Recording in Broadcasting MOMSR

Walter Cronkite - Walter Leland Cronkite, Jr. (November 4, 1916 – July 17, 2009) was an American

broadcast journalist, best known as anchorman for the CBS Evening News for 19 years (1962–1981). During the heyday of CBS News in the 1960s and 1970s, he was often cited as "the most trusted man in America" after being so named in an opinion poll. He reported many events from 1937 to 1981, including bombings in World War II; the Nuremberg trials; combat in the Vietnam War;[8] Watergate; the Iran Hostage Crisis; and the murders of President John F. Kennedy, civil rights pioneer Martin Luther King, Jr., and Beatles musician John Lennon. He was also known for his extensive coverage of the U.S. space program, from Project Mercury to the Moon landings to the Space Shuttle. He was the only non-NASA recipient of a Moon-rock award. Cronkite is well known for his departing catchphrase "And that's the way it is," followed by the date on which the appearance aired.

Dan Rather - Daniel Irvin "Dan" Rather, Jr. (born October 31, 1931) is an American journalist and the former news anchor for the CBS Evening News. He is now managing editor and anchor of the television news magazine Dan Rather Reports on the cable channel AXS TV. Rather was anchor of the CBS Evening News for 24 years, from March 9, 1981, to March 9, 2005. He also contributed to CBS's 60 Minutes. Rather became embroiled in controversy about a disputed news report involving President George W. Bush's Vietnam-era service in the National Guard and subsequently left CBS Evening News in 2005, and he left the network altogether after 43 years in 2006.

Peter Jennings - Peter Charles Archibald Ewart Jennings, CM (July 29, 1938 – August 7, 2005) was a Canadian American journalist and news anchor. He was the sole anchor of ABC's World News Tonight from 1983 until his death in 2005 of complications from lung cancer. A high-school dropout, he transformed himself into one of American television's most prominent journalists.

Jennings started his career early, hosting a Canadian radio show at the age of nine. He began his professional career with CJOH-TV in Ottawa during its early years, anchoring the local newscasts and hosting a teen dance show, Saturday Date, on Saturdays.

In 1965, ABC News tapped him to anchor its flagship evening news program. His inexperience was attacked by critics and others in television news, making for a difficult first stint in the anchor chair. Jennings became a foreign correspondent in 1968, reporting from the Middle East.

He returned as one of World News Tonight's three anchors in 1978, and was promoted to the role of sole anchor in 1983. Jennings was also known for his marathon coverage of breaking news stories, staying on the air for 15 or more hours straight to anchor the live broadcast of events such as the outbreak of the Gulf War in 1991, the Millennium celebrations in 2000, and the September 11 attacks in 2001. In addition to anchoring, he was the host of many ABC News special reports and moderated several American presidential debates. Having always been fascinated with the United States, Jennings became a naturalized United States citizen in 2003.

Along with Tom Brokaw at NBC and Dan Rather at CBS, Jennings formed part of the "Big Three" news anchors who dominated American evening network news from the early 1980s until his death in 2005, which closely followed the retirements of Brokaw and Rather.

Tom Brokaw - Thomas John "Tom" Brokaw (born February 6, 1940) is an American television journalist and author best known as the anchor and managing editor of NBC Nightly News from 1982 to 2004. He is the author of The Greatest Generation (1998) and other books and the recipient of numerous awards and honors. He is the only person to host all three major NBC News programs: The Today Show, NBC Nightly News, and, briefly, Meet the Press. He now serves as a Special Correspondent for NBC News and works on documentaries for other outlets.

Paul Harvey - (September 4, 1918 – February 28, 2009), better known as Paul Harvey, was an American radio broadcaster for the ABC Radio Networks. He broadcasted News and Comment on weekday mornings and mid-days, and at noon on Saturdays, as well as his famous The Rest of the Story segments. From the 1950s through the 1990s, Harvey's programs reached as many as 24 million people a week. Paul Harvey News was carried on 1,200 radio stations, 400 Armed Forces Network stations and 300 newspapers. His success with sponsors stemmed from the seamlessness with which he segued from his monologue into reading commercial messages. He explained his relationship with them, saying "I am fiercely loyal to those willing to put their money where my mouth is."

Richard "Cactus" Pryor - (January 7, 1923 - August 30, 2011) He received his nickname after the old Cactus Theater on Congress Avenue in Austin, Texas, which was run by his father, "Skinny" Pryor .Pryor was first heard on Lady Bird Johnson's radio station 590 KLBJ, though his face became as well known as his voice once he moved to television broadcasting on Austin television station KTBC.

