-ASCAP music for American Tobacco’s George Washington Hill to determine the fate of the show in the event of an ASCAP boycott. (See Kay Kyser and Wednesday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 30 1940 FDR’s radio address from Boston sets a new Crossley/CAB ratings record for campaign speeches at 38.7. (See Radio's Rulers: Crossley, Hooper & Nielsen.)
OCT 30 1940 Late night band remotes resume on CBS after a two week absence when the labor dispute between affiliate WGBI/Scranton and the AFM is settled. (See Big Band Remotes.)
OCT 30 1941 ASCAP agrees to contract terms with CBS and NBC ending ten months without ASCAP music on the networks.
OCT 30 1941 CBS and NBC file separate suits in U.S. District Court to restrain the FCC from its planned “chain monopoly” regulations including the banning of network option time due to take effect on November 15.
OCT 30 1941 NBC and the 243 affiliates of both its networks agree on a four point radio defense policy should it become necessary involving emergency communications, public morale and uninterrupted service.
OCT 30 1941 CBS devotes a half-hour salute to WKBW/Buffalo’s increase to 50,000 watts.
OCT 30 1942 The U.S, Treasury Department claims that the 1943 individual income limit of $25,000 translates, before federal income tax and “certain allowable” deductions, to a gross income of $67,200.
OCT 30 1944 To save budget after its expensive purchase of Jack Benny’s program, American Tobacco begins offering a two year “lease” of Kay Kyser’s College of Musical Knowledge on NBC to the highest bidder. (See Kay Kyser and Lucky Gets Benny.)
OCT 30 1945 President Truman’s speech on wage and price controls carried on all networks registers a 43.8 Hooperating. (See Radio's Rulers: Crossley, Hooper & Nielsen.)
OCT 30 1946 RCA gives its first public demonstration of its electronic color television system at the company‘s laboratories in Princeton, New Jersey.
OCT 30 1946 Arlene Francis begins a one season run in The Affairs of Ann Scotland on ABC.
OCT 30 1947 The Radio Writers Guild of freelance writers ratifies a six and a half year contract with the four networks determining pay scale and ownership of material. It includes a minimum pay for free lance writers that ranges from $35 for a sustaining five minute program to $500 for an hour long commercial show.
OCT 30 1947 CBS-TV presents the four hour Bellevue Hospital benefit Show of Shows from Madison Square Garden starring Milton Berle, Helen Hayes, Frank Sinatra and Morey Amsterdam.
OCT 30 1948 Packard Bell sponsors the first “triple-cast” - The Television Talent Test on KFI AM-FM-TV/Los Angeles.
OCT 30 1949 A large coalition of television networks, major movie studios, film producers, program packagers and trade associations draw battle plans against the AFM’s proposed pay hike and work rules governing television films.
OCT 30 1950 General Electric, Philco, Westinghouse, Magnavox and Sylvania threaten to cancel their advertising after CBS President Frank Stanton warns the public not to buy black and white television sets without color adapters.
OCT 30 1950 Stop The Music! producer Louis Cowan and its star, Bert Parks, introduce the half hour Bert Parks Show on NBC-TV, Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons.
OCT 30 1951 FCC forecasts it will lift the freeze on new television stations by January 1st, “…or sometime shortly thereafter.”
OCT 30 1953 AFTRA bans members from participating in network originated telethons.
OCT 30 1953 The Daytime Broadcasters Association is formed in St Louis representing a charter membership of 25 stations limited to sunrise-to-sunset operation.
OCT 31 1933 CBS obtains WBBM/Chicago and makes it the network’s primary affiliate in the city, dropping WGN.
OCT 31 1935 KMBC/Kansas City mobile units cover the $250,000 fire at Cook Paint & Varnish Company's plant, scooping the competition - including WHB, owned by Cook Paint & Varnish Company.
OCT 31 1938 Iowa Senator Clyde Herring renews his call for censorship with legislation requiring advance approval for all broadcast material.
OCT 31 1938 West Coast broadcaster and television pioneer Don Lee applies for a television license in San Francisco.
OCT 31 1939 Following his failed attempt to take over Mutual, FDR son Elliot Roosevelt announces the establishment of his planned Transcontinental Broadcasting System of 100 stations to rebroad-cast two hours of soap operas nightly.
OCT 31 1940 FCC issues the first wave of FM construction permits for 15 stations located in ten states.
OCT 31 1941 Bob Hope drops his suit against gag writer Jack Douglas claiming that his seeking to prevent Douglas from submitting material to Red Skelton, “…was all a misunderstanding.”
OCT 31 1942 Bob Hawk, begins his Thanks To The Yanks quiz show for service personnel on CBS awarding cartons of Camel Cigarettes as prizes. The program runs for two seasons before becoming The Bob Hawk Show. (See Monday’s All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 31 1942 Reports surface that CBS Chairman Bill Paley will cut his 1943 gross salary from $190,000 to $65,000 in keeping with the government’s decree that no net salaries shall exceed $25,000.
OCT 31 1943 CBS starts paying AFRA $35 each for ten “standby” singers during the network’s Sunday morning Blue Jacket Choir concerts from the Great Lakes Naval Training Station.
OCT 31 1943 Arturo Toscanini and Leopold Stokowski begin alternating as conductors of the NBC Symphony in a series of 24 Sunday afternoon broadcasts.
OCT 31 1945 Bell Laboratories demonstrates its Microwave Radio Relay System, originally developed for military use, and predicts its civilian use will eventually include television networking.
OCT 31 1946 Activists for the National Temperance & Prohibition Council file a $33.1 Million lawsuit against CBS and ask for dissolution of the network for its refusal to sell “choice” time for the group’s anti-alcohol programs.
OCT 31 1946 Trade group FM Broadcasters, Inc., dissolves to merge into the NAB.
OCT 31 1947 CBS reports spending $500,000 to develop 15 program series led by Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts, My Friend Irma, Strike It Rich and Crime Photographer. (See CBS Packages Unwrapped.)
OCT 31 1947 ABC, CBS, Mutual and NBC are sued for $13.0 Million in damages by WSAY/ Rochester, New York, which claims the networks conspired to refuse service to the station.
OCT 31 1947 Disc jockey Martin Block and KFWB/Los Angeles cancel their highly publicized three year, $1.0 Million contract after four months.
OCT 31 1948 Walter Winchell reports a three-alarm fire, “…raging out of control in Albany, New York,” which had been extinguished 90 minutes before his Sunday night broadcast began. (See Walter Winchell and Sunday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 31 1949 Veteran CBS newsman John Daly leaves the network after 13 years.
OCT 31 1949 FCC rejects the petition of atheist spokesman Robert Scott to revoke the licenses of San Francisco stations KCBS, KFRC, KGO and KNBR because they refused to grant him time to promote his cause.
OCT 31 1950 Legendary dancer Irene Castle, 57, sues CBS and Ed Sullivan’s Toast of The Town for $250,000 for showing without her permission, a 1912 movie clip of she and her husband/partner Vernon dancing.
OCT 31 1950 CBS claims that eleven manufacturers of television sets, including Philco and Westinghouse, have indicated they will, “…cooperate in one way or another,” with the network’s color television system.
OCT 31 1951 Radio and television networks give full coverage to the arrival and visit of Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh to Washington.
OCT 31 1951 FCC Commissioner Frieda Hennock asks President Truman to withdraw her controversial nomination to the Federal bench, deciding instead to remain on the commission.
OCT 31 1951 Peg Lynch & Alan Bunce, radio’s Ethel & Albert, make their television debut on NBC-TV’s Kate Smith Hour.
OCT 31 1952 Fast work by affiliate WHIZ/Zanesville, Ohio, gives NBC’s News of The World the first reports from the four-day Ohio Penitentiary riots in Columbus. (See Multiple Runs All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 31 1952 MGM shuts down production of ten movie-based radio series produced for Mutual as the film company and network argue over renewal fees.
OCT 31 1953 NBC-TV presents its first full hour program in color, highlights of the opera Carmen.
OCT 31 1953 NBC-TV becomes the first television network to exceed $10.0 Million in one-month billings, recording $10.39 Million. CBS-TV trails with October billings of $9.42 Million.
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
For current dollar equivalents consult: www.usinflationcalculator.com.
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OCT 1 1921 Westinghouse opens WJZ/Newark and four days later broadcasts play-by-play reports of the New York Giants vs. New York Yankees World Series.
OCT 1 1931 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer tests the promotional value of radio with a half-hour variety show starring Jimmy Durante in the 12 station Don Lee network from KHJ/Los Angeles.
OCT 1 1932 Independent station KNX/Los Angeles increases power from 10,000 to 50,000 watts.
OCT 1 1933 Chevrolet increases the number of NBC affiliates for its Jack Benny Show to 59. (See The 1933-34 Season.)
OCT 1 1933 CBS restores 7½% of the 15% pay cut ordered for all employees in June, 1932.
OCT 1 1934 The Mutual Broadcasting System, (fka The Quality Group), is incorporated with founding stations WOR/Newark, WGN/Chicago and affiliates WLW/Cincinnati and WXYZ/ Detroit. (See Mutual Led The Way.)
OCT 1 1934 WLW/Cincinnati, operating with 500,000 watts, raises its basic one hour rate from $1,000 to $1,200.
OCT 1 1934 FCC approves the move of 100 watt KICK at 1370 kc. from Carter Lake to Davenport, Iowa, and the change of its call sign to WOC. (See Three Letter Calls.)
OCT 1 1935 Kate Smith begins a year of 15 minute shows on CBS Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday nights for A&P Stores. (See Kate’s Great Song.)
OCT 1 1936 After seven years sponsorship by its Fleischmann Margarine, Standard Brands switches sponsorship of Rudy Vallee’s Variety Hour on NBC to its Royal Gelatins and Puddings. (See Thursday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 1 1937 Chicago Tribune European correspondent William L. Shirer is appointed Central European representative for CBS News.
OCT 1 1938 Tommy Riggs with his Betty Lou alter ego begin the first of four short multi-network series. .
OCT 1 1938 Jack Benny’s Sunday night NBC show leads all network programs with 113 stations carrying it, Al Jolson’s Lifebuoy Show and Edward G. Robinson’s Big Town, both Tuesday night on CBS, are each second with 112 stations. (See Big, Big Town.)
OCT 1 1939 The NAB puts its sweeping self-regulatory code into effect for all members governing news, controversial issues, children‘s, educational and religious programs and length of commercials.
OCT 1 1939 Mr. District Attorney, Bob Hope’s successful summer replacement, begins a six month run on Blue before moving to NBC for eleven seasons. (See Mr. District Attorney and Wednesday’s All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 1 1940 General Electric assumes control of its WGY/Schenectady after nine years of NBC management but the network continues to manage GE”s KGO/San Francisco and KOA/Denver.
OCT 1 1940 Cesaro Petrillo, brother of AFM President James Petrillo, is named Music Director of CBS-owned WBBM/Chicago. (See Petrillo!)
OCT 1 1941 Pioneer Westinghouse station KDKA/Pittsburgh shifts from Blue to NBC but retains the Lowell Thomas nightly newscast on Blue. Former NBC affiliate WCAE moves to Mutual and indie KQV becomes Blue’s affiliate.
OCT 1 1941 Red Barber, Bob Elson and Bill Corum announce Gillette’s broadcasts of the “subway” World Series between the New York Yankees and Brooklyn Dodgers on Mutual which registers an overall 32.8 CAB rating.
OCT 1 1941 The labor dispute between the AFM and NBC affiliate WSMB/New Orleans is settled allowing NBC to promptly reinstate late night dance band remotes on the full network. (See Big Band Remotes.)
OCT 1 1941 Vocalist Ginny Simms, 28, leaves the Kay Kyser troupe for a successful solo career. (See Kay Kyser.)
OCT 1 1942 The U.S. Office of War Information buys eight hours daily on four stations in Anchorage, Fairbanks, Juneau and Ketchikan to entertain and communicate with troops stationed in Alaska.
OCT 1 1942 Crossley’s Cooperative Analysis of Broadcasting, (CAB), radio listening surveys add telephone coincidental polling to its established recall method. (See Radio's Rulers: Crossley, Hooper & Nielsen.)
OCT 1 1943 Art Linkletter, 31, becomes the host of People Are Funny for the stunt show’s next 18 successful years. (See People Are Funny.)
OCT 1 1943 A second round of newsprint limits mandated by The Federal Printing & Publishing General Limitation Order of 1942 takes effect forcing newspapers to reduce their size.
OCT 1 1944 The elaborate Radio Hall of Fame opens its second season on Blue with a bi-coastal program featuring Ed Wynn, his son Keenan, the Andrews Sisters, Ted Husing, Alexander Knox, Geraldine Page, Alfred Newman’s orchestra and Paul Whiteman’s orchestra. (See Radio Hall of Fame.)
OCT 1 1944 Jack Benny opens the 1944-45 season on NBC for his new sponsor, American Tobacco’s Lucky Strike cigarettes, with guest Fred Allen while General Foods’ Kate Smith Hour on CBS counters with the cast of Can You Top This? and Helen Hayes as guests. (See Lucky Gets Benny and Sunday At Seven.)
OCT 1 1944 CBC’s Trans-Canada network carries the new Jack Benny show without commercials because American Tobacco doesn’t market products in the country.
OCT 1 1944 Fred Allen, 50, ordered by doctors not to resume his Texaco Star Theater on NBC, is replaced by tenor James Melton and pianist Alec Templeton. (See The Feud and Mr. Allen Meets Mr. Benny.)
OCT 1 1944 Like NBC’s earlier move, CBS bans “cow-catcher“ and “hitch-hike” commer-cials at the beginning and end of its programs.
OCT 1 1944 Ted Cott’s Crime Quiz becomes the first program from WNEW/New York City to be adapted on WABD(TV) in an agreement that will feature a television version of one of the radio station’s programs every three weeks.
OCT 1 1945 The first Armed Forces Radio Service station within the Japanese home-land, Radio Okinawa, begins operations.
OCT 1 1945 FCC rescinds its 1942 wartime order and mandates all stations resume full-power operation.
OCT 1 1945 Newspaper acquisitions of radio stations continue as The Philadelphia Bulletin buys WFIL/Philadelphia for $1,900,000 and The Boston Herald -Traveler pur-chases WHDH/Boston for $850,000.
OCT 1 1945 After 15 years on the CBS weekday morning schedule, the network moves its 30 minute American School of The Air to 5:00 p.m.
OCT 1 1945 NBC’s Carnation Contented Hour broadcast is cancelled when its musicians fail to appear on orders from AFM President Petrillo claiming that the network’s New Orleans and Chattanooga affiliates are “unfair.” (See Petrillo!)
OCT 1 1946 Miles Laboratories drops John W. Vandercook from its nightly NBC News of The World and names Morgan Beatty its anchor. (See Multiple Runs All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 1 1947 Billed as the first major attraction to be offered to local stations on a co-op basis, ABC debuts The Abbott & Costello Show at a reported average cost per affiliate of $300.
OCT 1 1947 Jack Benny’s former summer replacement, The Jack Paar Show, begins a 13 week run on ABC.
OCT 1 1947 AFRA refuses to allow Cecil B. DeMille to appear on ABC’s Vox Pop because the union expelled him three years earlier.
OCT 1 1947 AFM head Petrillo lifts his ban on the Rochester Symphony Orchestra appearing on the Continental FM Network after sponsor Stromberg-Carlson defies the ban with non union musicians. (See Petrillo!)
OCT 1 1947 NBC-TV refuses to carry a video version of Mutual’s Meet The Press, claiming the program is, “…too controversial.”
OCT 1 1948 Dinah Shore rejoins Eddie Cantor’s NBC show for $1,250 a week with the option to appear anywhere else she wants. (See Sunday's All Time Top Ten and Wednesday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 1 1948 CBS discontinues its shortwave service to the 126 station Cadena de los Americas network serving Central and South America.
OCT 1 1948 The U.S. State Department takes over programming The Voice of America from NBC and CBS and supervision of the 225 employees involved.
OCT 1 1948 William Sweets, National President of the Radio & Television Directors Guild union, resigns after refusing to sign the group’s non-Communist affidavit.
OCT 1 1949 Carnation Contented Hour star Buddy Clark, 37, is killed in a Los Angeles private plane crash. (See The 1949-50 Season.)
OCT 1 1950 NBC-TV interconnects 14 more stations bringing live network television to 47 cities - reaching as far west as Kansas City and Jacksonville to the south.
OCT 1 1951 Chicago stations WLS and WENR readjust their time sharing of the 50,000 watt facility at 890 k.c. - Prairie Farmer magazine’s WLS has weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., 6:00 to 6:30 and 7:00 to 8:00 p.m., all day Saturdays and Sundays from 8:00 a.m. until noon. ABC’s WENR has all the remaining hours.
OCT 1 1951 Mutual reports that 3,250 local sponsors bought its Game of The Day broad-casts on a co-op basis during the 1951 baseball season.
OCT 1 1951 Switching problems at KELP/El Paso are blamed for the mayor’s speech on city water problems being fed for broadcast to 182 Liberty Broadcasting System affiliates.
OCT 1 1951 CBS-TV carries the first baseball game seen coast-to-coast, the New York Giants vs. Brooklyn Dodgers National League playoff game.
OCT 1 1952 Gillette sponsors the World Series on 560 Mutual affiliates plus 100 inde-pendent stations in addition to 64 NBC-TV affiliates and four television stations with ownership interests in Mutual.
OCT 1 1952 DuPont introduces the television adaptation its legendary 18 year radio series, Cavalcade of America, on NBC-TV.
OCT 1 1952 Ralph Edwards adapts his NBC human interest radio show, This Is Your Life, on NBC-TV.
OCT 1 1952 The FCC’s first competitive television license “post thaw” hearings since September, 1948, begin in Washington.
OCT 1 1952 Comedian Abe Burrows is among 41 persons linked with the Communist party in U.S. House Un-American Activities Committee hearings into party infiltration in broadcasting.
OCT 1 1953 Singer Frank Munn, 58, billed for years as The Golden Voice of Radio, dies of a heart attack. (See Frank Munn’s Golden Voice.)
OCT 1 1953 U.S. Treasury Department reports 2,900 stations donate 15 minutes each week for its transcribed Guest Star program to sell Defense Bonds.
OCT 1 1953 Sportscaster Vin Scully, 26, replaces Red Barber for NBC-TV’s World Series coverage when Barber refuses to work for $250 a game.
OCT 1 1953 Mutual begins its new schedule of 18 “Star“ programs given to affiliates for local sale in lieu of cash payment for carrying network shows. Included in the weekly package are Mr. District Attorney, Counterspy, Bulldog Drummond, High Adventure with George Sanders, Starlight Theater starring Madeline Carroll and Edward Arnold’s Spotlight Story.
OCT 1 1953 The NBC Research Department estimates that 25.23 Million television sets are in use across the country and 55% of American homes are equipped with receivers.
OCT 2 1932 Elaine Carrington’s longtime multi-network weekday serial Pepper Young’s Family begins as the weekly half-hour drama Red Davis on Blue. (See Soft Soap & Hard Sell.)
OCT 2 1932 Columbia Records offers local stations an early form of "Per Inquiry" com-mercials: Four minute transcribed programs selling its records through the stations for 25 cents each with the stations keeping 8½ cents of every sale.
OCT 2 1933 The Columbia News Service opens under the direction of former CBS publicity chief Paul White in response to the Associated Press edict banning its members from providing news to broadcasters.
OCT 2 1935 Ford Motors sponsors the Detroit Tigers vs. Chicago Cubs World Series on 194 U.S. and Canadian stations, paying $100,000 to Major League Baseball for the rights and $225,000 to the four networks.
OCT 2 1935 Transradio Press posts a reporter and shortwave transmitter at World Series games to provide play by play accounts of the games to its clients.
OCT 2 1935 WGN/Chicago unveils its new $600,000 studio complex and 588 seat theater in the downtown Loop next to its ten year old studios in the Tribune Tower.
OCT 2 1938 Meredith Willson’s Signal Oil Carnival, a weekly NBC West Coast program, becomes the first show originated from the network’s new Hollywood studios at Sunset & Vine. (See Meredith Willson.)
OCT 2 1939 With increased expenses covering the European war, United Press invokes the emergency clause in its contracts calling for a 12½% increase in subscription fees; International News Service follows with a 15% increase.
OCT 2 1939 NBC issues new network rate card raising the rates for 30 affiliates and lowering them for 15. (See NBC's Chinese Menu.)
OCT 2 1939 Carleton E. Morse’s I Love A Mystery opens sporadic eight season multi-network run. (See I Love A Mystery and I Love A Sequel.)
OCT 2 1939 Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce recreate their signature film roles as Holmes and Watson on Blue in the first of seven multi-network seasons of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. (See Sherlock Holmes.)
