Produced by The Kitchen Sisters, Davia Nelson & Nikki Silva
with Valerie Velardi
Listen to the whole story with RealAudio in
14.4 or
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Listen to Part 1 in G2 SureStream.
See a listing of credits and a discography from this very special feature.
Read and Listen to Part 2 of the WHER story.
Read letters of response to the WHER feature.
Web Exclusives:
Listen as Becky Phillips recreates her radio show from the 1950s with the music that helped define the era - Real Audio - 14.4 or
28.8 flavors.
Read, Listen and See more from the WHER reunion in Memphis. Includes a special Real Video segment.
View the WHER Photo Gallery.
More on WHER with Jaqueline Hall and Peter Guaralnick.
The girls from WHER, circa 1955
Photo courtesy of Becky Phillips
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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 ...
Sam & Becky Phillips,
1966
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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.
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Copyright © 1999 The Kitchen Sisters
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