The end of the 20th Century was marked by an explosion of listmaking among popular-culture writers -- 100 Top TV Moments, 100 Top Movie Moments, 100 Top Music Moments, and so many others. But typical of the manner in which radio is consistently overlooked by prominent media writers, no such list of Radio Moments appeared -- until the following list, first presented on the Internet Old Time Radio Digest in the fall of 1999, and subsequently published in serial form by the Radio Historical Association of Colorado. Since that time the list has been widely distributed, both via the Web and by media studies professors who have used it as a springboard for classroom discussion.
However, most of these republications of the list have omitted the explanation of what criteria were used in creating it. The original purpose was to recognize individual moments or radio-era phenomena that fit one of two categories: either major "Shared National Experiences" or moments that marked a particular milestone in the evolution of the medium. The list was consciously confined to the generally-accepted Old-Time Radio Era (ending 1962), thus omitting such latter-day phenomena as Limbaugh, Stern, Imus, and the like.
Many of the names and moments featured will be familiar to anyone with
a passing acquaintance with the history of broadcasting -- while others
have vanished from the national memory, despite the impact they had at
the time of their original airing. But all are moments, accomplishments,
and people worth remembering.
100. The Flight Of Alan Shepard 5/5/61
America's entry into the Manned Space Age comes as the Radio Era enters
its final year, but millions of Americans follow the flight by means of
portable radios, car radios, and other receivers -- as if to confirm that
there'll always be a place for the audio medium.
99. Truth or Consequences: The "Mr. Hush" Contest. Winter 1945-46
A harbinger of things to come, this guess-who-it-is contest ushered
in a new era of listener-participation quiz shows that would help change
the face of radio in the postwar era.
98. Sherlock Holmes on the Air. 10/20/30
Famed actor William Gillette is the first Holmes to take the network
air -- the first of many to follow. The Holmes story format is ideally-suited
for radio, and the program proves to be one of the most successful dramas
of the Depression era.
97. Cruise Of The Seth Parker. 1934-35
Radio listeners follow the adventuring Phillips Lord around the world
by shortwave -- an adventure that takes on a harrowing real-life flavor
when Lord's schooner is wrecked by a tropical storm. The program's reputation
is wrecked as well, when it's revealed that Lord wasn't exactly living
up to Seth Parker's Yankee-parson image during his adventure: accompanied
by wine, women, and the sort of songs that weren't found in the hymnals
back in Jonesport
96. The Rise Of Dorothy and Dick. 1945
Charming chit-chat in the morning with Richard Kollmar and Dorothy
Kilgallen -- foreshadowing the modern man/woman TV talk show teams. Think
of them as the Regis and Kathie Lee of the forties.
95. The Rise Of Wendell Hall. 1923-24
He was a bombastic Southern-fried ukulele-playing balladeer -- and
radio's first national superstar, thanks to his long series of appearances
on the pioneering "EverReady Hour." Everyone who owned a two-tube regenerative
in the twenties knew all the choruses to "It Ain't Gonna Rain No' Mo',"
and thousands flocked to his personal appearances, helping to prove the
power of the new medium.
94. Walter Winchell Hits His Peak. 1941
Loud, brassy, and abrasive, Winchell was the most influential newspaperman
in the country at the dawn of the forties -- and his Sunday night news-and-comment
program was by far the most-listened-to news-related program on the air
in the last months before US involvement in WW2.
93. Arthur Bagley, Network Radio's First Morning Man. 1926
He's forgotten today, but he paved the way for all the network early-bird
shows. His "Tower Health Exercises" program for Metropolitan Life got NBC
listeners up and doing from the formation of the network well into the
mid-thirties, even as his zany antics with his mascot, the Goofus Bird,
set the tone for a legion of morning-men who would follow.
92. One Man's Family goes National. 5/17/33
Already a hit on the West Coast, Carlton Morse's sensitively-written
and deeply-textured study of an upper-middle-class San Francisco family
gained a national reputation over the full NBC network, and ran for nearly
three decades. There was never another a show quite like it: too serious
to be a soap opera, too thoughtful to be a melodrama -- and sometimes,
even too adult for the kiddies. Morse's mystery shows may have a stronger
modern-day following: but for me, "One Man's Family" stands as his greatest
accomplishment.
91. The Talent Raids 1948-49
CBS skims away the cream of NBC's comedy crop by means of some complicated
tax maneuverings, and the revenues from these programs gives the junior
network a needed boost at the dawn of the television era.
90. Elsie Hitz and Nick Dawson and the rise of Romantic Adventure:
1932
Sexual tension in serial drama is nothing new. The smoldering relationships
of Elsie and Nick brought a vicarious thrill to Depression-weary women
thruout the mid-thirties. The couple starred in three different series
of "exotic, romantic adventure" during these years -- "Dangerous Paradise,"
"Follow The Moon," and "The Magic Voice." Different titles, different settings
-- but the sublimated passion never changed. The concept of the "Super-Couple"
is key to soap opera technique to this day, and it can be argued that Elsie
Hitz and Nick Dawson were the pioneers. Granted, "Mary and Bob" of the
Macfadden True Story Hour came first -- but Elsie and Nick had the mystique.
89. Who's Yehoodi?? Spring 1940
Bob Hope was just another fresh-guy comedian thru the late thirties,
and while he was a rising star on the Pepsodent Show at the dawn of the
new decade, it took a chance exchange with stooge Jerry Colonna over possbile
names for announcer Bill Goodwin's infant son to capture the national imagination.
Was "Yehoodi" a figment of Colonna's imagination? A reference to violinist
Yehudi Menuhin? Or a mysterious personification of prewar jitters? No one
knows -- but that didn't stop all America from asking. And as Americans
became Yehoodi-conscious, they soon made Bob Hope the top-ranked radio
comedian in the land.
88. National Defense Test Day 9/12/24
Broadcasters and the military join forces for an impressive demonstration
of how radio can link the country together in the event of an emergency.
The substance of the evening -- a series of rather tedious speeches, livened
only by one general's seemingly-tipsy rendition of an old barracks song
-- is less important than the technical skills necessary to make it all
happen, as engineers flawlessly shift from point to point along a coast-to-coast
network: demonstrating techniques that would become essential in the years
to come.
87. A Christmas Carol: 12/25/34
A holiday tradition begins as Lionel Barrymore appears for the first
time as Dickens' covetous, grasping old sinner, in a segment of a three-hour
Christmas Day broadcast over CBS, under the sponsorship of the Nash-Kelvinator
Company. The tradition would endure in various formats for the next twenty
years -- and, in recorded form, to this day.
86. The Death of Will Rogers 1935
The "Cowboy Philosopher" was a fixture on radio thruout the Depression
years, and while he had a successful career in movies and as a syndicated
newspaper columnist -- to say nothing of his many years on the stage --by
the early thirties, most Americans knew him as the man with the alarm clock,
giving out wry and sometimes even caustic commentary on the passing scene.
His sudden death in the summer of 1935 sent a nation into mourning.
