KNX circa 1949

[scottp]

I was looking over a 2006 obit for radio/TV personality Ralph Story, and it said,
"In 1949, Ralph Story took over the morning show at CBS's Big Band station KNX-1070."
Does that seem sensible to describe KNX as "Big Band" at that time? There were plenty of real radio shows, local and network, remaining then. Or does it mean something other than sax, trumpet, cornet, trombone, clarinet, etc.?

[Maxwell]

I was looking over a 2006 obit for radio/TV personality Ralph Story, and it said,
"In 1949, Ralph Story took over the morning show at CBS's Big Band station KNX-1070."
Does that seem sensible to describe KNX as "Big Band" at that time? There were plenty of real radio shows, local and network, remaining then. Or does it mean something other than sax, trumpet, cornet, trombone, clarinet, etc.?

I'm thinking that maybe it was somebody writing an obit in 2006 who didn't know diddly about radio in 1949.

[scottp]

Yeah I guess so... (you mean it wasn't even "Music of Your Life"???)

A similar example is a web site (since changed) for the recently reopened Fox Pomona in southern California. In its glory days, celebrities appeared in person at previews and premieres, and it was "a remote location for radio talk shows featuring Bob Hope, Desi Arnaz, and many others."
I guess radio comes in only four varieties-- ball games, songs, news, and talk.

And so far, the acts at the Fox Pomona have been bands I've never heard of, plus occasional boxing matches. (It's a rough town...)

[Maxwell]

Yeah I guess so... (you mean it wasn't even "Music of Your Life"???)

A similar example is a web site (since changed) for the recently reopened Fox Pomona in southern California. In its glory days, celebrities appeared in person at previews and premieres, and it was "a remote location for radio talk shows featuring Bob Hope, Desi Arnaz, and many others."
I guess radio comes in only four varieties-- ball games, songs, news, and talk.

And so far, the acts at the Fox Pomona have been bands I've never heard of, plus occasional boxing matches. (It's a rough town...)

There ya go! By the time I was old enough where I still have memories (say about 1953 or 1954), we had a TV and the stations were on from 6:00 a.m. to about midnight in Chicago (which was where we picked up the signal from). OTR ended in seven or eight years later, but I don't remember any of it because we watched TV after my parents bought a set. I can vaguely remember something about my grandma listening to Ma Perkins, and I did hear the Amos and Andy Music Hall, but I don't remember actually listening to "Ma," and A&A were spinning records.

OTR has been dead nearly fifty years. Post-boomer kids for the most part have no idea what it was like. I have a feeling many of us don't really have an idea either unless we've listened to the recorded broadcast day of the CBS station in Washington DC. Otherwise we hear shows in isolation and can only guess as to what it was actually like to listen to radio as the primary broadcast medium.

[scottp]

"I have a feeling many of us don't really have an idea either unless we've listened to the recorded broadcast day of the CBS station in Washington DC. Otherwise we hear shows in isolation and can only guess as to what it was actually like to listen to radio as the primary broadcast medium."
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We should all get that out right now... the 70th anniversary was this week (September 21, 1939.)

One time (1989 or so) I started in the first week of September, on whatever day I was up at 6:00 am, and listened to the cassette that covered 6:00-6:45 (Arthur Godfrey.) A day or two later I put in the next cassette at 6:45 am to continue (Like Woody Allen wanting to steal the prison guards' underwear, I wanted to do it as realistically as possible.)
I know I listened to the 9:45-10:30 am segment at work one day... anyway, after that I started skipping ahead.
Come to think of it, that was the last time I heard a Washington major league baseball game until last week when the Dodgers were there!

[Maxwell]

Greg Bell had an interesting show on his Sirius/XM OTR channel this past week. It was Graham MacNamee's "Behind the Radio" show. On it he interviewed the morning network broadcaster for the NBC Blue Network. It turns out that he spun records, apparently over the entire network (or at least those stations that were on the air at 6:00 a.m. EST.

I think I'll listen to the broadcast day this week. I hadn't realized that we were just past the seventieth anniversary of that event.

[scottp]

Come to think of it, Desi Arnaz could have made use of one of his catch phrases if he'd become a talk radio host--
"Comin' up we got more on some o' those crazy politicians in Washington... they REALLY got some 'splainin' to do!"