OCT 2 1940 FCC authorizes KYW/Philadelphia to increase its power to 50,000 watts.
OCT 2 1940 Gillette pays Major League Baseball $100,000 for broadcast rights to the Cincinnati vs. Detroit World Series and another reported $150,000 for Mutual’s 253 station network to carry the games reported by Bob Elson and Red Barber.
OCT 2 1940 For the second year, Mutual permits General Electric’s two shortwave stations, WGEO and WGEA, to relay its World Series broadcasts to Europe.
OCT 2 1940 DuPont announces signing noted playwrights Maxwell Anderson, Robert Sherwood and Marc Connely along with screen stars Loretta Young, Edward Arnold and Charles Laughton for its Cavalcade of America series on NBC. (See The Cavalcade of America.)
OCT 2 1940 WNEW/New York City advertises its disc jockey Martin Block as earning one of the 500 highest salaries in the United States.
OCT 2 1941 Eddie Cantor returns to NBC from CBS for his remaining 14 years in Network Radio. (See Network Jumpers, Sunday's All Time Top Ten and Wednesday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 2 1941 Fanny Brice reunites with Frank Morgan on NBC’s Maxwell House Coffee Time. (See Baby Snooks and Good News.)
OCT 2 1941 Garry Moore, 26, opens Blue’s 26 week Thursday night quiz from Army camps, Service With A Smile.
OCT 2 1942 The FTC orders the makers of Dr. Lyons Tooth Powder to stop using the statement in its radio commercials, “Do as your dentist does - use powder.”
OCT 2 1942 Network Radio prime time program production costs are released - NBC’s Jack Benny at $18,000 is the most expensive per week, Major Bowes’ Original Amateur Hour tops the CBS list at $17,000 and Blue’s is $5,000 for Walter Winchell’s Jergens Journal. (See Major Bowes' Original Money Machine and Walter Winchell.)
OCT 2 1943 The Third War Loan Drive ends with Kate Smith named radio’s top sales-person with $37.0 Million in bonds sold and Ralph Edwards' Truth Or Consequences the runnerup with $34.0 Million in sold bonds to its credit. (See Kate's Great Song and Truth Or Consequences.)
OCT 2 1943 Can You Top This? celebrates its first anniversary on NBC with a special Saturday night “testimonial dinner” broadcast honoring 18th Century joke book king Joe Miller from the historic Murray Hill Hotel beginning at midnight. (See Can You Top This?and Saturday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 2 1944 The NAB announces that it will distribute recordings of The Liberty Bell chiming to all member stations for play on V-E Day. (See V-E Day (Very Early).)
OCT 2 1944 FCC approves the sale of WLIB/New York City to The New York Post for $250,000.
OCT 2 1944 The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation cancels The Jack Benny Program when sponsor Lucky Strike is mentioned outside of regular commercial time which the CBC normally covers with public service spots.
OCT 2 1944 Six members of Ray Noble’s Chase & Sanborn Hour orchestra escape injury in the California forced landing of their Army transport when returning from the NBC broadcast at a New Mexico air base.
OCT 2 1945 Bob Hope’s Pepsodent Show begins the first postwar contest offering major prizes: 20 new Jeeps for best completions of the sentence, “We should not cash in our War Bonds because….” (See Tuesday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 2 1945 Judge Justin Miller succeeds J. Harold O’Brien as NAB President.
OCT 2 1945 Random network work stoppages by the musicians union spur reports that AFM President Petrillo is attempting to form a coalition with the major technical unions - NABET and IBEW - with himself as its head. (See Petrillo!)
OCT 2 1946 Kay Kyser’s College of Musical Knowledge, an hour long program on NBC for nine years, is trimmed to 30 minutes. (See Kay Kyser and Wednesday’s All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 2 1946 After five year hiatus, sponsor Lewis-Howe’s Tums returns giveaway show Pot O Gold to Network Radio on ABC - but cancels after 26 weeks. (See First Season Phenoms.)
OCT 2 1946 Information Please leaves NBC after six seasons and moves to CBS where it plummets in the ratings out of the season’s Top 100. (See Information Please.)
OCT 2 1947 C.E. Hooper conducts its first telephone coincidental survey of television viewers in New York City during the third World Series game between the New York Yankees and Brooklyn Dodgers carried by all three local TV stations for a 34.5 rating.
OCT 2 1947 Al Jolson, 61, returns to The Kraft Music Hall after a 13 year absence, replacing Bing Crosby as the show’s host for two seasons. (See Thursday’s All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 2 1948 A ten-year old girl, taken to a Boston remote of the CBS quiz show Give & Take by her mother, is spotted in the audience by host John Reed King and asked to identify the show’s jackpot sound. She replied, "a pencil sharpener", and won $5,750.
OCT 2 1948 The machine-operated NBC chimes malfunction and continue ringing through the first three minutes of the network’s Morton Downey Show.
OCT 2 1948 Twin City taverns equipped with television sets charge a $2.50 “minimum” during KSTP-TV’s broadcast of the Minnesota vs. Nebraska football game.
OCT 2 1949 Edgar Bergen and Red Skelton join Jack Benny and Amos & Andy by moving from NBC to CBS. (See Network Jumpers and The 1949-50 Season.)
OCT 2 1949 Aldrich Family creator Clifford Goldsmith writes the initial episode of the television adaptation of his sitcom for NBC-TV. (See The Aldrich Family and Thursday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 2 1949 NBC’s KNBH(TV)/Los Angeles expands its operations from five to seven days a week.
OCT 2 1950 Liberty Broadcasting System begins fulltime service offering 10½ hours of programs to its 240 affiliates.
OCT 2 1950 CBS weekday giveaway show Strike It Rich broadcasts for five days from the New England Foods Show at Boston Garden.
OCT 2 1950 A video version of Horace Heidt’s Youth Opportunity Program debuts on CBS-TV.
OCT 2 1950 A six week Pittsburgh newspaper strike stimulates a marked increase in newscasts from the city’s radio and television stations and results in a revenue windfall.
OCT 2 1951 The U.S. State Department confirms the building of ten high powered antennas to combat Soviet jamming and increase the coverage of The Voice of America 14 fold at a cost of $41.2 Million.
OCT 2 1952 The Democratic Party complains to the FCC about the Republicans’ $2.0 Million saturation spot campaign for candidate Dwight Eisenhower in 12 key states, charging collusion among major advertisers who control most of radio and television prime time allowing the GOP’s commercial blitz.
OCT 2 1952 ABC-owned WJZ-TV/New York City uses the premiere of The March of Time to advertise sponsorship of its program with newsman Taylor Grant doing commercials offering it, “…for only $2,300 per week plus time charges.”
OCT 2 1953 NBC changes its system cue preceding its familiar chimes from, “This is NBC, the National Broadcasting Company,” to, “This is the NBC Radio Network.”
OCT 2 1953 CBS introduces Stage Struck, an hour long revue of Broadway attractions hosted by Mike Wallace.
OCT 2 1953 Ziv’s World Broadcasting System sets a new record for transcription services with 1,000 subscribing stations. (See Fred Ziv - King of Syndication.)
OCT 2 1953 Capitol Records ends terminates its transcription service after seven years and proposes to sell the library’s 700 recordings to its subscribing stations. (See “By Transcription…”.)
OCT 2 1953 Edward R. Murrow introduces his interview show, Person To Person, on CBS-TV, beginning the popular half-hour’s eight season run.
OCT 3 1932 NBC boasts that its first nine months’ advertising revenue beats The Saturday Evening Post’s billings for the same period, $20.49 Million to $18.87 Million.
OCT 3 1932 Bulova Watches reports it spends $250,000 annually for ten-second time signal radio announcements.
OCT 3 1934 Ford pays $100,000 to Major League Baseball for the rights to the Detroit Tigers vs. St Louis Cardinals World Series broadcast by CBS, NBC and Blue which add another estimated $275,000 to the auto company’s total bill.
OCT 3 1934 Proponents of non-commercial, educational and religious broadcasting conclude the first week of FCC hearings for their demands to be allocated 25% of broadcast frequencies with the President of The National Educational Association warning of, “…a great and growing dissatisfaction with commercial radio.”
OCT 3 1934 Actress Mary Pickford debuts in a successful 26 week dramatic anthology series on NBC.
OCT 3 1935 More stations leave the Press-Radio Bureau as its rigid structure delays news from the Italian-Ethiopian War. (See The Press-Radio Bureau.)
OCT 3 1935 Chrysler Corp. assembles a 34 station network headed by WOR/Newark and CKLW/Windsor-Detroit for an hour long noontime program headlined by Amos & Andy and Lowell Thomas to introduce its new Plymouth automobile models.
OCT 3 1935 FCC determines the contested 1400 kc. frequency in Brooklyn, New York, be split between the existing WBBC and a new station to be constructed by The Brooklyn Eagle.
OCT 3 1935 Harry Engman Charlot, creator of The Shadow radio series in 1930, is found dead in a New York hotel room at age 31. (See The Shadow Nos.)
OCT 3 1936 Saturday Night Serenade, Pet Milk’s answer to competitor Carnation’s Contented Hour, begins nine season run on CBS.
OCT 3 1937 International Silver's dramatic anthology Silver Theater begins its sporadic ten year run late Sunday afternoons on CBS
OCT 3 1937 Hollywood Playhouse with rotating leads Tyrone Power, Charles Boyer and Herbert Marshall opens on Blue for two season run before moving to NBC for an additional year.
OCT 3 1938 CBS and NBC estimate that that 18 day European crisis in September cost a combined $160,000 in direct expenses plus another $40,000 in rebates to advertisers whose programs were interrupted or preempted.
OCT 3 1938 The Rochester, New York school board cancels its weekly Let’s Sing program for elementary school children on WHEC when the AFM local insists that a standby union piano player be employed. (See Petrillo!)
OCT 3 1939 The NAB Code Committee rules the controversial broadcasts of Catholic priest Charles Coughlin, Unitarian minister Walton Cole and Jehovah Witness spokesman Joseph Rutherford violate the code by blasting other religions and advocating social change. (See Father Coughlin.)
OCT 3 1939 WNEW/New York City cancels Martin Block’s Tuesday night big band remotes when the AFM prohibits the broadcasting of one night stands.
OCT 3 1940 Former Louisiana Governor James Noe, owner of WNOE/New Orleans, is indicted by a Federal Grand Jury for income tax evasion.
OCT 3 1941 NBC surprises the industry by replacing late night band remotes with programs produced by its owned stations and local affiliates. (See Big Band Remotes.)
OCT 3 1941 Bob Hope files for an injunction to prevent his gag writer, Jack Douglas, from submitting material to Red Skelton’s NBC show. (See Tuesday's All Time To Ten.)
OCT 3 1942 The AFM’s recording ban causes General Foods to cancel the Saturday morning transcribed repeats of its Thursday night Aldrich Family broadcasts on 55 stations. (See The Aldrich Family and Thursday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 3 1942 Can You Top This? begins its eleven season multi-network run on NBC for Colgate Palmolive Peet while remaining on WOR/New York City once a week for Colgate‘s Kirkman Soap. (See Can You Top This? and Saturday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 3 1943 General Foods announces a week’s delay starting the new season of Jack Benny’s program on NBC due to the comedian’s extended tour entertaining troops overseas.
OCT 3 1944 Elaine Carrington’s weekday soap opera Rosemary begins its eleven year multi-network run on NBC. (See Soft Soap & Hard Sell.)
OCT 3 1945 Claiming “typographical errors” in its September 20th commercial television channel allocation decree, the FCC “discovers” 90 corrections needed in the 140 metro-politan areas.
OCT 3 1946 NBC-TV pays $6,500 for the Brooklyn Dodgers vs. St. Louis Cardinals playoff game won by St. Louis for the National League championship.
OCT 3 1946 Singer-comedian Dennis Day, 30, debuts in his successful sitcom, A Day In The Life of Dennis Day, destined for five year run on NBC. (See Saturday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 3 1947 FCC announces a record six month schedule of 346 application hearings to be held for new AM, FM and TV stations.
OCT 3 1948 International Silver moves its Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet from NBC to CBS. (See Ozzie & Harriet and Friday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 3 1948 NBC’s Fred Allen offers $5,000 to any listener who can prove he or she lost a prize on his competing program, ABC’s Stop The Music!, as a result of listening to him. (See Stop The Music!)
OCT 3 1948 The prestigious Philco Television Playhouse with a total budget of $17,000 per week debuts on NBC-TV, fed live to seven stations and sent by kinescope film to another ten.
OCT 3 1948 Network Radio veteran Russ Morgan stars in television’s first big band show, a weekly half-hour on NBC-TV sponsored by Admiral Radio & Television Corp.
OCT 3 1949 The Liberty network introduces a two hour game show, Musical Bingo, to fill the afternoon time occupied by baseball broadcasts during the summer.
OCT 3 1949 Cowles Broadcasting sells jts WOL/Washington, D.C., to competitor WWDC.
OCT 3 1949 Mutual revives Carleton E. Morse’s I Love A Mystery for a three season nightly run of new transcribed productions of Morse’s previously broadcast scripts. (See I Love A Mystery and I Love A Sequel.)
OCT 3 1951 CBS makes an unprecedented Network Radio move by offering its Wednesday night Red Skelton Show available for single broadcast sponsorship at a total cost of $23,500 for one show.
OCT 3 1951 NBC gives its affiliates 40 seconds for a “cowcatcher” local commercial prior to the beginning of ten sustaining network programs.
OCT 3 1951 William Gargan begins his five year contract with NBC starring as Barrie Craig, Confidential Investigator on both radio and television. (See The 1951-52 Season.)
OCT 3 1951 Hadacol maker LeBlanc Corporation files for Chapter 10 reorganization in New York City after the FTC charges it with false advertising in claims that it treats cancer, tuberculosis and heart disease. (See Hadacol.)
OCT 3 1952 FCC Broadcast Bureau issues its opposition to the merger of ABC with United Paramount Theaters citing conflicts of interests.
OCT 3 1952 Three bandits raid the New York offices of NBC during the lunch hour and escape with $4,000 in cash.
OCT 3 1952 CBS-TV’s My Friend Irma becomes the first program to originate from the new CBS Television City in Los Angeles. (See My Friend Irma and Monday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 3 1952 Eve Arden and her CBS Radio cast, (Gale Gordon, Richard Crenna, Robert Rockwell, Gloria McMillian and Jane Morgan), bring their hit sitcom Our Miss Brooks to CBS-TV. (See Our Miss Arden.)
OCT 3 1952 Ozzie & Harriet (Nelson) with their two sons, David & Ricky, begin the television adaptation of their radio sitcom on ABC-TV. (See Ozzie & Harriet.)
OCT 3 1952 Ten year radio hit Mr. & Mrs. North debuts on CBS-TV with its radio co-stars, Richard Denning and Barbara Britton. (See Married Sleuths and Tuesday’s All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 4 1922 WJZ/Newark feeds its coverage of the New York Yankees vs. New York Giants World Series to WGY/Schenectady for rebroadcast.
OCT 4 1933 Movie actress Irene Rich,42, begins her eleven year multi-network series of programs for Welch’s Grape Juice on Blue
OCT 4 1935 Striking engineers shut down WDAS/Philadelphia from 1:30 p.m. until 9:15 p.m. when station management signs a new union contract.
OCT 4 1935 Attorneys for KFWB/Los Angeles disc jockey Al Jarvis notify WNEW/Newark that Jarvis has copyrighted the term, “The World’s Largest Make Believe Ballroom,” used by WNEW’s Martin Block.
OCT 4 1936 General Foods moves Jack Benny’s Sunday evening show from the Blue Network to NBC. (See Sunday At Seven.)
OCT 4 1936 Phillips H. Lord introduces his human interest show, We The People on Blue, beginning 15 year multi-network run.
OCT 4 1936 Singing bandleader/comedian Phil Harris debuts as a cast member on the Jack Benny Program.
OCT 4 1937 Frank McNinch becomes Chairman of the FCC and pledges, "...an open and transparent commission."
OCT 4 1937 Mary Margaret McBride, previously known to listeners as Martha Deane on WOR/New York City, begins a CBS commentary series under her own name.
OCT 4 1937 Barney Pressman, owner of Barney’s Clothes, Inc., sues WNEW/New York City for $106,000 claiming the station shorted his series of sponsored programs from two to four minutes each from 1934 to 1936.
OCT 4 1938 FCC backs down and votes to reconsider its profanity test case against WTCN/Minneapolis-St. Paul for carrying the Blue Network dramatization of Eugene O’Neill’s Beyond The Horizon containing the words “damn” and “hell”.
OCT 4 1939 Mutual begins exclusive coverage of the World Series on 151 stations - including 43 NBC affiliates and eleven CBS stations - sponsored by Gillette which paid $225,000 for the rights.
OCT 4 1939 Sponsor Grove Laboratories begins Wednesday night transcribed rebroadcasts of its Monday night Blue Network Adventures of Sherlock Holmes on WOR/New York City. (See Sherlock Holmes.)
OCT 4 1940 NBC’s Board of Directors meets to make its disposed programming chief John F. Royal the new Vice President in charge of Television, Shortwave, FM and Facsimile.
OCT 4 1940 Brown & Williamson’s Wings cigarettes opens its Friday night aviation melodrama Wings of Destiny on NBC with the weekly giveaway of a new Piper Cub airplane to the listener who writes a winning testimonial letter and then answers the telephone when the program calls.
OCT 4 1941 Armstrong Cork Company’s light drama anthology, Theater of Today, begins its 13 year run at noon Saturdays on CBS.
OCT 4 1942 The transcribed West Coast rebroadcast of NBC’s Jack Benny Program is cancelled when the AFM demands that “live talent” be used, despite the show’s offer to double the musicians‘ pay. (See Petrillo!)
OCT 4 1942 Fred Allen’s Texaco Star Theater on CBS is cut from 60 to 30 minutes. (See Sunday's All Time Top Ten and The 1942-43 Season.)
OCT 4 1942 Arthur Godfrey, morning personality on CBS-owned WJSV/Washington and WABC/New York City, joins the cast of Fred Allen’s Texaco Star Theater until Allen fires him after six weeks . (See Arthur Godfrey.)
OCT 4 1942 First Nighter moves from CBS to Mutual - the program’s fourth network in twelve years. (See Friday’s All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 4 1944 President Roosevelt wires a request to AFM chief Petrillo asking that the union’s two year ban on recording be abolished. (See Petrillo!)
OCT 4 1944 Don Dunphy, Bill Slater and Bill Corum cover the Detroit Tigers vs. St.Louis Cardinals World Series on Mutual to over 300 U.S. stations, 47 Canadian outlets and AFRS relays worldwide via six shortwave stations.
OCT 4 1945 Frank Morgan becomes substitute host of NBC’s Kraft Music Hall when Bing Crosby refuses to perform after the network and sponsor refuse to let him pre-record the program. (See Frank Morgan and Thursday’s All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 4 1947 NBC relaxes its ban on recorded programs and allows Truth Or Consequen-ces’ 8:30 p.m. broadcast to be transcribed for later replay on its Pacific Coast network. (See The Late Shift.)
OCT 4 1947 Campana transplants its 17 year old Chicago based anthology series First Nighter to Hollywood and returns it to the CBS Saturday night schedule after an 18 month absence from the air. (See Friday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 4 1947 F. Chase Taylor as Colonel Stoopnagle joins Vaughn Monroe’s Camel Caravan show on CBS in what would be his last two years in Network Radio.
OCT 4 1948 Kay Kyser’s College of Fun & Knowledge debuts as a weekday half-hour at 11:00 a.m. on ABC. (See Kay Kyser.)
OCT 4 1948 Broadway and movie singing star Gordon MacRae, 27, opens The Railroad Hour on ABC for a six year multi-network run. (See The Railroad Hour.)
OCT 4 1948 Bulova’s bi-lingual WOV/New York City opens a production studio in Rome, Italy, to record programs.
OCT 4 1948 Popular bandleader Jan Savitt, 35, dies of a cerebral hemorrhage.
OCT 4 1948 The Original Amateur Hour with host Ted Mack debuts on ABC-TV.
OCT 4 1949 Eddie Cantor begins his series of semi-monthly variety shows on NBC-TV.
OCT 4 1949 The first television version of The Life of Riley begins a one season run on NBC-TV with Jackie Gleason replacing William Bendix in the title role.
OCT 4 1950 CBS introduces A Dollar A Minute with host Bill Goodwin for a 39 week run, inviting listeners to pay a dollar a minute to expound on any subject they choose.
OCT 4 1950 ABC-TV, CBS-TV and NBC-TV each chip in $50,000 to broadcast the 1950 World Series sponsored by Gillette which pays $800,000 for the rights to the games between the New York Yankees vs. Philadelphia Phillies.
OCT 4 1951 NBC-TV begins its four year contract with Gillette for exclusive World Series television coverage.
