GENE AUTRY, ARTHUR GODFREY AND A FRIEND.

STARTING POINTS QUIZ

Not all of Network Radio’s leading programs and personalities started at the top with immediate and highly publicized debuts. Many had their starts far from their eventual locations that brought them fame. For example, before Gene Autry and Arthur Godfrey, each found long term homes on CBS, they had their starts on local radio stations over a thousand miles apart.  But where?

Here are some more examples and a challenge: Match the following 15 Network Radio attractions with the cities where they got their starts in radio. A few are easy and several are tricky. The answers appear below the familiar book cover at the end of the lists.

1/ Arthur Godfrey                                                        A/ Baltimore

2/ Big Town                                                                 B/ Boston

3/ Bob & Ray                                                               C/ Buffalo

4/ Burns & Allen                                                           D/ Chicago

5/ Darts For Dough                                                      E/ Cincinnati

6/ Dr. IQ                                                                       F/ Dallas

7/ Easy Aces                                                                G/ Hot Springs, Ark.

8/ Gene Autry                                                               H/ Houston

9/ Kay Kyser’s College of Musical Knowledge         I/ Kansas City

10/ Lum & Abner                                                          J/ London

11/ Lux Radio Theater                                                  K/ Los Angeles

12 One Man’s Family                                                   L/ New York City

13/ Red Skelton                                                            M/ St. Louis

14/ Stoopnagle & Budd                                               N/ San Francisco

15/ Vox Pop                                                                 O/ Tulsa

1-A  Arthur Godfrey began his lengthy career at WFBR in Baltimore in 1930, moving quickly to the announcing staff of NBC. He joined CBS-owned WJSV/Washington in 1933 and became its popular early morning personality - so popular that CBS took portions of the show for its New York flagship, WABC, from 1941 until he left the program in 1945. His CBS mid-morning weekday show Arthur Godfrey Time began its 27 year run in April, 1945, and Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts debuted in July, 1946, for ten seasons.

2-J Big Town was one of the first continuing character dramas to feature popular movie stars - Edward G. Robinson and Claire Trevor - in October, 1937 from CBS in Los Angeles. After five seasons the program left the air for a year only to be revived in 1943 for the next five seasons with an new cast from New York. (See Big Big Town on this site).

3-B  Bob Elliot and Ray Goulding became a 40 year team by accident on WHDH/Boston in the mid-1940’s when Goulding became the newsman on Elliot’s morning disc jockey show. Their repartee led to Matinee With Bob & Ray before the station’s baseball broadcasts. Their satire of Network Radio shows was so outrageous that NBC hired the pair as the morning team for its New York station, WNBC, in July 1951. The duo also began a string of network shows that were heard at various times on all four commercial chains and National Public Radio.

4-J George Burns & Gracie Allen made their first radio appearance on the BBC from London in 1929 while on a vaudeville tour. Three years later they debuted with Guy Lombardo’s orchestra on CBS and immediately shot into Network Radio’s Top Ten in ratings. They hopped between CBS and NBC six times over the next 18 seasons before leaving radio for television.

5-F Darts For Dough was a local favorite on WFAA/Dallas before moving to Blue/ABC for a three year Sunday afternoon and Thursday evening run in 1944. Hosted by Orval Anderson, the program was a combination audience participation quiz and, as the name implies, dart throwing contest in which players were encouraged to hit the numbers 12, 2 and 4 which tied in with sponsor Dr. Pepper’s advertising slogan.

6-M  Dr. IQ made its Blue Network debut in April, 1939, on an eight-station hookup from St. Louis. The rapid-fire quiz was moved to NBC in Chicago three months later and soon after became a “roving“ program originating from theaters in major cities. The program became a Monday night fixture on NBC for ten seasons before moving to ABC for a final year on Wednesday in 1949.

7-I  Goodman and Jane Ace filled time when CBS network programming was temporarily interrupted to KMBC/Kansas City in 1930. The couple’s 15 minute conversations moved to CBS in Chicago a year later and remained in multi-network sporadic runs until 1948. .

8-O Gene Autry first appeared on KVOO/Tulsa as Oklahoma’s Yodeling Cowboy in 1930. He moved to WLS/Chicago in 1931 for appearances on The National Barn Dance and The National Farm & Home Hour. His CBS series, Melody Ranch, opened its 16 season run for Wrigley Gum on CBS in 1940.

9-D Kay Kyser’s College of Musical Knowledge received a two month tryout on Mutual from WGN/Chicago in February, 1938. The program then moved to NBC for a highly successful ten year run and an encore season on ABC in 1948-49.

