Martin Block

Martin Block
Block at ABC Radio, 1957.
Born	(1903-02-03)February 3, 1903 Los Angeles
Died	September 18, 1967(1967-09-18) (aged 64) Englewood, New Jersey
Network	NBC ABC Mutual Broadcasting System Voice of America

Martin Block (February 3, 1903 – September 18, 1967) was an American disc jockey. Walter Winchell is said to have invented the term "disk jockey" as a means of describing Block's radio work.

A native of Los Angeles, Block began working in radio in Tijuana, Mexico; before that, he sold small household items and appliances. At the age of only 13, he became an office boy at General Electric. When his career had stalled in Los Angeles, Block moved his family to New York; he was only there for a week before he got an announcing job. Block came up with two famous advertising slogans for his sponsors: "ABC-Always Buy Chesterfield" for Liggett & Myers and "LSMFT"-Lucky Strike Means Fine Tobacco" for Lucky Strike. He was also an avid amateur radio operator with a large station at his home in Englewood, New Jersey.

In 1934, Block went to work for WNEW at a salary of $20 per week. In 1935, while listeners to New York's WNEW in New York (now information outlet WBBR) were awaiting developments in the Lindbergh kidnapping, Block built his audience by playing records between the Lindbergh news bulletins. This led to his Make Believe Ballroom, which began on February 3, 1935 with Block borrowing both the concept and the title from West Coast disc jockey Al Jarvis, creating the illusion that he was broadcasting from a ballroom with the nation’s top dance bands performing live. He bought some records from a local music shop for the program as the radio station had none. Block purchased five Clyde McCoy records, selecting his "Sugar Blues" for the radio show's initial theme song.

Because Block was told by the station's sales staff that nobody would sponsor a radio show playing music, he had to find himself a sponsor. Block lined up a producer of reducing pills called "Retardo". Within a week of sponsoring the program, the company had over 3,000 responses to the ads on Block's radio show.

Block's style of announcing was considerably different than the usual manner of delivery at the time. Instead of speaking in a voice loud enough to be heard in a theater, Block spoke in a normal voice, as if he was having a one-on-one conversation with a listener. When one of Block's sponsors offered a sale on refrigerators during a New York snowstorm, 109 people braved the elements for the bargain Block advertised; by 1941 potential sponsors for his show had to be put on a waiting list for availabilities.