In addition to his work in radio and television, Pryor also appeared in two movies, Hellfighters and The Green Berets with John Wayne. He is the author of a 1995 collection of some 40 essays entitled Playback. At KTBC, Pryor served as programming manager and hosted a variety of shows. He conducted interviews with celebrities such as Arthur Godfrey and Dan Blocker and narrated behind-the-scenes programs about KTBC.

As part of his involvement with the Headliners Club of Austin journalists, Pryor starred in satires of television news. He provided the voiceover for the 1960 KTBC film “Target Austin” which presents the scenario of a nuclear missile strike on Austin.

In 1950, Pryor had a novelty hit on the country music charts with the number 7 "Cry of the Dying Duck in a Thunder-Storm", a parody of Tennessee Ernie Ford's "The Cry of the Wild Goose".

He regaled audiences on Austin radio with a daily 2-minute trip down memory lane, reminiscing about places and people from his past well into the 2000s. He was a self-described liberal, but acknowledged that his children do not share his beliefs. He claimed to have been one of the first people to have heard of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, having been at the ranch of then-vice president Lyndon Baines Johnson at the time

Univision, previously known as Hispanic Broadcasting Corp. (between 2000 and September 22, 2003) and Heftel Broadcasting Corp, was the result of a February 14, 1997 merger of Tichenor Media System, Inc. a private companybased in Dallas, Texas and Heftel Broadcasting, a public company based in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Tichenor had been in broadcasting since the 1940s. McHenry Tichenor operated a station (KGBS on 1240, later KGBT on 1530) in Harlingen, Texas. In 1950 they added KUNO Corpus Christi, Texas. Later station purchases were KIFN in Phoenix, Arizona; WGMA in Hollywood, Florida; & WACO-AM-FM and TV (construction permit) in Waco, Texas. In 1975 the company (then known as Harbenito radio) added KCOR (AM) and KQXT (FM) in San Antonio.

In 1981 the grandson of the founder, McHenry T. Tichenor, Jr., was named president of the company. He began focusing on its Spanish Language stations; Waco, Hollywood, and Phoenix were sold to their local managers. In 1986 Tichenor bought WOJO, a Spanish-language FM station serving Chicago. In 1984 the company sold KQXT in San Antonio to Westinghouse's Group W Broadcasting and purchased KLAT (AM) in Houston, Texas from Marcos Rodriguez, Sr. and Marcos A. Rodriguez. The KLAT purchase gave Tichenor access to top Spanish Radio talents Chuck Brooks, Ricardo del Castillo (who later became COO, retired and has since passed) and Gary Stone (former President of Univision Radio-retired). In 1985, WIND, Chicago and KYSR AM-FM El Paso were purchased. More stations were purchased in the following years, and the home office moved from

Harlingen to Dallas, Texas. Mac Tichenor, Jr.'s brother, Warren, (now Ambassador for the US to the United Nations) became general manager of the San Antonio stations in 1991.

Heftel Broadcasting was founded by Cecil Heftel, whose family and in-laws all had been in the broadcasting business. His Heftel Broadcasting in the 1950s and early 1960s was anchored by KIMN in Denver and KGMB AM and KGMB-TV in Honolulu. He added numerous large AM radio stations(KTNQ) and some promising FM stations (KLVE) before selling them in the seventies and eighties. Cecil Heftel was elected as a congressman representing Hawaii's first district in 1976; he would hold that office nine years before resigning in 1986. During this time, his company was active, buying and selling stations in places like Indianapolis and Chicago. For about a year, Heftel and Scott Ginsburg (Statewide Communications merged their holdings into H & G Communications.

In the early 90s Heftel began to expand into more Spanish stations, and took steps to go public (new executive Carl Parmer). Heftel had a knack for making coalitions work, at least for a time, as in the H & G attempt. Heftel set up shop in Miami with local stations WAQI and WRTO, taking a minority interest. Heftel set up Rodriguez-Heftel Texas broadcasting along with Marcos A. Rodriguez (owner of KESS and other Dallas area stations and son of Marcos Rodriguez, Sr.). Stations were purchased outright in Chicago, Las Vegas, and New York.