OCT 4 1951 CBS settles out of court a $750,000 lawsuit brought by Haven MacQuarrie who claimed the network stole the concept for his Noah Webster Says for its short lived We Take Your Word. (See CBS Packages Unwrapped.)
OCT 4 1952 NBC-TV celebrates the opening of its Burbank studios with an hour long special edition of its Saturday night All Star Revue.
OCT 4 1953 NBC introduces Weekend, a two-hour Sunday afternoon news and feature program that continues until the network premieres Monitor on June 25, 1955.
OCT 4 1953 A.C. Nielsen reports that the fifth World Series game between New York and Brooklyn was the most watched sports event ever with an estimated 14,776,000 homes tuned to the event on NBC-TV.
OCT 5 1930 Controversial Detroit priest Charles Coughlin begins six months of Sunday afternoon lectures on CBS before forming his own private networks for the next ten years.
(See Father Coughlin.)
OCT 5 1931 Phillips H. Lord begins a 60 city appearance tour as his radio character, Seth Parker, to promote his new RKO movie, Other People’s Business.
OCT 5 1932 The Shadow becomes the title character in mystery series for one season on NBC followed by another on CBS. Series shift to Mutual and introduction of Lamont Cranston doesn’t occur until 1937. (See The Shadow Nos.)
OCT 5 1934 Hollywood Hotel hosted by Louella Parsons and Dick Powell begins its five year run on CBS, taking advantage of AT&T’s newly lowered line charges that encourage West Coast program originations. (See Dick Powell and Friday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 5 1935 The Associated Press accesses member newspapers that broadcast local news an additional 5% fee.
OCT 5 1935 Anheuser Busch awards cash prizes for new instruments to five municipal bands in Iowa who turn in the most Budweiser bottle caps in a contest sponsored by KRNT/Des Moines over the protests of temperance groups.
OCT 5 1936 FCC begins reallocation hearings in Washington attended by over 250 representatives of networks and stations.
OCT 5 1936 Ford again pays Major League Baseball $100,000 for broadcast rights and sponsors the New York Giants vs. Yankees World Series on all networks.
OCT 5 1936 Lever Brothers buys pre-game and post game spots over CBS stations on World Series opening day to plug that evening’s Lux Radio Theater adptation of the baseball comedy Elmer The Great with Joe E. Brown. (See Lux...Presents Hollywood!)
OCT 5 1936 KHQ/Spokane begins construction of its new 793 foot transmitter tower, the tallest un-guyed tower in the world.
OCT 5 1936 The first coaxial cable is installed between New York and Philadelphia.
OCT 5 1937 MGM balks at Kate Smith’s asking price of $12,500 a week in its search for Marie Dressler’s successor.
OCT 5 1939 FCC officials express immediate and vehement resentment toward a Fortune magazine charge that it conspired with equipment manufacturers, patent holders and broadcasters to retard the technology’s advancement.
OCT 5 1939 After four years on NBC, Parks Johnson and Wally Butterworth move their Vox Pop interview show to CBS for the next eight seasons. (See Monday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 5 1939 A non-broadcast performance of Dr. I.Q. with Lew Valentine draws a capacity audience of 9,000 at the Omaha Municipal Auditorium. (See Dr. I.Q.)
OCT 5 1940 Philco televises the football game between Pennsylvania and Maryland from Philadelphia’s Franklin Field on experimental station W3XE to a downtown hotel where it’s viewed by the press on a nine by seven inch screen.
OCT 5 1941 NBC allows transcriptions of its Jack Benny Program to be used for West Coast delayed broadcasts - but only on its Blue Network affiliates. (See Benny’s Double Plays.)
OCT 5 1941 Jack Benny and Eddie Cantor headline an all-star cast at the It’s Fun To Be Free patriotic rally attended by 17,000 at New York City’s Madison Square Garden.
OCT 5 1942 The AFM bans NBC’s transcribed rebroadcasts of Jack Benny’s show and Duffy’s Tavern on the West Coast. (See The Late Shift.)
OCT 5 1942 Plough, Inc., buys six hours a week on the newly formed ten station Atlantic Coast Network including WNEW/New York City, WPEN/Philadelphia, WWDC/Washington and WFBR/Baltimore.
OCT 5 1942 Standard Brands revives weekday serial The O’Neills for an encore season on NBC. (See Soft Soap & Hard Sell.)
OCT 5 1943 Gillette pays $100,000 to a charity pool designated by Major League Baseball for broadcast rights to the New York Yankees vs. St. Louis Cardinals World Series on Mutual and also shortwaved to Europe and Latin America.
OCT 5 1943 The War Department allows Army Private Mel Allen to join Red Barber in Mutual’s coverage of the World Series.
OCT 5 1943 BBC begins daily reports of the World Series narrated by Mutual’s Don Dunphy on its shortwave stations for the benefit of U.S. Armed Forces personnel stationed overseas.
OCT 5 1943 Newspaper drama Big Town begins its second run. Edward Pawley replaces Edward G. Robinson in the lead role for the next ten seasons on CBS and NBC. (See Big Big Town and Tuesday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 5 1943 President Roosevelt opens the National War Fund campaign with a five minute speech broadcast by the four networks and most independent stations.
OCT 5 1944 America’s Town Meeting on Blue becomes a one time simulcast when produced and televised at WRGB(TV)/Schenectady.
OCT 5 1945 Producers Martha Roundtree and Lawrence Spivak introduce Meet The Press on Mutual, “…to show how press conferences really work.”
OCT 5 1945 Musicians union boss Petrillo threatens to continue pulling members from network broadcasts if disputes aren’t settled with NBC affiliate WAPO/Chattanooga and CBS affiliate WRBL/Columbus, Georgia. (See Petrillo!)
OCT 5 1946 Roy Rogers, Dale Evans and Gabby Hayes begin a 26 week run on NBC replacing The National Barn Dance.
OCT 5 1947 A three way circuit is employed as Jack Benny in Hollywood and Fred Allen in New York participate in ABC’s Quiz Kids program originating from Chicago. (See The Quiz Kids.)
OCT 5 1947 The hour-long Ford Theater hosted by Howard Lindsay debuts on NBC at 5:00 p,m. representing a $1.5 Million investment by the automaker in film, stage and book dramatizations.
OCT 5 1947 Doctors allow comic actress Minerva Pious, suffering from bronchial pneumonia, to perform her role as Mrs. Pansy Neusbaum on the Fred Allen Show if accompanied by a nurse.
OCT 5 1947 President Truman appears in the first telecast from the White House addressing the nation on food conservation. The broadcast is relayed to stations in Washington, New York City, Philadelphia and Schenectady.
OCT 5 1948 Reversing past policy, the FCC denies Special Temporary Authorizations to daytime-only stations to operate past sunset on Election Night.
OCT 5 1949 FM inventor Edwin Armstrong applies to the FCC to increase the power of his WFMN/Alpine, New Jersey to 100,000 watts, enabling his station to cover New York City.
OCT 5 1949 Groucho Marx takes his You Bet Your Life comedy quiz from ABC to CBS. (See Network Jumpers and Wednesday’s All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 5 1949 DuMont feeds its telecast of the World Series to 49 stations which accepted sponsor Gillette’s proposal to broadcast the games at no charge. Mutual lines up 695 stations for its radio coverage of the Series.
OCT 5 1949 Dr. Allen DuMont of DuMont Laboratories predicts that color television will not be commercially available for ten to 20 years. (See Dr. DuMont’s Predictions.)
OCT 5 1950 Groucho Marx begins his eleven season run of 202 episodes of You Bet Your Life on NBC-TV. (See The One, The Only…Groucho! and A John Guedel Production.)
OCT 5 1951 Senior NBC commentator Richard Harkness urges the Truman adminis-tration to assure the press that the World War II Office of Censorship would not be revived for the Korean War.
OCT 5 1951 NBC announces its intent to add 100 to 200 new radio affiliates and restructures its rates to allow advertisers more flexibility in selecting the stations to be used for their programs.
OCT 5 1951 Bandleader Sammy Kaye’s two volume Sunday Serenade Books of Poetry - based on his weekly ABC program - is reported to have sold 250,000 copies for $750,000.
OCT 5 1952 Inner Sanctum Mysteries leaves the air after eight multi-network seasons. (See Inner Sanctum and Monday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 5 1952 Walter Winchell brings his Sunday night Journal to ABC-TV and registers a 14.2 Trendex rating against the 9.2 scored by Edward R. Murrow’s See It Now on CBS-TV. (See Walter Winchell.)
OCT 5 1953 ABC’s Pyramid Plan, the CBS Power Plan, Mutual’s Multi-Message Plan and NBC’s Tandem Plan all are reported successful in convincing advertisers to buy participating spots in Network Radio programs.
OCT 5 1953 Mutual research estimates 27½ million homes were tuned to one or more of its World Series broadcasts and NBC-TV claims 25 million homes watched its coverage of each game.
OCT 5 1953 Fibber McGee & Molly and Can You Top This? are converted by NBC to 15 minute strip shows, broadcast as a block on Monday through Friday nights from 10:00 to 10:30.
OCT 5 1953 NBC introduces The Three Plan, offering participation spots on three of its quarter-hour weekday shows, Second Chance, It Pays To Be Married and Fibber McGee & Molly for as low as $2,000.
OCT 5 1953 Forty CBS affiliates lose the last seven minutes of Suspense when master control at WTOP/Washington suffers a blackout. (See Sus…pense! and Thursday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 5 1953 ABC introduces two 15 minute serials on weeknights, Hollywood Starway and Mike Malloy, Detective.
OCT 6 1924 The third National Radio Conference is convened in Washington, D.C.
OCT 6 1930 Both CBS and NBC announce the banning of phonograph records from network broadcast.
OCT 6 1932 Maxwell House Showboat opens its successful five year run on NBC’s Thursday schedule. (See Thursday’s All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 6 1937 Ford’s refusal to renew its sponsorship agreement with Major League Baseball forces the four networks to broadcast the World Series games as sustaining programs.
OCT 6 1937 Dave Elman’s Hobby Lobby moves from WOR/New York City to CBS, beginning its sporadic 13 year multi-network run.
OCT 6 1937 Colgate-Palmolive-Peet cancels Beauty Box Theater after four multi-network seasons, two in the Annual Top Ten.
OCT 6 1937 Variety reports that CBS, NBC and Blue produce 64 shows a week for studio audiences in New York City with a combined free ticket count of 70,000.
OCT 6 1940 General Foods reduces seven local stations from Jack Benny’s 1940-41 lineup, claiming that the markets affected are sufficiently covered by high powered NBC affiliates in the region. (See Sunday At Seven.)
OCT 6 1940 Listener “whodunit” calls flood WJR/Detroit when a line failure blocks the climax of The Helen Hayes Theater mystery, Love From A Stranger on CBS, forcing the station to obtain the play’s conclusion via teletype to satisfy the callers‘ questions.
OCT 6 1940 Columnist Dorothy Thompson begins a series of Sunday night 15 minute co-op commentaries on Mutual.
OCT 6 1941 AFM boss James Petrillo prohibits dance bands from late night remotes on Blue in retaliation for NBC’s cancellation of remotes. NBC and Blue temporarily share the same affiliate produced programs after 11:30 p.m.
OCT 6 1941 Despite reported threats from the AFM, the non-union Royal Canadian Air Force Band begins a series of bi-weekly concerts on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation network. (See Petrillo!)
OCT 6 1941 Time magazine admits its August error in claiming a radio loss of audience based on Crossley and Hooper survey data. (See Radio's Rulers: Crossley, Hooper & Nielsen.)
OCT 6 1942 Kate Smith makes 30 appearances on CBS owned WABC/New York City from 6:00 a.m. until 2:00 a.m. the following morning and sells $2 Million in U.S. War Bonds. (See Kate's Great Song and Friday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 6 1942 Suspenseful series Lights Out which left NBC in 1939, begins a year’s run on CBS Thursday nights. (See Lights Out.)
OCT 6 1942 A Spanish version of Blue’s crime drama Counterspy begins a Thursday shortwave schedule for rebroadcast by Latin American stations to demonstrate anti-espionage activities in the United States.
OCT 6 1943 Paul W. Kresten, 45, General Manager of CBS, is named its Executive Vice President.
OCT 6 1943 NBC announces its eight year old rule prohibiting NBC staff announcers from performing commercials on Blue and vice-versa will be strictly enforced when the FCC approves the sale of Blue to Edward Noble.
OCT 6 1944 FCC proposes a rule requiring “complete” sponsor identification at the beginning and end of all “non-political” programs distributed on transcription free of charge to stations by political groups.
OCT 6 1945 Meet The Press co-creator Martha Roundtree introduces Leave It To The Girls on Mutual for a four season run.
OCT 6 1945 Truth Or Consequences reunites contestants via shortwave radio with family members and sweethearts serving in the Armed Forces in Japan with a hookup to AFRS facilities in Tokyo. (See Truth Or Consequences and Saturday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 6 1945 Danny Kaye leaves his CBS show for a European tour and guest hosts substitute in his six week absence: Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, Jack Benny, Burns & Allen, Easy Aces and Ed Gardner.
OCT 6 1946 Gillette pays $175,000 plus line charges for the Cardinals vs. Red Sox World Series on Mutual which causes a firestorm of criticism aimed at the announcers chosen by Commissioner Happy Chandler, Jim Britt and Arch McDonald.
OCT 6 1946 The Incomparable Hildegarde leaves NBC’s Raleigh Room to host The Campbell Room for six months on CBS.
OCT 6 1947 The CBS weekday afternoon quiz Winner Take All is offered to affiliates as a co-op program.
OCT 6 1947 Mutual claims its full network coverage of the World Series augmented by 50 independent stations and a 64 Canadian stations reached over 30 million listeners, scoring a seven day average rating of 36.7.
OCT 6 1947 FM inventor Edwin Armstrong files a brief with the FCC charging that the Commission and RCA colluded to hold back the growth of FM.
OCT 6 1948 Gillette pays a record $600,000 for radio and television rights to the Boston Braves vs. Cleveland Indians World Series.
OCT 6 1948 The World Series is again made available to all television stations with access to AT&T network connections - but games in Cleveland are limited to seven cities on its Midwest network and games in Boston are only seen in the eight cities on its East Coast network.
OCT 6 1948 Adolphe Menjou hosts the inaugural five hour program on KFI-TV/Los Angeles debuting on Channel 9.
OCT 6 1949 CBS, led by inventor Dr. Peter Goldmark, officially demonstrates its color television system to the FCC.
OCT 6 1950 Arthur Godfrey hosts General Dwight Eisenhower in a one-time special CBS program, Crusade For Freedom. (See Arthur Godfrey.)
OCT 6 1950 FCC proposes its first “anti-monopoly” ruling since 1942 in limiting any television network from dominating programming in markets with less than four stations
OCT 6 1951 NBC premieres Talent Search - Country Style for a 13 week Saturday night run.
OCT 6 1951 WSM/Nashville reports one announcement on its Grand Ole Opry offering a free picture of singer Jimmy Dickens received 24,964 responses from 31 states. (See Saturday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 6 1951 For the first time in its ten year history Broadcast Music Inc. (BMI) places five songs in Billboard’s Top Ten, led by Because of You, I Get Ideas and Cold, Cold Heart in the top three positions.
OCT 6 1952 Bert Parks brings Double Or Nothing to CBS-TV on Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons while Walter O”Keefe remains host of the show’s radio version on NBC.
OCT 6 1953 Frank Sinatra opens a 26 week run as adventurer Rocky Fortune on NBC.
OCT 7 1922 The first chain broadcast is made via telegraph lines between WJZ/New York City and WGY/Schenectady - the fourth game of the World Series in which the New York Giants defeated the New York Yankees, 4 to 3.
OCT 7 1932 Protests are filed with the State Department over Mexico’s granting 500,000 watts to border station XER/Villa Acuna controlled by infamous “goat gland doctor” John Brinkley.
OCT 7 1934 Eddie Cantor begins the final eight weeks of his contract to host NBC’s highly rated Chase & Sanborn Hour before switching sponsors and networks. (See Network Jumpers and The 1934-35 Season.)
OCT 7 1934 The Ford Sunday Evening Hour of classical concerts begins its eight season run on CBS.
OCT 7 1935 NBC replaces its four daily Press-Radio reports on its seven owned and operated stations east of the Mississipi with newscasts using United Press material and sponsored by Standard Oil of New Jersey aka Esso. (See The Press-Radio Bureau.)
OCT 7 1935 Procter & Gamble begins to trade transcriptions of its serial, Ma Perkins, to small market stations in isolated areas for the time required to broadcast them every weekday. (See Soft Soap & Hard Sell.)
OCT 7 1938 Hearst Radio sells WINS/New York City to advertising executive Milton Biow for $200,000 pending FCC approval.
OCT 7 1939 Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One starts five month run on NBC with host Milton Berle. The short lived show is forerunner to the long-running Can You Top This? (See Can You Top This?)
OCT 7 1940 General Foods introduces its weekday serial Portia Faces Life for its eleven season run alternating between CBS and NBC. (See Soft Soap & Hard Sell.)
OCT 7 1940 Over 1,500 Texas schools endorse the weekday 15 minute Texas School of The Air, produced by the state’s Education Department and broadcast by WFAA/Dallas, KPRC/Houston, WBAP/Fort Worth and WOAI/San Antonio.
OCT 7 1941 Red Skelton, 28, begins his 12 year multi-network run in NBC’s highly rated Tuesday night lineup. (See Tuesday’s All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 7 1941 Lever Brothers introduces its Swan Soap in the premiere of the new Burns & Allen sitcom format on NBC identifying the couple as husband and wife. (See Network Jumpers and Wednesday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 7 1941 Leopold Stokowski, 59, begins an eight week contract to conduct the NBC Symphony’s Tuesday broadcasts on Blue while continuing his guest appearances as conductor of the New York Philharmonic’s Sunday broadcasts on CBS.
OCT 7 1942 CBS introduces The Man Behind The Gun for an 18 month run profiling American troops using U.S. manufactured weapons at war.
OCT 7 1943 FCC Chairman James Fly publicly criticizes the CBS decision to keep opinions out of its newscasts.
OCT 7 1943 AFRA protests the CBS and Blue Network performances of the Blue Jacket Choir of 50 non-union Navy sailors from Great Lakes Naval Training Station.
OCT 7 1945 FCC closes applications for new FM stations.
OCT 7 1945 AFM boss James Petrillo forbids a union organist from playing on a televised Rosh Hashana religious service in Chicago because it would break his “no television” rule. (See Petrillo!)
OCT 7 1945 NBC pre-empts an hour of its afternoon programming for The Parade of Stars promoting its fall lineup.
OCT 7 1945 CBS debuts Request Performance - similar to AFRS’ Command Perfor-mance - with the cooperation of the Masquers Club of show business personalities. (See Command Performance.)
OCT 7 1945 AFM’s Petrillo pulls union musicians from The Prudential Family Hour forcing cancellation of the CBS show because of disputes with CBS affiliates in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Albany and Columbus, Georgia. (See Petrillo!)
OCT 7 1945 After four seasons on CBS and a year’s sabbatical, Fred Allen returns to NBC and to the Annual Top Ten for the first time since 1938. (See Sunday’s All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 7 1946 The Soviet Union denies use of its shortwave facilities to U.S. Network Radio correspondents for direct reports from Moscow.
OCT 7 1947 C.E. Hooper releases its television viewership estimates for the 1947 World Series seen in New York, Philadelphia, Washington and Schenectady - 447,587 viewers in homes, 3,514,749 viewers in bars.
OCT 7 1948 ABC purchases the 20 acre Vitagraph Studios lot in Hollywood from Warner Brothers as the future site for its West Coast radio and television operations.
OCT 7 1949 Niles Trammell, 55, President of NBC since 1940, becomes Board Chairman of the network replacing David Sarnoff who remains Chairman of RCA. Trammell is succeeded by NBC Vice President Joseph McConnell, 43.
OCT 7 1949 Illinois Congressman Noah Mason vows to close the tax loophole that allows Ed Gardner to record NBC’s Duffy’s Tavern in Puerto Rico and evade U.S. taxes. (See Duffy Ain’t Here.)
OCT 7 1949 KVI/Seattle goes off the air for seven hours when its IBEW engineers walk out on strike.
OCT 7 1949 Gillette and NBC-TV carry the World Championship Rodeo from Madison Square Garden for three weeks instead of their normal Friday Night Fights from the arena.
OCT 7 1950 Sing It Again, a CBS Saturday night feature for two seasons, begins a simulcast schedule on CBS-TV.
OCT 7 1952 Mutual claims an average of 22½ million homes tuned to its broadcasts of the World Series.
OCT 7 1952 Lorillard’s Old Gold cigarettes debuts the edited week-old audio of its NBC-TV quiz show Two For The Money starring Herb Shriner on NBC Radio.
