Radio History

[Mike_Rafone]

ABC radio still carried the Oscar broadcast into the 60's

I, too, remember that. Recall sitting in my dorm room in Athens April 1966 and hearing Edith Head, who was doing fashio commentary for the radio broadcast, squeal and have to dash out of the booth because she had won. Can't recall who the anchor was. Don Gardner?

And does any have memories of "NBC Radio's Parade of Bowls" on New Year's Day? CBS Radio's coverage of the presidential innauguration parades? Any of the networks coverage of the Bicentennial celebration in 1976?

 

[TheBigA]

These are shows that are incredibly painful to WATCH because of their length. Can you imagine listening without benefit of seeing a five hour show? No wonder it's not done anymore. I think some of the music awards were offered as simulcasts, but once we had stereo TV, there was no need for an FM simulcast.

 

[cjwest]

How about Robert Trout as the lead anchor on CBS radio coverage in the 60's. It was gavel to gavel sometimes going late into the evening, long after the TV network had signed off coverage.

 

[Mike_Rafone]

Robert Trout as the lead anchor on CBS radio coverage in the 60's

Which is why Bill Paley tried the team of Trout and Roger Mudd with the 1964 GOP convention on TV after Cronkite got skewered by Huntley Brinkley. Seems a "Mudd-Trout" team wasn't appealing.

 

[TheBigA]

Seems a "Mudd-Trout" team wasn't appealing.

Of course. Too professorial, too inside, too educational. Trout was also dull on the radio, but it was a lower risk.

 

[Mike_Rafone]

Trout was also dull on the radio

Perhaps, but he was one hell of an ad-libber and didn't do half the prepping Cronkite had to do to sound 1/3 as good.

BTW, according to legend it was Trout who named FDR's speeches "Fireside Chats." And ht was also the one who standardized the opening, "Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States." For the first of those addresses CBS provided the technical suppport including the announcer. As there were more speeches, other nets traded off, but they all followed Trout's lead.

Now, that's history.

 

[cjwest]

Trout was a pro, under rated in my opinion.

Some of the last of its kind on radio. During the early 60's. John Cameron Swayze doing a week night national sponsored weather report (5min) on ABC radio. It was on in my area between 6 and 7pm. Same time as Alex Drier commentary on ABC radio (10min) sponsored.
Lowell Thomas on CBS radio 6:45PM (10min) sponsored follower by a 5 min sports report to go to the top of the hour. Tom Harmon did the sports show for awhile.

I didn't know there was anyone around that remembered those programs some of the last of the network radio schedules after the purge in 1960. I appreciate the opportunity to have this discussion.

 

[On the Dial]

I believe Lowell Thomas retired from radio in the 1970s. At the time he was doing a six-minute evening newscast for CBS in the slot that would otherwise have been the 8 pm ET hourly newscast.

 

[Mike_Rafone]

As late as 1967 (I thiink) Mutual was carrying Notre Dame football on Saturdays. Really messed with those stations not carrying the game because the sports pre-empted their twice hourly newscasts. Made some weekend guys work a little bit preparing (probably just "ripping and reading") the wire service summaries.

And of the two, my preference was UPI's Radio wire over AP. But there was a joke in those days; when UPI went on a regional split, the stories were all slugged "AJR" which we said stood for "Atlanta Journal Re-write."

 

[TheBigA]

As late as 1967 (I thiink) Mutual was carrying Notre Dame football on Saturdays.

Mutual actually had the radio rights for Notre Dame football until the Mutual name was retired in 1999.