When HBC went public, Clear Channel Communications invested, taking in several steps up to a 20% interest. In 1996 Clear Channel tendered the shares owned by Heftel management. This got them about 62% of the company. They struck a deal to merge the new company with Tichenor Media, to be run by the Tichenor management. The deal closed in early 1997, and made for the first national Spanish Language broadcasting company.

The new company was worth 1 billion dollars at closing and owned 38 stations. Holding were expanded for the next several years. San Francisco was added in 1996. Phoenix was added in 1999. Fresno in 2000.

Besides buying stations, the company has developed a capacity for improving and expanding stations to enhance coverage. VP of Engineering Mark Stennett oversees this effort (begun under previous VP David Stewart now with Moving Target Consulting Works) along with Charles Staples of Staples Technical Services, Dallas, Texas. For example, 104.9 KAMA-FM (was KPTY) in the Houston, Texas area moved from a smaller class A at Rosenberg, Texas to a larger class C3 licensed to Missouri City, Texas. Coverage went from a few hundred thousand to millions. Rating and value increased proportionally. (Note a construction permit for increase to class C2 was granted (BPH-20070914ACP) June 25, 2008. This will allow an increase from 2,700 watts to 8,700 watts. The station will also move from a downtown building roof to the company owned KLTN tower.

May 2013: KAMA-FM has increased power to 10.5 kW. Other expanded and relocated stations include KFLC, KESS-FM and KDXX (FM) in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area, KBBT and KGSX in the San Antonio area, KLQV San Diego, and WADO (AM) New York. KKMR in the Phoenix, Az. area was recently granted a CP to change from class A to class C3, at a new site that will allow a 10 fold increase in its population covered. This app was started nearly a decade ago and was granted based on tweaks in the application done in 2006. Former CFO Jeff Hinson observed once that the station upgrade activity had increased the company's enterprise value by "almost one billion dollars" (at a point when the company was selling to UVN for 3.5B).

In 1999, the company created a new entity, HBCI, Inc which was its interactive online presence. HBCi created a network of bilingual radio station web sites and a network of bilingual local city guide sites focused on the local Hispanic consumer in each of the markets the radio stations operated. HBCI achieved the rare milestone of reaching profitability in the dotcom industry just prior to the merger with Univision.

The company traded on the NASDAQ exchange under the symbol HBCCA. It moved to the New York Stock Exchange in May 2000. Stock traded as HSP.

In mid-2002 Univision and HBC voted to merge. The approval process was long and controversial. The deal was approved and closed on September 22, 2003.

After the merger of HBC and Univision, the division was renamed Univision Radio.

In June 2006, a deal to sell the company to a consortium of private equity firms was announced.

On March 27, 2007 federal regulators approved the sale of Univision to Broadcasting Media Partners, a private consortium led by billionaire Haim Saban.

Some of the syndicated shows in the Univision Radio network include: “El Bueno, La Mala y El Feo” (“The Good, The Bad and The Ugly”), “The Enrique Santos Morning Show”, “Doctora Isabel”, “El Show de Raúl Brindis”, "El Show de Omar y Argelia”, “El Hit Parade de América con Javier Romero”, and “Intimo con Alberto Sardiñas”. Wikipedia®

Martin Block (Dad of Austin's Joel and Michael Block)

In 1935, while listeners to New York’s 1130 WNEW in New York were awaiting developments in the Lindbergh kidnapping, Martin Block built an audience by playing records between the Lindbergh news bulletins. This led to Block’s show, Make Believe Ballroom, which began February 3, 1935. Block borrowed the concept and the title from West Coast based disc jockey Al Jarvis. The idea was to create the illusion that the broadcast was from a ballroom with the nation’s top dance bands performing live. Block bought records from a local music shop since WNEW did not have a record library. Block purchased five Clyde McCoy records, selecting his “Sugar Blues” for the radio show’s initial theme song. In doing so, Block became the first “Disk Jockey” in the city of New York!

Block was told by the station’s sales staff that nobody would sponsor a radio show playing music, so he had to find a sponsor on his own. Block, a trained salesman, found “Retardo”, a diet pill manufacturer. Within a week, the sponsor had over 3,000 responses to the ads on Block’s radio show.

Martin Block’s style of announcing was considerably different than the usual manner of delivery at the time. Instead of speaking in a voice loud enough to be heard in a theater, Block spoke in a normal voice, as if he was having a one-on-one conversation with his listeners. Block’s personal style was a big seller of products. One of Block’s sponsors offered a sale on refrigerators during a New York snowstorm; 109 people braved the elements for the bargain refrigerators Block advertised on air. Blocks success did not go unnoticed. By 1941, potential sponsors for his show had to be put on a waiting list for availabilities. Block was famous for throwing away the sponsor’s advertising copy and then developing his own text free style.