10-G Chet Lauck and Norris Goff created their Lum & Abner characters at KHTS/Hot Springs in April, 1931. After only a few appearances on the local station they auditioned for NBC in Chicago and were hired for a limited summer run on NBC, beginning a sporadic, four network run of 22 years.

11-L Lux Radio Theater’s beginnings in 1934 were not in the format, timeslot or network that became familiar to millions. After a season on Blue’s Sunday afternoon schedule presenting adaptations of Broadway plays from New York, Lux was moved to Hollywood and Monday night for 19 highly successful seasons on CBS and one final year on NBC.

12-N One Man’s Family was San Francisco’s gift to Network Radio - beginning as a West Coast feature from NBC-owned KPO in April, 1932. It became the first West Coast program broadcast on the full NBC network one month later. The serial was moved to Los Angeles in August, 1937. It remained on NBC for 27 years, written in its entirety by its creator, Carleton E. Morse, with virtually its entire cast ol actors intact..

13-E Red Skelton received his first widespread exposure from WLW/Cincinnati’s Red Foley Show in January, 1938, where he appeared as comic relief for two months. In August he received the first of several guest shots on Rudy Vallee’s NBC show and got his own program, Avalon Time on NBC in January, 1939. His highly rated Raleigh Cigarette Program of seven season debuted on NBC’s Tuesday night schedule in October, 1941.

14-C  F. Chase Taylor and Budd Hulak began their road to Network Radio fame when network lines failed to WMAK/Buffalo in October, 1930. Their nonsensical satire was promoted to CBS in 1931 and they appeared in various, short-lived timeslots for the next five seasons. Stoopnagle & Budd moved on to Blue and NBC for the next two seasons. The act broke up in 1938 but Taylor went on to fill in for Fred Allen’s summer vacation and hosted Quixie Doodles on Mutual and CBS for two seasons

15-H Vox Pop, created by its longtime host Parks Johnson, began as Sidewalk Interviews on KRTH/Houston in 1932. One of radio’s original “man on the street” programs, Vox Pop moved up to Blue in 1935 as the summer replacement for Bakers’ Broadcast, then on to NBC for four full seasons and CBS for eight. The program had one last encore season on ABC in 1947-48. During its 16 years Johnson’s co-hosts included Jerry Belcher, Wally Butterworth, Neil O’Malley and Warren Hull.

Now here's a quick bonus quiz...

CALL SIGN SIGN ON’S

In these days when station call signs and formats are changed like shirts, we look back at the times when those three and four letter call signs were almost sacred and any change in them was big news.

So, here’s a quick quiz based on some of the biggest of those changes - a half dozen of America‘s most famous radio and television stations.

Match the station with the city where its calls originated.  Watch out, there are one or two tough ones on is this short list. The correct answers and the dates of the call sign changes appear below.

1/ KABC/Los Angeles                                               A/ Chicago

2/ KYW/Philadelphia                                                  B/ New Britain, CT

3/ WABC/New York                                                    C/ New York City

4/ WCBS/New York                                                     D/ Newark NJ

5/ WJZ (TV)/Baltimore                                                E/ San Antonio

6/ WNBC (TV)/New York                                             F/ Springfield IL


CALL SIGN ANSWERS

1-E KABC was settled in San Antonio until the American Broadcasting Company bought KECA in Los Angeles and wanted the calls for its West Coast flagship in 1954. The San Antonio station is now KKYX.

2-A Westinghouse moved KYW - lock, stock and call sign - from Chicago to Philadelphia in October, 1934. In an ill-fated swap of facilities with NBC in 1956, Westinghouse moved the calls to Cleveland, but returned to Philadelphia when the deal fell through in 1965. KWY has remained in Philly ever since.

3-C WABC, formerly WJZ, was assigned to the American Broadcasting Company for its New York flagship in March, 1953 - six years after the Columbia Broadcasting System released the call sign from its New York station.

4-F WCBS dropped its WABC call sign on November 2, 1946, for WCBS - previously assigned to a station in the Illinois capital which became WCVS.

5-D Westinghouse took the historic Newark call sign, WJZ, for its Baltimore television station in September, 1957, four years after ABC dropped WJZ for WABC.

6-B NBC’s WEAF flagship adopted WNBC from the Connecticut station that became WPOP, on November 2, 1946 - the same day that WABC became WCBS.

                    Copyright © 2015 Jim Ramsburg, Estero FL    Email: tojimramsburg@gmail.com