Re: more about airborne radio traffic reports?

[mwaters@mail.wesleyan.edu (Martin J. Waters)]

>Donna Halper wrote:
>BUT--- I just found a news clipping that was quite interesting to me.  From
>Variety, 25 June 1958 (!)  It says, "John Burns of WEZE now doing airborne
>traffic reports from a plane."  Does this ring any bells with anyone?  It
>certainly places airborne traffic reporting before Bruce Talford did it in
>1961-- in every article I had read till I found the Variety clipping, Bruce
>was usually the person credited with being the first to do traffic from the
>sky... I had no idea WEZE was doing anything like that in 1958...

        I have no clue about WEZE in 1958 (not too often anymore I get to
say, 'Sorry, too young' <g>). But, as I said awhile back, I believe the
first-in-the-nation claim for WOR that has been made on AIRWAVES is based
on a start date of 1958 or even '59. And someone in LA is supposed to have
started right around there, too. So this is very interesting--WEZE was a
second-tier station, not one of the big four, as it were. And yet they were
first, it looks like, not just in their market but almost nationally. Also,
I know WOR has a station history now on its website. I just haven't looked
at it to see what it has to say about this. My friend Mike Collins wrote
it, so whatever it says I'm sure it's correct.

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