OLD ALL NIGHT RADIO SHOWS

So let's go back to those gentler, more refined days of all night radio. I become acquainted with all night radio shows when I was a student at the University of South Dakota. I wasn't aware that stations even stayed on all night, until I had to study a whole term's worth of knowledge a week before final exams! From then on, I became an overnight listener.

Chicago had the American Airlines Music Till Dawn. Can't recall the call letters of the station nor the host. But I became very familiar with the "evergreen classics" through them. I DO recall the theme song,"That's All," which I think was played by Acquaviva's orchestra. But I may be wrong. It may very well have been Otto Cesana's orchestra. That gentleman was responsible for the song Devotion and Extasy, which was on a 10-inch MGM LP back in those days. Dang, I would pay well to get a copy or a dub of that record! Let me digress here because it is a related topic The song Devotion by Cesana had lyrics and became a pop song in the 40s. The instrumental was often a theme for what is now a completely dead format of stations -- the "dinner hour" music or what was termed "light" or "semi- classical" music. As was Extasy. Extasy now has the connotion of an illegal drug! How times have changed. And remember when gay meant happy. Sheesh!

We now return to the program already in progress. There was an all-night classics, light music, and light jazz show out of WJR, Detroit. The very last reference I heard to the gentleman that had the show was in the movie, The Rosary Murders, where a priest had been up all night keeping company with some gal. This takes place in Detroit, of course. And then they go to a diner for some breakfast. There on the radio was the guy who did the all night show on WJR. Was he "JR on WJR?" Someone verify his name.

That show was a perfect blend of classics, light music, and jazz. You would never think those diverse genres would be on the same program. But they did. And it worked.

Then later on, there was the Meisterbrau (beer) showcase on WGN with Franklin McCormick, whose Virginia accent and deep voice, held forth into the early morning.

WLW, Cincinnati, which called itself "The Nation's Highest Fidelity Radio Station" about 1958, also had an all night classical music show. These stations came in quite clear in Vermillion, South Dakota!

Jim

The shows I remember are local for Washington, DC suchas WMAL Overnight with music, news, contests and endless commercials for Eddie Leonard's Sandwich Shoppe. I remember on a Sunday night listening to the Salvation Army's "Heartbeat Theatre" and then stay up for "The Local Sidelines on Sports" and then Felix Grant's "The Album Sound" and, during the night I would hear little portions of WMAL Overnight.

Today, my all night "ear feast" is filled with the wonderful BBC Worldservice. News, commentaries, dramas and game shows... Oh, when will American radio do what the BBC Worldservice has done for over 75 years?

(But it won't make money... PEOPLE WILL PAY FOR IT! JUST LIKE CABLE... KEEP FAITH SATELLITE RADIO IS COMING!)

The Chicago edition of "Music 'Til Dawn" (there were others in several other large cities, all sponsored by American Airlines) was broadcast on WBBM, the old Chicago CBS affiliate. It was, I think, at that time still in the Wrigley Bldg., but later moved to cavernous studios on McClurg Court, near the Gold Coast, the better to provide for TV production requirements. The host was Jay Endres (pronounced AHN-drays). He was one of the great voices of Chicago radio still heard at that time (others were WGN's Carl Grayson and Franklyn MacCormack and free-lancers John Doremus and Ken Nordine)

I, too, spent many a sleepless night poring over the books while listening to Jay Roberts' "Night Flight" on WJR, Detroit. I was a law student at Ann Arbor at that time (late 50's), and it, of course, came in like gang busters, being only 40 miles away in "the Golden Tower of the Fisher Building." A gimmick of the show was, at the end, about 5 AM, there would be a simulated cabin attendant's announcement that "we are arriving at Sioux Falls, S.D., our destination for tonight's flight. The captain asks that you please fasten your seat belts for landing." Then would come the sounds of a plane landing, including the squeal of the tires on the runway at touchdown. Corny, but effective. After the news and weather, J.P. McCarthy would come along with his morning drive-time potpourri. By that time, I was ready for coffee and a shower and shave

MacCormack's "All Night Show" (simply and straightforwardly named) was on WGN, which, by that time, had transferred its studios from the Tribune Tower/Michigan Avenue locale to the TV studios complex on Bradley Place, just off Irving Park Road. Even though it was rife with schmaltz, I loved to listen. A recurring feature was FMcC's reading of "A Vagabond's House" by Don Blanding. You could tell MacCormack loved to do it, and I often thought it may have had some particular significance to him, for whatever reason. Of course, my earliest recollection of Franklyn MacCormack was in the late 30's, when he cautioned me (and my buddies), in behalf of Jack Armstrong, to use plenty of soap and water on our hands, as "dirt breeds germs."

