[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 130 (Saturday, August 5, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1671]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                     75TH ANNIVERSARY OF WWJ RADIO

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                          HON. SANDER M. LEVIN

                              of michigan

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, August 4, 1995
  Mr. LEVIN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to congratulate WWJ Radio in 
Southfield on its 75th anniversary.
  Four generations of listeners in Metropolitan Detroit know first hand 
that WWJ is a powerful force in Michigan. What many people don't know 
is that WWJ Radio has made history over and over during the course of 
its 75 years on the air.
  WWJ was the first radio station to broadcast news--on August 31, 
1920. And on the same day it became the first to broadcast election 
returns.
  Radio sportscasts aired for the first time in the United States the 
following day--also on WWJ. Soon, the station pioneered play-by-play 
coverage of Detroit Tigers baseball, Detroit Lions football, Detroit 
Pistons baseball, Detroit Red Wings hockey, and dozens of college 
games.
  Regularly scheduled religious broadcasts also got their start on 
radio at WWJ.
  WWJ's legacy is not all serious, though. Two of America's greatest 
entertainers--Will Rogers and Fanny Brice--got their start in radio at 
WWJ.
  Both were stars who had captured Americans' imagination--at least 
those Americans who were lucky enough to see a Ziegfeld Follies 
production. But it wasn't until WWJ aired Fanny Brice on the radio, in 
1920, and Will Rogers, in 1922, that they reached a broad audience.
  Fanny Brice was the original ``Funny Girl,'' an outrageous redhead 
who made people laugh for more than four decades.
  She is known for many things, but none better than Baby Snooks, the 
precocious brat that she invented for vaudeville and brought to radio's 
Ziegfeld Follies of the air.
  Will Rogers ``never told a story in my life,'' he would tell his 
audiences, assuring them that in his appearances--first in vaudeville 
shows, then on the radio, then as one of Hollywood's top stars--he 
``just played his natchell self.''
  Rogers personified the wonderful collection of character traits that 
Americans celebrate as uniquely our own. He was a Democrat because 
``it's funnier to be a Democrat,'' he said--but no politician was 
spared Will Rogers' arrows. ``The United States never lost a war or won 
a conference,'' he warned diplomats at the talks following World War I.
  Rogers became Beverly Hills' mayor by popular acclaim--but soon gave 
it up for ranch life and the movies, radio, lecturing, and writing that 
made him the highest paid entertainer of his times.
  ``Cowboy philosopher'' is the way Rogers' job title read--but for the 
millions of Americans who counted themselves his fans, he was the 
common sense and the contradictions that make us Americans.
  Both Will Rogers and Fanny Brice were common people--and they aimed 
to please the common people who tuned into their shows by the millions.
  And, just as WWJ gave listeners their shows, today WWJ continues to 
get comprehensive, reliable news to the millions of people who spend 
hours each week commuting to their jobs.
  I don't remember a time that I didn't listen to WWJ, and I don't ever 
expect to hear anything else on FM 950. I commend the stations to my 
colleagues when they travel around Detroit.
  And, to the hundreds of Michiganians who work at WWJ, now and in its 
long 75-year history--to the tens of thousands of Michiganians who 
depend on WWJ Newsradio 950 for up-to-the-minute information--I wish 
another 75 years of success.


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