Today in Broadcast History

IT WAS AUG. 12th … when comedian Red Skelton (pictured) got his first national exposure as a guest on NBC’s Rudy Vallee radio show …. When rock jock “Cousin Brucie” (Bruce Morrow) did his last show on WNBC-AM, New York City… When XM Satellite Radio began broadcasting in the US… ..and when disc jockey Jim Brady did his final show on radio station CFTR, Toronto. ALL the milestones for the date INSIDE.

IT WAS AUG. 11th .. when New York’s WCBS-TV became the first station to televise a baseball game in color..in fact, a doubleheader between the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Boston Braves…. When CBS-TV’s Sunday night variety showcase, The Ed Sullivan Show featured Buddy Knox singing his two rockabilly hits ‘Party Doll’ and ‘Hula Love’… When the folksinging Kingston Trio signed in as the “mystery guests” on CBS-TV’s “What’s My Line?”… ..and when Edmonton radio station CJAX-FM began operations on 92.5 MHz with 100,000 watts. The call letters are now CKNG FM, with a branding of 92.5 Fresh FM. ALL the milestones for the date INSIDE.

IT WAS AUG. 10th … when Allen Funt’s “Candid Camera,” a video version of his “Candid Microphone” radio show, debuted on ABC…. When Vancouver’s CHQM-FM signed on for the first time at 103.5 MHz, initially as a straight mono simulcast of CHQM 1320 AM… When “Manhattan Transfer,” the summer variety show starring the singing group of the same name, premiered on CBS-TV… .. and when 30-year-long CKNW sportscaster Al Davidson (pictured) died at age 66. ALL the milestones for Aug. 10th INSIDE.

IT WAS AUG. 9th … when radio brought word of a 2nd atomic bomb explosion that would lead to Japan’s surrender & the end of World War II… When the TV program “Ready Steady Go!” premiered on ITV in the UK. The show gave early exposure to such music luminaries as Bob Dylan and The Rolling Stones… When two popular Toronto deejays John Spragge and Bob MacAdorey were fired from radio station CHUM… ..and when, following the enormous success of the “Motown 25” TV special two years earlier, NBC debuted the ill-fated “Motown Revue” variety series hosted by Smokey Robinson, which lasted only five weeks. ALL the milestones for Aug. 9th INSIDE.

IT WAS AUG. 8th … when the one-week-old US cable channel MTV aired its first concert in stereo, starring REO Speedwagon in a performance at Denver… When two jurors from the Michael Jackson molestation trial were interviewed on NBC’s ‘Today’ show. They admitted to the national audience they now wished they’d returned a guilty verdict… When Lamont Tilden (pictured), one of the best known CBC announcers and news readers in the Golden Age of Canadian radio, and the early years of television, died at age 98… ..and when 16-year old Brian Hyland went to No.1 on the Billboard pop singles chart with ‘Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini.’ ALL the milestones for the date INSIDE.

IT WAS AUG. 7th … when just months before the US was pulled into WWII, WNBT, Channel 4 in New York City, broadcast TV’s first audience-participation show in which studio guests played charades…. When Martin Kane, Private Eye was first heard on Mutual radio…. When 16-year-old Paul Anka (pictured) made his U.S. television debut on Dick Clark’s American Bandstand, lip-synching to his first hit “Diana”… ..and when the reality series Gene Simmons’ Family Jewels had its premiere on the A&E cable network. ALL the milestones for the date INSIDE.

IT WAS AUG. 6th … when one of radio’s first serials, Real Folks debuted on NBC radio… When singer Dinah Shore started her own Sunday evening show on the NBC Blue radio network. Later Dinah would also have a successful TV career spanning more than three decades… When Chubby Checker appeared on Dick Clark’s Saturday Night Beechnut Show (ABC TV) and introduced ‘The Twist’… ..and after establishing himself on Mexican border powerhouses, Wolfman Jack (pictured) debuted on WNBC Radio New York. ALL the milestones for the date INSIDE.

IT WAS AUGUST 5th .. when KDKA Pittsburgh aired the first-ever baseball play by play, with pioneering announcer Harold Arlin at the mike … When the daily radio drama “Backstage Wife” first aired on a network (Mutual), after proving popular for a few months on Chicago’s WGN. It moved to NBC a year later, and to CBS two decades later!… When after becoming a huge TV hit in Philadelphia, Dick Clark’s “American Bandstand” made its debut on ABC… .. and when Prince George (BC) got its second private radio station as CJCI 620 signed on the air. “C.I.” stood for Central Interior… ALL the milestones for Aug. 5th INSIDE!

IT WAS AUG. 4th … when the first tennis match on radio was aired on Pittsburgh’s KDKA, the first US commercial station… When the CBC carried out Canada’s first television transmission from a helicopter… When the Federal Communications Commission voted 4-0 to rescind the so-called ‘Fairness Doctrine’… ..and when Duncan BC’s radio station CKAY 1500 became CJSU (SUN FM) 89.7. ALL the milestones for the date INSIDE.

IT WAS AUG. 3rd … when 36-year-old announcer Frank Blair (pictured) became news anchor of the NBC-TV Today Show, a job he would keep for the next 22 years!… When CBS-TV war correspondent Morley Safer sent out a Vietnam report showing American troops using their Zippo lighters to set fire to thatched huts in a Vietnamese village … When ‘Tonight Show’ host Johnny Carson graced the cover of the Burbank telephone directory… ..and when the ABC-TV news magazine Primetime Live debuted, with Sam Donaldson and Diane Sawyer headlining. ALL the milestones for the date INSIDE