Topic: OBITUARIES
Eddy Arnold, whose mellow baritone on songs like "Make the World Go Away" made him one of the most successful singers in history, died Thursday, 8 MAY 2008, at a care facility just south of Nashville. He was 89. Arnold's radio debut was finally achieved in 1936 on the Jackson station WTJS, after which he gradually expanded his reputation into cities such as Memphis and St. Louis. By 1940 he had landed a job with Pee Wee King's Golden West Cowboys, providing him with regular appearances on the Grand Ole Opry and a place in their associated touring shows; towards the end of 1943 he emerged from the group as a solo performer to host an almost-daily radio program on WSM under his nickname "The Tennessee Ploughboy". Before long, a contract with the RCA label was secured, and by 1944 his recording career was underway.
WEB LINKS | IMAGES | SHOP Eddy Arnold
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Updated: Thursday, 8 May 2008 3:05 PM EDT
Updated: Thursday, 8 May 2008 3:05 PM EDT
Edward R. Murrow (born Egbert Roscoe Murrow; April 25, 1908 – April 27, 1965) was an American journalist and television and radio figure. Murrow is the most distinguished and renowned figure in the history of American broadcast journalism. He first came to prominence with a series of radio news broadcasts during World War II, which were followed by millions of listeners in the United States and Canada. Mainstream historians consider him among journalism's greatest figures; Murrow hired a top-flight cadre of war correspondents and was noted for honesty and integrity in delivering the news. A pioneer of television news broadcasting, Murrow produced a series of TV news reports that helped lead to the censure of Senator Joseph McCarthy. 
The tuning dial of a wireless receiver of the times contained a multitude of broadcasting stations from around Northern Europe. Places such as Hilversum, Lille and Luxembourg, Allouis, Athlone, Droitwich, Warsaw and Moscow. 
Ed McMahon's Horatio Alger story is a significant one. In his youth, his family moved from town to town, and by the time he settled permanently with his grandparents in Lowell, Massachusetts, he had attended 15 different schools. He sold pots and pans door to door to make a living. He became entranced with radio, and by age 11 he was practicing his announcer techniques by reading Time magazine aloud into a flashlight. After working on the sound truck for a traveling carnival, he landed his first job at age 17, as a radio announcer with a local station. McMahon defended our country in both World War II and the Korean War, in which he earned six air medals. His determination to have a career in communications earned him his degree at Catholic University. He soon became "Mr. Television" at WCAU-TV in Philadelphia while he hosted, wrote and produced more than a dozen television shows. He went on to become the host of "Who Do You Trust?" starring Johnny Carson, and four years later hosted Carson's "The Tonight Show," which lasted 30 years and 5,000 episodes. The show earned four Emmys. 
WJSV was the CBS station located in Washington DC. They decided to record the entire day's broadcast for the National Archive. Arthur Godfrey, plays music and fills the time with small talk, birthday announcements, commercials, etc. on his Sundail morning show. EXCERPT: 
Designed by former KTKT DJ Ray Lindstrom, the Tucson KTKT site brims with old airchecks — live recorded demos of DJ patter, weather, news and commercials — as well as audio interviews with the disc jockeys who made KTKT the most popular station in town back in the '50s and '60s. Check it out: 
George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an Academy Award-winning American director, writer, actor and producer for film, stage, radio and television. Welles first gained wide notoriety for his October 30, 1938 radio broadcast of H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds. Adapted to sound like a contemporary news broadcast, it caused a large number of listeners to panic. Welles was increasingly active on radio, as an actor and soon as a director and producer. He played Hamlet for CBS on The Columbia Workshop, adapting and directing the play himself. The Mutual Network gave him a seven-week series to adapt Les Misérables, which he did with great success. Welles was chosen to anonymously play Lamont Cranston, The Shadow, in late 1937 (again for Mutual) and in the summer of 1938 CBS gave him (and the Mercury Theatre) a weekly hour-long show to broadcast radio plays based on classic literary works. The show was titled The Mercury Theatre on the Air, with original music by Bernard Herrmann, who would continue working with Welles on radio and in films for years. Their October 30 broadcast, H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds, brought Welles notoriety and instant fame on both a national and international level. The fortuitous mixture of news bulletin format with the between-breaks dial spinning habits of listeners from the rival and far more popular Edgar Bergen/Charlie McCarthy program, created widespread confusion among late tuners. Panic spread among many listeners who believed the news reports of an actual Martian invasion. The resulting panic was duly reported around the world and disparagingly mentioned by Adolf Hitler in a public speech a few months later. Welles' growing fame soon drew Hollywood offers, lures which the independent-minded Welles resisted at first. However, The Mercury Theatre on the Air, which had been a 'sustaining show' (without sponsorship) was picked up by Campbell Soup and renamed The Campbell Playhouse. Welles died of a heart attack at his home in Hollywood, California at age 70 on October 10, 1985. He had various projects underway, including a film adaptation of King Lear, The Orson Welles Magic Show, and The Dreamers. His final interview had been recorded the day before, on The Merv Griffin Show. 
