Bert Winn Electrical Transcription Disc

Bert Winn (born Rittner B. Winn, 1904-1980) was a familiar voice on Bay Area radio before and after World War 2.

He was an announcer and later program director at Oakland station KROW. When World War 2 broke out, Winn added duties with the Office of War Information, whose San Francisco office managed media distribution, domestic public messaging on the West Coast, and support for overseas information campaigns directed across the Pacific.

In his early work at OWI, Winn played the role of "Jack" on the radio program Hi Neighbor. The program fictionalized a small town radio station, with hometown news, corny jokes, and interviews with local celebrities. Distributed by the Armed Forces Radio Service, military personnel overseas quickly became fans, and Winn's co-star "Jill" (Martha Wilkerson) would go on to fame as "G.I. Jill" on the long-running broadcast G.I. Jive.

After overseas service with OWI, Winn would spend time in radio management in Hawaii before returning to Northern California.

The recording presented here was made in early 1949. Though the only information available to us was the name "Bert Winn" penciled on the sleeve of an unlabeled 16" Electrical Transcription (ET) disc, we can surmise an approximate date based on some of the items in the newscast. The timeframe and the content allow us to conclude that this recording was made at Stockton station KXOB (later KJOY).

There are portions of a newscast as well as a recorded introduction to The Second Cup, a daily midmorning program hosted by Elizabethann Winter, who used the air name "Roberta Rice".

Bert Winn would find his way to San Francisco stations KYA and KFRC in the 1950s and 1960s, serving as a disc jockey, a newsman, and host of the popular Lucky Lager Dance Time show.

Winn might be considered the grandfather of Bay Area radio traffic reporting; the Car Tunes program that launched on KYA in 1952 was the first continuing local radio program to openly target auto commuters (Frank Cope's Alarm Klok Klub on KJBS had briefly focused on Bay Bridge traffic when the span opened in 1936). Winn hosted the program from 3:30 to 6 PM each weekday from a studio at the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge toll plaza. He would deliver frequent traffic updates interspersed with news updates and recorded music. A stated goal of the program was to improve traffic safety; a year after its launch, the San Francisco Chronicle would report a significant decrease in traffic collisions on the Bay Bridge while the show was on the air.