OCT 7 1952 CBS-TV introduces the short-lived sitcom, Leave It To Larry starring Eddie Albert, which critics universally pan.
OCT 8 1932 University of Southern California tells Los Angeles stations that only those “recommended by newspapers” will be allowed to broadcast its football games.
OCT 8 1933 Joe Penner, 29, begins his seven year multi-network run on Blue with Fleischmann Yeast ‘s Bakers Broadcast. (See The 1933-34 Season.)
OCT 8 1934 CBS and NBC install teletype machines at Chicago daily newspapers for the prompt delivery of network program changes and press releases.
OCT 8 1935 Future sitcom stars - bandleader Ozzie Nelson, 29, and his band’s vocalist, Harriet Hilliard, 26, are married. (See Ozzie & Harriet and Friday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 8 1937 Dramatic anthology Grand Central Station debuts on Blue and begins its multi-network run spanning 17 years.
OCT 8 1937 The Pennsylvania Supreme Court upholds a lower court ruling in the case of Fred Waring vs. WDAS/Philadelphia and rules that a radio station can’t play an artist’s phonograph records without permission.
OCT 8 1937 A variation of Bingo broadcast on WTHT/Hartford attracts a sudden rush of 27,000 calls in 15 minutes, overloads the city’s phone system and temporarily knocks it out of commission.
OCT 8 1939 Bill Stern begins The Colgate Sports Newsreel’s twelve year multi-network run on Blue. (See Bill Stern.)
OCT 8 1939 The weekly 15 minute sitcom, The Parker Family, starts its five season run on Blue.
OCT 8 1939 Tenor/comedian Dennis Day replaces Kenny Baker in Jack Benny’s cast.
OCT 8 1941 Scores of NBC employees are temporarily denied permission to enter the network’s New York City headquarters when a “bomb scare” causes NBC pages to require network issued identification cards for entrance.
OCT 8 1941 Standard Brands signs comics Bud Abbott & Lou Costello to appear in skits on NBC’s Chase & Sanborn Hour for a reported $1,800 per broadcast.
OCT 8 1942 OWI Director Elmer Davis estimates that radio’s contribution in time to the war effort to date - at 1942 commercial rates - is worth $64.0 Million.
OCT 8 1942 Bud Abbott & Lou Costello begin their first full season of shows on NBC for R.J. Reynolds‘ Camel cigarettes.
OCT 8 1942 Transcribed rebroadcast of NBC’s Rudy Vallee Show on Blue’s 13 Pacific Coast affiliates is cancelled in reaction to threats by musicians union boss James Petrillo. (See Petrillo!)
OCT 8 1942 Ten year old KXKX/Kansas City, (fka KITE), suspends operations and leaves the air.
OCT 8 1943 A New York jury awards Grombach Productions $13,000 in its suit against Fred Waring, Grove Laboratories and Stack-Gobel Advertising for stealing the program concept Your Song.
OCT 8 1943 Walter Winchell declines an invitation to debate CBS News Director Paul W. White over the CBS “un-opinionated” newscast policy. (See Walter Winchell.)
OCT 8 1943 After 14 years in daily 15 minute serial form, Amos & Andy is reintroduced on NBC as a weekly half hour sitcom. (See Multiple Runs All Time Top Ten and Sunday’s All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 8 1943 Jimmy Durante, 50, and Garry Moore, 28, are rewarded by sponsor Camel cigarettes for their seven months of substituting for Abbott & Costello - with their own series on CBS for three seasons. (See Goodnight, Mr. Durante.)
OCT 8 1944 WOR/New York City carries joke book king Joe Miller’s 229th birthday party attended by 200 guests at the Park Lane Hotel, hosted by former Mayor Jimmy Walker and the cast of Can You Top This? beginning at 12:30 a.m. (See Can You Top This?)
OCT 8 1944 The networks interrupt programs to announce the death of 52 year old Wendell Willke, 1940 Republican Presidential candidate.
OCT 8 1944 The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet (Nelson) opens on the CBS Sunday schedule, beginning a ten year multi-network run. (See Ozzie & Harriet and Friday’s All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 8 1944 American Tobacco pays an additional $12,000 in talent fees, studio charges and line costs to bring in Frank Sinatra and Alex Stordahl’s orchestra from New York to guest on Jack Benny’s Hollywood based show. (See Lucky Gets Benny.)
OCT 8 1945 Casts of the CBS interview show Vox Pop and Kay Kyser’s College of Musical Knowledge from NBC arrive in Annapolis for broadcasts celebrating the U.S. Naval Academy’s 100th Anniversary.
OCT 8 1945 Bing Crosby declines a General Motors offer of $25,000 a week to headline an NBC half-hour on Sundays at 5:30 p.m.
OCT 8 1946 ABC, CBS, Mutual and NBC interrupt regular programming throughout the day to report verdicts from the Nuremberg War Crimes trials.
OCT 8 1947 FCC Chairman Charles Denny resigns to become Vice President and General Counsel of NBC.
OCT 8 1948 Mutual President Ed Kobak tells the FCC that giveaway programs that “bribe” listeners to listen instead of entertaining them, “Are not good for radio.”
OCT 8 1948 After a year on NBC’s Sunday afternoon schedule, the prestigious Ford Theater moves to CBS on Friday nights with a premiere adaptation of Madame Bovary starring Marlene Dietrich, Claude Rains and Van Hefflin.
OCT 8 1948 NBC debuts its highly promoted two hour block of Friday night comedy shows starring Jimmy Durante, Eddie Cantor, Red Skelton and William Bendix in The Life of Riley.
OCT 8 1951 To avoid a Justice Department complaint, Major League Baseball drops its “territorial” rules and relinquishes individual control of radio and television rights to each of its teams.
OCT 8 1951 Coca-Cola moves its four-month old Mario Lanza Show from CBS to NBC for a one season run.
OCT 8 1951 Mormon owners of KSL-TV/Salt Lake City refuse to air the CBS programs with beer sponsors: Amos & Andy, Schlitz Playhouse of Stars, The Ken Murray Show and Pabst Wednesday Night Fights.
OCT 8 1952 FCC refuses the Democratic party’s request to investigate Republicans‘ broadcast advertising blitz for the Eisenhower presidential campaign.
OCT 8 1952 The National Television System Committee, (NTSC), tells the Society of Motion Picture & Television Engineers’, (SMPTE), convention that it will unveil a successful compatible color television system in 1953.
OCT 8 1952 NBC executive Ted Cott predicts that 700 radio stations will be “...chased off the air” by television.
OCT 8 1953 Nigel Bruce, famous as Dr. John Watson in Sherlock Holmes movies and radio mysteries, dies at 58. (See Sherlock Holmes.)
OCT 9 1933 NBC begins its month long move to its new ten story, 100,000 sq. foot headquarters at Radio City.
OCT 9 1935 DuPont Chemical’s historical series Cavalcade of America begins four seasons on CBS before moving to NBC for another 13 seasons. (See The Cavalcade of America.)
OCT 9 1937 Movie comedian Jack Haley begins his successful six year Network Radio career.
OCT 9 1937 Censured by his superiors, Detroit priest Charles Coughlin cancels plans to resume his Sunday afternoon series of sermons on an independent network of 36 stations. (See Father Coughlin.)
OCT 9 1939 CBS correspondent Bill Henry and Mutual’s Arthur Mann of Mutual become the first reporters to leave England to cover World War II in France.
OCT 9 1939 Singer Kate Smith begins her 15 minute weekday commentary/interview program, Kate Smith Speaks. The noontime program runs for eight seasons on CBS followed by four seasons on Mutual.
OCT 9 1939 CBS moves its weekday educational half-hour American School of The Air from 2:30 p.m. to 9:15 a.m. with instructions that its affiliates may record it for broadcast at “...more convenient times.”
OCT 9 1939 Veteran network singer Lanny Ross, 33, opens his three year series of weeknight Multiple Run shows on CBS.
OCT 9 1939 Supporters of Detroit priest Charles Coughlin claim that the NAB’s ban against him is ineffective because it doesn’t apply to paid programs already under contract to stations. (See Father Coughlin.)
OCT 9 1939 A.C. Nielsen is reported to be field testing its new Audimeter listener polling device in 200 Midwest homes. (See Radio's Rulers: Crossley, Hooper & Nielsen.)
OCT 9 1941 NBC establishes a strict visitor’s pass policy for technical operations areas of its network headquarters to prevent sabotage.
OCT 9 1941 NBC relaxes its ban against recorded elements, war scenes and actors impersonating world leaders as The March of Time returns to its Blue network after a two year hiatus. The network also agrees to transcribe each week’s program for rebroadcast on GE shortwave stations WGEO/Schenectady and KGEI/San Francisco. (See The March of Time.)
OCT 9 1942 RKO releases Here We Go Again! the sequel to its earlier hit, Look Who’s Laughing, with NBC's Edgar Bergen, Jim & Marian Jordan as Fibber McGee & Molly and Hal Peary as Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve.(See Radio Goes To The Movies.)
OCT 9 1942 NBC commentator Bill Henry leaves for the South Pacific on assignment for The Los Angeles Times.
OCT 9 1942 Mutual commentator Fulton Lewis, Jr., addresses 1,200 at the dedication of WPDQ/Jacksonville on the subject, Are We Winning The War?
OCT 9 1943 Capitol Records follows Decca’s lead and agrees to the AFM's terms of a half-cent royalty per disc to end the recording ban against it. (See Petrillo!)
OCT 9 1944 FCC approves the sale of two Arde Bulova stations, WCOP/Boston and WNBC/Hartford, for $425,000.
OCT 9 1944 Time, Inc., owner of 12.5% of the Blue Network’s stock, moves its March of Time from NBC to Blue. (See The March of Time.)
OCT 9 1944 W.E. Macfarlane, Mutual Board Chairman and the network’s first President, (duties he performed as Business Manager of The Chicago Tribune), dies of a heart attack at age 60.
OCT 9 1946 Former AFRS newscaster Gordon McLendon, 25, and his father apply for a new station in the Dallas suburb of Oak Cliff which will eventually become the Liberty network’s anchor station, KLIF. (See Top 40 Radio's Roots.)
OCT 9 1948 Philco installs a home television set in a Capital Airlines DC-4 airliner and 44 passengers see the complete Game 4 of the World Series from stations along their route from Washington, D.C. to Chicago.
OCT 9 1948 Inaugural program for ABC owned WXYZ-TV/Detroit headlined by Georgie Price, Paul Whiteman and Frances Langford, is networked to five Midwest stations affiliated with ABC-TV.
OCT 9 1950 Commentator Mary Margaret McBride leaves NBC after nine years to join ABC.
OCT 9 1951 RCA begins ten days of public demonstrations of its color television system in New York City and Washington, D.C.
OCT 10 1923 WEAF/New York City feeds its World Series broadcasts by wire to WGY/Schenectady.
OCT 10 1932 Frank & Anne Hummert’s soap opera Betty And Bob begins its eight year multi-network run for sponsor General Mills. (See Soft Soap & Hard Sell.)
OCT 10 1932 Variety divulges the weekly salaries of Network Radio’s top singers - Kate Smith commands $7,500, Rudy Vallee, Ruth Etting and Morton Downey each make $4,500 and Bing Crosby earns $3,000.
OCT 10 1933 WGN/Chicago begins feeding its weekday soap opera Painted Dreams to CBS as well as supplying Little Orphan Annie, The Singing Lady and Clara, Lu & Em to NBC.
OCT 10 1934 FCC adopts its Regional Station Quota System to allocate station grants based on state populations.
OCT 10 1936 CBS announces the purchase of a city block at Sunset and Gower in Hollywood to house its West Coast headquarters and KNX/Los Angeles.
OCT 10 1936 FDR’s mid-term election speech on CBS, Mutual and NBC draws a 24.6 CAB rating. (See Radio's Rulers: Crossley, Hooper & Nielsen.)
OCT 10 1937 KOL/Seattle switches from CBS to Don Lee/Mutual on short notice and KIRO picks up the CBS affiliation with no loss of network programs while KVI/Tacoma remains the market’s second CBS affiliate. (See Three Letter Calls.)
OCT 10 1939 The Aldrich Family begins its successful 13 year multi-network run on Blue. (See The Aldrich Family and Thursday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 10 1939 CBS gives The Los Angeles Times free use of its shortwave connection to the European War Zone for correspondent Bill Henry’s daily reports and receives print credit for Henry’s dispatches on KNX in return.
OCT 10 1940 BMI announces its catalog of non-ASCAP songs has grown to 240,000 titles.
OCT 10 1941 Gangbusters begins a new season on Blue with network orders that it cannot deal with any espionage or sabotage crimes. (See Saturday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 10 1942 NBC uses three control rooms to manage three simultaneous live perform-ances of Edna St Vincent Millay‘s narrative, The Murder of Lidice, accompanied by the NBC Symphony, broadcast in English for network audiences plus Spanish and Portuguese for shortwave listeners in Latin and South America.
OCT 10 1943 Sponsor Serutan laxative increases the size of the Blue Network for Drew Pearson’s Sunday evening commentaries from 55 to 110 affiliates. (See Nets To Order.)
OCT 10 1943 Frank Sinatra’s Broadway Bandbox moves from Monday to Sunday on CBS opposite Edgar Bergen & Charlie McCarthy on NBC and is gone after three broadcasts.
OCT 10 1944 AFM boss Petrillo rejects President Roosevelt’s request to end the two year recording strike. (See Petrillo!)
OCT 10 1944 DuMont Laboratories offers 225,000 shares of its stock for sale at $7.37 per share to fund increased production of television transmitting and receiving equipment. (See Dr. DuMont’s Predictions.)
OCT 10 1945 CBS successfully broadcasts a 525 line, high-frequency color television signal in New York City.
OCT 10 1945 New York Congressman Emanuel Celler introduces a bill to make broad-casting a public utility with the FCC exercising rigid control over programming and award-ing licenses to applicants who promise less commercials.
OCT 10 1945 WDOD/Chattanooga yields to pressure and hires seven union musicians for non-existent jobs. (See Petrillo!)
OCT 10 1946 FCC denies The Press Wireless Service use of domestic shortwave facilities to transmit program material to its client stations.
OCT 10 1948 Standard Oil of New Jersey pays $1.2 Million to sponsor the New York Philharmonic’s Sunday afternoon season of 90 minute concerts on CBS.
OCT 10 1948 Amos & Andy, the first headliners recruited in Bill Paley’s “talent raid” on NBC, premiere on CBS. (See Network Jumpers, Sunday's All Time Top Ten and Multiple Runs All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 10 1949 RCA’s demonstration of its compatible color television system before the FCC is termed “disappointing” - complicated by the late arrival and setup of equipment.
OCT 10 1949 CBS-TV makes its weekday period from 4:00 to 5:30 p.m. available for participating sponsors similar to an earlier move by NBC for three hours every Saturday evening.
OCT 10 1951 Mystery series The Casebook of Gregory Hood is cancelled after four multi-network seasons.
OCT 10 1951 FCC permits Paramount Pictures to test Juke Box Television - a pay TV system using a coin operated device to unscramble video pictures - for 90 overnight periods on its KTLA(TV)/Los Angeles.
OCT 10 1952 Signifying the growing use of filmed programs for television, 32 production companies report the filming of 41 shows for the networks and syndication.
OCT 10 1952 The television version of CBS’s Life With Luigi creates controversy among Italian-American groups for creating “unsympathetic” stereotypes. (Life With Luigi and Tuesday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 10 1953 NBC introduces the quiz show Know Your NBC’s, challenging contestants on their knowledge of the radio network’s programs and personalities.
OCT 10 1953 Liggett & Myers boasts that its Chesterfield cigarettes sponsored Dragnet theme song is a big enough hit to be played on Your Hit Parade, sponsored by competitor American Tobacco’s Lucky Strike. (See Jack Webb's Dragnet and Smoke Gets In Your Ears.)
OCT 11 1931 The American Album of Familiar Music begins its 19 year run on NBC followed by a 20th encore season on ABC. (See Gus Haenschen on this site.)
OCT 11 1932 Helen Morgan, Willie & Eugene Howard and Leon Janney headline CBS Talkies of The Air a two hour demonstration of inventor Elmer Myers’ “cold light” television production process, transmitted to a single 26-inch tube receiver by CBS experimental station W2XAB/New York City.
OCT 11 1933 Over network objections the NAB convention votes to petition the FRC to adopt a shortened statement required to identify all transcribed program elements and phonograph records.
OCT 11 1935 A spanner wrench used in aircraft is found on the grounds of WNEW’s transmitter in Carlstadt, New Jersey, and believed to have been dropped from a plane, breaking the 300 pound red beacon atop the station’s 424 foot tower.
OCT 11 1937 Calling AFRA, “..a union of no importance,” Chicago AFM local president James Petrillo enrolls 28 CBS employees and aims to organize all announcers, producers and sound effects men as AFM associate members. (See Petrillo!)
OCT 11 1939 Kate Smith & Ted Collins file a $100,000 suit for unauthorized use of her name against The Smith Company, manufacturers of lingerie sold as Kate Smith Stouts.
OCT 11 1941 FCC votes 4-2 to ban network option time beginning November 15 - both CBS and NBC plan to protest.
OCT 11 1943 Bob Hope appears on NBC’s Cavalcade of America to report on his recent trip entertaining troops in England, Africa, Sicily and Iceland. (See Hope From Home.)
OCT 11 1944 Muzak proposes to the FCC allocation hearings the establishment of three FM channels for its non-commercial, “nickel a day”, subscription service offering classical music, pop music and talk programs.
OCT 11 1944 NBC loses the first three minutes of Eddie Cantor’s Time To Smile remote broadcast from an Army camp when a fuse blows in the program line.
OCT 11 1945 CBS throws the FCC television hearings into chaos with its successful demonstration of a high-frequency color system and the announcement that manufacture of the system’s components has begun.
OCT 11 1946 Newsman Don Goddard, fired by NBC in February, sues the network for $78,270 in back wages from his four lost sponsored programs.
OCT 11 1946 NABET engineers end their 17 day strike against Westinghouse stations and settle for a $7 a week raise.
OCT 11 1947 The Joan Davis Show becomes the first variety show offered by CBS for local co-op sponsorship.
OCT 11 1948 Arthur Godfrey, 45, announces that he’s leaving his local morning radio shows on CBS-owned WTOP/Washington and WCBS/New York City, (that pay him $200,000 annually), to focus on his CBS network programs. (See Arthur Godfrey.)
OCT 11 1948 Daytime serial The Brighter Day begins its eight year multi-network run on NBC.
OCT 11 1948 Westinghouse fails in its attempt to link AT&T’s East Coast and Midwest television networks for the final World Series game in Boston using its B-29 Stratovision plane flying over Pennsylvania and trying to connect with WEWS(TV)/Cleveland.
OCT 11 1948 The U.S. Supreme Court refuses to hear the case of WSAY/Rochester, New York against the ABC and Mutual networks which affiliated with the station’s com-petitors rather than sell programs to WSAY on an ala carte basis.
OCT 11 1949 Sponsor Lever Brothers allows Bob Hope to pre-record his NBC show on an experimental basis. (See Tuesday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 11 1949 WOR-TV/New York City goes on the air over Channel 9 with a two hour daily schedule.
OCT 11 1950 Former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt celebrates her 66th birthday by beginning a 45 minute weekday talk show on WNBC/New York City with guests David Sarnoff and Fred Allen.
OCT 11 1950 By a 5-2 vote the FCC reaffirms its decision favoring the CBS system of color television technology effective November 20 - RCA promptly files suit against the decision in federal court.
OCT 11 1950 CBS signs Procter & Gamble to sponsor television’s first weekday soap opera, The First Hundred Years, scheduled for a December premiere.
OCT 11 1950 A U.S. Army Psychological Warfare spokesman suggests broadcasting propaganda from guided missiles over foreign countries.
OCT 11 1951 General Tire announces plans to merge its Yankee and Don Lee networks with R.H. Macy’s WOR AM-FM-TV/New York City, which will give it 58% ownership of Mutual.
OCT 11 1953 After 15 years at 8:00 p.m. on the NBC and CBS Sunday night schedules, Edgar Bergen & Charlie McCarthy are moved 90 minutes ahead to 9:30 on CBS.
OCT 12 1932 Goodman and Jane Ace make an undisclosed cash settlement to Arthur Church, Manager of KMBC/Kansas City, releasing Easy Aces from the exclusivity contract that Church held on their program. (See Easy Aces.)
OCT 12 1933 CBS begins a 13 week contract with General Motors for a mix of 15 minute programs six nights a week at 9:15 p.m.
OCT 12 1934 Former NBC Vice President George McClelland, 39, commits suicide with a pistol in his New York City office.
OCT 12 1934 The CBS Artists Bureau boosts its commission rate paid by talent for its booking agency services to 20%.
