Columns

IT WAS APRIL 30th … when television was demonstrated for the first time in the US, as President Roosevelt spoke at the opening of the New York World’s Fair …. When after 27 years, the final broadcast of ‘Arthur Godfrey Time’ aired on CBS Radio, a decade after most network entertainment radio had ended …. When host Jack Bailey (pictured) introduced the so-called daily agony show “Queen For a Day” on Mutual radio… and when the 208th & final episode of “The Cosby Show” was seen on NBC-TV. ALL the milestones for the last day of April INSIDE.

IT WAS APRIL 28th … when Bill Drake installed ‘Boss Radio’ as the soon-to-be-dominant Top 40 format on KHJ AM 930 in Los Angeles … When Mike Wallace first became a Sunday evening TV star as host of the syndicated ‘Mike Wallace Interview’ across the US… When Arthur Godfrey concluded a decade of TV stardom as his weekday show returned to CBS radio only status… and when sportscaster Ted Reynolds (pictured) passed away after decades of playbyplay (& Olympics) broadcasting first at CFJC & CJVI and then with the CBC in Vancouver. ALL the milestones for the date INSIDE.

IT WAS APRIL 27th … when Seattle radio station KIRO first began broadcasting as 50-watt KPCB at 521 meters (580 khz.)… When the first broadcast of Canadian director Fletcher Markle’s drama anthology ”Studio One’ aired on CBS radio… When NBC TV’s “Today” show went abroad for the 1st time .. to Paris France… When, after a lengthy career as Peck’s Bad Boy of Vancouver radio, Jack Cullen passed away… and when the final episode of “Green Acres” aired on CBS-TV. ALL the milestones for the date INSIDE.

IT WAS APRIL 26th … when the Ozarks comedy ‘Lum & Abner’ was broadcast for the first time on Arkansas radio station KTHS… When the daytime drama ‘Lorenzo Jones’ debuted on NBC radio… When ‘The Prince and the Pauper’ appeared in prime time on NBC-TV, starring former Beatle Ringo Starr… When John Wayne, Bob Hope, and Tom Jones were guests of Raquel Welch on her NBC-TV special … .. and when the 200th episode of ‘The Simpsons’ aired on FOX-TV. ALL the milestones for the date INSIDE.

IT WAS APRIL 25th .. when the future iconic broadcast news pioneer Edward. R. Murrow (pictured) was born in North Carolina… When the New York experimental TV station that preceded WCBS aired the first circus on television…. When Vancouver’s CKST AM 1040 dropped its adult contemporary music format and began airing commercial free Classic Rock, enroute to adopting an all-sports format two weeks later… and when the TV-movie “Dukes Of Hazzard: Reunion!” aired on CBS, 12 years after the series left the air. ALL the milestones for the date INSIDE.

IT WAS APRIL 23rd .. when Lucille Ball made the first of her 34 appearances on the cover of TV Guide … When Johnny Cash, June Carter Cash, and Vicki Carr, with comedian Bob Newhart were Glen Campbell’s guests on his weekly CBS-TV variety show… When NBC-TV aired the pilot of ‘Baywatch,’ the show that introduced the world to Ladysmith BC’s Pamela Anderson … and when Toronto-born conductor/composer Robert Farnon (pictured), who got his start in the 1930’s playing trumpet on CBC Radio’s “Happy Gang,” died in England at age 87. ALL the milestones for the date INSIDE.

IT WAS APRIL 22nd … when the Army-McCarthy hearings became a big hit in the daytime for peviously little-watched ABC-TV…. When Barbara Walters was officially named a co-host of NBC-TV’s Today Show, after doing the job without the title for 5 years… When the final episode of the “All in the Family” spinoff, “Maude” aired on CBS-TV… and when Johnny Carson gave advance notice that he intended to retire from NBC-TV’s “Tonight Show” the following year. ALL the milestones for the date INSIDE.

IT WAS APRIL 19th … when the Chicago Barn Dance first aired on WLS. In a few short years it became the National Barn Dance on NBC radio… When the ABC Television Network began operations, only in Philadelphia and Washington at first… When New York AM station WINS became the world’s first all-news radio outlet… and when our TV screens were filled with images of destruction from Oklahoma City, after a truck bomb destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, killing 168. ALL the milestones for the date INSIDE.

IT WAS APRIL 18th … when future late night TV host Johnny Carson played a bored New Jersey husband with a gift for picking horse-racing winners, in a Playhouse 90 production on CBS-TV… When the reality TV show “Real People” debuted, featuring John Barbour, Sarah Purcell, Byron Allen, Skip Stephenson, and Bill Rafferty… When the TV movie “Summer Dreams: The Story of the Beach Boys” aired on ABC… and when Arsenio Hall (pictured)l announced (for the first time) he would end his five-year-old late-night TV talk show the following month… ALL the milestones for the date INSIDE.

IT WAS APRIL 17th .. when San Francisco radio station KPO (now KNBR) took to the airwaves with 50 watts of power… When writer/producer Wyllis Cooper brought Lights Out to NBC radio for what would be acclaimed as the medium’s ultimate horror show… When CBS-TV’s Ed Sullivan Show featured Petula Clark singing “Sign of the Times’, and The Animals performing “Don’t Bring Me Down”… and when comedian Joey Bishop (pictured) got the opportunity to try to unseat the king of late night, Johnny Carson, courtesy of ABC-TV. ALL the milestones for the date INSIDE.