Make Believe Ballroom was nationally syndicated in 1940. Block and Make Believe Ballroom made the cover of Billboard magazine in April, 1942. By 1947, there were two daily editions of the Make Believe Ballroom: one in the late morning and another around dinner time. In 1950, he celebrated his 15th anniversary on the air. Variety devoted an entire section to Block and his career.

Block co-wrote the Glenn Miller hit, “I Guess I’ll Have to Dream the Rest”. Miller also recorded a version of the Make Believe Ballroom theme, titled “It’s Make Believe Ballroom Time” which Block was credited with the lyrics. The theme was used for the show up until the end of terrestrial WNEW-AM in 1992.

Fannie Rose Shore auditioned for the Block’s radio show singing “Dinah”. Block declared that “Dinah Shore” had won the spot on his radio show. Block’s memory lapse mistakenly gave a very young Fannie Shore the name Dinah Shore; this name would stick with her throughout her infamous career.

Block left Make Believe Ballroom in 1954 to host The Martin Block Show for ABC Radio originating from the network’s New York flagship WABC. Martin officially retired from ABC and radio in 1960, stating his retirement merely meant not working in the medium on a regular basis. In the latter part of his career, Martin Block was heard on WOR in New York from 1962 until his death. Additionally, Block hosted a public affairs show, Guard Session, for the U. S. National Guard.

Blocks catch phrase: “For you and you and especially you.” metromediaradio.net

Segarini: Theatre of the Mindless bobsegarini

Radio historian Rick Busciglio explains how the Lindburgh baby trial led to a template for what was to come: “Martin Block was one of the key reasons that I followed a career in broadcasting. He was the most popular DJ, on the most popular non-network radio station in the New York metro area, WNEW. In the mid-1930s, moved to New York from California, bringing with him a new idea conceived by Al Jarvis, at KFWB in Los Angeles (where Block had been a junior assistant). Jarvis’ revolutionary concept – playing records on the radio.

From the early thirties, Jarvis’ “The World’s Largest Make Believe Ballroom” was on six hours a day and became a local success. But in 1932 Los Angeles, which is now the nation’s second largest market was not considered a major market. Jarvis’ program thus received very little attention outside the Los Angeles area, and enjoyed nowhere near the success of Block, who would become the nation’s number one radio personality for nearly a quarter of a century using a virtually identical format.

The program’s concept: Block pretended that the artists were performing live in the studio “ballroom” with him, as he spun their records. The beginnings of Block’s “Ballroom” show can be traced to February 3, 1935, when, on WNEW, he was broadcasting the trial of Richard Bruno Hauptmann who was ultimately convicted of kidnapping and killing the infant son of aviator Charles A. Lindbergh. During a long break in proceedings, Block decided to play some records, but the station didn’t own any, so he was forced to buy his own. Legend has it that he rushed around the corner to the Liberty Music Shop, returned with five Clyde McCoy records, and played them back to back to make it sound like a live broadcast from a dance hall. Block ad-libbed introductions that made it seem like he was actually chatting with McCoy, a Louisiana band leader. It is likely that among these records was what would become McCoy’s theme song, “Sugar Blues,” which had just been released a few days earlier.

As the trial wore on, Block continued spinning records in his “Ballroom” style to fill in the periods between broadcasts direct from the courtroom. Within a few months, this evolved into the “Ballroom” show playing name bands for 15 minutes at a stretch.

After the trial ended, the makeshift show was retained due to requests from thousands of listeners.

In just four months his unscripted, easygoing style, combined with music solely from records, drew an audience of four million listeners, and the show was extended to two and a half hours. Advertisers lined up to sponsor the program: one department store reported that Block’s ad-libbed commercials sold 300 refrigerators during a blizzard, and when he made a wartime appeal for pianos to entertain the troops, the USO was offered 1,500 of them.

In 1940 the Federal Communications Commission relaxed its rules about identifying pre-recorded materials, requiring that they be identified only twice every hour. In that same year the courts ruled that the warning on record labels prohibiting broadcast use had no legal significance. From then on radio shows featuring recorded music became increasingly popular.