85. Don Becker's Weak-End Satires 1928
Before he became a soap-opera writer/producer ("Life Can Be Beautiful"),
Don Becker was a ukulele playing utility man at WLW Cincinnati. And he
was also the medium's first notable satirist, parodying the conventions
of radio at a time when they had barely been established. While recording
artists like Jones and Hare had kidded the emerging medium on phonograph
records, Becker took the idea even further: creating an entire fictitious
network and making the day-in day-out effluvia of broadcasting into one
big running gag. His weekly presentation of the programs of the "Lavender
Network" and his depiction of the behind-the-scenes chaos have been echoed
by innumerable comedians. Stoopnagle and Budd, Brad Browne, Raymond Knight,
Fred Allen, Stan Freberg, Bob and Ray, even Saturday Night Live and Second
City have all done it since -- but the forgotten Don Becker blazed the
trail.
84. Shakespeare Summer 1937
Imagine a season in which the two major networks battled for listeners
not with comedians or swing bands - but with the Bard himself. NBC's "Streamlined
Shakespeare" offered condensed plays starring John Barrymore, while the
CBS presentation of "Hollywood Salutes Shakespeare" gave movieland favorites
a crack at the Classics.
83. The Fall Of William L. Shirer 1947
Was he fired for being too liberal? Or was he fired for being lazy?
Was Shirer, later to be blacklisted, the victim and Ed Murrow the villian?
Or was it all just a massive misunderstanding? To this day, arguments rage
over the departure from CBS of the legendary newsman. The real, full story
will probably never be known, but that didn't make the issues raised any
less significant, as radio moved into a dark new era.
82. The Rise of Joe Penner Fall/Winter 1933
Tens of millions of otherwise reasonable radio listeners are captivated
by a bizarre, manic child-man, whose piercing catchphrases echo across
playgrounds and schoolyards, offices and street corners for nearly two
years before the craze fades away. Academics have tried to dissect the
Penner phenomenon -- but in fact there is no rational explanation for it.
It just is.
81. Fall Of The City 4/11/37
Earle McGill's spectacular production of Archibald McLeish's chilling
vision of a not-so-future war brings the Columbia Workshop to maturity.
Hardly anyone was listening -- but many of those who did were themselves
creative radio people, who were profoundly influenced by the program's
power.
80. Bob and Ray Present The CBS Radio Network 1959-60
The best-loved satirists of their era, Bob Elliot and Ray Goulding
rose out of local Boston radio in the late forties to epitomize the postwar
approach to radio comedy. Inspired by the works of Stoopnagle and Budd
and Raymond Knight twenty years before, Bob and Ray kidded radio with a
unique, stream-of-consciousness sensibility, and their 1959-60 series for
CBS presented them at the peak of their creative powers.
79. The Rise of Jessica Dragonette 1930-31
No one who listened to the "Cities Service Concerts" series in the
early 1930s will ever forget her fragile soprano voice -- but the woman
behind that voice was a tough, no-nonsense professional who firmly stood
her ground in battles with sponsors and the network over program formats
and choice of material. Her appeal crossed the boundaries of popular and
classical music, and though her career was compromised by conflicts, her
legend remained.
78. "The Great Gildersleeve" Spins Off 1941
The term "spin-off" really didn't come into wide use until the early
1970s -- but the seeds for the concept go back to Fibber McGee's puffed-up
neighbor. While "Gildersleeve" wasn't strictly the first program to "spin
off" from another if you think in terms of variety-hour derivatives like
"The Aldrich Family" and "We The People," it was the first important series
to be based on a supporting character from another program -- and it was
also the most enduring. Harold Peary's textured performance in the title
role (until 1950), a solid supporting cast, and brilliant writing -- especially
by the team of John Whedon and Sam Moore -- helped give "Gildersleeve"
the longest first-run life of any "spin off" series, radio or TV.
77. The Rise and Fall of the Liberty Broadcasting System 1948-1952
It all started with the mercurial Gordon McLendon, and his need to
fill time on his Dallas radio station, KLIF. Looking for cheap, appealing
programming, he decided to feature recreated Major League baseball games.
But he didn't figure on the results -- in an era in which the westernmost
Major League clubs were located in St. Louis, the entire western half of
the United States was hungry for big league action. McLendon began to line
up regional affiliates, and by 1951, his operation had gone national. McLendon
was an innovator, no question about it -- but he was also, to put it bluntly,
a pirate. He had no legal right to air the games he was airing -- and Major
League Baseball went after him in court. Liberty was driven into bankruptcy,
but McLendon was a survivor -- who would go on to be one of the innovators
of the "Top Forty" Format.
76. Hollywood Speaks on the Dodge Victory Hour 3/29/28
As the "talkie revolution" terrorizes the film capital, a phalanx of
Hollywood's biggest names faces the microphone: Mary Pickford and Douglas
Fairbanks, Charlie Chaplin, D. W. Griffith, John Barrymore, Dolores Del
Rio, Norma Talmadge, and Gloria Swanson. Fairbanks was MC, Chaplin told
Jewish and Cockney dialect jokes, Barrymore offered a scene from Hamlet,
Del Rio performed a song, and the others delivered short talks --as millions
of Americans heard the voices of these film favorites for the first time.
And judging from the reviews, many of those listeners weren't at all impressed.
Nonetheless, the show marks the start of a long liason between Big Time
Radio and Hollywood.
75. Gunsmoke and the rise of the Adult Western 1952
The heroes don't wear white hats or shoot silver bullets. The villians
don't snarl and twirl their mustaches. And the endings are rarely happy.
Norman MacDonnell and John Meston gave radio a searingly-realistic drama:
a western for people who hate westerns, and perhaps the most relentlessly
adult program of the entire OTR era -- and its success contributes to a
final "golden age" flurry of quality radio drama.
74. A Fireside Mystery Chat 10/17/36
A paid political broadcast over CBS by the Republican National Committee
takes the art of "negative campaigning" to new heights, as Senator Arthur
Vandenburg conducts a mock debate -- pitting himself against out-of-context
recordings of President Roosevelt. The program itself is controversial
and is made even more so by the fact that CBS cuts it off the air -- not
on political grounds as charged by the GOP, but on the grounds that the
use of recordings violates the network prohibition on transcriptions! Nevertheless,
the program pioneers the use -- and abuse -- of political "sound bites."
73. The Rise and Fall of "Pot O' Gold" Fall-Winter 1939/40
A venal twist on the old carnival wheel-of-fortune gimmick, this big-money
quiz is the first network program to offer large sums of money to listeners
waiting by their phones at home. The series becomes a national craze before
NBC decides it's too close to a lottery for comfort. The basic concept
would resurface on ABC after the war as the infamous "Stop The Music."
72. Unemployment Relief Program 10/18/31
Stars join forces for a spectacular dual network program urging the
"haves" to help the "have-nots" as the Depression nears rock bottom. President
Hoover delivers a cold-comfort speech stressing his belief that relief
is the responsibility of the states and local charities and not the federal
government -- and Will Rogers doesn't sound like he's smiling as he delivers
an uncharacteristically bitter critique of the American Way Of Doing Business.