OCT 12 1934 KVOS/Bellingham, Washington, is reported to have lifted World Series broadcasts off the air from Canada, broadcast them and inserted local commercials to replace network originated Ford commercials.
OCT 12 1937 Frank & Anne Hummert’s mystery melodrama Mr. Keen, Tracer of Lost Persons debuts on Blue as a 15 minute weeknight strip show, beginning five season run before moving to CBS..
OCT 12 1939 The Music Publishers Protective Assn. joins the AFM in protesting RCA-Victor and Decca Records’ plans to charge stations for playing their records.
OCT 12 1940 Cowboy star Tom Mix, 60, dies in a car wreck - but the Blue Network announces that its weekday kids’ serial, The Tom Mix Ralston Straight Shooters will continue, “…as a tribute to his memory.” (See Serials, Cereals & Premiums.)
OCT 12 1940 Crosley Broadcasting dedicates its new 50,000 watt shortwave station WLWO with a directional beam toward South America with an effective power of 600,000 watts.
OCT 12 1942 AFM President Petrillo brags, “The ban stands!” when a Chicago Federal Judge rules against the government’s anti-trust suit to end the lengthy strike against record and transcription companies. (See Petrillo!)
OCT 12 1942 NBC and P. Lorillard’s Old Gold cigarettes donate the winning bid of $71,200 for broadcast rights to the Sgt. Joe Louis vs. Pvt. Billy Conn Heavyweight Championship fight to the Army Emergency Relief Fund. The afternoon bout is recorded for shortwave broadcast later by GE’s WGEA and WGEO/ Schenectady.
OCT 12 1942 British stage and radio star Gracie Fields 44, debuts on U.S. Network Radio with a nightly five-minute show on Blue.
OCT 12 1942 NBC introduces Victory Volunteers, a weekday morning patriotic series featuring casts of its daytime serials in specially written five chapter, quarter hour dramas.
OCT 12 1942 KODK, a ten watt station operated by civilians and soldiers based in Kodiak, Alaska, reports receiving records and transcriptions, “..by the bushels,” after its appeal to the radio industry for program material.
OCT 12 1942 President Roosevelt’s Fireside Chat on all networks regarding ships and shipping registers a 55.8 Crossley/CAB rating. (See Radio's Rulers: Crossley, Hooper & Nielsen.)
OCT 12 1943 FCC approves NBC’s sale of its Blue Network to Edward Noble for $8.0 Million.
OCT 12 1943 The U.S. Office of Censorship relaxes its ban on broadcasting weather reports, allowing government issued forecasts only and restricting mention of barometric pressure or wind direction.
OC 12 1943 The radio industry begins a month long promotional tour of 116 cities with sales presentations touting broadcast advertising to retailers.
OCT 12 1944 The International Ladies Garment Union becomes the first labor union to buy network time for a political cause - 15 minutes on four consecutive Thursday nights advocating the re-election of President Roosevelt.
OCT 12 1945 The NAB complains to that the FCC's proposed regulation requiring all television stations to broadcast programs for six hours a day, seven days a week, would be currently impossible to honor.
OCT 12 1946 C.E. Hooper founding stockholder and Vice President John Whitridge, 41, drowns near Northport, Long Island, when his boat overturns in high wind.
OCT 12 1947 Captain Tom Healy, conductor of early radio’s Stamp Club programs which claimed as many as 3.0 Million members, dies in a Fort Worth hospital at 56.
OCT 12 1948 Negotiations collapse to end the nine month AFM strike against record and transcription companies. (See Petrillo!)
OCT 12 1950 Newspaper editorial criticism of the FCC’s decision favoring the CBS color television system is immediate, estimating that conversion costs to current set owners would be $500 Million.
OCT 12 1950 George Burns & Gracie Allen begin their eight season sitcom run on CBS-TV. (See The 1950-51 Season.)
OCT 12 1951 Congressional action barring use of Government funds to be used for recruitment forces the Armed Services to cancel a planned $1.5 Million in radio and television advertising in the 1951-52 season.
OCT 12 1951 FCC majority declares the National Citizens Advisory Board For Radio & Television proposed by Connecticut Senator William Benton to be “undesirable” and “involves the dangers of censorship.”
OCT 12 1951 Arthur Godfrey establishes a foundation for American University in Washington, D.C., to give aviation students 35 hours of flying time instruction. (See Arthur Godfrey.)
OCT 12 1952 Arthur Godfrey hosts the Sunday afternoon 60-minute Red Cross blood appeal, Roll Up Your Sleeves, broadcast by the four radio networks plus NBC-TV and CBS-TV.
OCT 12 1953 Mutual approves the delayed broadcast of its nightly half hour adventure shows at 9:30 a.m. by affiliate KSUN/Bisbee, Arizona, because many of the station’s listeners work overnight shifts in local copper mines.
OCT 13 1934 Detroit broadcaster George Storer opens the American Broadcasting Sys-tem network in 14 Eastern and Midwest cities anchored by WMCA/New York, WJJD/ Chicago, WJBK/Detroit, WIP/Philadelphia and WOL/Washington.
OCT 13 1935 Interview show Vox Pop begins its 14 year multi-network run.
OCT 13 1937 FCC votes to abandon its three division structure governing broadcasting, telephone and telegraph - placing all responsibilities and decisions on the seven person commission.
OCT 13 1938 NBC slashes rates on its Blue Network offering discounts up to 20% for complete network coverage.
OCT 13 1938 FCC Chairman Frank McNinch attempts to exclude Commission staff members from the Civil Service merit system which would enable him to fire employees.
OCT 13 1939 NBC appoints retired Brig. Genral Henry Reilly a military correspondent based in Europe.
OCT 13 1939 The NAB Code Committee condemns the broadcasts of militant Detroit priest Charles Coughlin and urges the 44 stations carrying his broadcasts to cancel them.
(See Father Coughlin.)
OCT 13 1939 The NAB Code Committee cites Elliott Roosevelt’s Mutual commentaries for violations by expressing controversial opinion.
OCT 13 1939 The Detroit Street Railway system begins construction of a 250 watt high frequency station to communicate with its drivers.
OCT 13 1940 Newsmen Drew Pearson and Robert Allen introduce the Government of Brazil as their new sponsor on Blue with, “…in the event of any trouble in the Far East, Brazil will be found as always standing shoulder to shoulder with the United States.”
OCT 13 1941 President Roosevelt appoints Alabama lawyer Clifford Durr who has no broadcasting experience to the FCC succeeding Fred Thompson.
OCT 13 1941 NBC stations in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Pitts-burgh, Nashville, Cincinnati, Buffalo, Omaha, Hartford, Oklahoma City, Omaha contribute 38 programs a week replace big band remotes on NBC and Blue.
OCT 13 1942 Veteran actor Roland Young hosts Mutual’s all-star program, Bundles For America’s Gala Radio Show, to encourage used clothing donations for needy families during wartime.
OCT 13 1943 The networks broadcast news of Italy’s declaration of war against Germany with shortwave reports from correspondents in Algiers.
OCT 13 1943 NBC-owned KPO/San Francisco goes off the air for 45 minutes after a tractor’s plow severs the underground cable carrying its signal at its transmitter in Belmont, California.
OCT 13 1944 Professor Joseph Maddy, head of the Interlochen Music Camp, blasts the AFM’s chief James Petrillo at the FCC Allocation Hearings calling him, “…the dictator of American music.” (See Petrillo!)
OCT 13 1947 WWDC/Washington, D.C., asks the FCC for permission to broadcast horse race results and betting prices paid - previously denied by the Commission but broadcast by WWDC competitors WOL, WEAM and WGAY.
OCT 13 1948 AVCO subsidiary Crosley Broadcasting files application with the FCC to purchase WHAS/Louisville from The Louisville Courier-Journal for $1.9 Million.
OCT 13 1948 The International Ladies Garment Workers Union withdraws it applications for FM stations in Boston, Philadelphia and St. Louis but proceeds with its stations in New York City, Los Angeles and Chattanooga.
OCT 13 1949 NBC is reported in negotiation to buy 50,000 watt KMPC/Los Angeles as its West Coast anchor for $1.25 Million replacing long time affiliate KFI.
OCT 13 1950 FCC votes 4-2 to revoke the license of WTUX/Wilmington, Delaware, for carrying horserace results, “…in such a way that would assist bookie operations.”
OCT 13 1950 A Television Broadcasters Association spokesman claims that only one of the country’s 107 stations is equipped to transmit the FCC-approved CBS color system and less than 100 of the nation’s 8,000,000 sets are able to receive it.
OCT 13 1952 CBS correspondent Lou Cioffi, 26, suffers leg wounds while interviewing American servicemen at the Korean war front.
OCT 13 1952 NBC brings Burr Tillstrom & Fran Allison’s TV hit, Kukla, Fran & Ollie, to NBC Radio for a ten-minute weekday afternoon show.
OCT 13 1953 FM inventor Edwin Armstrong introduces FM multiplexing and successfully demonstrates his concept at a news conference.
OCT 13 1953 Longtime Buffalo NBC affiliate WBEN AM&TV switches to CBS following the same move by Norfolk’s WTAR AM&TV - stirring speculation of a CBS raid on NBC for affiliates.
OCT 14 1932 Paramount Pictures releases The Big Broadcast starring CBS personalities Bing Crosby, Burns & Allen, Kate Smith and the Mills Brothers.
OCT 14 1934 Lux Radio Theater debuts on Blue as a Sunday afternoon program from New York with its adaptation of Seventh Heaven starring John Boles and Miriam Hopkins. (See Lux…Presents Hollywood! and Monday's All Time Top Ten)
OCT 14 1934 Jack Benny begins his 21 year string of programs broadcast on Sunday evenings at 7:00 p.m. for a reported opening salary of $5,750 per week. (See Sunday At Seven and Benny’s Double Plays.)
OCT 14 1934 NBC reports a completely sold out status for the first time from 1:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. (See The Gold In The Golden Age.)
OCT 14 1935 Crossley (CAB) polling changes its method from next day recall to same day recall with operators placing calls from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. (See Radio's Rulers: Crossley, Hooper & Nielsen.)
OCT 14 1935 Ohio State University psychology teacher Dr. Frank Stanton, 27, joins the CBS Marketing Research Department. He will become President of the network in eleven years.
OCT 14 1935 General Mills, through its Blackett-Sample-Hummert agency, states that it wants to sponsor as many baseball broadcasts as $500,000 will buy for its Wheaties cereal during the 1936 season .
OCT 14 1937 After six seasons on CBS, The March of Time moves to Blue’s Thursday night schedule. (See The March of Time.)
OCT 14 1939 The first picture of Earl Graser without his Lone Ranger mask appears in a Saturday Evening Post story about the program. (See The Lone Ranger.)
OCT 14 1939 NBC launches a half hour of The Grand Ole Opry from WSM/Nashville on its Saturday night schedule. The program remains on the network for 18 years. (See Saturday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 14 1940 Seven BBC employees are killed when a German bomb hits London‘s Broadcasting House.
OCT 14 1940 WGN/Chicago moves its daily sign-on time back from 7:00 a.m. to 5:30 a.m. to attract a greater farm audience but Prairie Farmer magazine-owned WLS/Chicago remains ahead at 5:00 a.m.
OCT 14 1940 FCC holds an extraordinary closed door meeting with shortwave broad-casters to negotiate rules to prevent facilities from becoming tools of, “…alien propagan-dists, spies and agitators.”
OCT 14 1940 Mutual rules that all 30 minute band remotes must contain at least four BMI or non-ASCAP songs - one more than demanded by Blue, CBS and NBC.
OCT 14 1940 AFM President James Petrillo bans union musicians from playing on late night CBS dance band remotes because of a labor dispute with CBS affiliates WGBI/ Scranton and WADC/Akron. (See Big Band Remotes.)
OCT 14 1941 FCC grants owners of KSFO/San Francisco a license to construct a 100,000 watt shortwave station directed to the Far East and South America to combat
Axis propaganda.
OC 14 1941 WKRC/Cincinnati agrees to broadcast games of the Cincinnati Reds, joining WSAI and WCPO in that city which have covered the team with separate announcing teams for a decade.
OCT 14 1942 WJR/Detroit develops a system using the heat generated by its transmitter tubes to help warm its building and save heating oil.
OCT 14 1943 Edward J. Noble takes control of the Blue Network from RCA, retaining its President Mark Woods and Executive Vice President Ed Kobak.
OCT 14 1943 Jimmy Durante & Garry Moore continue substituting on NBC’s Thursday night Abbott & Costello Show while doing their own new CBS show on Friday nights. Their two show a week schedule for Camel cigarettes continues until mid-November. (See Goodnight, Mr. Durante…)
OCT 14 1944 In a rare Saturday session of the FCC Allocation Hearings, Joseph Ream of CBS asks a delay on any television channel assignments because his network has ordered a high-frequency transmitter capable of quality color pictures and sound on the same channel.
OCT 14 1944 NBC promotes its news coverage by offering “Election Score Cards” to listeners who request them.
OCT 14 1946 President Truman’s speech lifting meat price controls scores a 57.6 Hooperating - equivalent to an estimated 44.5 million adults, his greatest total audience to date. (See Radio's Rulers: Crossley, Hooper & Nielsen.)
OCT 14 1946 Nineteen applicants bid for Los Angeles FM stations at FCC hearings including owners of AM stations KFAC, KFI, KFVD, KFWB, KIEV, KLAC, KNX and KRKD
OCT 14 1947 NBC News of The World scoops the competition in the Coast Guard rescue of 69 persons from a disabled flying boat in the North Atlantic with shortwave reports from the rescue ship. (See Multiple Runs All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 14 1949 FCC Commissioners receive a 50% raise to $15,000 annually.
OCT 14 1949 The Chicago Fedration of Labor shuts down its WCFL-FM which had been simulcasting programs from WCFL-AM.
OCT 14 1949 Paramount Pictures releases My Friend Irma based on the CBS sitcom with its star, Marie Wilson, and the popular new comedy team of Dean Martin, 32, & Jerry Lewis, 23. (See My Friend Irma and Monday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 14 1950 RCA-Victor distributes a letter to its 25,000 dealers protesting the FCC’s adoption of the “...incompatible and inferior (CBS) color television system…scientifically unsound and against public interest.”
OCT 14 1951 ABC begins programming Studio 52, a short-lived series of 60 minute, non-commercial dramas from the CBC on Sunday nights..
OCT 14 1953 Arthur Godfrey’s featured singer, Julius LaRosa, signs with agent General Artists Corporation, despite Godfrey’s warnings that it would violate their working agreement. (See Arthur Godfrey.)
OCT 15 1931 Trade magazine Broadcasting publishes its first issue.
OCT 15 1933 After two and a half years on WMAQ/Chicago, The University of Chicago Roundtable begins its 22 year on NBC.
OCT 15 1934 Decca introduces its low cost, 35 cent phonograph records with a roster of popular radio names including Bing Crosby, Guy Lombardo, the Mills Brothers, Jane Froman, Ethel Waters, Glen Gray and Arthur Tracy.
OCT 15 1934 British bandleader Ray Noble, denied the right to broadcast in the United States by the AFM, signs with Paramount Pictures as a composer-conductor.
OCT 15 1935 FCC’s Broadcast division proposes a plan for creating 25 “super-power” stations of 500,000 watts.
OCT 15 1937 FCC relaxes its requirement of station identification every half-hour by five minutes on either side of the hour, (:55 to :05), and half hour, (:25 to :35).
OCT 15 1937 Chicago musicians union chief James Petrillo confirms that he’s attempting to start a new union for radio announcers, producers and sound effects technicians to compete with AFRA. (See Petrillo!)
OCT 15 1937 RCA introduces its famous Model 77 Uni-Directional (Silver Bullet) microphone.
OCT 15 1937 RCA television images projected to a three by four foot screen in a press demon-stration are called, “…greenish faint and eye-repellent.“
OCT 15 1937 Jim & Marian Jordan as Fibber McGee & Molly appear in their first film, Paramount’s This Way Please. (See Fibber McGee Minus Molly and Radio Goes To The Movies.)
OCT 15 1939 RCA announces its new Orthacoustic high fidelity recording system for transcription services.
OCT 15 1939 Lou Costello rents the Patterson, New Jersey armory seating 8,000 and organizes a benefit show starring Kate Smith, Olson & Johnson and several top band leaders to help the dilapidated church of his childhood to rebuild.
OCT 15 1940 Texaco agrees to sponsor the Saturday afternoon broadcasts of the Metropolitan Opera on Blue beginning in December for a total season cost of $250,000.
OCT 15 1941 Officials from CBS and NBC meet with their affiliates in Chicago in efforts to arrange an agreement with ASCP and avoid the boycott of ASCAP music due to begin on January 1st.
OCT 15 1941 Station trade organization formerly known as The Major Market Group reorganizes as Independent Broadcasters, Inc., with membership limited to network affiliates not owned by any network and not on a clear channel. The group’s first act is to reject ASCAP’s proposals for payment.
OCT 15 1941 All networks give extensive coverage to the two week U.S. Army war maneuvers in Louisiana.
OCT 15 1942 WSIX/Nashville attempts to terminate its five year Mutual affiliation agreement with three years remaining in its contract.
OCT 15 1943 The U.S. government drops all anti-trust suits and monopoly charges against the networks and Mutual cancels its $10.2 Million lawsuit against RCA and NBC for unlawful competition.
OCT 15 1943 CBS replaces its weekly Our Secret Weapon propaganda analysis series with Eyewitness, recreating and dramatizing the week’s top news stories narrated by Robert Trout.
OCT 15 1944 The American Radio Warblers - singing canaries accompanied by organist Helen Westcott - begin their four seasons of Sunday quarter hour shows on Mutual.
OCT 15 1946 Mutual’s coverage of the World Series registers an average 32.1 rating for the seven daytime games.
OCT 15 1946 FCC agrees to the TBA’s request and postpones until January 1, 1947, its regulation that television stations must broadcast programming at least 28 hours per week.
OCT 15 1947 The U.S. Government renews its prosecution of AFM chief James Petrillo for violation of The Lea Act in connection with the musicians strike against WAAF/Chicago in May, 1946. (See Petrillo!)
OCT 15 1947 CBS and sponsor Campbell Soup both praise Double Or Nothing emcee Walter O’Keefe for his fast thinking in cutting off a female contestant’s telling of a risqué experience that resulted in a flood of listener complaint calls.
OCT 15 1948 Standard Transcription service completes production of the first 160 of 350 songs recorded in France to skirt the AFM recording ban. (See “By Transcription…” )
OCT 15 1948 Arch Oboler returns from his eight month tour of Africa with 13 reels of movie film and 180 hours of taped sound effects for producer Fred Ziv who funded the trip. (See Fred Ziv - King of Syndicaton.)
OCT 15 1949 Your Hit Parade with Frank Sinatra and Dorothy Kirsten originates at Richmond, Virginia’s Tobacco Bowl celebration before a stadium audience of 20,000. (See Saturday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 15 1951 The U.S. Supreme Court agrees to rule on the Constitutionality of Transit Radio, requested by WWDC/Washington, D.C. whose FM broadcasts to public transit vehicles were ruled in violation of the Constitution by a lower court.
OCT 15 1951 ABC and NBC present the first international network telecasts, covering the visit of Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh to Windsor, Ontario.
OCT 15 1951 Classic sitcom I Love Lucy starring Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz debuts on CBS-TV.
OCT 15 1952 Mutual proposes cutting nighttime rates by 30% in television markets and 10% in cities without TV.
OCT 15 1953 The National Television System Committee, (NTSC), and networks conduct a full scale demonstration of their recommended compatible color television systems at New York’s Waldorf Astoria Hotel for the FCC and the U.S. House Interstate & Foreign Commerce Committee.
OCT 15 1953 Kraft Foods, sponsor of NBC-TV’s weekly Kraft Television Theater, adds an additional hour-long drama each week on ABC-TV, increasing its annual television budget to $8.0 Million.
OCT 16 1932 Rebuffed by the networks, Detroit priest Charles E. Coughlin begins a 27 week series of addresses on an independent hookup of 26 major market stations. (See Father Coughlin.)
OCT 16 1933 With a new contract calling for $1,750 per program, Bing Crosby debuts as star of The Woodbury Show on CBS for two seasons.
OCT 16 1933 The Washington Star, stating editorially that, “…it wasn’t fair to CBS,” reinstates the program listings and items pertaining to CBS and its WJSV which the paper had cancelled two weeks earlier.
OCT 16 1935 At the orders of American Tobacco’s George Washington Hill, the cast members of Your Hit Parade are handed their two week notices when returning to New York City from a month in California. (See Saturday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 16 1935 Blackface actress Tess Gardella sues General Foods for $200,000 claiming infringe-ment for using of her stage name Aunt Jemima on NBC’s Log Cabin Revue.
