Meet and reacquaint yourself with the people and stations that have created and reflected who we are as Buffalonians with 100 Years of Buffalo Broadcasting, Vol.1: 1920 – 1970, a 432-page in-depth look at the first 50 years of radio and television in Buffalo, written by author Steve Cichon, a 27-year veteran of Buffalo media.
Packed with more than 600 photos, it’s a look at the stories of the people, places, and events that have entertained and informed generations of Western New Yorkers over the airwaves– and under our pillows, into our cars, into our living rooms, and into our hearts as a part of what makes us Buffalonians.
Available for purchase at buffalostories.com, a socially distant book signing is planned for Saturday, Sept. 19, from 1 to 4 p.m. outside of the JAM Parkside Cafe, 301 Parkside Ave., across from The Buffalo Zoo.
From the scholarly to the nostalgic, the earliest pioneering days of Buffalo radio will come to life with new research on Buffalo’s status as one of the birthplaces of modern radio — and then the birth of rock ‘n’ roll radio here a decade later, about the same time television was wrangling more and more of our attention.
KDKA Pittsburgh is generally recognized as the world’s first radio station and its broadcast of the results of the 1920 Presidential Election is regarded as the birthday of radio. With the 100th anniversary of radio about to be celebrated, Cichon’s research shows that Buffalo had a similar broadcast that night and it was better received — literally and figuratively — than the vaunted “first” broadcast.
But mostly, the book is about fun memories. It looks at the early history of each station, along the way visiting Clint Buehlman and Danny Neaverth, Uncle Mike Mearian and Rocketship 7, The Lone Ranger and KB’s War of the Worlds, Meet the Millers and Dialing for Dollars, John Corbett and Chuck Healy and Irv, Rick & Tom, The Hound and John Otto and so many more of the great broadcasters who were there as we experienced the best (and worst) times of our lives.
The book’s covers by themselves are a study of the century of broadcasting in Buffalo, with another 269 images, showing some of our favorite stars in action.
Sales of the book benefit The Buffalo Stories Film Conservation Initiative, which funds the storage, maintenance, digitization, and interpretation of thousands of hours of discarded Buffalo film and video from the 1960s-1990s.
Cichon has spent three decades in Buffalo media in radio, television and print. His journey started as a wide-eyed 15-year-old at WBEN learning about radio, journalism and life. The lifelong Buffalonian sees this, his sixth book, as a kind of family history – as these are the stories of the people who made him the person he is today.
