Columns

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 The Chuck. ALL the milestones for the date INSIDE.

ON THIS DAY in 1876 Telephone inventor Alexander Graham Bell made the world’s first long-distance call from Brantford to the Bell homestead in Paris, Ontario, using a 13...

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.

In 1934, Bing Crosby became the first singer to record for the US branch of Decca Records.  Johnny Cash was at Owen Bradley’s studio in Nashville to record nine tracks during the afternoo Barbara Bel Geddes (pictured), best remembered as matriarch Eleanor “Miss Ellie” Ewing in the TV drama ‘Dallas’, lost her battle with lung cancer at age 82.n and evening, mostly for his first Columbia album “The Fabulous Johnny Cash.”

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’… When Jon Stewart closed out his 16 years as host of 'The Daily Show' ... When MOJO RADIO debuted in Vancouver on AM730 with “talk radio for guys” (which would prove to be a mistake)… ..and after establishing himself on Mexican border powerhouses, Wolfman Jack (pictured) debuted on WNBC Radio New York. ALL the milestones for the date INSIDE.

I know what you are thinking; with a title like that, the episode involves Rush. It does not. But given all the discussion of Ari's upbringing in the Suburbs of Toronto, and his affinity for playing the bass, this lyric from the song Subdivisions came to my head.

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 Everly Bros. sang ‘Wake Up Little Susie’ on CBS-TV’s Ed Sullivan Show … When the Federal Communications Commission voted 4-0 to rescind the so-called ‘Fairness Doctrine’… ..and when two on-camera stars of Vancouver's BCTV, Ron Morrier and Robert Malcolm (pictured), signed off forever. ALL the milestones for the date INSIDE.