Clippings, Radio Logs

Clippings, Radio Logs

Box 1 Folder 30: "Box 1 number 30. These are a series of radio log copies from the Birmingham Library microfiche files from 1946, probably from the Birmingham New Age Herald. And 1946 was the beginning of the Atomic Boogie Hour at WJLD and that was very very significant in terms of the kind of race music that was played back then. Bob Umbach was the jock, and he was a very popular jock. He was also very involved in the black community, and he was white, tall, handsome and there is more to be said about him when we reach his picture. But these radio logs do describe black programming, which again involved Rev. W.A. Clark. The April 7th Sunday log also mentioned W.J. Allen in the morning on WJLD. WJ went on to broadcast gospel on both WEDR and WENN AM. The Pope Singers are mentioned, referring to gospel promoter William Pope. In looking at the other radio stations besides WJLD we can see that W.A Clark was also on WSGN. It does not appear that WBRC really had black programming at the time, nor did WAPI. Still only 4 stations in the market: SGN, BRC, API, and JLD as of April 9, 1946, and the Atomic Boogie Hour for the first time we see them mentioned around 2 o’clock in the afternoon on April 9, 1946, looks like the first time the Atomic Boogie Hour gets described in the radio logs: "Red hot and blue jive.""