WABC radio fired DJ Alan Freed on November 21, 1959 after
he refused to sign a FCC statement denying that he had
accepted money for promoting records, a practice known
as "payola."
While WABC cited its "contractual right to terminate," the
dismissal happened amid a larger payola scandal that
ultimately ruined his career.
Albert James "Alan" Freed
(December 15, 1921 – January 20, 1965)
Beginning as a radio show in the early 1950s, Mr. Moon
became one of the most popular kid shows in Portland,
Oregon.
Mr. Moon debuted on November 16, 1953 one month
after KOIN TV went on the air, and just over a year
after television came to Portland. The show aired
until 1958.
Wearing the Mr. Moon mask was radio disc
jockey Ed Leahy (1924 – 1989).
Mr. Moon with his puppet cast including Mrs. Cow, Kitty,
Sam and Harry the Heron.
ED DANAHUE
1955
Orvon Grover "Gene" Autry (September 29, 1907 – October
2, 1998)
Gene Autry, perhaps the greatest singing cowboy of all time,
was born on September 29, 1907, in Tioga, Texas.
While still a boy, Autry moved with his family to a ranch in
Oklahoma where he learned to play the guitar and sing.
The young Autry was quickly attracted to a new style of music
that was becoming popular at the time, which combined the
traditional cowboy music popular in Texas and Oklahoma and
the folk songs, ballads, and hymns of southern-style country
music.
Known as country-western, the new sound was popularized by musicians from the East Coast and the South who had never
been near a horse and couldn’t tell a stirrup from a lariat.
Donning cowboy hats and boots and affecting what they thought
were western drawls, hundreds of these newly minted “cowboys”
were soon crooning popular western ballads like “Tumbling
Tumble Weeds” all around the nation.
Joe Gearing at radio station WLEU.
In 1955, Joe was Erie’s only all night dj. There was a Sunday
feature article on him in the Erie Times on Sunday May, 29,
1955. Joe worked at WLEU, which later became WWGO and
others, from October 1954 to July 1958. By the end of the 60’s,
Joe shifted his attention to becoming a talk show host, working
at many southwestern PA radio stations, including KDKA and
WJAS in Pittsburgh.
Joe Gearing (1934 – 2015) Photo taken in 2006.
In addition to his radio career, Gearing once served as a magistrate.
