WHER — 1000 Beautiful Watts, Part 1
Lost and Found Sound: The First All-Girl Radio Station
WHER -- 1000 Beautiful Watts, Part 1
Listen to Part 2
Listen to Becky Phillips Recreate Her Radio Show
The girls from WHER, circa 1955 Courtesy of Becky Phillips hide caption
Sam & Becky Phillips, 1966 hide caption
They went on-air October 29, 1955, in Memphis, Tennessee, and stayed there for 17 more years -- WHER: The First All-Girl Radio Station in The World.
Legendary record producer Sam Phillips had always wanted a radio station. When the FCC finally gave him a frequency, 1430 on the AM dial, Sam came up with a one-of-a-kind idea -- an all girl format -- women announcers, sales staff, management, record librarians, copy writers ...
At the time, stations had at most one girl announcer. Each woman who interviewed for a job at WHER thought she would be that girl. It wasn't until the day before the station went on the air that the girls themselves found out the station would be all female.
Sam Phillips and the girls of WHER recently had a reunion in Memphis. In this special segment of Lost & Found Sound Online, we bring you their story -- a unique chapter in the history of broadcasting