Miami's radio 610, WIOD: Wonderful Isle of Dreams once home to Larry King and ...

WIOD towers 1926 Bicayne Bay
Florida State Archives/Fishbaugh

By Jane Feehan

WIOD launched its first radio broadcast Jan. 19, 1926. The station, tagged with call letters WIOD for “Wonderful Isle of Dreams” by Miami Beach developer Carl Fisher, was built atop one of his man-made islands near the Nautilus Hotel (4300 Alton Road). It operated in one of the first buildings in the U.S. designed primarily for radio broadcast use.

According to author Ann Armbruster (The Life and Times of Miami Beach, Alfred A. Knopf: 1995), Jesse Jay, son of Webb Jay, inventor of the auto vacuum tank, founded WIOD. It was the first 1,000-watt station in Florida.   During its early days WIOD offered about two hours of programming and most of it was orchestra music or church services. By 1928 the station was an NBC affiliate.

WIOD studios moved to downtown Miami in the early 1930s to the News Tower. It was purchased by Metropolis Publishing Company, owner of the Miami News in 1936 and advertised with the slogan, “Your free ticket to the finest radio is at 610 on your radio dial.”

By 1941*, WIOD was operating 18 ½ hours daily from the 79^th Street Causeway.  Programming included entertainers Bob Hope, Jack Benny, Fibber McGee and Molly, Eddie Cantor, other big names of the era and featured soap opera A Guiding Light five days a week. The station increased to 5,000 watts of power in February that year with great fanfare throughout South Florida; that ramp up in wattage made WIOD the most powerful radio station in the state. The station, deemed by management a “symbol of progress,”  broadcasted with the assistance of two 320-foot steel towers over the waters of Biscayne Bay (salt water is said to improve signal strength).

From 1959 to 1962, the call letters of 610 were changed to WCKR by then-owner Cox-Knight Broadcasting. TV station WSVN also owned 610 later during the 1960s and played rock music, an unsuccessful format in a fiercely competitive market. It transitioned back to call letters WIOD during the 70s and was the venue that helped launch TV personality Larry King’s national career. Other broadcast notables of the 70s and 80s included Big Wilson and Neil Rogers.

In 1981, WIOD’s power was increased with special temporary authority to 10,000 watts to overcome interference by a station in Cuba. Permission to broadcast at that power is renewed each year.

Today, iHeartMedia, Inc. owns WIOD. Its studio operates in Miramar and its transmitter tower lies near Biscayne Bay at North Bay Village. News Talk 610 operates 24/7, a big leap in scheduling from those short days of 1926. Copyright © 2013. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

*Some facts about radio in the 1940s: More than half the radios in the world were owned by Americans; 85 percent of Americans owned a radio; a nationally syndicated radio show would have as many as 10 million listeners.

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Other Sources:

Kleinberg, Howard. Miami Beach, a History. Miami: Centennial Press, 1995.

Miami News, Feb. 22, 1941.

Wikipedia

Tags: Miami Beach in the 1920s, WIOD, WCKR, Miami radio, historical researcher, film researcher

Adazzle: Miami area restaurants and hotels of the 1940s, 50s and 60s

Miami Beach 1955
Florida State Archives/Florida Memory/Barron

By Jane Feehan

Newspaper ads of past decades reveal a host of restaurants and hotel dining and entertainment venues  that placed Miami and Miami Beach on the map during the 1940s, 50s and 60s.  An ordinance was in effect during the 1940s that prohibited hotel entertainment in order to pump up night club business. That changed when Sam Cohen, president of the company that owned the Sherry Frontenac Hotel (opened in 1948), booked an entertainer at its Pompadour Room. Cohen was fined $100 but the law was changed in 1950. Hotels then became the draw for big name entertainment and many nightclubs faded away.

