Ted Malone | |
---|---|
![]() Malone in 1947 | |
Born | Frank Alden Russell May 18, 1908 Colorado Springs, Colorado |
Died | October 20, 1989 81) | (aged
Nationality | American |
Alma mater | William Jewell College |
Occupation | Radio host |
Ted Malone (May 18, 1908 - October 20, 1989) [1] (born Frank Alden Russell, the son of a grocer), was an American radio broadcaster. [2]
Malone was born in Colorado Springs, Colorado, [1] the son of Frank Arthur Russell and Grace Aurora Gunter Russell. His father was a minister. [3] He became interested in oral performance when he attended high school in Missouri. He was also a debater in college, and graduated from William Jewell College in 1928. [4]
Malone had a career in radio as a storyteller and reader of poetry. Malone's broadcasting style was that of a friendly neighbor dropping by to chat. [5]
He was one of the few broadcast interpretationists recorded in the history of radio. Malone had a career in radio for more than forty years. [6]
Malone began work as an announcer & ukulele soloist at KMBC, Kansas City, Missouri, in 1929. [6] He acquired his pseudonym, Ted Malone, when asked to fill in for a program by reading poetry. Malone was asked to fill time by reading poetry when scheduled performers did not show up on time. Too embarrassed to use his own name, another announcer introduced him as Ted Malone. [2] [6] The positive audience response to his reading led to his radio program "Between the Bookends". [2] Because he felt that "poetry was sissy stuff," he agreed to do the poetry program only under a pseudonym. [7] [6] Malone once said of his approach to Between the Bookends: "I never prepare a program. I just get before a microphone and talk and talk and talk. What about? Oh, just small talk on anything that occurs to me." [8]
Malone's Between the Bookends program was broadcast on the CBS radio network beginning in 1935 and was presented two to five times a week for thirty years. [9] During its first year of broadcast, Newsweek reported that the program had received more fan mail than any other network sustaining program. [10] Malone actively sought poetry contributions from his listeners. [11] He published the works in a regular anthology, Ted Malone's Scrapbook. [11] Malone also published a regular "Between the Bookends" column in Radio Mirror, where readers were invited to submit their own poetry for cash prizes and had a similar arrangement with Good Housekeeping , where he was the poetry editor between 1940 and 1944. [11] [12] Malone was popular enough to be called "The Voice of Poetry" by the Library of Congress; when the "Between the Bookends" radio show was in danger of cancellation, the fans of the program were able to convince the network to keep the show on the air. [11]
His organist in the early days of that program was Hugh Studebaker. [13] Andy McKay, an associate of Ernie Kovacs said that the program inspired Kovacs to create his character, Percy Dovetonsils. [14] As his popularity increased, Malone began writing for other programs, and soon became production manager, production director, and program director at his radio station.
During World War II, Malone began to do other types of broadcasts, such as variety shows and quiz shows, and went overseas to broadcast as a war correspondent, providing human interest soldier stories for his listeners. [4] By 1957, Malone had established his own company, "Ted Malone Productions". The firm offered production and consultation for radio, television and the film industry. [15] Malone partially retired in the 1970s. [15]
Malone has a star at 1628 Vine Street in the Radio section of the Hollywood Walk of Fame. It was dedicated February 8, 1960. [16]
Malone died in 1989 spending more than 60 years in broadcasting and its development. [15]
The University of Missouri–Kansas City is home to the Ted Malone Collection, which includes more than 4,000 scripts from radio programs, more than 20,000 poems, more than 450 photographs and other items related to Malone's career. [15]
His works include:
Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues and consisting entirely or almost entirely of original spoken word content rather than outside music. They may feature monologues, dialogues between the hosts, interviews with guests, and/or listener participation which may be live conversations between the host and listeners who "call in" or via voice mail. Listener contributions are usually screened by a show's producers to maximize audience interest and, in the case of commercial talk radio, to attract advertisers.
Edward James "Ted" Hughes was an English poet, translator, and children's writer. Critics frequently rank him as one of the best poets of his generation and one of the twentieth century's greatest writers. He was appointed Poet Laureate in 1984 and held the office until his death. In 2008, The Times ranked Hughes fourth on its list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945".
Ernest Edward Kovacs was an American comedian, actor, and writer.