If you hung out on the Chicago stations, as I did, you may recall "The Chez Show" on WMAQ, which was a remote from the Chez Paree nightclub on Fairbanks Court (not far from McClurg). It featured, as host and hostess, a much younger Mike (aka Myron) Wallace and his then-wife, southern belle Buff Cobb, daughter of the famous Irvin S. Cobb. They interviewed celebrities who were having a night on the town (I recall especially an embarrassed Paul Hornung, who had just won the Heisman Trophy at Notre Dame, and IT WAS A SCHOOL NIGHT). When their show folded, after Mike went to NY, it was replaced by a like model emceed by Jack Eigan, who had COME from NY - - a nice switch-off.

Of more recent vintage was a show on WGN I always enjoyed, but it was only broadcast on Saturday and Sunday nights - - it was a retrospective of the big band swing era, hosted by Mike Rapchak (sp?) He used to sign off each show by saying good night to his wife, "Texas", whom he had met while in the service in WWII. She had passed away during the early run of the show.

Some other great late-night (though not necessarily ALL-night shows) were the ll60 Club of Dave Garroway (on WMAQ) and the first Jean Shepherd show on WLW, Cincinnati. Garroway's show was on during the immediate post-war years, and was a survey of jazz recordings, plus Dave's musings. Hugh Downs was a staff announcer who often dropped in to chat. Shepherd's show was a precursor of his later iconoclastic ramblings (philosophical and otherwise) and reminiscences).

Ah,well, those days are gone forever, as you lament - - but we were lucky to have been around then; my kids and grandkids are clueless.

Bob, awesome post. Yes, I do recall The Chez Show. And thanks for the info on WJR. I loved that airplane takeoff motif. Somehow back on those days it really wasn't corny at all. Just a cute idea.

And Dave Garroway and Jean Shepard before they hit the big time, eh?

Oh and I forgot Moonglow With Martin on WWL, New Orleans (said as, "AW-luhns), Loyola University of the South with studios in the (name) Hotel." He had a jazz show in the 50's.

In his great book about his career in radio, Rick Sklar mentions Stay Up Stan, the all night DJ on WINS, New York City, waay back. Later on I found out that a famous band at the time recorded his theme song. Alluded to Stay Up Stan, the all-night record man. And encoraged people seated in an all night diner (THAT is a rarity today) to place a request to him on the pay phone in the cafe (another rarity today).

Jim Stokes

Prior to Moonglow ... I listened to the R & B music (that created a lot of Rock 'n Roll artists and songs later) ... on WLAC in Nashville ... Gene Nobles, Herman Grizzard, and BIG HOSS ALLEN!

I also was a Progresive Jazz fan ... mostly Stan Kenton!

I would deeply appreciate any information that's available about Dick Martin and the Moonglow show. Thanks ... in advance. Mike

I've heard there were entertainnig shows on the west coast on the '50s such as Ben Hunter's Nite Owls on KFI Los Angeles, a fore-runner of Herb Jepko's Nitecap Show on 50,000 watt KSL in Sal Lake City that started in 1964 and lasted into the late-1970s on several stations and on Mutual for a while, before Larry King went national on Mutual in the 1980s...

I have found a fun show late at night recently on 50,000 watt KFMB-760 AM in San Diego, a radio trivia quiz show where listeners call in and compete against one another...Good host, and he keeps it fast paced and entertaining....Called "Hooked on Trivia"...West coast people should try this show.

Remember Holiday Inn's Dolly Holliday and her all night music show? It was great.

Bob