The Cerebral Brother: The Way It Was, 26 November

1912:---He will become perhaps the most gently cerebral of Murrow's Boys, that CBS team whose radio coverage of World War II---adventurous to many and foolhardy to some, considering their eagerness to risk their lives on behalf of reporting the war---set a standard many would come to believe abrogated only too soon by all news networks, including CBS itself in due course.

None of which crosses the minds of Mor og Far Sevareid in Velva, North Dakota, as newborn son Arnold Eric---who will drop his first name professionally---gives his first known broadcast upon the stimulus of a doctor's hand across his minature derriere.

We were like a young band of brothers in those early radio days with [Edward R.] Murrow/---Eric Sevareid.

AIRWAVES . . .

2003: "IT WAS NICE TO KNOW SO MANY PEOPLE"---Washington, D.C. radio legend Eddie Gallaher, who has spent over half a century on the air of the nation's capital, dies at 89.

Succeeding Arthur Godfrey at WTOP, following Godfrey's move of his own base to New York WCBS, Gallaher became perhaps the capital's most influential disc jockey, famous for a sonorous baritone voice and a dry wit. He was also famous for celebrities from Bob Hope to Jayne Mansfield and back making a point to sit for his interviews.

Gallaher moved to WASH-FM in 1968, after WTOP's switch to an all-talk format; and, in due course, to WWDC-AM (ultimately a Clear Channel station, with call letters changing to WGAY) in 1982, where he stayed until he retired in 2000.

His vision was failing him and Clear Channel . . . had hired helpers for him for the last couple of years of his career -
people that would read for him and help him with his program.

---Walt Starling, fellow Washington radio personality and a longtime friend, upon Gallaher's death.

This is no 'being forced to retire. I would say that, at 85, it's a good time to call it a day.

---Eddie Gallaher, to the Washington Post.

Famous in Washington for his tag line, "It was nice to know so many people," Gallaher may well have left enough people in Washington and elsewhere thinking, surely, that it was nice to know him, too.

CHANNEL SURFING . . .

THE OLD GOLD COMEDY THEATER: CLARENCE (NBC, 1944)---Fools rush in, case in point recently-discharged soldier Clarence Smith (Joseph Cotten), hired as an odd-jobs man in a rather dysfunctional---and insane---household whose affairs entangle him, to say the least. Additional cast: Unknown. Host/director: Harold Lloyd. Announcer: Bob Williams. Adapted from the screenplay by Grant Garrett and Seana Owen; based on the story by Booth Tarkington.

THE MEL BLANC SHOW: THE THANKSGIVING SHOW (CBS, 1946)---Amidst holiday spirit, other courageous suitors approach their prospective fathers-in-law confidently, but our hero (Mel Blanc) needs to throw a brilliant Thanksgiving party to get to within a hundred nautical miles of Mr. Colby's (Joseph Kearns) good side. Betty: Mary Jane Croft. Cushing: Hans Conreid. Additional cast: Jerry Hausner, Earle Ross. Music: Victor Miller Orchestra, the Sports Men. Writer: Mac Benoff.

THE BIG SHOW: WHERE THE ELITE MEET TO EAT? (NBC, 1950)---Fred Allen and Tallulah Bankhead reprise for a third time one of the best-loved old-time radio satires: "Mr. and Mrs. Breakfast Show," which they did twice on the old Fred Allen Show, during the height of Allen's radio career. In due course, the evening's company is invited (well, hauled off might be more appropriate) to Duffy's Tavern, by malaproprietor Archie (Ed Gardner) himself. Additional cast: Jack Carson, Mindy Carson, Lauritz Melchior, Ed Wynn, Meredith Willson. Announcer: Ed Herlihy. Music: Meredith Willson and his Orchestra, the Big Show Chorus. Writers: Goodman Ace, Selma Diamond, George Foster, Mort Greene, Frank Wilson.

PREMIERING TODAY . . .

1907---Francis Dee (actress: Lux Radio Theater), Los Angeles; Hot Lips Levine (as Henry Levine; trumpeter: Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street; Strictly From Dixie), London.
1910---Cyril Cusack (actor: Great Expectations), Durban, South Africa.
1915---Earl Wild (pianist: NBC Symphony Orchestra), Pittsburgh.
1917---Adele Jergens (actress: Stand By For Crime), Brooklyn.
1933---Robert Goulet (singer/actor: Guard Session; Voices of Ameria), Lawrence, Massachussetts.