KGO Radio, San Francisco
Walter Winchell

May 1942

A photograph of famed newspaper and radio gossip columnist Walter Winchell (“Good evening, Mr. and Mrs. America and all the ships at sea. Let’s go to press!”) at the KGO Blue Network microphone, at left, with Major Harry Martin, whose wife was the Hollywood gossip maven Louella Parsons.

Winchell was in San Francisco to broadcast his news and commentary program from KGO’s new Blue Network studios at the recently-opened NBC Radio City complex at Taylor and O’Farrell streets.

The cut sheet for the photograph, affixed to the back, reads:

LIEUTENANT-COMMANDER WALTER WINCHELL WAS GREETED BY MAJOR HARRY MARTIN, OF THE USS. ARMY MEDICAL STAFF ATTACHED TO LETTERMAN HOSPITAL, AT SAN FRANCISCO’S PRESIDIO HEADQUARTERS OF THE FOURTH ARMY COMMAND, FOLLOWING WINCHELL’S COAST-TO-COAST NEWS BROADCAST, THE FIRST TO COME FROM THE KGO-BLUE NETWORK STUDIOS AT SAN FRANCISCO’S NEW RADIO CITY. MAJOR MARTIN, WHOSE WIFE IS THE NOTED HOLLYWOOD COLUMNIST, LOUELLA PARSONS, IS AIDING NEW YORK’S COLUMNIST WINCHELL IN ARRANGEMENTS FOR THE PRESENCE OF MANY FILM AND RADIO STARS ON THE HUGE U.S. NAVY RELIEF SHOW AT THE CIVIC AUDITORIUM, TUESDAY, MAY 19th.