The Night Jingles Were Born: WCCO Radio’s Greatest Broadcast Moments

WCCO Radio, serving the key Minneapolis/St. Paul market, holds the honor for airing the nation’s first singing commercial for Wheaties in 1926. The historic event is vividly told in The Night Jingles Were Born. The jingle raised Wheaties’ awareness; soon becoming a leading brand in the cereal industry. And it triggered WCCO’s string of broadcast milestones, to make it one of the nation’s great stations. Jingles became an integral part of radio, and was a successful industry all its own. The author, Dick Hill, was a pageboy during WCCO’s heydays, when nearly every radio was tuned to 8-3-0. His station experiences, inside skinny, and vignette writing style, make the book a joy to read. WCCO owned Saturday night with its two-hour musical extravaganza, Saturday Nite Radio Party, airing legendary shows like Cedric Adams’ Stairway to Stardom. Hill worked in every nook and cranny of the station, and has amazing stories about celebrities that visited WCCO. Because of social and technological changes, listener habits started changing in the 1960’s, and affected ratings. Listeners no longer wanted full service format stations that featured live 20-piece orchestras. Consequently, WCCO took a free fall in the marketplace. But as a proven pioneer, they picked themselves up, dusted themselves off, and reinvented themselves into a successful news/talk format station. The Night Jingles Were Born is a smart read for media and history buffs – and a smart book to grace any coffee table.