Here’s a list by decade of some of the most popular spots (Joe's Stone Crab spans most of Miami Beach's history, remains open):

1940s

Copa Cobanna – Dade Boulevard, Miami Beach

Latin Quarter (Lou Walters) – Palm Island

Lou Walters’ Terrace

Paddock – 7^th and Washington, Miami Beach

Beachcomber Hotel – Dade Boulevard, east of Venetian Causeway

Robin Hood Restaurant

Old Forge Patio Restaurant-Miami Beach

Hickory House - Miami Beach

Versailles – Collins and 34th, Miami Beach

Dubrow’s Lincoln Cafeteria - Miami Beach

Ciro’s – Dade Boulevard, Miami Beach

Colonial Inn – Hallandale (See more on this, search labels)

Joe’s Stone Crab - still there on South Beach

Wolfie’s (1943) – Collins and 21st Miami Beach

Embers – Miami Beach (40s. 50s, 60s)

Parham’s – 73^rd and Collins

Pickin’ Chicken – 22^nd and Co

Blackamor Room – 20^th and Collins

  

1950s

Hotel President Madison – Plantation Room

Joe’s Broadway Delicatessen – Washington Avenue, Miami Beach

Fountainebleau and Eden Roc

Seven Seas Restaurant

Wolfie’s – Lincoln Road, Miami Beach

Pumpernik’s

Chandler’s - Miami Beach

Park Avenue – Miami Beach

Rocky Graziano's

Gray’s Inn – Dade Boulevard, Miami Beach

Americana Hotel – Carioca Lounge, Gaucho Steak House, Bal Masque Room

Carillon Hotel – Café Le Can Can
Eden Roc Hotel – Harry’s American Bar, Mona Lisa Room

Fontainebleau Hotel – La Ronde Room
Raimondos
Red Coach Grill

Riccio's - mob hangout
Wolfie's at Lincoln Road

1960s

Diplomat – Tack Room

South Pacific (near Hollywood Dog Track), also there in the 60s

Cap’t Nicks – 160^th and Biscayne, Miami
Embers

Gallagher’s – 126^th and Biscayne, Miami

Kenilworth Hotel – Emerald Room, Miami Beach

Tony’s Fish Market – 79^th Street Causeway

Chinarama – 163^rd Street

Seville Hotel - Downstairs Room, 29^th and Collins
Nick & Arthur's

Luau Polynesian Restaurant – 79^th Street
Raimondo's - Miami Beach

Rascal House - 173rd Street

Roney Plaza – Café Jardin Suisse – 23^rd and Collins

Remo’s - 173^rd Street

Famous – 671 Washington Avenue

Fu Manchu – 71^st Street

Bahama Steak House – NW 36, near Jai Lai
Playboy Club - Miami (see lables for more history on this)

Mike Gordon’s Seafood – 79^th Street Causeway

Castaways Motel – Wreck Bar

Capra's - 69th Street

Franklin’s – 71^st Street

Any favs not mentioned?  Post a comment!

TAGS: Famous hotels and restaurants in Miami Beach, Miami Beach restaurants in the 1960s, Miami history, Jane Feehan

Army not taking over Miami Beach ... for now - 1942

Miami Beach, barrier island

 By Jane Feehan

Miami Beach officials and residents held their breath after Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941; they thought the city was in for a tough time. But weeks later, tourists trekked to the winter playground, filling up hotel rooms.

And so did the military.

Military training operations were brought to Miami Beach early in 1942.  Headquarters and drill grounds for the Army Air Force Officers Training School were established at the municipal golf course – then known as the Bayshore Golf Course. The Army first appropriated the Boulevard Hotel as quarters for arriving soldiers in February, 1942. The Nautilus Hotel was soon used as a hospital.

  

March 1, 1942, the New York Times reported that the “Army was not taking over Miami Beach.” Lieut. Col. James S. Stowell, commander of the training school, announced  the army would appropriate five hotels and bring in 950 soldiers – “at least for now.”  Soldiers would stay for a three-month training course before receiving their commissions.

Soldiers came by the thousands. Tourists cheerfully moved to other accommodations. Beaches, including the one at Bal Harbour, were used as rifle ranges. By 1943, 188 hotels, 109 apartment houses and 18 private homes had been appropriated by the military. About 13,000 students were graduated from the officer training school in Miami Beach; the last class to go through was in June 1943.  Soldiers engaged their own rooms in hotels with military contracts. Food was not arranged for through a military mess until late in operations – adding to area business revenues.

Business boomed. Miami Beach continued to draw entertainers and property sales soared, setting the stage for the major expansion of the 1950s.

Sources:

New York Times, March 1, 1942

Kleinberg, Howard. Miami Beach: A History. Miami: Centennial Press (1996).

Ibiblio.org

Tags: Miami Beach history, Miami Beach during the 1940s, Miami Beach during World War II, WWII in Miami Beach, Florida film researcher, historical researcher