OCT 16 1936 FCC, bowing to political pressure, reverses its earlier decision and allows 100 watt WOL/Washington, D.C. to move from 1310 to 1230 kc. and boost its power to 1,000 watts.
OCT 16 1938 The Blue Network broadcasts Winston Churchill’s address from London attacking The Munich Agreement.
OCT 16 1938 Former NAB President Harry Shaw, 52, is found dead in his Sarasota, Florida, home of a gunshot wound.
OCT 16 1939 Irna Phillips’ daytime drama The Right To Happiness begins its 21 season multi-network run. (See Soft Soap & Hard Sell.)
OCT 16 1939 Peabody Award winning serial Against The Storm starts its three year run on NBC. (See Soft Soap & Hard Sell.)
OCT 16 1939 KGKY/Scottsbluff, Nebraska, is informed by the telephone company that it will be at least six months before a Mutual line can be established to the nearest network affiliate in Denver.
OCT 16 1939 NBC orchestra conductor Joseph Green, co-inventor of the vibraphone, dies in New York City of pneumonia at age 43.
OCT 16 1940 RCA President David Sarnoff explains his company has obtained $15 Million in loans at 1½% annual interest to expand its facilities for the rush of national defense manufacturing orders.
OCT 16 1940 Thousands of men in the radio industry are required along with other young males to register for the draft under the nation’s first peacetime conscription law.
OCT 16 1940 WSM/Nashville turns the entire station over to its women employees and gives all of its men the day off to register for the draft.
OCT 16 1940 FCC rules that all U.S. shortwave stations must make and keep transcriptions of all broadcasts and English translations of all foreign language programs.
OCT 16 1942 Neville Miller remains President of the NAB after a 10-10 tie vote to remove him by its Board of Directors.
OCT 16 1942 CBS Director of Television Richard Hubbell tells the press that World War II will have advanced video technology by 15 years.
OCT 16 1944 Broadcasters and reporters attending the FCC Allocation Hearings complain that they are expected to stand whenever the commissioners enter the room.
OCT 16 1944 Lux Radio Theater celebrates its 10th anniversary an adaptation of Seventh Heaven, the same production that opened the series in 1934. (See Lux…Presents Hollywood! and Monday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 16 1945 Academy Award winner Barry Fitzgerald, 57, begins a 26 week run as His Honor, The Barber on NBC.
OCT 16 1945 Bob Hope welcomes the Third Fleet home by performing his NBC show from the USS Dakota docked in San Francisco Bay. (See Hope From Home and Tuesday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 16 1946 Bing Crosby debuts his recorded Philco Radio Time with guest star Bob Hope on 217 ABC affiliates and 94 independent stations, scoring a 24.0 Hooperating. (See Wednesday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 16 1950 A.A. (Abe) Schechter resigns his five year post as Mutual’s Vice President of News and Special Events to join Crowell-Collier Publishing in an executive capacity.
OCT 16 1950 CBS-TV launches daytime programming from 1:30 to 6:00 p.m. Monday through Friday.
OCT 16 1953 The U.S. Supreme Court agrees to hear arguments over the FCC’s 1949 ban of giveaway programs which was suspended until declared legal by the courts.
OCT 16 1953 Gordon McLendon sells KLBS/Houston, an anchor station for his defunct Liberty Broadcasting System, for $300,000.
OCT 16 1953 AFM’s James Petrillo tells Edward R. Murrow on CBS-TV’s Person To Person, “Many musicians aren’t working because unpaid school children exploited by cheap politicians are performing in their places.” (See Petrillo!)
OCT 17 1919 Radio Corporation of America, (RCA), is formed by General Electric, Westing-house, AT&T and United Fruit. (See Alchemists of The Air.)
OCT 17 1919 American Marconi sells its interest in the newly formed RCA to its partners.
OCT 17 1919 Marconi executive David Sarnoff, 28, is named RCA General Manager.
OCT 17 1919 Westinghouse engineer Frank Conrad begins operating 8XK in Pittsburgh, the predecessor to KDKA.
OCT 17 1937 NBC opens its $2.0 Million Los Angeles broadcast center at Sunset & Vine in Hollywood.
OCT 17 1937 NBC’s Chase & Sanborn Hour introduces two George Gershwin songs posthumously, A Foggy Day and Nice Work If You Can Get It, both written for the RKO film, Damsel In Distress.
OCT 17 1937 Because Canadian radio law prohibits alcoholic advertising, CKLW/ Windsor, Ontario, carries Mutual’s 30 Minutes In Hollywood without commercials while WXYZ/Detroit carries the same show simultaneously for Goebbel’s Beer.
OCT 17 1938 FCC subcommittee of Commissioners Payne, Craven and Case recommends termination of the 500,000 watt experimental license of WLW/Cincinnati and that the station revert back to 50,000 watts.
OCT 17 1938 Civil Service Commission refuses FCC Chairman Frank McNinch’s request to exempt FCC staff members from rules preventing what the press called a “political purge” of the FCC.
OCT 17 1938 Scripps-Howard columnist Hugh Johnson blasts: “The row in the FCC is beginning to smell…It’s actually over whether that quasi-legislative body is a seven-man commission or a one-man czardom…Mr. McNinch was selected its chairman to iron issues out … Instead his arbitrary and cantankerous nature has made them worse.”
OCT 17 1939 A labor dispute shuts down WPEN/Philadelphia from 7:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. the following day.
OCT 17 1939 Hal Peary, 31, debuts as Fibber McGee & Molly’s next door neighbor, Throckmorton P Gildersleeve. (See The Great Gildersleeve(s) and Wednesday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 17 1939 Demonstrating that television signals travel in a straight line, RCA celebrates its 20th anniversary by picking up the video signal from New York City’s Empire State Building aboard two DC-3’s flying over Washington, D.C.
OCT 17 1940 FCC Chairman James Fly tells a Town Hall audience that he doesn’t see much change in broadcasting if war comes and professes that the government should not take over U.S. shortwave stations.
OCT 17 1940 NBC begins a series of heartwarming 15 minute programs allowing British refugee children to talk with their parents in England via radio.
OCT 17 1942 Philadelphia stations WCAU-AM, W69PH-FM and WPTZ(TV) make history by simultaneously covering the Penn-Princeton football game in a three-way broadcast.
OCT 17 1944 WJNO/West Palm Beach, Florida, begins its 48 hour emergency duty during a Category Four hurricane with a direct line to the U.S. Weather Bureau for frequent reports.
OCT 17 1947 Maine stations carry first reports of a forest fire seen near Bar Harbor. The stations assume emergency status as the fire grows to immense proportions, destroying 250,00 acres and nine towns over two weeks, leaving 2,500 persons homeless.
OCT 17 1947 In the first case of its kind in five years, the FCC orders WARL/Arlington, Virginia, to show cause why its Dollars For Answers quiz isn’t a lottery in violation of the Commission’s broad interpretation of the term.
OCT 17 1949 Your Hit Parade orchestra conductor Mark Warnow dies of a heart attack at age 47. (See Saturday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 17 1949 ASCAP signs blanket music contracts with the ABC, CBS, DuMont and NBC television networks.
OCT 17 1949 The Cities Service Band of America, a 22 year feature of NBC Radio, begins four weeks of simulcasts on 16 NBC-TV stations. (See Monday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 17 1950 RCA files suit in Chicago against the FCC’s color television decision favoring the CBS system.
OCT 17 1950 C.E. Hooper introduces a new mechanical recording device promised to instantly record and report AM, FM and TV program popularity in homes. (See Radio's Rulers: Crossley, Hooper & Nielsen.)
OCT 17 1950 Professional wrestlers on the West Coast form The American Sportsmen Television Equity Society to set minimum pay and establish fees for rehearsal time.
OCT 17 1952 Mutual joins the other three networks and cuts its nighttime rates by 25%.
OCT 17 1952 Keystone Broadcasting System transcription network reports its number of affiliates reaches 500 stations.
OCT 17 1952 Associated Transcription Service announces that it will record no new releases as it “re-evaluates” its business. (See “By Transcription…”)
OCT 17 1952 CBS, owner of WCBS-TV/New York City and KNXT(TV)/Los Angeles and minority owner of television stations in Washington, D.C., Pittsburgh and Minneapolis-St. Paul, applies to the FCC to build a station on Channel 4 in St. Louis.
18 1931 Thomas Alva Edison, known universally as The Father of The Electrical Age, dies in New Jersey at age 84. (See Alchemists of The Air.)
OCT 18 1933 Admiral Richard Byrd makes the first of his CBS Antarctic Expedition broadcasts off the west coast of South America. (See The 1933-34 Season .)
OCT 18 1934 NBC’s WMAQ/Chicago buys KYW’s 50,000 watt transmitter when Westinghouse moves the station from Chicago to Philadelphia.
OCT 18 1935 The pilot of a single engine plane lost in fog is killed when his wing catches WLW’s 831 foot tower at the 600 foot level and he crashes at Mason, Ohio.
OCT 18 1937 AFM Chicago local President James Petrillo obtains a 20% raise in the weekly minimum pay for the union’s new associate members at CBS in Chicago: Announcers, $50, Producers, $60, and Sound Effects Techs, $45. (See Petrillo!)
OCT 18 1937 The first Monday night broadcast of Kay Kyser’s College of Musical Knowledge on WGN/Chicago draws 2,800 pieces of mail vying for small cash prizes. (See Kay Kyser and Wednesday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 18 1939 AFM Chicago local boss James Petrillo retreats from his attempt to organize announcers and assigns his contracts with CBS announcers to AFRA, but he retains his ability to organize producers and sound effects technicians.
OCT 18 1940 CBS subsidiary Columbia Records meets resistance from broadcasters in its proposal to supply stations with enough Masterworks classical records for five half-hour shows a week in exchange for ten, 125 word commercials.
OCT 18 1941 Kate Smith hosts a 60 minute CBS program celebrating the network’s anchor, WABC/New York City, increasing its power to 50,000 watts. (See Kate's Great Song.)
OCT 18 1943 Earle Stanley Gardner’s Perry Mason debuts as a weekday serial beginning a twelve year run on CBS.
OCT 18 1943 Russ Hodges is named Mutual’s lead football announcer.
OCT 18 1947 Movie star and former sportscaster Ronald Reagan presents a $75,000 grant to his alma mater, Eureka (Illinois) College and does the play by play of the city’s Pumpkin Bowl football game on local radio.
OCT 18 1950 NBC President Joseph McConnell tells his affiliates that the network has a $9.0 Million annual investment in radio talent and program properties.
OCT 18 1950 FCC shuts down the first reported “bootleg” television station, Sylvania Electric Corp.’s unlicensed transmitter near Emporium, Pennsylvania, rebroadcasting on Channel 7 the programs from WJAC (TV)/Johnstown, 90 miles away.
OCT 18 1952 The New York Post announces a $1.5 Million libel suit against ABC commentator Walter Winchell which it settles three years later for $30,000. (See Walter Winchell and Sunday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 18 1953 Orson Welles is a critical triumph in his 90-minute television performance as Shakespeare’s King Lear on CBS-TV.
OCT 19 1934 FCC is swamped with 91 applications for new 100 watt local stations under the more liberal rules of the Communications Act of 1934.
OCT 19 1934 AFM protests any FCC liberalization of rules requiring stations to identify transcribed elements or phonograph records,
OCT 19 1935 The American Federation of Labor convention adopts a proposal to nationalize broadcasting.
OCT 19 1935 WLW/Cincinnati cancels Drew Pearson & Robert Allen’s Washington MerryGoRound commentary from Mutual for its controversial content.
OCT 19 1937 Edward G. Robinson debuts as the star in the initial five season run of newspaper drama Big Town on CBS. (See Big Big Town and Tuesday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 19 1937 New York stations WEAF and WHN exercise an agreement to simulcast selected programs of NBC’s Packard Hour starring Gladys Swarthout and Lanny Ross.
OCT 19 1941 Catholic Archbishop Francis Beckman of Dubuque, Iowa, causes a sensation on an NBC broadcast with his vehement diatribe against the Roosevelt administration and anti-Semitic castigation of Nazi critics.
OCT 19 1942 General Mills begins its Write A Fighter Corps campaign on Blue’s Jack Armstrong network of 111 stations, encouraging kids to write servicemen and women they know with news from home.
OCT 19 1942 The FTC orders Zenith Radio Corp. to stop advertising that its receivers are capable of bringing in programs from all parts of the world with clarity, “… regardless of weather conditions.”
OCT 19 1942 Lady Esther Cosmetics begins its five year sponsorship of Screen Guild Players on 65 CBS affiliates, pledging $8,500 per week to the Motion Picture Relief Fund in lieu of talent fees. (See Acts of Charity and Monday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 19 1943 Non-Mutual stations complain to C.E. Hooper that its ratings were taken during World Series week which skewed the audience figures to Mutual’s advantage.
OCT 19 1944 Bob Hope becomes the only show business personality inducted into the Smithsonian Institution’s Living Hall of Fame - in recognition for his work entertaining Allied troops overseas. (See Hope From Home and Tuesday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 19 1944 An AT&T mix-up is blamed for the West Coast rebroadcast of NBC’s Bob Burns Show covering the first three minutes of the network’s Sealtest Village Store intended for Eastern and Midwest stations at 9:30 p.m. (See Bob Burns.)
OCT 19 1945 Correspondents Ted Malone of ABC, NBC’s Robert McCormick, Robert Trout of CBS and Mutual’s Dave Driscoll leave on the second Globester flight around the world.
OCT 19 1945 Members of the radio industry join those in motion pictures to form the Mobilization Against Thought Police In The USA, protesting the U.S. House Un-American Activities Committee’s call for two months of scripts from seven network commentators.
OCT 19 1945 Ed Noble buys out his partners, Chet LaRoche and Time, Inc. for $1,0 Million to become sole owner of ABC.
OCT 19 1945 Colonel Tom Lewis, commander of AFRS since the spring of 1942, returns to civilian life.
OCT 19 1946 With NBC and sponsor Wildroot Cream Oil’s differences settled, the Nat King Cole trio begins a 5:45 p.m. Saturday afternoon quarter hour show on 144 stations.
OCT 19 1947 CBS cancels Crime Doctor after a seven year run. (See Radio Goes To The Movies.)
OCT 19 1947 AFM boss Petrillo announces that the union’s members will stop performing for recordings and transcriptions on December 31st and, “…never again make them because they‘re making their own competition.” (See Petrillo!)
OCT 19 1948 A battery of ten lawyers argue the networks’ case before the FCC against the Commission’s controversial interpretation of lottery laws banning giveaway shows.
OCT 19 1948 A Ravenna, Ohio, farmer shoots and kills a tenant while arguing the entertainment merits of radio comedians versus giveaway shows - specifically NBC’s Jack Benny and ABC’s Go For The House.
OCT 19 1949 To save money ABC-TV drops sustaining programs and temporarily cuts back its hours of operations.
OCT 19 1950 WTMJ/Milwaukee cancels the radio and television versions of ABC’s Stop The Music! after Wisconsin’s Attorney General rules the program to be a lottery. (See Stop The Music!)
OCT 19 1951 The NARTB proposes a new and more stringent code of conduct for its member television stations.
OCT 19 1951 U.S. District Court rules in favor of NBC radio and television star Roy Rogers and prohibits Republic Pictures from releasing his 81 movies to television.
OCT 19 1951 U.S. Office of Defense Mobilization requests a halt to color television broadcasting and set manufacturing, “…for the duration of the (Korean war) emergency..”
OCT 19 1953 Arthur Godfrey fires his CBS programs’ popular singer Julius LaRosa on the air during his weekday morning show. (See Arthur Godfrey.)
OCT 20 1932 CBS opens WJSV/Alexandria, Virginia, serving Washington, D.C.
OCT 20 1933 Jack Pearl makes his feature film debut as Baron Munchausen in MGM’s Meet The Baron. (See First Season Phenoms and Radio Goes To The Movies.)
OCT 20 1934 FCC concludes three weeks of hearings regarding non-commercial groups demanding 25% of station allocations for educational, religious or public service purposes with network spokesmen testifying that the current system is sufficient for the public‘s needs.
OCT 20 1936 CBS buys 50,000 watt WOAI/San Antonio from Southland Industries for $550,000.
OCT 20 1939 An engineers’ walkout takes KFSD/San Diego off the air for 13 minutes until its manager grabs its controls and restores power.
OCT 20 1940 A fire of suspicious origin at its transmitter disables powerful shortwave station WLWO/Cincinnati for 24 hours.
OCT 20 1941 An Army pilot is killed when his training plane crashes after striking the transmission wires of New York City stations WNEW and WINS at East Rutherford, New Jersey, shutting both stations off the air for 45 minutes.
OCT 20 1941 NBC discloses that its “bomb scare” of October 8th was caused by the discovery of a large container of acid outside its Master Control, enough to burn out the entire wiring system. Pinkerton guards were immediately hired and strict check of network issued identity cards was ordered.
OCT 20 1941 The U.S. Office For Emergency Management begins production of its transcribed radio adaptation of Douglas Miller’s book You Can’t Do Business With Hitler for weekly distribution to 400 stations.
OCT 20 1942 WWJ/Detroit announces its intent to dismantle its two 200 foot towers atop The Detroit News building, unused since 1938, to provide 26 tons of steel for the Ford defense plant smelters.
OCT 20 1942 Information Please circumvents the AFM ban on recorded music within its Tuesday night transcribed West Coast broadcasts of Friday night’s NBC shows by inserting live musicians into the recordings when called for. (See Information Please.)
OCT 20 1942 Dr. Frederick Stock, 66, called The Dean of American Conductors, dies of a heart attack in his 38th year of leading the Chicago Symphony Orchestra heard often in local and network broadcasts.
OCT 20 1943 Longtime Network Radio bandleader and comedian Ben Bernie, 52, dies after a long illness. (See Tuesday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 20 1943 Transcription firms Associated, Lang-Worth, MacGregor and Standard settle with the AFM to end the union's 14 month strike. (See “By Transcription…”)
OCT 20 1944 Blue network Executive Vice President Ed Kobak is named President of Mutual, eventually taking the network to record high billings and numbers of affiliates.
OCT 20 1944 U.S. General MacArthur’s return to the Philippines is flashed to the networks from a floating broadcast station off Leyte.
OCT 20 1944 WGAR/Cleveland is first on the scene with eyewitness reports from the aftermath of the mid-afternoon gas leak explosion that killed 130 persons and destroyed a square mile of the city’s east side.
OCT 20 1945 Big money quiz Break The Bank premieres on Mutual, beginning its nine season multi-network run.
OCT 20 1947 ABC newscaster Taylor Grant trips and falls on the stairs at home requiring casts on both arms and causing network friends to jokingly compare him to Sheridan Whiteside in The Man Who Came To Dinner. (See Monty Woolley.)
OCT 20 1948 FCC approves CBS selling 55% of WTOP/Washington to The Washington Post and acquiring full ownership of KQW/San Francisco.
OCT 20 1948 Emerson Radio & Phonograph Corp. introduces its Conqueror table model FM radio intended to, “…bring FM to the masses,” for $29.95.
OCT 20 1949 First Nighter broadcasts its last live performance on CBS after an 18 year multi-network run - all sponsored by Campana Balm hand lotion. (See Friday’s All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 20 1950 General Tire & Rubber buys the Don Lee Broadcasting System including KHJ AM&FM/Los Angeles, KFRC/San Francisco, KGB/San Diego, KDB/Santa Barbara, the Don Lee Radio Network of 41 affiliates and KTSL(TV)/Los Angeles for $12.3 Million.
OCT 20 1950 CBS agrees to buy KTSL(TV)/Los Angeles from General Tire for $3.0 Million, contingent on the network selling its 49% of KTTV (TV)/Los Angeles.
OCT 20 1950 FCC reports receiving its greatest amount of mail in history on its “anti-giveaway” decision - running eight to one in favor of the Commission’s controversial ban. (See Stop The Music!)
OCT 20 1950 NBC President Joseph McConnell tells his affiliates’ convention in White Sulpher Springs that the network is spending $9.0 Million in radio personalities and properties to regain its leadership over CBS.
OCT 20 1950 CBS hires writer-producer Fred Friendly, 35, away from NBC with a five year contract. Friendly had previously produced Edward R. Murrow’s Columbia Records album, I Can Hear It Now.
OCT 20 1950 Cash-strapped ABC borrows $1.0 Million on a five year note from New York Trust Co.
OCT 20 1950 CBS President Frank Stanton ignites a controversy by warning consumers against buying black and white television sets that can’t be converted to receive color with the use of an adapter.
OCT 20 1951 CBS-TV introduces its famous “Eye” logo on the network’s system cues.
OCT 20 1953 Three hundred broadcasting, film and associated industry leaders are gathered in Washington by The American Heritage Foundation to plan a $10 Million drive to operate Radio Free Europe.
