Did anyone hear Alan Courtney's radio show? I had never heard of him until recently. I didn't know there was another conservative host like Joe Pyne during the 1950s and early 1960s who took phone calls. Please comment if you heard his radio show.
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Alan Courtney early conservative radio host
- Thread starter TTalkradio1
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He was on evenings on WIOD and WINZ throughout the nineteen-sixties and seventies.
His wife, Bernice produced the show and did a short-lived program of her own on WIOD after he passed away.
What did he sound like?
That was a long time ago and I certainly wasn’t a listener of his. From what I remember he was kind of gruff and grumbly. I’m sure people listened but I’m not sure he was as effective as he might be if he were on the radio today.
Since that would have been in the era of the Fairness Doctrine how would this, or any other program with a particular political slant, been given equal treatment? Are there any real world examples?
There isn't a Wikipedia on him.
Allen Courtney was a necessity for Storz. Lee Vogel (who was later in Miami) had that role at WHB in Kansas City. Top 40 was an issue for the FCC for a number of reasons. When Storz acquired WQAM, for instance, he had to promise not to engage in any on-air contesting (that didn’t last a year— because no one else stopped— but Storz was quick to crow after a first good book that WQAM won without contesting). Courtney was more of serving the public interest than the interested public. If you’ll recall, the Disc Jockey Conventions, the first one in Kansas City, the second ill-fated one in Bal Harbour; were intended to uplift the image of the disc jockey. Consequently public figures and politicians were included (which actually led to the publicity of the Miami Mahem but that’s another story). So think of Courtney more in the ‘pubic affairs’ category than political talk. His wife Bernice screened his calls. Can still here him wishing her a good night at the end of the shows.
Here is the article about his joining of WQAM in 1956:
https://www.americanradiohistory.com/hd2/IDX-Business/Magazines/Archive-BC-IDX/56-OCR/1956-09-17-BC-OCR-Page-0102.pdf#search=%22alan%20courtney%22
And here is an ad for WQAM in Broadcasting in 1958
https://www.americanradiohistory.com/hd2/IDX-Business/Magazines/Archive-BC-IDX/58-OCR/1958-03-03-BC-OCR-Page-0008.pdf#search=%22alan%20courtney%22
Was his show like Joe Pyne's or Bob Grant's?
Did anyone else hear him?
I think he was a dj in NY.
He co-wrote "Joltin' Joe DiMaggio."
Anyone else listen to him?
I never heard this guy's show, but there was no requirement that every word be perfectly balanced by an opposing word. They were to "cover issues fairly" whatever that even meant. It wouldn't have even meant that 3 hours of say, a Limbaugh, had to be followed by 3 hours of a liberal host. You could show, for example, that even if you carried hosts who were spreading anti-vax stuff, your newscasts carried info on how to get the vaccine. Chances are in that era, there would have been hosts with opposing viewpoints. WAVI in Dayton, Ohio had conservatives, liberals and libertarians on.
Interesting on a couple of levels. First thing is in the second ad there is no mention of the WQAM morning man, most curious, Second was I didn't know that Jerry Wichner had worked at WQAM.
Somehow I knew he had worked at WINZ so perhaps he worked there more than once. Jerry played country music for awhile at Ed Little's WGMA I remember walking in the back door of WGMA at the Hollywood Federal Building while he was in the restroom which was outside the station. I must have startled him, I feebly explained I wanted to get into radio, he growed "forget it" as he quickly escorted me out....Well I didn't!
Alan Courtney or Lee Vogel, I was too young to care about what they had to say. Most of it seemed dry as dust to my young ears so it was a great time to move over to 79-WFUN if I wasn't there already.
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