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The Four Mutual All-Night Shows (Jepko, Nebel, Larry King, Bohannon)

G

Gregg.

I was reading the write-up for the Mutual Broadcasting System in Wikipedia. Before we had so many nationally syndicated talk shows, Mutual supplied an all-night program. It was an opportunity for stations that had its own shows most of the day but didn't want to spend money on overnight programming.

Mutual had been one of the big four national networks in the Golden Age of Radio, along with CBS, the NBC Red Network and the NBC Blue Network (which became ABC). Mutual had been started by four independent stations, WOR NYC, WGN Chicago, WLW Cincinnati and WXYZ Detroit. As the name implied, it was a cooperative between its member stations, with each contributing programs shared with the others. When network programming moved to TV, MBS became a supplier of newscasts and sports, along with an all-night talk show.

--Herb Jepko (Nov. 1975-May 1977) from KSL Salt Lake City.
--Long John Nebel and Candy Jones (May 1977-Dec. 1978) from WMCA New York.
--Larry King (Jan. 1979-Feb. 1993) originally from WIOD Miami. King moved to Washington DC to be at Mutual's HQ.
--Jim Bohannon (Feb. 1993-1995, when Mutual was acquired by Westwood One) Bohannon had been King's newscaster and fill-in during vacations and weekends.

Bohannon's show continued after Mutual was absorbed by Westwood One. He was syndicated by Westwood One until he retired in 2022 and was replaced by Rich Valdés, who continues to this day with "America at Night with Rich Valdés."
 
Herb Jepko’s Nitecap show had been around for over a decade on KSL before being distributed by Mutual. It even had its own network of sorts in the early 1970s, being picked up by KVOO and WHAS in addition to its SLC flagship.

Long John Nebel had been a late night staple in NYC for many years as well; wasn’t he a big deal on WOR in the 1960s?
 
Gregg. said:
When network programming moved to TV, MBS became a supplier of newscasts and sports, along with an all-night talk show.
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Keep in mind that radio network programming moved to TV in the 1950s. As you note, they didn't start doing overnight talk shows until the 70s. So there were 20 years of time when Mutual was trying to find its way. Some of that time was spent co-located with WOR.

Mutual did a number of things in addition to news & sports. The company got into long-form music syndication. They did a deal with Dick Clark to produce the National Music Survey. They also had a weekly country music show hosted by co-owned WHN NYC host Lee Arnold. They continued the tradition of radio drama with Zero Hour and Mutual Radio Theater. There were several more shows during this time.

The three other radio networks also branched into music syndication during this time. NBC and ABC added night-time talk. The intent was to keep these heritage networks alive and relevant at a time when local radio was changing.
Gregg. said:
Bohannon's show continued after Mutual was absorbed by Westwood One.
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Actually Larry King continued after Mutual was absorbed by Westwood One in 1985. Larry continued under the Mutual name, and had Mutual news at the top and bottom of the hour. Stations would sign up for Mutual affiliations, and Larry's show was part of it. Larry moved to afternoons for a few years in the 90s (because he was doing both CNN and Mutual at night). Jim added Larry's overnight show to his duties with America In The Morning. Mutual then ran a simulcast of Larry's CNN show for a few years.

Gregg. said:
Bohannon had been King's newscaster and fill-in during vacations and weekends.
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There were a number of people who did news during Larry's show over the years. I don't think Jim was one of them. Jim started America In The Morning in 1988, and anchored morning drive news for a while. But yes, Jim did a live Saturday night show and was his regular fill in. Sunday night was the Best of King, with highlights from the weeknight show.
 
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I don't remember hearing Nebel, but have briefly heard about him. The one time I heard more than a few minutes of Jepko was at a station I worked at that was a Mutual affiliate, and we were on all night for a snow storm. Old ladies calling and ads for "Nitecap Insurance" and other direct products.
Mutual had demographic networks like ABC, "Compreensive" at the top and bottom of the hour, "Progressive" at 55, presumably their version of ABC Contemporary. Mutual also offered the Mutual Black Network, unique at its time. MBS apparently started a Spanish network but couldn't get the accent and usage so most of the potential audience understood.

I remember Amway buying Mutual in the late 70s (you buy a spot, then sell spots to 6 of your closest friends...) in the late 70s, also buying WCFL and I believe WOR. They also almost lured Paul Harvey away from ABC (Amway was a long-time sponsor of his show.) How long did Amway have the network and what entity was the next owner?
 
Jepko was the darling of the Mormons, and that's OK. You could be absolutely positive as hokey as his program may have come across, there most certainly wasn't any of this stupid left vs. right divisive garbage you find today and which is part of what ruined radio. In Pittsburgh, for many years there was "Party Line" with Ed and Wendy King at night. They were two delightful people who did a program which also was a pleasure to listen to. Long John to me was hard to listen to knowing he was in his declining days. Larry King was an acknowledged jerk who enjoyed hanging up on senior citizens who didn't talk fast enough for him.
 
Talk radio in 1963. This was on the day of the JFK assassination, but just before that, WTIC, Hartford, TN's "Mikeline" show was talking about turkey preparations, how to top a tree and miscellaneous. That until the first JFK bulletins start coming in.
 
DOGDOG said:
Jepko was the darling of the Mormons, and that's OK. You could be absolutely positive as hokey as his program may have come across, there most certainly wasn't any of this stupid left vs. right divisive garbage you find today and which is part of what ruined radio.
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One-sided talk radio (in most markets) is a sewer, an absolute turn-off to many.
I went cold-turkey on talk radio years ago.
 


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