OCT 21 1936 FCC Reallocation Hearings adjourn after 13 days and 500,000 words of testimony with no decisions expected until 1937.
OCT 21 1936 FCC authorizes WNEW to move its main studio and city of license from Newark to New York City.
OCT 21 1938 FCC refuses to permit CBS to lease KSFO/San Francisco, casting doubt on the future of all lease arrangements.
OCT 21 1940 Procter & Gamble’s Chicago based weekday serial Lone Journey expands from an NBC regional network to the full network originating from New York City. (See Soft Soap & Hard Sell.)
OCT 21 1943 CBS agrees to pay AFRA union “standby” singers for the U.S. Navy per-sonnel who perform free of charge on the Sunday morning Blue Jacket Choir program.
OCT 21 1943 WSAY/Rochester settles its dispute with AFM by agreeing to hire four new musicians.
OCT 21 1943 Mutual broadcasts a late night memorial program honoring Ben Bernie hosted by former New York City Mayor Jimmy Walker and featuring many show business luminaries.
OCT 21 1946 Record manufacturers agree to a 37½% pay raise for AFM musicians to avert a strike.
OCT 21 1946 FM inventor Edwin Armstrong tells the NAB convention that a drive for more FM channels and an increase in FM operations is the broadcast industry’s best chance to fight engineering restrictions and government controls.
OCT 21 1946 NBC’s nightly News of The World increases its domestic news coverage with reports from local affiliates and boosts its Hooperating from 5.2 to 7.7 in two weeks. (See Multiple Runs All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 21 1947 FCC votes 5-1, (one member absent), to revoke WORL/Boston’s license for alleged misrepresentation of its stock.
OCT 21 1947 A District Court rules that WGST/Atlanta will remain a CBS affiliate for one more year before the network can link with the more powerful WAGA.
OCT 21 1947 Citing listener response to the program’s summer run, CBS slots its historical series CBS Is There on the the network’s Tuesday night schedule. (See You Are There.)
OCT 21 1948 General Foods begins 40 weeks of switching from The Aldrich Family's New York City studio to NBC in Hollywood for live commercials performed by Meredith Willson’s Talking People at a total cost of $21,500 in extra line charges. (See Meredith Willson and The Aldrich Family.)
OCT 21 1948 RCA, NBC and Eastman Kodak introduce the high speed Ultrafax facsimile system combining television, radio relays and photography.
OCT 21 1949 The American Council of Christian Churches complains to the FCC that CBS, “…discriminates against significant minority denominations,” in its Church of The Air program.
OCT 21 1951 NBC launches its Silver Jubilee series of four half hour programs hosted by Bob Hope to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of Network Radio news.
OCT 21 1952 Gene Autry and KMPC/Los Angeles General Manager Bob Reynolds file papers to form a new corporation to buy the 50,000 watt station.
OCT 21 1953 Arthur Godfrey explains he fired Julius LaRosa from his CBS radio and television shows for signing with a talent agency and bandleader Archie Bleyer for making a record with ABC’s Don McNeill. (See Arthur Godfrey.)
OCT 22 1933 Detroit priest Charles Coughlin returns for 26 weeks in a second year of hour long Sunday broadcasts over a 23 station independent network. (See Father Coughlin.)
OCT 22 1934 Mutual begins prime time programming with remote pickups of the Wayne King and Jan Garber orchestras from Chicago’s Aragon and Trianon ballrooms. (See The Aragon’s Last Stand and Big Band Remotes.)
OCT 22 1934 FCC opens hearings of 14 applicants wanting to share clear channel 640 kc. with KFI/Los Angeles.
OCT 22 1935 WLW/Cincinnati reinstates the broadcasts of Drew Pearson & Robert Allen’s Washington Merry Go Round from Mutual after listener allegations of censorship are sent to Congress and the FCC.
OCT 22 1938 In reporting the Princeton vs. Navy football game, CBS Sports Director Ted Husing fails to see that a 45 yard Princeton run resulted in a touchdown and not just a first down.
OCT 22 1939 Mutual introduces Calling America, a unique Sunday evening half hour co-op show originating in Washington and New York City, with commentators Drew Pearson and Robert Allen, singers Mary Small and The Tune Twisters plus Erno Rapee’s 30 piece orchestra.
OCT 22 1941 ASCAP’s settlement with broadcasters appears near as BMI reports its growth to 733 member stations.
OCT 22 1941 Fred Waring wins dismissal of a $60,000 plagiarism suit brought against him by Grombach Productions involving a feature that encouraged listeners to write to Waring about important songs in their lives.
OCT 22 1941 Frank & Anne Hummert’s American Melody Hour opens for a 26 week run on Blue before moving to CBS for six years.
OCT 22 1942 All Puerto Rican radio stations are placed under the control of the U.S. War Department.
OCT 22 1943 It Pays To Be Ignorant from WOR/New York City receives its first network exposure as part of The Kate Smith Hour on CBS. (See It Pays To Be Ignorant.)
OCT 22 1945 After three years in World War II service, Colonel William S Paley returns to the Presidency of CBS.
OCT 22 1945 FCC issues 64 conditional grants for new FM stations in 21 states, the first since its construction freeze went into effect in 1942. Another 600 FM applications are left to be processed.
OCT 22 1947 Mutual President Ed Kobak criticizes the NAB endorsed Broadcast Measurement Bureau saying, “Any audience research that takes over a year to do and takes further time to get out isn’t worth the money.”
OCT 22 1947 CBS buys the Housewives Protective League Productions, a combination consumer group and program producer, for $1.0 Million.
OCT 22 1947 FCC cancels the ten month old construction permit for WWPN/ Middlesboro, Kentucky, charging its backers with financial misrepresentation.
OCT 22 1947 Clear Channel Broadcasting Services presents a controversial plan to the FCC that would convert 20 existing 50,000 watt stations to super-power status of 750,000 watts to better serve rural areas.
OCT 22 1948 Quiz show Break The Bank becomes a radio-television simulcast on ABC.
OCT 22 1950 CBS settles a $150,000 lawsuit out of court for a Chicago couple’s claim that the network stole the concept for Hit The Jackpot from their format called Watch Your Step.
OCT 22 1952 CBS Radio adds its 215th affiliate: Gene Autry’s KNOG/Nogales, Arizona.
OCT 23 1932 Fred Allen, 38, begins his 17 year multi-network run with The Linit Bath Club Revue on CBS. (See Sunday's All Time Top Ten and Wednesday's All Time Top Ten on this site.)
OCT 23 1933 Comedian Ed Wynn resigns as President of the Amalgamated Broad-casting System.
OCT 23 1933 Humorist Harry Hershfield bans studio audiences from his nightly quarter-hour on WOR/Newark because, “…they’re dumb and unmannerly.”
OCT 23 1936 Pepsodent launches its month long Name Amos & Ruby’s Baby contest on NBC’s Amos & Andy, offering $34,000 in prizes with a $5,000 U.S. Savings Bond for the first place winner. (See Amos & Andy - Twice Is Nicer.)
OCT 23 1937 NAB reminds its members that no blanket agreement has been signed and none is recommended to be signed with the AFM.
OCT 23 1942 U.S. Senator D. Worth Clark of Idaho proposes legislation aimed at the AFM outlawing its interference with the manufacture of records or transcriptions. (See Petrillo!)
OCT 23 1942 North Dakota Senator Gerald Nye praises Kay Kyser’s efforts to sell bonds and entertain troops in a floor speech then questions the draft status of radio and show business personalities. (See Kay Kyser and Wednesday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 23 1946 The radio networks plus New York City television stations WNBT(TV) and WCBS-TV give all day coverage to the opening of the United Nations General Assembly at the World’s Fair grounds in Flushing, New York.
OCT 23 1946 CBS petitions the FCC to adopt standards and authorize commercial operation of UHF television stations broadcasting in color although the country already has six stations operating in the low frequency black and white bands with another 72 under construction.
OCT 23 1950 Legendary singer-showman Al Jolson dies of a heart attack at 64. (See Tuesday's All Time Top Ten.)
OC 23 1950 KTTV(TV)/Los Angeles broadcasts a “secret sneak preview” of the pilot to an Amos & Andy television sitcom at 1:00 a.m. so Freeman Gosden & Charles Correll can see what it looks like in their homes.
OCT 23 1950 Television set manufacturer Hallicrafters releases a poll reporting that 54 of the country’s 107 television stations have no plans to use the FCC approved CBS color system.
OCT 23 1950 Arthur Godfrey upsets sponsor Lever Brothers by parroting CBS President Frank Stanton’s public caution against buying black and white television sets that can’t be adapted to receive color. (See Arthur Godfrey.)
OCT 24 1929 Rudy Vallee premieres The Fleischmann Hour on NBC beginning his 20 year multi-network career. (See Thursday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 24 1930 Freeman Gosden & Charles Correll appear as Amos & Andy on NBC’s RKO Hour to promote their RKO movie, Check & Double Check, opening the next day at theaters across the country. (See Amos & Andy: Twice Is Nicer and Multiple Runs All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 24 1938 Contrary to the trend, Procter & Gamble moves production of its CBS and NBC soap opera, The Road of Life, from New York to Chicago, home of the dual network drama's creator, Irna Phillips. (See Soft Soap & Hard Sell.)
OCT 24 1938 FCC grants a construction permit to DuMont Laboratories to build a television station in Montclair, New Jersey. (See Dr. DuMont’s Predictions.)
OCT 24 1941 The U.S. Office of The Coordinator of Information establishes program lines linking all shortwave stations east of the Mississippi, allowing them to broadcast the same program simultaneously if necessary.
OCT 24 1941 Sportscaster Russ Hodges, 31, is hospitalized with injuries from an auto accident when leaving his going away party at WBT/Charlotte and misses his Mutual debut covering the Washington vs. Cleveland NFL game.
OCT 24 1942 Contracts are sent to the owners of the country’s 14 shortwave stations to formalize the government’s takeover of the facilities for the duration of World War II.
OCT 24 1942 A contestant is challenged to sell $10,000 in War Bonds with an ad-libbed 30 second commercial on Truth Or Consequences’ West Coast feed to 22 NBC stations. She sells over $107,000 worth and wins a call to one son serving in Hawaii and a trip to see another at a Mississippi training camp. (See Truth Or Consequences and Saturday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 24 1943 Frank Sinatra abandons Sunday night’s Broadway Bandbox on CBS for the 15 minute Songs By Sinatra at 7:15 p.m. opposite Jack Benny on NBC.
OCT 24 1943 We The People on CBS originates from Admiral Farragut’s frigate Hartford in the Washington Navy Yard with guests Lieutenant Tyrone Power and Lieutenant Commander Robert Montgomery.
OCT 24 1945 Comedienne Sara Berner sues Rudy Vallee for $19,500 claiming he reneged on his agreement to put her on NBC’s Rudy Vallee Show for a talent fee of $500 per week. (See Thursday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 24 1947 The NAB creates the Industry Music Committee of 35 executives representing the radio, television and recording industries to form a united front against musician union threats.
OCT 24 1947 The Radio Pioneers Club, comprised of 20 year veterans in the industry, is founded in New York and elects ABC President Mark Woods as its first President and NBC’s H.V. Kaltenborn its Vice President.
OCT 24 1949 Writer Charles Carneval sues Campbell Soup and NBC for $457,000 claiming that they stole his program concept American Sweepstakes for the quiz show Double Or Nothing.
OCT 24 1949 NBC bans Cole Porter’s Six Times A Week And Twice On Sunday as “Too suggestive.”
OCT 24 1951 Over broadcasters’ protests, President Truman signs a controversial amendment to The Communications Act giving him power to seize radio and television stations with signals that could become homing devices for enemy aircraft.
OCT 24 1952 Jack Bailey crowns his 2,000th Queen For A Day on Mutual’s weekday giveaway program.
OCT 25 1930 Freeman Gosden & Charles Correll appear for the first and only time as Amos & Andy in the RKO film, Check & Double Check, a story written by composers Bert Kalmar & Harry Ruby.
OCT 25 1931 NBC establishes its second five station West Coast , (aka Gold), network by linking KPO/San Francisco with KECA/Los Angeles, KEX/Portland, Oregon, KJR/Seattle and KGA/Spokane. It is designed to compliment NBC’s previously established Orange Network consisting of KGO/San Francisco, KFI/Los Angeles, KGW/Portland, KOMO/ Seattle and KHQ/Spokane.
OCT 25 1937 Hearst Universal News Service journalist Fulton Lewis, Jr. begins his 20 year broadcasting career at WOL/Washington.
OCT 25 1938 FCC orders its legal department to conduct a study of station complaints with an emphasis on profane language and possible lotteries.
OCT 25 1938 The Mexican Senate refuses to ratify The North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement already approved by the United States and Cuba with Canada yet to act. (See The March of Change.)
OCT 25 1940 The WCAU/Philadelphia mobile unit is stolen from a parking lot and used as the getaway vehicle in two holdups.
OCT 25 1943 Mentalist Joseph Dunninger, whose weekly program is carried by 198 Blue affiliates, cancels his personal appearances with a St. Louis circus when he’s denied star billing. (See Dunninger.)
OCT 25 1943 NBC’s WNBT(TV)/New York City presents its first live telecast in 16 months, a single camera view of the rodeo from Madison Square Garden.
OCT 25 1944 Citing poor ratings and dissatisfaction with Mutual, sponsor Campana cancels its First Nighter after a 14 year multi-network run. (See Friday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 25 1944 Bert Gordon drops his identification as Eddie Cantor’s Mad Russian on NBC’s Time To Smile and becomes Cantor’s “neighbor” Boris Tsoris. (See The Two Stooges.)
OCT 25 1945 Trade groups NAB and FM Broadcasters, Inc., merge and prepare to fight the AFM mandate that requires two crews of its members be hired for AM-FM simulcasts.
OCT 25 1945 FCC refuses to act when CBS executive Paul Keston charges AFM boss James Petrillo with delaying the growth of FM by demanding twice the number of union members necessary be employed for AM-FM simulcasts. (See Petrillo!)
OCT 25 1945 RCA introduces its Image Orthicon tube which will become an industry standard in television cameras for over 20 years.
OCT 25 1947 Al Pearce & His Gang is cancelled by ABC ending the comedian’s 13 year multi-network run.
OCT 25 1947 The first Notre Dame home football game ever televised, (against Iowa), is sent by microwave to Chicago and broadcast by WBKB(TV).
OCT 25 1948 Can You Top This? regular Harry Hershfield begins a nightly half-hour interview show on WOR/New York City from various nightclubs beginning at midnight.
OCT 25 1949 WPEN/Philadelphia’s regional chain, The Sports Broadcasting Network, carrying games of Philadelphia Eagle football and Warrior basketball games plus prize fights, boasts a surprising 116 affiliates from Vermont to Mississippi.
OCT 25 1949 Television producers label AFM President Petrillo’s lengthy demands to end his ban on union musicians playing for films totally unworkable and organize to oppose them. (See Petrillo!)
OCT 25 1950 General Electric slams CBS President Frank Stanton’s remarks that buyers should hold off buying black and white television sets incapable of adapting to color in a New York Times full page ad.
OCT 25 1951 A Seattle court awards damages of one dollar to the plaintiff in a $35,000 libel suit against Mutual commentator Fulton Lewis, Jr.
OCT 25 1951 NBC-TV announces a delay in the start of its new early morning show, Today, (originally titled Rise & Shine), from November 1st until mid-January.
OCT 25 1952 Kansas City Star owned WDAF/Kansas City bends its ban against alcohol advertising to broadcast concerts by the Kansas City Symphony sponsored by Goetz Beer.
OCT 26 1932 Bowing to their newspaper clients’ demands, both AP and UP refuse to supply returns from the November 8th Presidential Elections to CBS or NBC.
OCT 26 1936 CBS demands a 20% commission from its announcers and contract employees for any outside work they perform.
OCT 26 1936 Network comedians and their writers are cautioned not to mention Wallis Simpson's name in deference to British listeners.
OCT 26 1942 CBS introduces Victory Front, like NBC’s Victory Volunteers, a weekday morning 15 minute series with patriotic themes featuring casts of its daytime serials in specially written five chapter dramas.
OCT 26 1944 Blue correspondent Clete Roberts is wounded by shrapnel in a Japanese bombing attack on Leyte.
OCT 26 1945 FCC authorizes tests of the Westinghouse Stratovision plan to relay television and FM signals from planes flying in fixed circular courses at 30,000 feet.
OCT 26 1945 Joe E. Brown is awarded the Army’s Bronze Star, its highest civilian award, for his service entertaining troops overseas. Brown and his wife already hold the Gold Star honoring their son who was killed in a bomber crash.
OCT 26 1946 Lang-Worth transcription service breaks ranks with its competitors and gives in to the musicians’ union demand for a 50% pay raise. (See “By Transcription…”)
OCT 26 1946 The Parent-Teachers Association of New York announces its campaign to force the networks to tone down their police shows that, “…definitely contribute to juvenile delinquency.”
OCT 26 1948 The Radio Writers Guild calls a strike against 70 Network Radio shows
OCT 26 1949 San Francisco’s KCBS and KSFO drop their plans to swap facilities filed before the war with the FCC.
OCT 26 1949 ABC-TV eliminates sustaining programs and cuts its film purchases due to an expected $3.5 Million loss - most of which is covered by the network’s radio profits.
OCT 26 1950 The FBI arrests a former mental patient who admits to the September 17th bombing of the Voice of America radio tower in Mason, Ohio.
OCT 26 1951 Music publisher Santly-Joy, Inc. charges American Tobacco with an unauthorized Lucky Strike commercial parody of the hit song My Truly, Truly Fair on Jack Benny’s program and demands a $250 fee for each of the 191 stations that carried the commercial - a total of $47,750. (See Unfiltered Cigarette Claims.)
OCT 26 1951 The NARTB reports a three fold growth in the number of radio stations in nine years and an annual average station income increase of 11% to $166,000.
OCT 26 1952 Academy Award winning actress Hattie McDaniel, former star of Beulah on CBS Radio and ABC-TV, dies at age 57. (See Multiple Runs All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 26 1952 Legendary World War II documentary series Victory At Sea debuts on NBC-TV.
OCT 26 1953 Longtime news commentator and former head of the Office of War Infor-mation, Elmer Davis, 63, retires from his nightly ABC radio newscasts due to ill-health.
OCT 27 1920 The Department of Commerce awards the first radio station license and call sign to Westinghouse Electric’s KDKA/Pittsburgh. (See Alchemists of The Air.)
OCT 27 1933 FCC approves the Westinghouse application to move of KYW/Chicago at 1020 kc. to Philadelphia.
OCT 27 1935 Both CBS and NBC participate in the globe circling network broadcast involving 31 countries, Youth Sings Across Borders.
OCT 27 1936 Polish Count Anten Potocki sues WJBK/Detroit for $10,000 charging defamation of character in a Polish language newscast, then settles for $500.
OCT 27 1939 NBC continuity writer Raymond Scudder, 38, is killed when struck by a New York City subway train.
OCT 27 1941 President Roosevelt’s speech on National Defense broadcast on all networks and most independent stations registers a 51.9 Hooperating. (See Radio's Rulers: Crossley, Hooper & Nielsen.)
OCT 27 1942 Wartime measures affect major radio and movie stars when U.S. Director of Economic Stabilization James F. Byrnes rules that no incomes in 1943 and beyond can exceed $25,000 after federal income tax and certain deductions.
OCT 27 1943 AFM boss James Petrillo allows union members to resume recording V-Discs for U.S. Armed Forces. (See Petrillo!)
OCT 27 1943 The Church League of America files a $1.0 Million libel suit against Walter Winchell, sponsor Andrew Jergens Co. and the Blue network for Winchell’s questioning the patriotism of the group. (See Walter Winchell and Sunday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 27 1944 Major Glenn Miller’s Army Air Force band is reported beaming propaganda broadcasts into Germany from London. (See In The Miller Mood.)
OCT 27 1944 NBC’s Cities Service Concerts, a network fixture since February, 1927, lightens its classical music format and changes its name to Highways In Melody. (See Friday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 27 1946 A new trade group, The National Association of Radio News Directors, is formed Cleveland.
OCT 27 1947 Musicians union president James Petrillo orders members, “…never to make records again.” (See Petrillo!)
OCT 27 1947 Daytime serial This Is Nora Drake opens its twelve year multi-network run on NBC. (See Soft Soap & Hard Sell.)
OCT 27 1947 Fred VanDeventer buys out producer Charles Stark’s interest in Twenty Questions for an undisclosed sum after a lengthy battle over the Mutual panel show’s ownership. (See Twenty Questions.)
