March 25th: Two decades before Ed Wynn was a winner as a radio showman and subsequently a hit on television, he was the first entertainer on the vaudeville bill when New York City’s Palace Theater opened for business on this date in 1913.
This was the date in 1943 that Garry Moore and Jimmy “Schnozz” Durante, began a four-year run on NBC Radio, in place of the Abbott and Costello Show, which was derailed by Lou Costello’s heart attack. This was, in fact, Jimmy and Garry’s radio premiere and both of them went on to TV careers. Bud & Lou also found the video medium and continued making movies after Costello’s recovery.
On this date in 1971, apparent references to marijuana by Brewer and Shipley on their hit record, “One Toke Over The Line,” prompted New York’s WNBC Radio to become the first radio station to ban its air play.
After 8 seasons, most with strong ratings, this was end of the line night for the ABC situation comedy, “Bewitched,” in 1972.
In 1982, The Great Gretzsky becomes the first NHL player to score 200 or more points in one season, a feat which he accomplished four times with the Edmonton Oilers…
In an industry known for change, and a lot of it, Chuck Scarborough has beaten the odds and, in the process, years ago became the dean of New York TV anchors, in terms of tenure. Now, the tall gentleman who anchors the 6 and 11pm news broadcasts on WNBC-TV is marking 40 years at 30 Rock! Sure, that’s worthy of congratulations for a true survivor of the system, and one who’s reported four decades worth of news concerning New York and countless other deadlines. Along the way, Chuck Scarborough has been honored with more than 30 Emmy Awards and for many years in the 1980s anchored the network’s NBC News update in prime-time. He’s seen a lot of GMs, News and Program Directors come and go and to his credit, Chuck is still going strong at age 70.
Checking this day’s cake and candles club members……
–That man with the memorable mustache, Gene Shalit, who enjoyed a 37-year run as the film critic on NBC’s “Today Show,” is 87.
–Gary Alexander, the retired, longtime New York news broadcaster and voice-over artist with a wonderful sense of humor, is 75. Among Gary’s affiliations, 1010/WINS, WCBS NewsRadio88, WNEW Radio, and he was a featured weekend air personality on WCBS Radio in the mid 60s, before the switch to all-news. Gary did a considerable amount of voice work over the years. Gary also did spots for Crazy Glue and was the voice of Sam Sloan, in the Bogie genre, on the Sloan Supermarket commercials.
–Eighteen-time Grammy winner, Aretha Franklin, otherwise known as The Queen of Soul, with such hits as “Respect,” and “You Make Me Feel Like A Natural Woman,” is 72.
–Paul Michael Glaser, one half of “Starsky & Hutch” on ABC in the 1970s, is 71.
–Sir Elton John, the prominent rocker who has sold more than 300-million records and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1998, is 67.
–Bonnie Bedelia, the veteran film and TV actress best known for her roles in the first three “Die Hard” movies with Bruce Willis, is 66.
–Sarah Jessica Parker, the actress and singer who won 9 Golden Globe, Emmy and SAG Awards for portraying Carrie Bradshaw on the HBO series, “Sex And The City,” is 49.
Naturally, if this happens to be your big day, many happy returns!!!
–Bob Gibson, [email protected]
Gibson has amassed a fifty-year career in the broadcasting industry, having excelled in a variety of areas including news, sports, business, commercial and promotional voice-over and industrial narration.
Before leaving New York, Bob logged eleven years as the back-up voice for CBS Television, hosted the nationally syndicated Old-Time Radio Show, “Radio Theater,” and was a news anchor/writer for five years at WOR Radio.
All of this followed nearly two decades at WCBS NewsRadio88.
In looking back on eighteen years at WCBS, Gibson remains convinced that there’s no greater satisfaction than to be able to inform an audience of not only a given day’s developments but to stay abreast of breaking stories as well. Among the major stories handled by Bob throughout his career were the first two NBC Radio News bulletins that Richard Nixon would resign the Presidency, twice-an-hour Persian Gulf War updates for the CBS Radio owned and operated stations, hourly ABC Radio News updates on the U.S. Hostages Crisis in Iran, on-scene coverage of the Pirates 1971 World Championship in Pittsburgh and the 1967 Silver Bridge disaster that sent 46 people to their deaths in the Ohio River.
Before returning to WCBS in 1981, Gibson was a network hourlies news correspondent for ABC Radio and NBC Radio in New York and for the Mutual Broadcasting System in Washington, during the Watergate era.
Prior to that, Bob was the morning news anchor at KDKA Radio in Pittsburgh and the midday news broadcaster at WGAR Radio in Cleveland.
While radio remains his first love, Gibson has also done television as an on-camera sports broadcaster at KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh, as a news and commercial announcer at WBNS and at WATR-TV in Waterbury, Connecticut. In more recent years, Bob has done promotional voice-over work for CBS and NBC Television, as well at WOR-TV and SportsChannel. Gibson has also been the “voice” on some of the sequences in the syndicated series “Super Bowl Winning Moments,” and “Olympic Winning Moments.”
A native New Yorker, Gibson earned a Master of Arts Degree from Ohio University after doing his undergraduate work at the New York Institute Of Technology.
Bob and his wife, Ros, bid farewell to New Jersey in the summer of 2007 and now reside in Boynton Beach, FL.
