WSB Radio History

Lee Roy Abernathy is a prominent name in the world of Southern Gospel music.  He was also a fixture on WSB Radio for several years on music shows in the 1940's.

Fiddler/vocalist Bobby Atcheson was a popular performer on the WSB "Barn Dance" radio program.  Working on the show from 1944-46, Atcheson quickly became one of the program's most well-known musicians. 

Marcus is a WSB institution.  He joined WSB in 1930 as a part time piano player, bedtime story teller and staff announcer.  In 1940 he finally decided to make WSB his life, where he went on to serve as production director, sports announcer, music director and other odd jobs.  He later made the move to WSB TV.  He moved up the ladder to become executive vice president for Cox Broadcasting.  He retired from Cox Broadcasting in December 1975.  Read the complete history of Marcus Bartlett and hear a clip from a broadcast in the 1930's at our special tribute page.  •Click here for that.

Jimmy is best remembered by his long time friend Elmos Ellis who wrote the following on January 22, 2005:  Jimmy joined WSB, fresh out of the U. of Ga., in the spring of  1940.  I came along a few weeks later.   So he was my first WSB friend.   He and Jo married while they were still in college.  So he was married when WSB hired him. He was a superb news reader and editor.  Very articulate. Careful to get all names and pronunciations correct.  Kept a very close watch on news reports, both domestic and foreign, and was extremely well informed. He anchored major WSB newscasts.  During World War II, he served in the Air Corps as a flight instructor at various air bases in Texas.  Taught many of the
nation's air aces how to fly. When WSB-TV went on the air, he was the first news caster on television in the South, and did the inaugural newscast on WSBTV,  Sept.28, 1948.  He continued to also do newcasting on WSB Radio until promoted to an executive-management sales position with the station. He coached many WSB newly-hired announcers and news reporters.  Supervised commercial production. He was also a talented actor and played roles on many WSB comedy and dramatic productions.  Great sports lover, he worked with a group of WSB staff members doing freelance coverage of sports broadcasts, including auto races.  He was a fine singer, and an active freelance commercial announcer.  I used him continually on freelance work that I produced for both radio and TV. He sang for years in his church choir at Peachtree Road United Methodist church.  He and Jo celebrated their 66th anniversary in 2004.  Two wonderful married and successful daughters.  JoAnne Cooper and Jean Hendrix. and several grandchildren. He was intelligent, had a great sense of humor, one of my oldest and dearest friends.  Elmo Ellis

Wright Bryan was the editor of The Atlanta Journal who broadcast the first report of D-Day to a national audience in 1944.   In the picture to the left Bryan is shown in a radio booth (left) with James Cox Jr.(right)  (Photo courtesy of Grady College of Journalism University of Georgia)

Albert Coleman, a dedicated classically trained musician, led the WSB Orchestra as its musical director and conductor.   In 1945, he founded  the Atlanta Pops Orchestra and led that ensemble for 55 years.  The Pops Orchestra continues to play to this day.    At WSB, he was known for conducting a daily live "Concert in Miniature" with the WSB String  Orchestra in the 1940s.  Many people credit their listening to WSB for developing an appreciation of classical music. In his long career, Mr. Coleman also served as Music Director for Chet Atkins and Boots Randolf and performed with many of the major symphony orchestras throughout the United States and Europe. Most of the concerts in Atlanta were free to the local audiences and drew thousands of attendees. During his tenure, Albert was responsible for discovering and contributing to the careers of many young artists. His contributions won him the honor of membership in the Georgia Music Hall of Fame.

John is known primarily for his historic role at WSB-TV, but before television he worked for WSB Radio in the music library and as a sound effects master.  The following was written about John on his passing in 2004 in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

When Atlanta's first television station went on the air Sept. 28, 1948, it was John Cone who intoned the first words spoken here in the new medium: "WSB television is on the air."
As the station's booth announcer, it was part of Mr. Cone's regular duties, said Elmo Ellis of Sandy Springs, one of the station's first two writer-directors. "We beat WAGA getting on the air by one day, I think," said Jimmy Bridges of Sandy Springs, the station's first regular newscaster. Mr. Cone worked at WSB radio in the music library and providing sound effects.
He was selected to do the same for the new television station as well as announcing and reading news.
"John worked on a program Elmo wrote, 'Mac's Sewing Circle,' a comedy thing sort of like 'Saturday Night Live,' " Mr. Bridges said. "John Cone was in there playing music and sound effects. Elmo named him John Greenleaf Pinecone."
As booth announcer, Mr. Cone signed WSB television programming on at 4 p.m. and signed the station off at 10 p.m. "And we broke for supper, too," recalled Mr. Bridges. In the four hours of programming, Mr. Cone announced the opening and closing of programs such as "Pantry Party," the serial "The Last Jungle," "Here Comes the Circus" and "Monkey Business."
Mr. Cone enjoyed some monkey business of his own, and the entire staff were practical jokers, Mr. Ellis said. "He had a childlike interest in novelties," he said. At the radio station, Mr. Cone "used to like to play with little automobiles with carbonated power in the corridors."
Survivors include his wife, Jerry Cone; a daughter, Lorraine Bryant of Monroe, N.C.; three sons, Gordon Cone of Portland, Ore., Jack Cone of Fayetteville and Grant Cone of Occoquan, Va.; a stepson, Ralph Sikes of Cumming; and 13 grandchildren.

