| People of the 1920s Q through Z |
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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. |
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| ERNEST (aka 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. |
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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. |
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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.
Roba was born in Dacula, Georgia, in either 1908 or 1910, and died in Florida in 1986. Her career as WSB radio's teenage "Sweetheart" lasted only a year, for she retired as a musician when she married. Her age when she recorded in 1924 was given as 16, but later research suggested that she was, in fact, only 14 (the older age being perhaps put out by the record company to avoid problems with the child labor laws). |
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| Superintendent of the Atlanta school system, Sutton liked the idea of educational programs on the new invention called radio. In 1926, WSB donated time for educational programs which were received in the city school buildings thanks to receivers donated by W.D. Hopkins, president of Hopkins Auto Equipment Service. |
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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. 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 was inspired by Tison and ordered the equipment. Tison can be seen operating the equipment for broadcasts in what was then simply called The Quiet Zone of the Atlanta Journal as WSB broadcast the voices of opera star Alma Gluck and her husband – the famous musician - Ephraim Zimblast. |
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