WA2K Radio is now on the air

Born into a Welsh family on April 29, 1904 in Scranton, Pennsylvania, Russ Morgan was encouraged to express himself musically from the tender age of seven. He came by his ability naturally since his father, a coal-mine foreman, was a former musician who played drums in the local band in his spare time with his mother, before her marriage, had been a pianist in a vaudeville act. Almost at the same age that he began to study piano, he began to work in the mines in order to earn money to help support his family and pay for his lessons.
He was a major arranger and composer in the pre-rock era. He played in New York groups during the early '20s and did arrangements for Victor Herbert and John Philip Sousa.. He played with Freddy Martin in 1934 and formed his own band in 1936. During the late '30s, '40s, and '50s, he led an extremely successful orchestra.