Library of American Broadcasting

National Radio Day has been celebrated informally since the 1990s by radio fans and broadcasters. The date, August 20, is partly tied to the 1920 debut broadcast of Detroit's 8MK station (now WWJ), one of the country's oldest radio stations. National Public Radio helped drive mainstream public awareness of the unofficial holiday starting around 2011.

NATIONAL RADIO DAY On August 20, National Radio Day recognizes the great invention of the radio. Celebrate the news, information, music, and stories carried across the airwaves.

Library of American Broadcasting Foundation (LABF) board member Walter Podrazik is featured in "UIC Today" for his work curating exhibits at the Museum of Broadcast Communications in Chicago. (Link in comments.)

The Museum will receive LABF's Preservation Award at the Foundation's Giants of Broadcasting & Electronic Arts Luncheon on November 17th in New York City.

The Big Surprise was a television quiz show broadcast by NBC from 1955 to 1957. NBC hastily created it in response to the ratings success of CBS's The $64,000 Question, and the program quickly became a hit.

In February 1957, fading star Errol Flynn appeared as a guest and contestant, seen here being questioned by host and rising star Mike Wallace. In late 1959, The Big Surprise was one of the shows admitted to being controlled by its producers and staff, amid the 1950s quiz show scandals.

WJJD (now WYLL) first signed on October 13, 1924. The station was owned by the Loyal Order of Moose and was located in Mooseheart, Illinois. It was powered at 500 watts. By 1926, the station's power had been increased to 1,000 watts. Also in 1926, auxiliary studios were established in the Palmer House in Chicago. For most of its history, WJJD was a daytimer, required to sign off at sunset in Salt Lake City to protect the clear-channel station, KSL.

Pantomime Quiz (later titled Stump the Stars) was a game show that aired on television from 1947 to 1959. It was one of the few programs to air on all four networks at different times during the 1950s.

Pictured here are (top to bottom): Cliff Norton, Carol Burnett, Stubby Kaye, Dorothy Hart, Tom Poston, and Howard Morris. Host and producer Mike Stokey stands alongside.

Carol Burnett was featured in episodes on ABC from April 8, 1958, to September 2, 1958, shortly before her breakthrough on Broadway in Once Upon a Mattress and on television with The Garry Moore Show.

UPDATE: Rummaging through our photo files, I found this poorly done composite photo of four featured players on Stump the Stars: Frank Gorshin, Ruta Lee, Beverly Garland, and Jackie Coogan.

“At the conclusion of Hollywood Squares, for example, we are informed that ‘The areas of questions designed for the celebrities and possible bluff answers are discussed with some celebrities in advance. In the course of their briefing, actual questions and/or answers may be discerned by the celebrities.’

“Similar statements, more or less obscure, are tagged onto many of the celebrity game shows… These disclaimers came into being after the quiz show scandals of the ‘50s, when it was discovered that many big-money winners had been told the answers in advance and that their subsequent agonizing in the isolation booths was such acting as would put the soap operas to shame. The Federal Communications Act was promptly updated to provide a $10,000 fine, a year in jail, or both, for anyone influencing, prearranging, or predetermining the outcome of contests of knowledge, skill, or chance.” – TV Guide, July 10, 1976 (Illustration uncredited.)

We were talking about ...

Experimental broadcasts by Carl Graham Fisher, a Miami Beach developer, began in the spring of 1925. The station was licensed on January 9, 1926, and formally signed on the air on January 18, 1926. Fisher selected WIOD as the call sign, signifying the "Wonderful Isle of Dreams" to commemorate Collins Island, where studios and offices were located. WIOD is Florida's seventh-oldest continuously licensed broadcast radio station. (Wikipedia)

This QSL was sent to a DXer in New Zealand in 1930. (Also, check out the WIOD image in the comments.)

As we plan for the future, we want to hear directly from you! We’ve created a brief survey to gather your feedback on your experiences, interests, and ideas. Your insights will play a vital role in helping us grow, enhance our programs, and better serve our members, visitors, and supporters.

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KFAR’s Chief Engineer responded to a DX-er in Victoria, British Columbia on November 16, 1939:

“You might be interested in knowing that although KFAR is the farthest north broadcasting station in the world, it is also one of the most modern. RCA transmitting equipment has been installed throughout. The 1,000-watt transmitter and associated control equipment is located 5 ½ miles north of Fairbanks, just a short distance from the campus of the University of Alaska. The transmitter house shown in the accompanying photograph is of white concrete with completely furnished apartments for the XMTR engineers. Antenna is a 300’ vertical with some 11.4 miles of wire buried as a radial ground system.

"The telephone poles to the right and left of the building are part of two directive beam antennas for shortwave press reception on a dual-diversity Hallicrafters.”

Founded in 1939, KFAR is the oldest radio station in Fairbanks and one of the oldest in Alaska. Since adopting the news/talk format during the 1980s, KFAR has had a long-standing commitment to airing locally produced talk radio programming.

WGSV (1270 AM), a radio station licensed to serve Guntersville, Alabama, first began broadcasting on Sunday, April 16, 1950. Trent Moore, operator of WGSV, announced the winners of the contest he held to choose a slogan for the station.

As the slogan to use with station identification, first place went to “WGSV, Guntersville, Alabama, surrounded by the South's most beautiful lake.”

The station currently airs a news/talk format, and local programming includes a "Swap Shop" show called “Tell Me How.”