November the 5th, 2014
This Sunday night (11/5), one of the pioneers of Talk radio, Barry Farber, will be honored with induction into the National Radio Hall of Fame.
In a 2010 interview with NTS MediaOnline Today, Farber — now well into his fifth decade on the radio — said the invention of Talk radio as we know it today was actually an accident. “In the mid-1950s no one on the air ever analyzed, criticized or challenged. The toughest question you heard was, ‘Tell me about your next movie, baby!’” he said.
“The two people who turned Talk radio away from that model were Barry Gray on WMCA in New York and my boss Tex McCrary, who did a show with his wife Jinz Falkenburg.” Oh, and it all had to do with Josephine Baker, the famous NYC Stork Club and the powerful newspaper gossip columnist Walter Winchell. Find out the story behind the ‘accident’ that created modern Talk radio HERE.
(The National Radio Hall of Fame induction ceremony will take place this weekend (11/9) at L.A.’s historic Cicada club. Along with Farber, NTS MediaOnline Todaysalutes the rest of the Class of 2014 that includes San Diego radio legends and nationally syndicated morning team ‘Charlie & Harrigan’ (Jack Woods and Paul Menard), ‘This American Life’ host Ira Glass, the ‘Voice of the San Francisco Giants’ Jon Miller, broadcast industry pioneer Stanley E. Hubbard and legendary actress Agnes Moorehead).
