Скачать или смотреть WSB Radio 50th Anniversary Record (1972)

"WSB Birthday Party"
(50th Anniversary, 1922-1972)
Hosted by Jim Howell

On March 15, 1972, Atlanta's WSB, the oldest radio station in the South, celebrated its 50th anniversary with special guided tours of the station. I was nine years old at the time, and took one of the tours. At the end, each guest was presented with this souvenir 45-rpm record, a "WSB Birthday Party," containing a brief history of the station with sound examples. The record was hosted by Jim Howell, an announcer at WSB during the 1970s, with assistance from his daughter Meredith, and took the form of an interview with "Wizby," representing the radio station itself (voiced anonymously by Don Kennedy). The script of the record was written by Elmo Ellis, the vice president and general manager of WSB at the time, and a legend in Atlanta broadcasting.

Here are some of the highlights of the record:

1:37 Early station announcement by Lambdin Kay
4:30 Coverage of the world premiere of "Gone With the Wind"
4:52 Coverage of D-Day in World War II by Wright Bryan
6:30 Eddie Cantor's congratulations on WSB's 50th Anniversary
8:03 Early traffic reports by the WSB Skycopter
8:27 Coverage of the 1954 Georgia gubernatorial election
9:29 Hank Aaron's 600th home run (1971)
10:19 Elmo Ellis speaks

Also, sound clips of Will Rogers, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Martin Luther King, Jack Benny, Neil Armstrong and others are heard.

I'm afraid the record bears all too audibly the marks of my 9-year-old ownership, but I present it anyway as a slice of history from the mid-20th century.