Golden Age of Radio

Bill Stern —Teller of Tall Tales SOME radio performers have a way of bringing violent reactions from their listeners. An outstanding example is Bill Stern , the sports commentator. At almost regular intervals someone trots into this department screaming, “Did you hear Bill Stern last night?” Anonymous voices appear on the telephone, reporting Bill Stern ’s latest. What precipitates all this furor is Stern’s penchant for exaggeration. Stern comes on the air at 9:30 p.m. Fridays with dramatizations of what are known as feature stories in newspaper parlance. There is a little song on the show, sort of a singing commercial, and one of the lines is: “ Bill Stern has lots to say.” Stern certainly has. Not satisfied with a good feature story. Stern tries to make it better. He broadcast a story about a Wisconsin boy, who was learning to swim without hands or feet, only Stern made it “without arms or legs,” and made the boy out to be a good swimmer, which he wasn’t. Stern stra...

DAVID ROSS . . . tried his hand as newsboy, reporter, actor and teacher before he took up radio . Writes poetry . Born in New York in 1895. Struggled against poverty; worked his way through college. He’s 5 feet 5 inches tall. DAVID ROSS ANNOUNCER AND POETRY – LOVER IT should take a casr-iron set of vocal chords to withstand the strain of the different assignments and excitements in an announcer’s life. Yet the silver-bell tones of David Ross sound as mellifluous as ever, after more than fifteen years spent on the air. His mellow voice is still heard caressing the air waves as announcer for such shows as the Andre Kostelanetz program on CBS every Sunday afternoon at 4:30 E.W.T. The long-lasting melody in David’s voice may seem from the fact that he has a poet’s soul. It was his habit of carrying around a collection of poetry that got him his start in radio . The very first program he’d ever seen was the one on which he made his debut. Instead of watching t...