1922-1929 PEOPLE 

Q - Z

The man who made the first broadcast of WSB possible on March 15, 1922.  Reid was employed to tote ice to cool off the hot transmitting equipment.  In the book WELCOME SOUTH BROTHER Reid says “That’s the way we kept the thing from blowing up!”  Reid also is credited with running Atlanta’s first retail radio store so people could hear the station.

Ernie Rogers

The amusement editor of the Atlanta Journal, Rogers teamed up with Lambdin Kay to become the dominant voices of the new WSB Radio.  From the book WELCOME SOUTH BROTHER – “Rogers became the nation’s first radio personality to get “on records” with a song called “Tune In my Heart”, which described being on the radio.  Rogers wrote the song and it was later recorded by popular singer Ernie Hare.  

The Washington correspondent for the Atlanta Journal, Smith was WSB’s first announcer.  He was not impressed with the new medium and when the political news began heating up, he returned full time to the paper.  His duties would be handed over to a fellow by the name of Lambdin Kay. 

Roba Stanley was the first female Country singer to have performed on the radio, leading to her being described as the first "Sweetheart" of Country (then called "Hillbilly" music). Her career as WSB radio's teenage "Sweetheart" lasted only a year, for she retired as a musician when she married.

Walter Tison was the man with the original dream of what would become WSB. He had served in the Navy in World War I as a wireless operator.  In 1921, Tison called on Major John Cohen, editor of the Atlanta Journal newspaper to convince him to begin building the facilities for a commercial radio station. Cohen referred Tison to  John Paschall, who reported back to Cohen that "the young man knew what he was talking about". Cohen instructed Paschall to order the equipment. When Tison returned from a job as radio operator aboard a merchant ship, he was hired by George Iler, the stations first director. 

RETURN TO 1922-1929 DECADE

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