In 1942, DJ Robert O. Smith was born in Grass Valley, California. He had a minor hit with "Walter Wart", named after his character voice sidekick on his morning show at KMBY Monterey. The song led to a job offer from KJR Seattle and other on-air work in Seattle, most notably KOL Afternoon Drive, until the early '80s when he was hired for Morning Drive at CFMI-FM Vancouver. He remained in Vancouver, later becoming a Canadian citizen, until he died of liver and pancreatic cancer on Sunday, May 30, 2010.
In 1979, Chuck Leonard did his last show on WABC.
In 1984, Cruisin' 58's Jack Carney died while taking a swimming lesson at a St. Louis YMCA. Born September 23, 1932, he was only 52. His funeral was carried live on 50,000 watt clear channel KMOX. He worked as a DJ and announcer at both WIL and KMOX in St. Louis, as well as WABC New York and KSFO San Francisco. But it was his 1958 work at WIL that was re-created on Ron Jacobs' Cruisin' series.
In 2002, local DX'ers were no doubt pleased when, on this day, the FCC sent a letter to the American Electric Power Company in Columbus, Ohio, demanding that the company fix faulty transformers that were generating RF interference. But it was ham radio operators who had escalated the issue to the FCC after the company ignored their attempts to go through the company's "usual complaint resolution process". My own DX experience with B.C. Hydro in the early 1970s was much more pleasant: they had a faulty transmitter replaced in about two and a half days. Admittedly, I had gone to the trouble of identifying exactly what transformer was involved. And phoning the Department of Transport, to complain. From a DX perspective, its interference blanketed New Westminster, and South and East Burnaby.