Elmo Ellis is a legendary dominant figure of the modern broadcasting era at WSB.  An entire page of this web site is now devoted to his career. • Check out the link here for The Story of Elmo Ellis.

Bob began his career at WSB Radio in 1945 as a soundman for locally produced radio dramas.  He worked closely with directors Brand Crandal and later Elmo Ellis. Bob recalls that he learned his craft while still at Boys High School in Atlanta, at the old radio station WATL.  A lady named Para Lee Brock was the person behind these high school productions and Bob won a $200 scholarship for his work  Bob went to Emory in 1945 and was a journalism major.  There he met a professor named Marcus Bartlett who hired him.  After graduation from Emory, Bob would move from radio drama part time and was employed full time in the advertising department of WSB radio, under the direction of Vic Piano.
Bob would later transfer to WSB- TV in 1948 where he was on Camera #2 for the opening day ceremonies for the new "radio with pictures."  He would keep his job as a camera man until 1950 when he was called to active duty in the U.S. Air Force.  Bob wrote to us in May 2005:  "I was sent to Ramey Air Force Base in Puerto Rico and asked what I did in civilian life.  I told them and was assigned to Armed Forces Radio Service at Ramey AF Base.   I also had a late night music program called the Platter Party, using the same name and theme song, and in honor of my good friend Bob Watson."  Bob returned from his service in 1951 and returned to work at WSB-TV where he was assigned to the TV sales department.  
Favorite memory of working at WSB -   "I was the camera man on the Woody Willow show….and one day, I fell off the camera seat into a washtub… picked up live by camera #1 and was then dubbed by Don and Ruth Gibson on the air as “washtub Gerson”!

YEARS AT WSB: 1945 TO 1955
PRIOR: Emory University student (see above)
AFTER: He left in 1955 to work for Atlanta Paper company in sales, promotion and advertising.  Atlanta Paper was sold in 1959 and he would go into his father's business Robley Hats which he sold when he retired in 1999.
TODAY:  Married to Micheline Gerson, whom I met in Paris in 1959.  We have three children and 9 grandchildren.  Two married children are in Atlanta, one son living in France, married and runs a bed&breakfast in the West Loire valley. 

Ernie wrote about the start to his legendary sports broadcasting career in an article on the web site jockbio.com  I was born in Washington, Georgia, which is about 120 miles east of Atlanta. My family moved to Atlanta when I was about four. I lived there until 1948. In my early years, my dad was a great baseball fan. He inculcated in me a love of baseball and other sports. I grew up as a real sports fan. I was a bat boy for the Atlanta Crackers, or sometimes for the visiting team. When I was in high school, I wrote to The Sporting News, and suggested that I should be the Atlanta correspondent. The editor wrote back and gave me the job. He didn't t know that I was only 16 at the time. Then I got a job with The Atlanta Constitution. I worked there six years, while I was in high school and college. My real ambition was to be a sportswriter. When I got out of Emory University, there weren’t any jobs open on the paper, so I opted for radio. I took an audition at WSB in 1940., and got lucky and won it. They gave me a job in May, and I’ve been in radio or TV ever since, except for four years in the United States Marine Corps. So, I’ve been in it a long time. It’s been a great life for me. God blessed me with some talent and great health, and I’ve been very fortunate.

YEARS AT WSB:1940 to 1942
AFTER: Ernie moved on to Detroit to become one of the most famous sports voices in the history of radio as the voice of the Detroit Tigers radio broadcasts.
TODAY: Ernie Harwell, "the voice of the Detroit Tigers" for more than four decades, retired after 55 years behind a major league microphone. Today, Ernie's days are filled with serving as a health and fitness advocate for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, public appearances, writing, traveling and taking long walks with "Miss Lulu," his wife of more than 60 years. His latest book, a collection of his baseball columns entitled "Life After Baseball," is available at local bookstores or by calling 1-800-245-5082.

Lee Jordan had what has been described as a "golden" voice.   He passed away on November 20, 2005 at the age of 80.  His longtime friend Mike McDougald (see his bio below) wrote about his friend Lee Jordan a few days after learning of his passing: