John R. Conrad
: 1919-2006


Above:
NBC staff announcer John Conrad in 1956. Conrad, a native of Blue Island, came to the NBC-Chicago studios in the late 1930's as one of the spiffily-clad NBC pages. He subsequently became a staff announcer at KTSM, the NBC affiliate in El Paso, Texas.

Following service in the Navy during World War II, Conrad returned to Chicago and became a staff announcer at WMAQ radio (and later WNBQ television), where his colleagues from the mid-1940's to the early 1950's included Hugh Downs and Dave Garroway.

Chicagoans of a certain age best remember Conrad as the straight man paired with a papier-mache elephant (manipulated by stagehand Kenny Hermann) on WNBQ's "Elmer the Elephant" show which aired on Channel Five in Chicago from 1951 to 1956, generally from 4:30 to 5pm.

The curator recalls Conrad in the mid-1960's as the host of a WMAQ radio disk-jockey show titled "John Conrad and Max", where "Max" was an imaginary turntable operator who gave Conrad the same kind of grief on radio as Elmer had, a decade earlier, on television.

Conrad made a graceful exit from broadcasting in 1968 when he moved to southern California and began a career as an entrepreneur (one of his ventures was a Dollar Rent-A-Car franchise in Hollywood).

Conrad died on February 7th, 2006 of heart and kidney failure in Westlake Village, California.

Curator's note: Click here to access streaming video of John Conrad's visit to the Merchandise Mart studios in 1989, a day before the move to the NBC Tower.

QUICK ACCESS LINKS:
Introduction and main index to this site
WMAQ radio history | "Amos 'n' Andy" | "Fibber McGee and Mollie" | "The Breakfast Club"
Dick Kay | Television at the Merchandise Mart | 1970 television facilities tour | Channel 5 turns 20
The "Chicago School" of television | "Kukla, Fran and Ollie" | Dave Garroway | Mary Hartline
"Lights Out" | Sound effects | 1930 studio tour | WLS | "Empire Builders" | Barry Bernson
Floyd Kalber | The Queen of Love and Beauty | "Today's Children" | Staff announcers | Carol Marin
Ron Magers | Studs Terkel l "Chicago Tonight" | Channel 5 News scrapbooks |Roger Miller recalls
Zoo Parade | Clifton and Frayne Utley | Val Press | Len O'Connor | Johnny Erp | Bill Ray | Daddy-O
Experimental Television: 1930-1933 | Bob Deservi | Kermit Slobb | Ding Dong School | Quiz Kids
Bob Lemon | The Korshak Chronicles | KYW: The Chicago Years | WENR | O.B. Hanson | Renzo
Jack Eigen | Ed Grennan | The World's Best Cup of Coffee | Glenn Webster | Mr. Piano | Hawkins Falls
Chicago Television for Kids |
Radio Hall of Fame |The NBC News Night Report: 23 February, 1967
Audio and video downloads
About the Curator

Comments or suggestions? click here to send them to Rich Samuels

Created by Rich Samuels (e-mail to rich@richsamuels.com)