This whole Imus/Shock Radio thing.

[Dan Strassberg]

I don't know the dates for the beginning and end of Coughlin's program,
which I understand was broadcast nationally on CBS. It may well have
continued into the early 40s, but I think it would be more correct to
call its era the 30s. Interestingly, from what I've picked up on the Web,
the program originated in Detroit on a small local station, WEXL Royal Oak,
and not at the big CBS Detroit affiliate of the day, WJR (currently owned by
ABC but about to be sold--along with most of ABC's O&O stations--to, IIRC,
Cumulus). Anyhow, I find it interesting and curious that WJR was owned by
the notorious racist George Richards, who, in the '50s, lost the licenses
for WJR (to which he had cynically applied the moniker "the Goodwill
station"), WGAR Cleveland, and KMPC Los Angeles over some transgression of
the FCC rules related to his racism, but Wm Paley, the president of CBS, the
network that carried Coughlin's rabidly antisemitic diatribes, was, himself,
Jewish.

If I've perpetuated any falsehoods in this posting, please correct me.

--
Dan Strassberg, dan.strassberg@att.net
eFax 707-215-6367

----- Original Message -----
From: "A. Joseph Ross" <joe@attorneyross.com>
To: <SonnyDaye1@aol.com>; <boston-radio-interest@rolinin.BostonRadio.org>;
"Donna Halper" <dlh@donnahalper.com>
Sent: Sunday, April 15, 2007 4:13 PM
Subject: Re: This whole Imus/Shock Radio thing.


> On 15 Apr 2007 at 14:00, Donna Halper wrote:
>
> > On top 40 and popular radio, yes.  But I also mentioned in another
> > e-mail that this was being done in the 1950s (I've got it as early as
> > 1951) by conservative/right wing churches and groups like the John
> > Birch Society, which had syndicated shows (one critic called them
> > nothing more than "Hate Clubs of the Air").  These shock radio shows
> > were not on in a lot of markets and they weren't syndicated in all
> > cases, but they were every bit as outrageous and said some pretty
> > nasty things, all without any penalty.  They flew under the radar
> > screen of the FCC more often than not.
>
> I seem to remember something about a Father Coughlin on radio in the
> 1940s.
>
> --
> A. Joseph Ross, J.D.                           617.367.0468
>  15 Court Square, Suite 210                 Fax 617.742.7581
> Boston, MA 02108-2503                    http://www.attorneyross.com
>
>
>