Images
of America
New
Orleans Radio
From humble beginnings in a physics lab on the campus of Loyola University came the sounds of the first radio station in the lower Mississippi River Valley, when WWL Radio signed on in 1922. That little station would grow into a national powerhouse, with its morning Dawnbusters show and nightly broadcasts from the Blue Room of the Roosevelt Hotel. The city’s second oldest station, WSMB, with studios in the Maison Blanche Building, developed its own cast of favorites including Nut and Jeff. Later, in the city known as the birthplace of jazz, radio played a key role in popularizing early rock and roll. Disc jockeys at leading stations WTIX and WNOE helped develop the Crescent City sound, along with local personalities with colorful names like Poppa Stoppa, Jack the Cat and Dr. Daddy-O..
Author Dominic Massa is a native of the New Orleans area who works as the executive producer and special projects director at WWL-TV. A past president of the Press Club of New Orleans, he has written and produced numerous programs and features on broadcasting history, including two programs for the city’s PBS affiliate, WYES-TV: New Orleans TV: The Golden Age and Stay Tuned: New Orleans’ Classic TV Commercials. He is also the author of Images of America: New Orleans Television, also by Arcadia Publishing.
Paperback:
128 pages
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing (October 20, 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1467112429
ISBN-13: 978-1467112420
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 Bob and Jan Carr are best known for their long career together on air at WDSU-TV, but the couple’s New Orleans broadcasting career actually began at WWL Radio in 1960, where they hosted a morning show from the Roosevelt Hotel. Bob was also paired with broadcaster Sid Noel for a brief period in 1960, co-hosting a WWL morning show which replaced The Dawnbusters. (Bob and Jan Carr collection.) |
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| Images
of America
New Orleans Radio Cover |
Jill Jackson appeared on the cover of the October 1947 issue of South, which mentioned Jackson’s success as WWL’s female sports announcer and a talented athlete in her own right. Jackson’s broadcasting career actually began in 1942 at WSMB, where she hosted a daily sports show and was billed as “America’s only feminine sportscaster.” She also later hosted celebrity interview shows, under the title “Jill Jackson’s Hollywood” and later wrote a syndicated Hollywood column. (Courtesy of the Vorhoff Library and Newcomb Archives, Newcomb College, Tulane University.) |
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| New Orleans Radio uses close to 200 archival photographs to trace the history of local radio from its earliest days in 1922, with memories of popular programs and personalities over the past 90 years. |
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