Bartell Group

The Bartell siblings were the children of Russian Jews Benjamin and Lena Beznor. Belle (1906–2005), The family name of Beznor gradually evolved to Bartell, as late as 1949 and then 1953, David and Lee were still using Beznor in their public business work, until they switched too for consistency. == An interest in radio ==

The family's interest in radio began with Gerald Bartell's time at the University of Wisconsin during the 1930s, when he was on the student staff of university-owned station WHA. As one university history states, Gerald was "a talented student with natural ability for acting and producing." Gerald subsequently became part of the faculty at the University of Wisconsin, While in Rochester he worked at radio station WHAM. Rosa too was a student at the University of Wisconsin and on the staff at WHA, where she was a singer, songwriter, program producer, and music librarian. There she met Ralph Evans, an electrical engineering student who worked at the station as a broadcast engineer, and they subsequently married a couple of years later. == Family in World War II ==

Captain Melvin Bartell served in the United States Army in the Pacific Ocean theater of World War II as part of the Armed Forces Radio Service (AFRS). On the station Bartell devoted the programming to original shows about the occupation, overseas Army shows such as Command Performance, as well as rebroadcasts of popular American shows. Meanwhile, Rosa and Ralph Evans moved to Washington, D.C., where he worked as a civilian for the United States Navy in classified research into radar. Following that he became a naval aviation ensign and served for three years with the VPB-92 patrol bombing squadron including off the coast of Morocco during the North African Campaign. == Entering the radio business in Milwaukee ==

By January 1946, Melvin Bartell had returned to the United States. Following his discharge, he pursued a career as a singer. Rosa and Ralph Evans returned to Wisconsin, where he finished his engineering degree. The Bartells had their origin in radio in the Milwaukee area, in the form of WEXT, a 1,000-watt daytimer radio station at 1430 kilocycles in Milwaukee. It was founded by Lee, David, Gerald, and Rosa Bartell Evans and began operations on August 31, 1947. Its studio was located on Milwaukee's South Side. With WEXT finding an audience but only barely profitable, In doing so they formed a new company named the Bartell Group. WOKY launched in September 1950. WOKY initially aired a full-service variety format similar to WEXT's, including popular music shows and programs oriented toward housewives and children. This included the continuation of Playtime for Children. Audience figures went up once the station concentrated on a music-and-news format. WOKY is also noteworthy for being the first station in Milwaukee to broadcast traffic reports from a helicopter, courtesy of air personality Art Zander and his feature "The Safer Route". By October 1952, WOKY was the third-most popular radio station in the city. == Musical activities ==

Melvin did not join in the radio business right away. Still pursuing his singing career, he appeared in the opera Street Scene on Broadway in 1947. The following year, he received honorable mention in American Theater Wing auditions to perform a debut recital. That led to an engagement to sing leading baritone roles with the Covent Garden Opera in London during 1949. He lived in Italy for a while and sang there, and by 1958 was president of that organization. Gerald Bartell, meanwhile, capitalized on his children's program to release a series of children's 78 rpm phonograph records under the name Jerry Bartell. The first of these came out in 1948 and was called Tingo, the Story of a Clown, a 12-minute tale that had been written by his wife Joyce. They featured him playing the characters and singing the songs. Subsequent releases included the song collections Playtime and ''Jerry Bartell's Playtime Album in 1949, and Pat and the Pixies and The Men Who Come To Our House in 1950, both of which his wife Joyce wrote the stories for. In a review, Billboard said of Pat and the Pixies'' that it was a "sensitive" and "warm" adaptation of an Irish folk tale, but that Bartell's following from Playtime for Children was not big enough to expect large-scale sales of the record. to stations such as KTVI-TV Channel 2 in St. Louis, which broadcast it on Saturday mornings during 1957–58. == Expansion ==

The Bartell family expanded to radio stations beyond Milwaukee. The full list of radio stations included: • WEXT 1430 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1947, shut down 1950 • KCHA 1580 in Charles City, Iowa in early 1950s • KCBQ 1170 in San Diego, California, bought 1955 • KYA 1260 in San Francisco, California, bought 1958, sold 1962 This was followed by WOKY-TV Channel 19 in Milwaukee in October 1953. It was bought by CBS the following year. The Bartell Group also became involved in the creation of Telecuraçao and Telearuba, television stations in the Caribbean islands of Curaçao and Aruba, with the former starting in 1960 and the latter in 1963. Each station was on the air for about eight hours per day. The full list of family television stations thus included: • WMTV-TV Channel 33 in Madison, Wisconsin in 1953; Gerald Bartell was president of the Bartell Group. In any case, by 1958, Bartell Family Radio was termed by Billboard magazine to be "one of the most successful chains of radio stations in the industry." == Pioneers of Top 40 radio ==

