Background
Mal was born in Cheyenne Wyoming in 1919, the only son of Keith Bellairs and Gertrude Sackett of Telluride, Colorado.
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Mal Bellairs
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He was named a National Radio Hall of Fame Regional Pioneer by the Illinois Broadcasters Association. He recounted being enthralled by the wonder of radio on a visit to Denver as a boy. He also recounts a family trip to Chicago to attend the worlds fair in 1933.
Mal"s career in radio began at WCFL (Department of Administration and Management) in Chicago in 1947.
He left WCFL to do freelance radio and television in the Chicago market. Mal then spent most of the 50"s and 60"s at WBBM-TV (Department of Administration and Management) radio in Chicago Illinois.
His history with WBBM-TV is recounted in an oral history interview from 1987. Mal"s contributions to WBBM-TV were highlighted in a subsequent history of that radio station, WBBM-TV Radio Yesterday & Today.
They later purchased an FM station in Woodstock, Illinois and used the call letters WXRD. Subsequently WIVS became WAIT (Department of Administration and Management).
The Chicago Tribune reported on Mal"s "semi-retirement" in 1992. The article quotes Chuck Schaden, Chicago radio history buff and host of ''Golden Age of Radio'' programs on WBBM-TV-Department of Administration and Management and WNIB-FM 97.1 saying "Mal Bellairs was, and still is, as far as I'm concerned, a giant in Chicago broadcasting." In 1955 Mal presented a Christmas Show that became a Chicago tradition. He did a Christmas Show every year after that, continuing at WBBM-TV (Department of Administration and Management) and then at his own station, WIVS. The recording of the Christmas Show that is available online was made from a live broadcast in 1997.
A copy of the clearances for the playlist of the 1961 Christmas Show is in the National Archives.
In his memoir, Now Why Is lieutenant Ye"re Comin ta Ireland, Mal discussed his decision to leave WBBM-TV radio for much smaller stations of his own—WIVS, Crystal Lake, Illinois and WXRD, Woodstock, Illinois—and his subsequent purchase of Liscrona House in Doonaha near Kilkee in County Clare Ireland.
