Arthur Lawrence Hellyer Jr.

"[7] Hellyer succeeded with innovative on-air antics and creativity that were not typical yet on radio in the 1950s including wisecracks, offbeat and topical humor, ad-libbed interplay with recorded sound bites including comedy album soundtracks thrown at him by his studio engineer, playing up to four recorded commercials simultaneously to reduce commercial time, playing Christmas music in July, humorously faking live interviews and commercial products, reporting time one hour off or the wrong music performers on April Fools' Days, betting a competitor deejay on another radio station he could play the same songs simultaneously which he won by actually streaming on air the competitor's broadcast live on his station, and taking creative liberties with commercial announcements that sometimes led to friction with management.

Hellyer earned his private pilot's license at Chanute Field, Illinois, and then completed a U.S. Armed Services certificate program in Meteorology at Baer Field, Indiana, later serving in the weather corps of the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) stateside supporting pilot training flights during World War II.

His early career (between 1947 and 1950) included hosting radio programs at WOWO-AM Fort Wayne, Indiana; WMRO-AM Aurora, Illinois; and WISN-AM, WMAW-AM and WMIL-AM, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he also reported news throughout the night of the Truman-Dewey election in 1948.

In Milwaukee he often broadcast live from "remote" local music venues, emceeing stage and ballroom performances with Patti Page, Liberace, Ken Griffin, Frankie Laine and other entertainers.

[34] Provided on-air ABC-TV news anchoring on Chicago's WBKB (now WLS-TV) coverage while working 24 hours a day November 22–24, 1963 following President John F. Kennedy's assassination.