71. Hugo Black Defends Himself 10/1/37
For the first time, an embattled national political figure uses radio
to directly answer charges against him. A decade before, this Supreme Court
nominee had belonged to the Ku Klux Klan -- and over an all-network hookup,
he came before the American people to explain himself and to repudiate
the organization. Black went on to a career as one of the court's most
distinguished liberals -- and his speech set a take-it-to-the-people precedent
that would be followed in years to come by such figures as Richard Nixon
and Bill Clinton
70. The London Naval Conference 1/21/30
World leaders gather in the British capital to discuss Naval arms limitations
-- and radio allows the world to listen in. NBC listeners follow the conference
by BBC shortwave relay in a day-long special broadcast -- the first international
news story to be covered in such a manner. It's also the first time American
audiences hear a broadcast by a British monarch, as King George V opens
the ceremonies.
69. Dragnet - a new era in police drama 1949
Just a cop doing his job, for thirty minutes a week. No wisecracks,
no gum-chewing gun molls, no threadbare private eye cliches. Jack Webb
created a whole new genre of radio crime drama -- a world of hard-working,
down-to-earth law enforcement professionals who always finished their paperwork.
His influence is with us yet.
68. Superman Battles Intolerance 1946-47
Juvenile adventure characters had always fought well-defined, simplistic
villains: robbers, smugglers, pirates, Nazis. But in the first postwar
spring, the mightiest hero of them all tackles a terrifying new enemy --
terrifying because he lives in every child's hometown. Terrifying because
he might live right next door. Terrifying because he or she might be your
own father or mother. Or, maybe, might even be you yourself. "Superman's"
crusade against hate and bigotry is by far the most complex subject matter
ever taken on by a children's program -- and over the next year, is a recurring
theme in the series: breaking new ground for a genre which is usually concerned
with issues no more complicated than selling cereal -- and, hopefully,
helping to open the eyes of a generation of kids.
67. Mae West meets Charlie McCarthy 12/12/37
"Why Don't You Come Play In My --- Woodpile," purrs the sultry movie
star to a flustered wooden puppet, to the nervous laughter of the studio
audience. Earlier in the evening, Mae West had traded mild ribaldries with
Don Ameche in the famous "Garden of Eden" sketch as a guest on the Chase
and Sanborn Hour -- and it's that sketch that generates all the uproar,
thanks to complaints from Catholic religious authorities in New York. But
the truly explicit material comes later in the evening in Miss West's innuendo-filled
exchange with Charlie McCarthy: possibly the bluest ten minutes the Red
Network ever aired.
66. Kate Smith's War Bond Marathons 1944
Radio stars are wholehearted in their support for the war effort, but
none more so than Kate Smith. Twice, she mounts round-the-clock marathon
appeals for War Loan Drives -- appearing every hour on the hour on CBS
to urge listeners to support the campaigns. By wars' end, Kate Smith is
by far the show-business bond-selling champion: personally responsible
for raising more than $600,000,000 for the war effort.
65. Lux Presents Hollywood 6/1/36
He doesn't produce the show. He doesn't direct it. He has nothing to
do with casting it or choosing the scripts. He sometimes doesn't even show
up for rehearsals. All he does is read lines someone else has written for
him. But to listeners, none of that matters. Cecil B. DeMille is Hollywood.
And when a two-year-old dramatic anthology moves to the film capital in
mid-1936, the J. Walter Thompson Agency makes a brilliant move in tapping
him to host. In interviews, he often takes public credit for work he didn't
do -- a nod here to the unsung agency men who were the real masterminds
of the program: Danny Danker, Tony Stanford, and Frank Woodruff -- but
nevertheless DeMille wraps the program in his own mystique: and makes the
Lux Radio Theatre a national institution.
64. Flood Tide for Demagogues 1935
Senator Huey P. Long, Father Charles E. Coughlin, The Reverend Gerald
L. K. Smith, Dr. Francis Townsend. Names that may not mean much today,
but to radio listeners in the spring of 1935, they represent the thundering
voice of political extremism. Promoting a weird blend of free-silver populism,
anti-Semitism, and what can only be described as an Americanized "national
socialism," Long, Coughlin, Smith and Townsend are all over the airwaves
-- both the mainstream networks, and in Coughlin's case over a coast-to-coast
private hookup -- and millions of Depression-weary listeners are paying
close attention to what they have to say. The assassination of Long removes
the movement's most popular speaker from the scene -- but his colleagues
carry on, sponsoring a third-party presidential candidate in 1936. Pressure
from this radio-driven movement has a lasting effect, as the Roosevelt
administration defuses one of its most potent weapons -- the Townsend Revolving
Old Age Pension Plan -- by promoting an alternative: the SocialSecurity
Act. One is left to ponder -- with a shudder -- what might have happened
had Long been alive to head the "Union Party" ticket in 1936.
63. Amos' Wedding 12/25/35
Seven years to the night after they became engaged, Amos Jones and
Ruby Taylor are wed in a simple, dignified Christmas Night ceremony that
caps the golden era of "Amos 'n' Andy," and marks the culmination of one
of radio's most memorable love stories -- the tale of an unschooled but
earnest young man from the country in love with a well-bred, college-educated
young city woman. It was a tender, gentle romance which endured economic
hardship, family tragedies, misunderstandings, and a near-fatal illness,
all the while helping to establish precedents which would be followed in
soap opera and "family drama" for decades to come.
62. Arthur Godfrey Goes National 1945
It isn't the first time he's heard on a network, but when Arthur Godfrey
greets his coast-to-coast listeners on the morning of April 30, 1945, he
stakes out a claim that would keep him there for twenty-seven years. Along
the way, he becomes CBS's greatest moneymaker, and an influence on an entire
generation of broadcasting personalities. One can make a convincing case
that Godfrey was the greatest simple communicator ever to face the mike.
61. WLS National Barn Dance moves to the "Hayloft" 1928
Chicago was the capital of country music during the twenties and early
thirties -- and WLS was its headquarters, reaching a vast audience all
over the midwest. The primary showcase for the station's impressive roster
of musical talent is the Saturday night "National Barn Dance" program --on
the air since 1924 -- and when this series moves to Chicago's Eighth Street
Theatre, soon to be known as "The Hayloft," it enters its golden era. In
1933, the show goes national: and Lulu Belle and Scotty, the Hoosier Hot
Shots, the Vass Family, the Maple City Four, Uncle Ezra, and all the rest
find a whole new audience.
60. We Hold These Truths 12/15/41
An eloquent paen to the Bill Of Rights by Norman Corwin, featuring
a cast of big-name stars and heard over all networks becomes one of the
most-heard single broadcasts of the entire radio era, with an estimated
audience in excess of sixty million. Coming just a week after the US entered
the Second World War, the program sets the tone for Corwin's wartime output
-- programs stressing a uniquely populist brand of patriotism.
59. Sorry Wrong Number 5/25/43
It's lost a lot of its impact from constant repetition -- is there
anyone out there who doesn't know how it ends? But Agnes Moorehead's handwringing
tour-de-force performance in Lucille Fletcher's tight little murder story
is, in many ways, the essence of the radio suspense drama. Its notoriety
helps land CBS's sustaining "Suspense" series a big-budget sponsor, and
helps lay the foundation for a twenty-year run.