William James Collins is an American poet who served as the Poet Laureate of the United States from 2001 to 2003. He was a Distinguished Professor at Lehman College of the City University of New York, retiring in 2016. Collins was recognized as a Literary Lion of the New York Public Library (1992) and selected as the New York State Poet for 2004 through 2006. In 2016, Collins was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. As of 2020, he is a teacher in the MFA program at Stony Brook Southampton.
James Everett Bohannon was an American broadcaster who worked in television and radio and hosted the nationally syndicated late night radio talk show The Jim Bohannon Show originally broadcast on the Mutual Broadcasting System and later the Westwood One Network from 1985 to 2022. For 31 years, he also hosted America in The Morning, a nationally syndicated radio news show, stepping down in December 2015.
Percy Dovetonsils is a fictional character created and played by television comedian Ernie Kovacs. It is probably the best remembered of Kovacs' many TV incarnations.
Arthur Wells Gilmore, known as Art Gilmore was an American actor and announcer heard on radio and television programs, children's records, movies, trailers, radio commercials, and documentary films. He also appeared in several television series and a few feature films.
WABC is a commercial radio station licensed to New York City, carrying a conservative talk radio format known as "Talkradio 77". Owned by John Catsimatidis' Red Apple Media, the station's studios are located in Red Apple Media headquarters on Third Avenue in Midtown Manhattan and its transmitter is in Lodi, New Jersey. Its 50,000-watt non-directional clear channel signal can be heard at night throughout much of the Eastern United States and Eastern Canada. It is the primary entry point for the Emergency Alert System in the New York metropolitan area and New Jersey. WABC simulcasts on WLIR-FM in Hampton Bays, New York, on eastern Long Island.
The Savage Nation was an American conservative talk radio show hosted by Michael Savage. The program was heard by approximately 11 million listeners a week, which made it the 7th most listened to radio show in the country.
WHB is a commercial radio station in Kansas City, Missouri, United States. The station is owned by Union Broadcasting and it airs an all-sports radio format. For most of the 1950s through the 1970s, while it was broadcasting at 710 AM, WHB was one of the nation's most influential Top 40 outlets.
Franklyn MacCormack was an American radio personality in Chicago, Illinois, from the 1930s into the 1970s. After his death, Ward Quaal, the president of the last company for which MacCormack worked, described him as "a natural talent and one of the truly great performers of broadcasting's first 50 years."
New Letters, the name it has been published under since 1970, is one of the oldest literary magazines in the United States and continues to publish award-winning poems and fiction. The magazine is based in Kansas City, Missouri.
Nicholas Aloysius Kenny was a syndicated newspaper columnist, a song lyricist and a poet who wrote light verse in the Edgar Guest tradition.
KWMU is a non-commercial, listener-supported radio station in St. Louis, Missouri. It airs a public radio format of news, talk and information, as a member station of National Public Radio (NPR). KWMU is operated by St. Louis Public Radio, with its license held by the Curators of the University of Missouri System. The studios and offices are on Olive Street in Grand Center, near the campus of the University of Missouri-St. Louis.
Bob Hawk was an American radio quizmaster and comic whose early work in radio set the standard for the "man in the street” interviews.
WTWW is a shortwave station located in Lebanon, Tennessee. It is officially licensed to Leap of Faith, Inc. As of December 2022, WTWW has one working transmitter, that on 5.085 MHz, which operates during the evening hours carrying Scriptures for America, a service produced by LaPorte Church of Christ.
National Public Radio is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national syndicator to a network of more than 1,000 public radio stations in the United States. It differs from other non-profit membership media organizations, such as the Associated Press, in that it was established by an act of Congress.
Chris and Ciara, formerly titled Bottom of the Barrel, is an Irish radio show on RTÉ 2fm hosted by Chris Greene and Ciara King. It is broadcast on Saturday and Sunday starting at 11am, and consists of contemporary hits and comedic pop culture-focused talk segments. The show features film and celebrity news quizzes and a "Rap Off" in which Greene and King compete, as well as interviews and guests such as 2fm's Emma Power and DJ Mo K, Brian M. Lloyd from entertainment.ie, Blindboy Boatclub of The Rubberbandits, and the self-styled dating expert the Galway Player. King reads from her teenage diary every Wednesday, and the presenters often read text messages and tweets sent by listeners.