“It was Block, according to the author of a book commemorating WNEW’s fiftieth anniversary, who inspired Walter Winchell to coin the term “disk jockey.” Yet Bill Randle, one of the deans of the profession, has traced the term to the late Jack Kapp, a record executive who called DJs “record jockeys” in 1940 — possibly because their job often included controlling the sound volume, or “riding the gain,” on their records. However they got their tag, the radio field was soon filled with disk jockeys.” – Ben Fong-Torres in his book The Hits Just Keep On Coming, Miller Freeman Books, San Francisco, CA, 1998
If big band music was jazz, then Al Jarvis and Martin Block were the first jazz disc jockeys.

On October 11 1940, Glenn Miller recorded “Make Believe Ballroom Time” for RCA-Victor’s Bluebird subsidiary label at the Victor studios in New York City. It would become the theme song for Block’s “Make Believe Ballroom.” Miller had been so taken with the show’s concept that he actually paid for the “Make Believe Ballroom Time” recording session himself and hired the Modernaires to join in. By 1940, Martin Block could “make” or “break” records. If he played something, it was virtually guaranteed to become a hit; if he ignored it, it “died.” By the end of the war, the hit-making power of radio disc jockeys had earned them much greater respect in the music business, and Block was the undisputed “king” of the disc jockeys.

Block skillfully created the aura of doing a “live” radio program, complete with performers like Harry James or Nat King Cole (on records) “…from the Crystal Studios of WNEW.” At that time, the show’s famous crystal chandelier was as “make believe” as the “ballroom.” But the tremendous popularity of the show, heard twice daily, six days a week, led WNEW to construct a studio in ballroom form with a huge crystal chandelier and a red velvet chair for Block. His verbal imagery also included the “revolving stage” (actually his turntable) – upon which the artists performed:

“And now, Mr. Frank Sinatra ascends our revolving stage to sing ‘Nancy with the Laughing Face’.”

As a result of the work these radio pioneers; radio disc jockeying became a fully accepted profession and an integral part of the music industry in the fifties and the sixties. The disc jockey thus became a powerful hit maker whose patronage could an artist’s career overnight.

Shortly after the end of World War II, a group of young men pooled their resources to start a radio station in Austin, Texas. All of them were veterans of the conflict, hence K-VET AM-1300 signed on October 1, 1946. These men included future Texas Governor John Connally, and future United States Representative Jake Pickle.

As was common in the 1940s and 1950s, KVET offered "full service" radio, block programming of music, news, talk, cooking shows, even soap operas. As was not common, KVET also included programming for Austin's minority community. Spanish language news and music on "Noche De Fiesta"; music and news for the African-American community on "The Elmer Akins Gospel Train".

Lavada Durst was the first African-American disc jockey in Texas.

In the 1950s, even more diversity was added to the lineup when Lavada Durst (left) introduced Austin to R&B and "Jive Talk" on KVET's nighttime "Dr. Hepcat Show". Durst was the first African-American disc jockey in Texas.

Noche de Fiesta and Dr. Hepcat were phased out in the 1960s, but Gospel Train is on the air on KVET to this day.

During most of the 60's, KVET featured the popular music of the day, plus a strong emphasis on news and sports block programming. The music of Frank Sinatra, Perry Como and Dianah Shore...Paul Harvey commentary, the Joe Pyne show, and Houston Astros baseball were all part of the mix.

KVET switched formats on April 14, 1969 to country music, and the Country Giant was born. Popular celebrity DJ's including Arleigh Duff, Penny Reeves, Jerry Gee and Sammy Allred quickly took KVET to the top of the local ratings during the 70's.

Despite increased competition, KVET continued to prosper in the 1980s by featuring a traditional mix of country music, news and sports, including Houston Oilers and Dallas Cowboys football.

In 1990, KVET began to also broadcast on 98.1 FM. With the new signal came the creation of the Sammy Allred and Bob Cole Morning Call-In Show. The show was a consistent ratings winner until Allred was fired in October 2007 for using profanity on the air. Through the 90's, KVET has evolved to a sports and talk station, the flagship station of the Longhorn Radio Network.

In August 2008, KVET's evening show was modified into "The Roadhouse", a hybrid format consisting of Texas/Red Dirt, Classic Outlaw and Americana/Alt-Country, programmed and hosted by Chris Mosser. Wikipedia®

Martin Block (Dad of Austin's Joel and Michael Block)

Segarini: Theatre of the Mindless bobsegarini

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