58. Light's Golden Jubilee 10/21/29
Radio joins the nation together in tribute to the fiftieth anniversary
of the invention of the electric light bulb. Thomas Edison himself is the
guest of honor in an elaborate ceremony broadcast from Dearborn, Michigan
under the auspices of Henry Ford, and President Hoover heads a long list
of dignitaries on hand for the festivities. Even Albert Einstein joins
in by shortwave from Germany. Graham McNamee, at mikeside for NBC, and
Ted Husing for CBS, give a stirring descriptions of the highlight of the
evening -- the reenactment of the lighting of the first electric bulb.
The entire event is one huge publicity gimmick, orchestrated for General
Electric by PR mastermind Edward Bernays -- and points the way for a long
succession of self-congratulatory Corporate Media Events to follow.
57. The Rise of Information Please Summer/Fall 1938
Bright people sitting at a table talking. No scripts at all -- just
questions sent in by listeners, the sort of things we'd call "trivia" today.
It doesn't sound like a particularly promising idea -- but "Information
Please" proves to be the surprise radio hit of 1938. It's a highbrow show
that even a lowbrow can love, with questions ranging from Shakespeare to
baseball, and panelists able to cover all that ground with energy left
over for sparkling repartee. The series spawns a number of forgotten imitators
-- "So You Think You Know Music?" "Fun in Print" -- as well as a sort of
precocious little niece known as "The Quiz Kids", but none of the imitations
ever rise to the level of the original. And one could argue that in the
unscripted, spontaneous "Information Please" format one finds the true
ancestor of the modern talk show.
56. Mrs. Wicker and Miss Mack. 1930-31
Radio for children splits into two directions at the dawn of the 1930s
-- the heavily commercialized and hyperactive adventure serials, and the
quieter, more contemplative sort of entertainment best represented in the
works of Ireene Wicker and Nila Mack. Both come to prominence as the 1930s
are getting underway: Wicker as NBC's "Singing Story Lady" and Mack as
the director of CBS's "Adventures of Helen and Mary," a precursor to the
better known "Let's Pretend." There are formatic differences between the
two -- Wicker is essentially a solo performer, while Mack works behind
the scenes of a fully-dramatized production -- but they share a similar
outlook on the sort of entertainment they offer to youngsters. And together,
they blaze a trail to be followed in later years by such thoughtful creators
as Paul Tripp, Bob Keeshan, Shari Lewis, and Fred Rogers: a trail that
leads to a world of gentle imagination.
55. And Now Get Ready To Smile Again... 1932
Husband-and-wife situation comedies first show up in the late twenties,
with shows like "The Jenkins Family" and "Graybar's Mr. and Mrs." They're
all pretty much the same sort of thing: harassed white-collar husband dealing
with a more-or-less ditzy wife. Even bright spots like the urbane "Easy
Aces" are simply variations on this standard format. But in 1932, an NBC-Chicago
staff writer named Paul Rhymer takes this cliche and turns it sideways.
"Vic and Sade" isn't a sitcom, isn't a drama, isn't really a serial. It's
easier to say what it isn't than to figure out what it is -- a fun-house-mirror
held up to a quiet midwestern family that manages to be both profoundly
ordinary and awesomely bizarre. And it echoes down thru the years in the
works of such performers as Jean Shepherd and Bob Newhart.
54. Little Orphan Annie and the rise of Juvenile Adventure. 1931
With a new decade comes a new approach to childrens' programming --
rollicking, rousing, blood-and-thunder serialized adventure: epitomized
by a blank-eyed frizzy-haired funny-paper heroine. On radio, Annie loses
the harsh ultra-right-wing political overtones of Harold Gray's comic strip
-- and becomes the personification of an aggressive childhood: solving
mysteries, exploring the world, and horrifying Concerned Parents for more
than a decade. From the drooling hard-sell of the Ovaltine commercials
to the endless send-away-premium offers, "Annie" sets the tone for an entire
genre: Jack Armstrong, Tom Mix, Captain Midnight, Hop Harrigan -- they're
all her children.
53. The Lone Ranger Hits The Big Time: January 1934
The Mutual Network wasn't founded by the Lone Ranger, no matter what
they claim at WXYZ. But when the Masked Rider Of The Plains rides onto
stations in Cincinnati, Chicago and New York -- by arrangement of the Gordon
Baking Company -- he strengthens the links that already exist between WOR
and WGN, stations that are already on the way to becoming the nucleus of
that new chain. And more important, The Ranger goes on to become radio's
most enduring contribution to American popular culture -- and one of the
best-known fictional characters of all time.
52. Dr. Brinkley almost wins the Kansas Governorship Fall 1932
Today, we see him as a quaint sort of quack -- a bearded face right
off a patent medicine bottle, a twanging Kansas voice offering up spicy
barnyard metaphors. To the AMA, he was a dangerous fraud -- parlaying a
phony medical degree and an eccentric idea for revitalizing impotent men
into a national reputation over his radio station KFKB. But to his heartland
followers in the 1920s and early 1930s, John Romulus Brinkley is a champion
-- fighting for their interests against them slickers from the Big City,
and their support makes KFKB, for a time, the most popular station in the
United States. Following investigations by the AMA and the Kansas City
Star, Brinkley's fraudulent background is made public -- but that doesn't
stop the Doctor. Eventually, from an ultra-high-power radio station just
over the Mexican border, Brinkley blankets the entire nation with his graphic
condemnations of Internationalism, the Medical Establishment, and prostate
massage. On the strength of his down-home line of patter -- and his unstoppable
signal -- he comes within 30,000 votes of winning Kansas' highest office.
Brinkley's station is finally muzzled by Mexican authorities in 1941, and
he dies bankrupt in 1943 -- but his tradition of medical/political charlatanism
is alive and well today on dozens of shortwave and small-time AM stations.
51. Orson Welles becomes The Shadow 9/26/37
It isn't great art. It's never a ratings blockbuster. But this Sunday-afternoon
superhero saga has captivated generations of listeners. And many of those
listeners will tell you that the 22-year-old Welles was the greatest Lamont
Cranston of them all. Others (including me) may find him a just bit too
callow compared to the more mature Bill Johnstone. But no one will dispute
that Welles makes an impression in the role -- and even more important,
the part helps pave the way for even more impressive roles to come.
50. The 1936 Olympics 8/36
Thru the crackle of shortwave static, American listeners sit spellbound
by the descriptions of Jesse Owens' track and field triumphs in Berlin--
victories that carry significance far beyond the stadium. The announcersare
rather circumspect in their descriptions of the events -- reluctant, perhaps,
to offend broadcasting authorities in the host country -- but Owens' triumphs
speak for themselves.