OCT 27 1947 Groucho Marx, 57, hosts the new comedy quiz You Bet Your Life on ABC, beginning nine year multi-network run. (See The One, The Only…Groucho! and Wednesday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 27 1950 CBS issues a one sentence memo stating that Margaret (Mug) Richardson, Arthur Godfrey’s secretary and personal assistant for 16 years, “…has resigned.” (See Arthur Godfrey.)
OCT 27 1950 The nine ABC Radio affiliates in Wisconsin keep Stop The Music! on the air after conferring with the state’s Attorney General regarding the program’s status as a lottery. (See Stop The Music!)
OCT 27 1950 Wisconsin’s only television station, WTMJ-TV/Milwaukee, cancels Stop The Music!, Break The Bank, Toni Twin Time, What’s My Name and Chance of A Lifetime in fear of the state‘s lottery laws.
OCT 27 1950 CBS-produced mystery drama Pursuit begins a two-season run on CBS. (See CBS Packages Unwrapped.)
OCT 27 1951 Jane Ace, Disc Jockey replaces Monty Woolley’s Magnificent Montague on the NBC Saturday night schedule. (See Monty Woolley and Easy Aces.)
OCT 27 1951 CBS-TV drops its color telecasts of college football games and substitutes black-and-white coverage of Saturday afternoon Roller Derby matches.
OCT 27 1952 CBS dismisses Freeman Gosden & Charles Correll’s announcement that they will be retiring as Amos & Andy at the end of the season. (See Sunday's All Time Top Ten and Multiple Runs All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 28 1928 AT&T pioneers long-distance remote broadcasts with reports of the Princeton vs. University of Chicago football game from Stagg Field in Chicago to WEAF/New York City.
OCT 28 1934 Controversial Detroit priest Charles Coughlin assembles a network of 29 stations for 26 weeks of his Sunday afternoon sermons titled, The Golden Hour of The Little Flower. (See Father Coughlin.)
OCT 28 1937 NBC’s Maxwell House Showboat leaves the air after 265 consecutive weeks without a break. (See Thursday’s All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 28 1937 CBS presents a 90 minute salute to Eddie Cantor on the comedian’s 25th anniversary in show business. (See Sunday's All Time Top Ten and Network Jumpers.)
OCT 28 1938 A Pittsburgh jury fines NBC $15,000 for remarks made by Al Jolson critical of “…a rotten hotel,” in nearby Uniontown, Pennsylvania. (See Tuesday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 28 1938 The NAB distributes its How To Use Radio booklet to member stations for political candidates which warns readers against, “…shouting, arm waving and floor stalking away from the microphone.”
OCT 28 1940 One Man’s Family organist Paul Carson introduces his composition Waltz Patrice as the show’s replacement theme song for Destiny Waltz during the anticipated ASCAP boycott. (See Sunday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 28 1940 Comedian Henry Morgan begins his ten year sporadic multi-network run on Mutual.
OCT 28 1941 Listeners to KIRO/Seattle’s morning show donate more than a ton of clothing and toys to be shipped to Great Britain and distributed to children by Royal Air Force pilot Ken Stofer, a former KIRO personality.
OCT 28 1941 FDR’s Navy Day address broadcast on all four networks and many independent stations scores a 51.9 Hooperating.
OCT 28 1942 CBS avoids a 9:00 p.m. strike deadline by arriving at a five dollar a week wage increase for technicians in the IBEW union.
OCT 28 1943 Jack Benny, Phil Baker, Walter Winchell, Paul Whiteman, Damon Runyon and Moss Hart are among the honorary pall bearers as an estimated 1,300 mourners attend the funeral of Ben Bernie.
OCT 28 1944 CBS follows NBC’s lead to promote its election coverage by offering “score cards” to listeners.
OCT 28 1945 Each network broadcasts its own special program to kick off the Treasury Department’s Victory Loan Drive.
OCT 28 1945 His exclusive contract with Mutual prevents Queen For A Day host Jack Bailey from starring in ABC’s new Movie Quiz show.
OCT 28 1946 Longtime CBS sportscaster Ted Husing, 45, begins eight years as a disc jockey on WHN/New York City for a reported minimum of $260,000 per year.
OCT 28 1946 Kids’ weekday afternoon serial Sky King begins its eight year multi-network run on ABC. (See Serials, Cereals & Premiums.)
OCT 28 1948 The AFM and record companies reach an accord to end the union’s ten month strike. (See Petrlllo!)
OCT 28 1950 NBC carries WLW/Cincinnati’s celebration of the 20th anniversary and 7,300th broadcast of its late night hour of soft music and poetry, Moon River, with a guest appearance by its first host, Jay Jostyn, aka Mr. District Attorney.
OCT 28 1950 Jack Benny makes his television debut on CBS-TV in a 45 minute show with Eddie (Rochester) Anderson, Don Wilson, Mel Blanc and Artie Auerbach from his radio cast and guest Dinah Shore, scoring a ten city 41.5 Hooperating.
OCT 28 1951 CBS changes the call sign of its Los Angeles television flagship from KTSL to KNXT.
OCT 29 1935 Jimmy Durante, 42, opens Texaco’s elaborate Jumbo Fire Chief Program on NBC - the expensive program is cancelled after four months. (See Goodnight, Mr. Durante…)
OCT 29 1936 WSM/Nashville signs a five year affiliation renewal with NBC which allows it to also carry programs from Mutual.
OCT 29 1937 Hollywood commentator Jimmie Fidler claims that film studios can’t cut off his supply of news and gossip because, “…I have 24 tipsters in key studio positions on my payroll known only to me - I don’t have to go near the studios for my for news.”
OCT 29 1940 The networks give full coverage to the Selective Service lottery ceremonies at noon. NBC and Blue follow twelve hours later at midnight with a special three hour program repeating in order all 8,500 numbers drawn in the lottery.
OCT 29 1941 NBC President Niles Trammell invites the executives from 14 NBC and Blue Network stations to a conference in New York City in advance of establishing an Affiliates Advisory Board.
OCT 29 1942 Kate Smith appears in 19 hour marathon broadcast on WJSV/Washington and sells $1.0 Million in U.S War Bonds, (See Kate’s Great Song.)
OCT 29 1942 Edgar Bergen, his Charlie McCarthy and cast of NBC’s Chase & Sanborn Hour begin a month long tour of East Coast service camps, originating four Sunday night broadcasts from them. (See Sunday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 29 1942 Claiming to be more representative of industry interests than the NAB, the fledgling trade group American Broadcasters Association, begins a mail campaign to all stations.
OCT 29 1943 Blue network executives are reported meeting with U.S. and Mexican officials to propose increasing Blue’s Southern California coverage by operating a 100,000 watt bilingual station located in Tijuana.
OCT 29 1943 Most record companies except Columbia and RCA-Victor follow the pattern set by Decca and come to terms with the American Federation of Musicians to settle the lengthy recording strike. (See Petrillo!)
OCT 29 1943 Republic Pictures releases Here Comes Elmer starring Al Pearce in the dual role of himself and his radio character, Elmer Blurt, and featuring members of his long-running Al Pearce’s Gang program.
OCT 29 1944 NBC records for broadcast the first Jewish service conducted inside Germany since the return of religious freedom. Held near Aachen, the service featured a rabbi and 50 voice choir from the U.S Army.
OCT 29 1944 Silent screen legend Harold Lloyd, 51, begins a season’s run as star and director of NBC’s Comedy Theater.
OCT 29 1945 The Mississippi Valley network of 75 Midwest stations begins operations with a daily hour of farm news.
OCT 29 1945 The UAW demands an FCC investigation into Detroit stations WWJ and WXYZ for turning down commercials for union Vice President Richard Frankensteen’s mayoral campaign.
OCT 29 1945 Ralph Edwards begins his fifth cross-country tour of NBC’s Truth Or Consequences to sell War Bonds, performing the show in broadcast and stage appearances in 15 cities over five weeks. (See Truth Or Consequences and Saturday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 29 1946 Philco’s WPTZ(TV)/Philadelphia signs television’s first network affiliation contract with NBC.
OCT 29 1946 Transcription companies bow to the AFM’s threat of a strike and agree to a 50% pay increase for union musicians. (See Petrillo!)
OCT 29 1947 After eight months of negotiation the networks and Radio Writers Guild sign a six year contract paying writers a base of $360 for a 15 minute commercial program and $500 for a half hour commercial show.
OCT 29 1947 FCC follows the course of its AVCO Ruling by rejecting the bid of a California broadcaster to buy KMED/Medford, Oregon, and approving the station’s purchase by a group of local businessmen.
OCT 29 1947 NBC-TV changes its rules and allows advertising agency personnel to produce programs for their clients instead of turning them over to network personnel for broadcast.
OCT 29 1947 WCBS-TV/New York City tests its daytime show The Missus Goes A'Shopping on location from a supermarket.
OCT 29 1948 A Georgia State Court of Appeals rules that the FCC cannot interfere with the private operation of a station or annul any contracts its owners enter into.
OCT 29 1948 KLZ/Denver and KOVR/Colorado Springs are sold by Gaylord Publications to a group of Colorado business executives for $1.0 Million.
OCT 29 1948 C.E. Hooper reports that Milton Berle’s Texaco Star Theater on NBC-TV in October broke all New York City radio and television records for a commercial program with a 63.2 average rating and a 92.4% share of audience.
OCT 29 1949 Billy Artzt, veteran composer-conductor of the Blondie sitcom series for nine years, dies at 53. (See Bloon-dee!)
OCT 29 1950 NBC declares Ben Grauer Day honoring the veteran announcer’s 20th anniversary on the network with tributes on all of its shows.
OCT 29 1950 President Truman’s daughter Margaret makes her television debut on Ed Sullivan’s Toast of The Town. Trendex surveys in twelve cities give the hour on CBS-TV a huge 48.4 rating.
OCT 29 1951 Lee Carpets becomes the first sponsor of a CBS-TV color program with spots in the weekday morning Mike & Buff Show, (Mike Wallace & wife Buff Cobb), seen in New York City, Boston, Baltimore and Washington, D.C.
OCT 29 1952 FCC rescinds its controversial “rebroadcast” decision which forced radio and television stations to allow the rebroadcast of their programs by competitors.
OCT 29 1952 Nielsen reports that If daytime and nighttime Network Radio rankings were combined, five soap operas - The Right To Happiness, Backstage Wife, The Romance of Helen Trent, The Guiding Light and Pepper Young’s Family - would be in October's Top Ten. (See Soft Soap & Hard Sell.)
OCT 29 1952 NBC begins the 13-week run of Jason & The Golden Fleece starring MacDonald Carey to fill the Wednesday 10:00 p.m. timeslot until Bob Hope takes it in January.
OCT 30 1931 RCA owned W2XBS begins 120-line television broadcasts from its Empire State Building transmitter;
OCT 30 1932 Eddie Cantor begins his record setting ratings run on NBC’s Chase & Sanborn Hour - resulting in a first season Crossley rating average of 55.7. (See The 1932-33 Season and Sunday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 30 1933 Frank & Anne Hummert’s daytime serial The Romance of Helen Trent begins its 27 year run on CBS. (See Soft Soap & Hard Sell.)
OCT 30 1933 Daily newspapers in Denver and Charlotte drop all radio program listings and the mention of stations in protest to the new CBS News Bureau.
OCT 30 1933 Bing Crosby wins his battle with sponsor Woodbury Soap, insisting that his theme, Where The Blue of The Night, be used on his CBS show and not Woodbury’s corporate theme, Lovliness.
OCT 30 1937 A Federal grand jury finds Groucho and Chico Marx guilty of plagiarism in a suit brought by writers of the radio skit, Mr. Dibble & Mr. Dabble. The brothers are each fined $1,000 and appeal the verdict. (See The One, The Only...Groucho!)
OCT 30 1937 Westinghouse conducts a series of celebrations in Pittsburgh to introduce KDKA’s new 718 foot transmitting tower which the station claims will increase its coverage ten-fold.
OCT 30 1937 NBC bars a sweepstakes winner from appearing on Ripley’s Believe It Or Not for fear of violating Section 316 of The Communications Act which prohibits broad-casting information about lotteries. (See Believe It Or Not.)
OCT 30 1937 Variety quotes a slogan heard on “goat gland doctor” John Brinkley’s broadcast from high powered XER on the Texas/Mexico border: “No man wants to be a capon.”
OCT 30 1938 RCA’s Magic Key broadcast on Blue includes an overhead description of the Treasure Island site of San Francisco’s 1939 Golden State Exposition broadcast from a Pan American flying boat by announcer Hal Gibney. (See The Magic Key.)
OCT 30 1938 CBS broadcasts Orson Welles’ infamous War of The Worlds drama. (See The War of The Worlds.)
OCT 30 1940 The fatal heart attack of veteran WSB/Atlanta transmitter engineer Harold Kelly delays the station’s 5:30 a.m. sign-on until emergency crews arrive at the scene 40 minutes later.
OCT 30 1940 Kay Kyser records a test of his College of Musical Knowledge playing non-ASCAP music for American Tobacco’s George Washington Hill to determine the fate of the show in the event of an ASCAP boycott. (See Kay Kyser and Wednesday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 30 1940 FDR’s radio address from Boston sets a new Crossley/CAB ratings record for campaign speeches at 38.7. (See Radio's Rulers: Crossley, Hooper & Nielsen.)
OCT 30 1940 Late night band remotes resume on CBS after a two week absence when the labor dispute between affiliate WGBI/Scranton and the AFM is settled. (See Big Band Remotes.)
OCT 30 1941 ASCAP agrees to contract terms with CBS and NBC ending ten months without ASCAP music on the networks.
OCT 30 1941 CBS and NBC file separate suits in U.S. District Court to restrain the FCC from its planned “chain monopoly” regulations including the banning of network option time due to take effect on November 15.
OCT 30 1941 NBC and the 243 affiliates of both its networks agree on a four point radio defense policy should it become necessary involving emergency communications, public morale and uninterrupted service.
OCT 30 1941 CBS devotes a half-hour salute to WKBW/Buffalo’s increase to 50,000 watts.
OCT 30 1942 The U.S, Treasury Department claims that the 1943 individual income limit of $25,000 translates, before federal income tax and “certain allowable” deductions, to a gross income of $67,200.
OCT 30 1944 To save budget after its expensive purchase of Jack Benny’s program, American Tobacco begins offering a two year “lease” of Kay Kyser’s College of Musical Knowledge on NBC to the highest bidder. (See Kay Kyser and Lucky Gets Benny.)
OCT 30 1945 President Truman’s speech on wage and price controls carried on all networks registers a 43.8 Hooperating. (See Radio's Rulers: Crossley, Hooper & Nielsen.)
OCT 30 1946 RCA gives its first public demonstration of its electronic color television system at the company‘s laboratories in Princeton, New Jersey.
OCT 30 1946 Arlene Francis begins a one season run in The Affairs of Ann Scotland on ABC.
OCT 30 1947 The Radio Writers Guild of freelance writers ratifies a six and a half year contract with the four networks determining pay scale and ownership of material. It includes a minimum pay for free lance writers that ranges from $35 for a sustaining five minute program to $500 for an hour long commercial show.
OCT 30 1947 CBS-TV presents the four hour Bellevue Hospital benefit Show of Shows from Madison Square Garden starring Milton Berle, Helen Hayes, Frank Sinatra and Morey Amsterdam.
OCT 30 1948 Packard Bell sponsors the first “triple-cast” - The Television Talent Test on KFI AM-FM-TV/Los Angeles.
OCT 30 1949 A large coalition of television networks, major movie studios, film producers, program packagers and trade associations draw battle plans against the AFM’s proposed pay hike and work rules governing television films.
OCT 30 1950 General Electric, Philco, Westinghouse, Magnavox and Sylvania threaten to cancel their advertising after CBS President Frank Stanton warns the public not to buy black and white television sets without color adapters.
OCT 30 1950 Stop The Music! producer Louis Cowan and its star, Bert Parks, introduce the half hour Bert Parks Show on NBC-TV, Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons.
OCT 30 1951 FCC forecasts it will lift the freeze on new television stations by January 1st, “…or sometime shortly thereafter.”
OCT 30 1953 AFTRA bans members from participating in network originated telethons.
OCT 30 1953 The Daytime Broadcasters Association is formed in St Louis representing a charter membership of 25 stations limited to sunrise-to-sunset operation.
OCT 31 1933 CBS obtains WBBM/Chicago and makes it the network’s primary affiliate in the city, dropping WGN.
OCT 31 1935 KMBC/Kansas City mobile units cover the $250,000 fire at Cook Paint & Varnish Company's plant, scooping the competition - including WHB, owned by Cook Paint & Varnish Company.
OCT 31 1938 Iowa Senator Clyde Herring renews his call for censorship with legislation requiring advance approval for all broadcast material.
OCT 31 1938 West Coast broadcaster and television pioneer Don Lee applies for a television license in San Francisco.
OCT 31 1939 Following his failed attempt to take over Mutual, FDR son Elliot Roosevelt announces the establishment of his planned Transcontinental Broadcasting System of 100 stations to rebroad-cast two hours of soap operas nightly.
OCT 31 1940 FCC issues the first wave of FM construction permits for 15 stations located in ten states.
OCT 31 1941 Bob Hope drops his suit against gag writer Jack Douglas claiming that his seeking to prevent Douglas from submitting material to Red Skelton, “…was all a misunderstanding.”
OCT 31 1942 Bob Hawk, begins his Thanks To The Yanks quiz show for service personnel on CBS awarding cartons of Camel Cigarettes as prizes. The program runs for two seasons before becoming The Bob Hawk Show. (See Monday’s All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 31 1942 Reports surface that CBS Chairman Bill Paley will cut his 1943 gross salary from $190,000 to $65,000 in keeping with the government’s decree that no net salaries shall exceed $25,000.
OCT 31 1943 CBS starts paying AFRA $35 each for ten “standby” singers during the network’s Sunday morning Blue Jacket Choir concerts from the Great Lakes Naval Training Station.
OCT 31 1943 Arturo Toscanini and Leopold Stokowski begin alternating as conductors of the NBC Symphony in a series of 24 Sunday afternoon broadcasts.
OCT 31 1945 Bell Laboratories demonstrates its Microwave Radio Relay System, originally developed for military use, and predicts its civilian use will eventually include television networking.
OCT 31 1946 Activists for the National Temperance & Prohibition Council file a $33.1 Million lawsuit against CBS and ask for dissolution of the network for its refusal to sell “choice” time for the group’s anti-alcohol programs.
OCT 31 1946 Trade group FM Broadcasters, Inc., dissolves to merge into the NAB.
OCT 31 1947 CBS reports spending $500,000 to develop 15 program series led by Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts, My Friend Irma, Strike It Rich and Crime Photographer. (See CBS Packages Unwrapped.)
OCT 31 1947 ABC, CBS, Mutual and NBC are sued for $13.0 Million in damages by WSAY/ Rochester, New York, which claims the networks conspired to refuse service to the station.
OCT 31 1947 Disc jockey Martin Block and KFWB/Los Angeles cancel their highly publicized three year, $1.0 Million contract after four months.
OCT 31 1948 Walter Winchell reports a three-alarm fire, “…raging out of control in Albany, New York,” which had been extinguished 90 minutes before his Sunday night broadcast began. (See Walter Winchell and Sunday's All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 31 1949 Veteran CBS newsman John Daly leaves the network after 13 years.
OCT 31 1949 FCC rejects the petition of atheist spokesman Robert Scott to revoke the licenses of San Francisco stations KCBS, KFRC, KGO and KNBR because they refused to grant him time to promote his cause.
OCT 31 1950 Legendary dancer Irene Castle, 57, sues CBS and Ed Sullivan’s Toast of The Town for $250,000 for showing without her permission, a 1912 movie clip of she and her husband/partner Vernon dancing.
OCT 31 1950 CBS claims that eleven manufacturers of television sets, including Philco and Westinghouse, have indicated they will, “…cooperate in one way or another,” with the network’s color television system.
OCT 31 1951 Radio and television networks give full coverage to the arrival and visit of Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh to Washington.
OCT 31 1951 FCC Commissioner Frieda Hennock asks President Truman to withdraw her controversial nomination to the Federal bench, deciding instead to remain on the commission.
OCT 31 1951 Peg Lynch & Alan Bunce, radio’s Ethel & Albert, make their television debut on NBC-TV’s Kate Smith Hour.
OCT 31 1952 Fast work by affiliate WHIZ/Zanesville, Ohio, gives NBC’s News of The World the first reports from the four-day Ohio Penitentiary riots in Columbus. (See Multiple Runs All Time Top Ten.)
OCT 31 1952 MGM shuts down production of ten movie-based radio series produced for Mutual as the film company and network argue over renewal fees.
OCT 31 1953 NBC-TV presents its first full hour program in color, highlights of the opera Carmen.
OCT 31 1953 NBC-TV becomes the first television network to exceed $10.0 Million in one-month billings, recording $10.39 Million. CBS-TV trails with October billings of $9.42 Million.
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