Radio broadcaster Arthur Godfrey was an unlikely star of his day. During television's first decade, he was the most omnipresent, watched, listened-to, and talked about personality in America. He was on television five days a week for nine hours, eight of them simulcast on radio. His theme song was played up to 70 times a week. But his only real talent was a folksy, laid-back, and unpredictable charm. One of his top shows on TV was Talent Scouts, the grandfather of American Idol. 
“Should old acquaintance be forgot, mumble, mumble, hum la la, for Auld Lang Syne.” Big finish! If you don’t know the words, you’re not alone. Most of us don’t know how the song goes beyond the first verse or have a clue what it means. We sing it because everyone else is doing it, because we have always done it, because it makes us feel good to hold onto something we have done every year for years and years as a way to honor the passing of time and new beginnings. (Traditions are like that: often irrational but somehow heartwarming.) So here’s today’s lesson: Apparently the Scottish poet, Robert Burns, discovered fragments of an old ballad, restored what he could, and added some verses sometime in the 1790s. Singing it at New Year’s is band leader Guy Lombardo’s fault. He heard it somewhere, loved it, and had his band use it for celebrations. Every New Year’s Eve from the 1930s until the 1970s, his band played their version of Auld Lang Syne at midnight to mark the end of one year and the beginning of another. Senior citizens remember it from radio days. Those of us not quite so senior watched Lombardo strike up the band on TV each year while the crowds in New York’s Times Square cheered and celebrated. The tradition has become part of our collective sense of what is necessary for welcoming a new year. New Year’s Eve without Auld Lang Syne would definitely feel like something is missing. But what does it mean? The song that we’ve been cheerfully mis-singing since we could stay up until midnight is a nostalgic yet hopeful tribute to old friends separated by distance and time; hardly the stuff of noisemakers and streamers. It’s a quiet statement of how very important it is to remember the friends who have come and gone along the way. It seems oddly fitting that in the middle of celebratory abandon, we take a few minutes to stop and reflect on what is most important. The song asks us to appreciate our connections with the people who have shared our journey in life. 
Philo Taylor Farnsworth (August 19, 1906 – March 11, 1971) was an American inventor. He is best known for inventing the first completely electronic television. In particular, he was the first to make a working electronic image pickup device (video camera tube), and the first to demonstrate an all-electronic television system to the public. 
Started by the National Life and Accident Insurance Company in 1925, WSM became one of the most influential and exceptional radio stations in the history of broadcasting and country music. WSM gave Nashville the moniker “Music City USA” as well as a rich tradition of music, news, and broad-based entertainment. With the rise of country music broadcasting and recording between the 1920s and ‘50s, WSM, Nashville, and country music became inseparable, stemming from WSM’s launch of the Grand Ole Opry, popular daily shows like Noontime Neighbors, and early morning artist-driven shows such as Hank Williams on Mother’s Best Flour. Sparked by public outcry following a proposal to pull country music and the Opry from WSM-AM in 2002, Craig Havighurst scoured new and existing sources to document the station’s profound effect on the character and self-image of Nashville. Introducing the reader to colorful artists and businessmen from the station’s history, including Owen Bradley, Minnie Pearl, Jim Denny, Edwin Craig, and Dinah Shore, the volume invites the reader to reflect on the status of Nashville, radio, and country music in American culture.