49. Let's Dance, and the Rise Of Swing Winter 1934-35
Suggesting that swing music began with Benny Goodman will earn you
a derisive, deserved sneer from fans of Duke Ellington, Fletcher Henderson,
Don Redman and other great Harlem bands of the twenties. But thatdistinctive
span of time we think of as the "Swing Era" did begin with Goodman, and
his tenure on the Nabisco "Let's Dance" program. For many listeners, it's
their first real exposure to "hot" music -- and the program starts Goodman
on the way to being crowned King of Swing. Maybe some people tuned in "Let's
Dance" for the mellow melodies of former Clicquot Club Eskimo Kel Murray,
or to rhumba with Xavier Cugat -- but it's Goodman's contribution to this
three-hours-a-week series that's earned it a place in history.
48. The Metropolitan Opera Begins Its Run 12/24/31
The Met made its radio debut back in the prehistoric DeForest days
of 1910 -- but it takes another two decades before a regular series of
Metropolitan Opera broadcasts begins, even though individual Met stars
were network radio celebrities as early as 1925. But the Met organization
makes up for lost time, rapidly building its Saturday afternoon broadcasts
into a radio tradition. Part of the tradition is in the packaging -- with
the gently-unctuous Milton J. Cross occupying a permanent seat in Box 44,
inspiring three generations of listeners with his endearing, wide-eyed
love for the music and its performers.
47. The Rise of Experimental Drama 1934-38
Radio goes thru a quantum change between 1931-1933 -- the days of freewheeling
experimentation with program formats are replaced, so far as sponsored
programs are concerned, by tight advertising agency control. But there
is still unsold time to fill -- and the experimenters find a haven in sustaining
dramatic programs like the NBC Radio Guild and the Columbia Workshop, as
well as the more outre offerings like "Lights Out." During the mid-thirties,
people like Vernon Radcliffe, Irving Reis, William N. Robson, Earle McGill,
Wyllis Cooper, Arch Oboler and Orson Welles push the envelope of what can
be done in radio drama. Though their audiences are small-to-negligible,
much of their work retains its power even today.
46. Coronation of King George VI 5/12/37
All the world is listening as a slender, stammering man known to his
friends and family as "Bertie" mounts the throne of the British Empire
in the wake of his brother's abdication. Millions of Americans get up early
in the morning to follow all the pageantry via shortwave relay, described
in meticulous detail by BBC commentators. The response to the broadcast
suggests that even a hundred and sixty years after the Revolution, Americans
are really still just Colonists at heart.
45. The Lindbergh Baby Tragedy 1932-1936
Radio listeners are glued to their sets in horror on the night of March
1, 1932 as NBC and CBS broadcast a steady stream of bulletins detailing
the story: the toddler son of aviator Charles A. Lindbergh has been kidnapped
from his New Jersey home. Perhaps the most poignant radio moment in the
entire case comes the day after the kidnaping, as NBC staff announcer Ben
Grauer reads an urgent message to the kidnappers from Anne Morrow Lindbergh
-- giving the recipe for the baby's special formula. The first chapter
of the story comes to a tragic conclusion on May 12th, when the child is
found dead -- leading to a two-year search for the killer. On September
19, 1934, a German-immigrant carpenter from the Bronx is arrested and charged
-- and radio is once again in the thick of coverage, as Bruno Richard Hauptmann
is placed on trial for his life -- a trial which, with radio's help, quickly
degenerates into a media circus the likes of which wouldn't be seen for
another sixty years. Two important radio careers get a boost from this
case: disc jockey Martin Block rises to fame over WNEW in Newark as he
spins records during breaks in that station's trial coverage; and WOR commentator
Gabriel Heatter grabs attention for his nightly summations of action in
what truly is the Trial of The Century. The final chapter is written on
April 3, 1936, when Heatter reports from outside the New Jersey State Prison
at Trenton as, to the chants of an angry mob, Hauptmann goes to the electric
chair -- proclaiming his innocence to the very last.
44. Irna Phillips joins NBC 1933
If Correll and Gosden are the Fathers Of the Broadcast Serial, then
Irna Phillips is its mother. Joining NBC with "Today's Children," a thinly
disguised version of her WGN serial "Painted Dreams," Phillips begins anenduring
career as one of the leading creators of network soap opera -- her shows
always a cut above the treacly productions of her major competitors, Frank
and Anne Hummert. And the Phillips influence is still pervasive in modern-day
soaps, with her longest-lived creation, "(The) Guiding Light," still very
much alive after sixty-two years.
43. Hollywood Hotel brings movieland to the mike fall 10/4/34
Hollywood and radio were a natural match, and as far back as the late
twenties, there had been efforts to bring the two together. Programs like
the "Sunkist Musical Cocktail" and "Hollywood On The Air" had featured
movieland gossip and celebrity interviews - but these shows were expensive
to produce, thanks to the exorbitant AT&T line charges for programs
originating on the West Coast. In 1934, columnist Louella Parsons (who
had been featured a few years earlier on the Sunkist program) hits upon
a solution: she would use her considerable influence to coerce stars into
appearing for free on a big-time weekly variety hour. Campbell Soup underwrites
the project, and "Hollywood Hotel" is on the air. Unionization eventually
brings an end to Parsons' use of free talent, by which time AT&T has
changed its rate policy, allowing radio to thunder westward with a vengeance.
42. WSM Barn Dance begins 11/28/25
It all goes back to George D. Hay, one of the great announcers of the
mid-twenties. Styling himself "The Solemn Ole Judge," Hay had been one
of the movers behind the "WLS Barn Dance" in Chicago, and when he moves
on to Nashville in 1925, he brings the idea along with him. By the end
of the year, WSM is featuring a block of home-grown melodies every Saturday
night, with Hay as announcer and rustic fiddler "Uncle Jimmy" Thompson
the best-known attraction. Within two years, the "WSM Barn Dance" takes
on a new name -- and the "Grand Ole Opry" is well on its way to becoming
one of the true landmarks of twentieth century popular culture.
41. H. V. Kaltenborn covers the Spanish Civil War 9/3-4/36
He doesn't fit the dashing, romantic image of a war correspondent --
a lanky, balding middle-aged man with thick glasses and a scribbly moustache.
But Hans von Kaltenborn makes journalism history when he becomes the first
American reporter ever to broadcast live from an actual war zone. Crouching
between a haystack and a cornfield on a farm in the Spanish town of Irun,
his microphone lines clipped onto a farmhouse telephone, Kaltenborn brings
CBS listeners the actual sounds of battle -- the whizzing bullets, the
chatter of machine guns, the thunder of artillery, all broadcast live --
just three hundred yards from the front lines. Thru it all, this Harvard-trained
newspaperman keeps up an extemporaneous commentary which offers a vivid
description of the scene and a detailed explanation of what is happening
and why. The next day, Kaltenborn's listeners hear the outcome of the battle:
the entire town lies in flaming ruins, sacked by Franco's forces. Kaltenborn's
gone down in history as a rather self-absorbed, pontifical man -- but there
is no questioning his front-line courage.
40. Mary Margaret McBride Hits Her Prime 1941
Women's programming in the OTR era is, for the most part, a hopeless
wasteland -- banal, condescending, and trivial. But there are bright spots
-- none brighter than Mary Margaret McBride. A veteran journalist, critic,
and author with a deceptively folksy style, McBride moves beyond the ossified
formats of "womens' radio" to present thought-provoking, substantial programs.