In time, pop music became the primary component of WOKY's schedule, with disc jockeys choosing the songs they played based on the Billboard and Cash Box best-seller charts and on local record sales. WOKY served as the city's premier hits-playing station during most of the 1960s and was known for much of that time as the "Mighty 92". The Top 40 radio format was coming into being during the 1950s and on; Northern Michigan University scholar Charles F. Ganzert has written that the innovation of the Top 40 format helped keep radio a viable business after the advent of the television era. Music author Jim Curtis has written, "If we speak of pioneer innovations in Top 40, we must speak of three men: Todd Storz, Gordon McLendon, and Gerald Bartell." Storz and McLendon clearly got the most attention in the radio industry press for their actions, while Bartell got less and Plough none at all. However, Bartell may have benefited from Milwaukee being an out-of-the-way city and thus being able to innovate without purveyors of conventional wisdom telling him what could or could not be done. The Bartells sold it in 1962. The Bartells were not always tied to the Top 40 format, however. In May 1959, Bartell Broadcasters acquired New York radio station WOV and then changed its call letters to WADO, with Melvin Bartell running it. The station focused on ethnic programming. Melvin said in general of the siblings' radio station approach: "It is for the whole family, with music for the family. The concept of the Bartell Group is something of interest for everybody, of music, features, news and editorials." == Macfadden-Bartell era ==

Until 1960, Bartell Broadcasting Corporation was privately owned. In that year, it became a public company, listed on the over-the-counter market based in New York. However, due to delays cause by a shareholder suit that was eventually resolved, the merger did not become effective until a year later, when the new company became known as Macfadden-Bartell. Gerald became chairman of the company, Lee the president, and Melvin the secretary. Macfadden-Bartell was listed on the American Stock Exchange. Macfadden's pulp magazine business had been in decline, much as the radio business had been in the 1940s and 1950s with the advent of television; as The New York Times said, "The rise of the Bartells stems from a rather simple, if harrowing, formula. They specialize in buying into an industry after other entrepreneurs have decided that the industry is in decline." Melvin becomes executive vice president of Bartell Media Corporation,the imprint expanded into first editions of new material after the purchase by the Bartell Group (Coffee, Tea or Me?, Mannequin: My Life as a Model). For the first half of 1967, Bartell Media Corporation reported revenues of $15 million and earnings of $200,000. But then in November 1967, the brokerage firm Weis, Voisin, Cannon purchased additional stock such that the siblings were for the first time now in the minority, owning only 35–40 percent of the company. There was a shuffle at the directors level and Melvin and David Bartell were no longer officers of the company, leaving only Gerald and Lee in positions at that level. All of the Bartell siblings and in-laws resigned or retired from their positions in Bartell Media Corporation, and a new president, Earl H. Tiffany, was named for Bartell Media Corporation. Gerald did retain a title of executive consultant. == Later years ==

Lee Bartell subsequently became a force in the San Diego area hotel industry, including ownership of the Humphrey's Half Moon Inn and the La Jolla Village Inn. Lee Bartell sold KMJC in 1989. Gerald Bartell remained active in the arts, During a 1972 interview with a scholar he seemed to express regret regarding his days in marketing his radio stations, saying "I'm glad to get the hell out of it, frankly. I never felt real clean doing it. I never felt as if I were doing the best work that I could do. I feel much more competent doing other things like work in the arts and drama." where much of the extended family gradually migrated to. He died in 2006 at age 89. David Bartell had remained a lawyer; he generally had less to do with the radio business than the other siblings. Ralph Evans founded an engineering consulting firm, Evans and Associates, which provided services to both public organizations and agencies. His wife Rosa Evans also worked for Evans and Associates == Legacy ==

The Bartell Group is credited with being one of the inventors of the Top 40 radio format. In 2010, a monument to KCBQ was put up in the Santee suburb of San Diego, honoring the station and Lee Bartell's role with it. While many of the Bartell-owned radio stations have switch formats since that era, WADO in New York is still a Spanish-language station. Gerald Bartell and Rosa Bartell Evans have both been inducted into the Wisconsin Broadcasters Hall of Fame, as has Ralph Evans. The Bartell Theatre in Madison, Wisconsin is named after Gerald and is run by the Gerald A. Bartell Community Theatre Foundation. Gerald Bartell has been described in that city's Isthmus newspaper as a "Madison theater legend and arts supporter." The Joyce J. and Gerald A. Bartell Award in the Arts is given out yearly by the University of Wisconsin, as one of several awards with which the university's Arts Institute "recognizes achievements and professional service, along with supporting future creative endeavors and research." == References ==