Her best series by far is her 1940s local show over WEAF -- a forty-five
minute midday feature in which she brings to the microphone important authors,
journalists, politicians, celebrities -- the only requirement being that
they have something worthwhile to say.
39. Murrow reports on Buchenwald 4/15/45
There are really no words adequate to describe what Edward R. Murrow
saw as he toured one of the most notorious of the Nazi concentration camps
- but he finds words nonetheless. Other Murrow broadcasts are more famous
-- but none are more eloquent.
38. First Transatlantic Relay Broadcast 3/14/25
You can barely make it out thru the overwhelming roar of static --
there! there it is! Dimly, you sense the rhythm of a familiar tune -- a
dance band squawking out "Alabamy Bound." And there -- that voice, that
halting British voice, saying something about 5XX, Daventry -- the High
Power Station Of The British Broadcasting Company. History is made as RCA's
relay station in Belfast, Maine receives an experimental longwave pickup
of 2LO in London, and relays that fragile signal by shortwave to the network
of WJZ in New York and WRC Washington -- giving thousands of American listeners
their first taste of Overseas Broadcasting. The technology is something
of a dead end -- longwave would prove too unreliable for long-term, long-distance
use -- but the broadcast is a vivid demonstration of how radio can truly
bring the world into your home.
37. Fibber's closet opens for the first time 3/5/40
A gimmicky sound effect that becomes a national institution -- and
which for many symbolizes everything fun and innocent about "Old Time Radio."
Fibber McGee and Molly had plenty of running gags over the years, due largely
to the always inventive scripting of Don Quinn: a writer who can impart
fresh flavor to even the moldiest corn -- but none have lingered longer
in the public consciousness than that overstuffed hall closet.
36. "The Step On The Stair" 1926
Based on a story in "Radio Digest" magazine, this Old Dark House thriller
is radio's first true mystery serial -- heard over WLW, Cincinnati in a
series of weekly installments adapted for radio by program director Fred
Smith (who is better known as the creator of "The March Of Time.") Smith
is one of the most important unsung pioneers of radio -- his 1923 play
"When Love Wakens" may be the first American drama to be written especially
for radio. Although "Step" is actually a rather crude bit of melodrama,
it proves the thriller to be an ideal format for radio: so much so that
the script is sold to other stations for local productions, and is still
being heard as late as 1930.
35. Gracie Allen's Brother January/February 1933
It isn't radio's first running gag -- but it's the most memorable of
its time, as Gracie Allen begins popping up on programs all over the schedule,
asking for help in locating her enigmatic "missing brother." The bit grabs
the national imagination during the most wretched of Depression winters
-- and vaults Burns and Allen to the front ranks of radio's comedy stars.
34. Report On Chain Broadcasting reshapes the Industry 1941
It's not a radio program -- it's a small, paper-bound book. And between
the government-issue-orange covers, there's a bombshell: the Federal Communications
Commission rulings condemning monopolisitc practices in broadcasting. Beginning
in 1938, the FCC had been holding detailed hearings investigating the degree
of control exercised over the broadcasting industry by NBC and CBS -- and
the Commission didn't like the picture that emerged: stiff, one-sided contracts
that strangled local control of programming and which tended to concentrate
the power of radio into the hands of two dominating corporations. The report
sends a shock wave thru the industry, forcing the networks to revise their
contractural ties to their affiliates -- and forcing the National Broadcasting
Company to divest itself of one of the two networks that it operated.
33. Rudy Vallee Refines the Variety Show Fall 1932
He's more important as an impresario than as a performer -- and the
"Fleischmann's Yeast Hour" is the reason why. Rudy Vallee had been on the
air for Fleischmann since 1929, broadcasting an hour-long program of dance
music, broken up only by the appearance of a single guest star each week.
But beginning in October 1932, Vallee and the staff at the J. Walter Thompson
agency dramatically revise the program format: de-emphasising Vallee's
performances and turning the spotlight on a continuing parade of guest
artists. Big names, famous names, old names and new names -- for the next
seven years, the Vallee progam features the best that Broadway and Hollywood
have to offer -- and Vallee gains a reputation as radio's foremost talent
scout. Whether he himself is actually entitled to that reputation is a
question that can be debated: some claim he did run the show -- and none
claimed this more energetically than Vallee himself -- while others say
he was just a front man and embittered JWT staffers did all the work. The
truth is probablysomewhere in between -- but the importance of the show
itself is beyond question: it's the pace-setter for every variety series
that would follow.
32. The Rise Of Major Bowes Spring/Summer 1935
As spinning goes that weekly wheel of fortune -- round and round she
goes and where she stops nobody knows -- as the saponaceous Major Edward
Bowes takes the nation by storm with his Sunday night new-talent showcase,
moving a longstanding local New York feature to a high-profile Sunday night
slot on NBC. Never mind that, as a Radio Guide expose reveals, elements
of the show are rigged -- the idea of young entertainers from Mudville
USA getting their big break on the air ignites a craze for amateur entertainment
that inspires a range of imitators. Few of the Bowes discoveries amount
to anything -- but there are a few who stand out, including a skinny singer
from Hoboken who appears in September 1935 as a member of a pop quartet.
His Bowes experience proves something of a dead end - but fate has other
plans in store for Frank Sinatra.
31. The Music Licensing War 1940-41
The American Society of Composers Authors and Publishers doesn't much
like the attitude of Network Radio --- and radio likes ASCAP even less,
as negotiations for a new contract allowing the use of ASCAP music break
down during the last months of 1940. As the name-calling continues, it
becomes evident that there will be no peaceful resolution, and the broadcasters
form their own music licensing agency -- Broadcast Music Incorporated,
which quickly signs a roster of second-tier songwriters in anticipation
of a long standoff. As of January 1st, 1941 all ASCAP-controlled music
disappears from the network air, leaving only public domain and BMI compositions
in their place. Longstanding theme songs abruptly vanish, bandleaders scramble
to come up with workable arrangements, the broadcasters put up a brave
front -- but listeners quickly grow tired of "Jeannie With The Light Brown
Hair" and "The Wise Old Owl." By mid-year, the networks and ASCAP have
a new agreement -- and the status quo resumes. However, BMI sticks around
-- cultivating new songwriting talent and evolving into a major force in
the music business: remaining so to this day.
30. Paley's Financial Maneuverings Save CBS. 1928-1929
William Paley perpetuated a lot of legends about his early years at
CBS. Although he styled himself "Founding Chairman," Paley didn't found
the network -- George Coats and Arthur Judson did, with help from the Levy
brothers of Philadelphia and Major J. Andrew White. Nor did the infusion
of Paley's personal fortune completely turn the tide for the struggling
company. But the real story of how Columbia survived the Depression is
even more interesting - and says a great deal about Paley's remarkable
ability as a businessman. The young son-of-a-cigarmaker manages to talk
the cagey film mogul Adolph Zukor of Paramount Publix Corporation into
a complicated stock swap in 1929, which gives the foundering network the
boost it needs to stay afloat during the bad years ahead: even though Zukor's
own company, ironically, ends up in receivership!
29. The 1923 World Series 10/23
Broadcasting of major league baseball's main event was early on a major
attraction -- but it's the 1923 Fall Classic between the New York Yankees
and the New York Giants that makes the big impression, and for reasons
unanticipated. Originally, plans call for the action to be described over
WEAF by veteran sportswriter Grantland Rice -- and he's to be assisted
by a recently-recruited member of the station's announcing staff: a former
concert singer by the name of Graham McNamee. For the first three games,
McNamee provides what would eventually come to be called "color commentary"
- and his descriptions are so vivid, so enthusiastic that listeners deluge
the station with phone calls and telegrams demanding to see more. And so
it is that beginning with game four, McNamee takes over the full play-by-play
job -- and is launched on a career as the most important personality of
radio's formative years. One can fault his accuracy, one can criticize
his style -- but none can deny his impact.
28. Premiere of the NBC Symphony 12/24/37
Arturo Toscanini had been a familiar personality to American radio
listeners since the turn of the thirties thru his work with the New York
Philharmonic -- and had already come to personify the traditional image
of the "glowering maestro." And so it is that NBC scores a major publicity
coup in 1937 when it lures Toscanini back to the United States with the
unprecedented offer of an orchestra constructed especially for him, designed
to his specifications, and to be directed as he sees fit -- and for nearly
eighteen years, the NBC Symphony Orchestra under Toscanini's baton is one
of radio's outstanding musical attractions.
27. Eddie Cantor Runs For President Winter 1931-Fall 1932
The Depression's darkest months fall in the middle of 1932: more 15
million are unemployed in the US, and more than 270 thousand families face
imminent eviction from their homes. By September of that year, more than
34 million Americans are without any income whatsoever, and the nation
has witnessed the grim spectacle of tanks rolling thru the streets of Washington
DC against an army of unemployed veterans. Against this backdrop, Americans
are desperate for escape, desperate for anything that will take their minds
off the horror of the times. And they get it -- in a pop-eyed, hyperkinetic
Broadway clown. Eddie Cantor takes the nation by storm with his satirical
run for the Presidency, setting an audience record never to be equaled
by any other continuing radio series. Cantor's comedy is frenetic and flamboyant,
with a strong undercurrent of contempt for authority -- and, by extension,
for those who have brought the nation to rock bottom. Small wonder the
bouncing chant of "We Want Can-tor!" still echoes thru the memories of
that era.
26. The Benny-Allen Feud January-March 1937
"The Bee," by Franz Schubert -- a showy specialty composition for violin
-- becomes the most famous piece of music in the country as the question
rages: can Jack Benny play it? It all begins, innocently enough, with a
boy violinist named Stewart Canin, appearing on the "Town Hall Varieties"
segment of Fred Allen's program on 12/30/36. During the second show for
the west coast, Allen comments on the boy's rendition of "The Bee" with
a single, simple observation: "Jack Benny," he drawls in that inimitable
snarling whine, "should be ashamed of himself." And out in Hollywood, Benny
listens -- and the following Sunday makes his response: "When I was ten
years old, I could play "The Bee" too!" And the following Wednesday, Allen
challenges this assertion -- and from then on, every week marks an escalation
of the "argument," until finally, on the night of 3/14/37, the combatants
meet face to face in the Grand Ballroom of New York's Hotel Pierre to have
it out once and for all. The results? Inconclusive. But for the next twelve
years, Jack and Fred -- in reality old-time friends from vaudeville --
will snipe back and forth in radio's most memorable phony feud. And they
don't forget the boy who started it all: in 1940, Benny and Allen jointly
award Stewart Canin a scholarship to help cover the cost of his future
musical education, helping him along the way to a distinguished adult career
in classical music.
25. The Rise Of Syndication 1928-1932
When all is said and done, the invention of the syndication concept
is without doubt the most important of Freeman Gosden's and Charles Correll's
contributions to the broadcasting industry. The idea of distributing recorded
programs to individual stations begins with "Amos 'n' Andy" in 1928, and
the two performers attempt to patent the concept, only to be told by their
attorney that they can't. And so it is that before the end of 1928, the
National Radio Advertising Company is selling recorded programming to national
advertisers -- and by the end of 1930, syndication is sweeping the industry,
offering real competition to the wire-line networks in attracting major
national sponsors like Chevrolet and major nationally-licensed properties
like Edgar Rice Burroughs' "Tarzan." Syndication remains an essential element
of both radio and television to this day: a billion-dollar industry that
owes its existence to Gosden and Correll and their simple, ingenious idea
for a "chainless chain."
24. WGY and the Birth of Radio Drama 9/22
You might not have heard of Kolin Hager, unless you're from Schenectady.
He was the program director and chief announcer at General Electric's station
WGY in the early twenties -- and he could well be considered the Father
of Radio Drama. In September 1922, Hager gives a forty-minute weekly time
slot on WGY to "The Masque," a troupe of community-theatre actors from
nearby Troy, NY, headed by one Edward H. Smith. As the "WGY Players," Smith's
company offers condensations of recent stage plays -- forty-three of them
in the first season -- and gain national attention for their efforts: the
first regular dramatic series ever broadcast on American radio. Among the
members of the group - a former stage technician named Frank Oliver: radio's
first true sound effects man. The WGY Players are a fixture at the station
for more than a decade, and in 1928 perform another historic first: the
first play ever to be televised.
23. The Second Louis-Schmeling Fight 6/22/38
He was called "The Brown Bomber," "The Tanned Titan," "The Sepia Superman,"
and, most embarrassingly, "Shufflin' Joe." But on a steaming June night
at Yankee Stadium, all the condescending "credit to his race" talk is forgotten,
as Joe Louis stands as the symbol of America -- facing the equally-formidable
symbol of "Aryan Superiority," German heavyweight Max Schmeling. Schmeling
had defeated Louis in a prior bout -- but not this time. Before NBC announcer
Clem McCarthy has a chance to get warmed up, Louis gives Schmeling the
beating of his life -- and gives radio listeners a few quick minutes they
will never forget.
22. NBC Takes Over 11/15/26
Not the first network broadcast, but the most heavily publicized. When
the newly formed National Broadcasting Company takes over operation of
the AT&T Red Network in November 1926, it's taking over a network that's
already providing sixteen-hour-a-day service to seven stations, and varying
hours of service to twelve others. NBC puts the whole operation on a full-time
basis and with a four-hour gala from the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, announces
to the whole nation (or at least the whole nation as far west as Kansas
City) that the age of Big Time Radio has arrived.
21. London After Dark August/September 1940
Americans receive a jolting dose of reality when CBS begins a dramatic
series of broadcasts from the heart of a city under siege. Airing as a
joint venture of the BBC and the CBS London staff headed by Edward R. Murrow,
"London After Dark" is a heart-stopping document of the Blitz. CBS correspondents
Larry LeSeur, Eric Severied, Vincent Sheehan and author J. B. Priestly
all contribute to the program, but it's Murrow who makes the dominant impression
in the initial broadcast of 8/24/40: his chilling account of defiant Londoners
strolling casually to the air raid shelters -- illustrated by the hollow
sound of their footsteps --provides an audio picture that will echo forever
in the annals of radio journalism. Less than a month later, on September
21st, Murrow tops this broadcast with an even more dramatic scene, as "London
After Dark" presents a bomb-by-bomb description of another air raid, live
from the rooftop of Broadcasting House. Similar broadcasts will be made
by NBC's Fred Bate -- who is nearly killed in a subsequent air raid --
and by Mutual's Arthur Mann: but Murrow gets the credit for the idea, and
for forcefully bringing the horrors of modern war into American homes.
20. Death and Funeral of FDR 4/13-15/45
For a generation of Americans, he was simply "the President." Millions
loved him -- millions hated him. But all Americans are stunned at his death,
when on the afternoon of April 12th, childrens' adventure serials are interrupted
by the sudden announcement of Franklin D. Roosevelt's passing. Radio helps
express a nation's grief with detailed coverage of the funeral procession
on all networks, including a memorably emotional description by CBS's Arthur
Godfrey.
19. 8MK Becomes KDKA 11/2/20
It wasn't the First Radio Broadcast -- experimental stations had been
on the air for over a decade. It wasn't the first Scheduled Broadcast:
some of the experimenters had been operating on a scheduled basis before
the first World War. It wasn't the First Radio Election Coverage -- Lee
deForest had offered detailed coverage of the 1916 returns over 2XG, New
York (and got the results wrong). In other words, many of the "firsts"
claimed for this famous broadcast have their basis in the Westinghouse
publicity department, not in reality. So why is it important? Well, the
Westinghouse publicists did a good job. A very good job. They make an essentially
regional event into headline news all over the country -- and in doing
so help make Americans radio conscious. KDKA would go on to be an important
laboratory for future radio developments -- as would Westinghouse's second
station, WJZ in Newark (later, in New York)
18. The 1924 Democratic National Convention June-July 1924
"Allllll-a-baaaaaaaama casssts twennnnnnty-four votes for Oscarrrrr
W. Un-der-woooood!" That's the call, as delivered a total of one hundred
and three times by Alabama Governor William Brandon during the Democratic
National Convention, as broadcast June 24th thru July 9th, 1924. The eventual
nomination goes to John Davis, who will of course be trounced by Coolidge
in the general election that fall. Underwood was actually a pretty significant
figure in politics at the time -- he had been Senate Minority Leader, and
went on to become Governor of Alabama. But all anyone remembers about him
is that he got those 24 votes at the convention. Eighteen stations make
up the AT&T network for this broadcast, extending as far west as Kansas
City -- and the RCA stations also join in. The broadcasters are Graham
McNamee and Phillips Carlin for AT&T, and Major J. Andrew White and
Norman Brokenshire for RCA, who together help to introduce millions of
fascinated listeners to the intricacies of the political process -- and
also spawns a national catch phrase that echoes across playgrounds and
city streets for much of the summer.
17. Crosby In The Can 1946
Actually, it should be Crosby in a paper sleeve -- since Bing's first
venture in to pre-recorded programming was done on disc, not tape. Excited
by the potential for a flawless performance afforded by disc-editing techniques
exploited during the war years by the Armed Forces Radio Servce, the crooner
finds himself a sponsor and a network willing to allow him to experiment
with pre-recording his regular weekly series beginning in the fall of 1946
-- and Philco Radio Time proves a success. Among those who notice is an
Army veteran named Jack Mullin - who had become interested in the tape-recording
systems used by the German radio during the war years, and who convinces
Crosby to invest in his fledgeling Ampex Corporation. The Crosby program
begins to be mastered on tape in 1947 --and with Crosby's support, Ampex
becomes a major force in the development of broadcast recording technology,
leading the way the in the early development of video tape in the 1950s.
And Crosby's success in recorded form helps to bring down the unreasonable
network barriers against the use of prerecorded programming -- already
compromised in many areas, the walls come tumbling down for good in 1949.
16.The Dempsey/Carpentier Fight 7/2/21
What the KDKA Harding-Cox Election Broadcast was in legend, the broadcast
of the Jack Dempsey-Georges Carpentier Heavyweight Fight is in reality:
the event which really makes the general public sit up and take notice
of radio. While no more than a thousand hobbyists heard the KDKA Election
Broadcast, advance publicity leads over two hundred thousand to hear the
fight broadcast eight months later, and the resulting excitement draws
many thousands of others into discovering what this new radio thing is
all about. As was his custom, David Sarnoff greatly exaggerates his role
in promoting this epoch-making broadcast -- the real man behind the scenes
-- and behind the mike -- is Major J. Andrew White: who would go on to
be one of the major figures in the early years of CBS
15. The inauguration of Coolidge 3/4/25
For the first time, Americans from coast to coast listen in as the
President takes the Oath of Office and delivers his inaugural address.
AT&Ts Red Network and RCA's smaller Radio Group network broadcast all
the pageantry as Calvin Coolidge begins his first full term -- and proves
himself to be an adept radio speaker, well-attuned to the demands of the
microphone. An estimated fifteen million listeners follow the proceedings,
with Graham McNamee at the microphone for the Telephone Group and Major
J. Andrew White and Norman Brokenshire on hand for the RCA/Westinghouse
stations.
14. The Dempsey/Tunney Long Count Fight 9/22/27
If the twenties were truly the "Golden Age Of Sport," the second heavyweight
title fight between Gene Tunney and Jack Dempsey at Soldier Field in Chicago
may be the high point of that age -- and radio helps make it so. For the
first time, all NBC's associated stations, Red, Blue and Pacific, are joined
to broadcast a single event, with the exuberant Graham McNamee and Phillips
Carlin at the mike. Was the final count improperly delayed? Debate still
rages to this day.
13. McNamee, Carlin, Cross and Daniel broadcast the return of Lindbergh
6/11/27
It's the News Story Of The Decade -- the moment which seems to epitomize
the mystique of the "Roaring Twenties." And when the twenty-five year old
newly-promoted-to-Colonel Charles A. Lindbergh returns to the United States
courtesy of the U. S. Navy, a team of NBC's top announcers turn out for
day-long coverage of his arrival -- helping impress the moment forever
on the national consciousness. And, to this day, recordings of the honest,
overwhelming thrill in Graham McNamee's voice as he sees the aviator step
down the gangplank capture the essense of that moment in a way the printed
page never can.
12. Radio Transforms Itself 1931-33
Two factors change the face of radio programming during the lowest
ebb of the Depression -- a disastrous season on Broadway in 1931, and the
desire of advertising agencies for better bang for their bucks. The collapse
of the Live Theatre drives many of the top names of musical comedy and
vaudeville into broadcasting -- Eddie Cantor, Ed Wynn, Jack Benny, Fred
Allen, Burns and Allen, and many others all turn to radio during these
years, and in doing so, forever shift the emphasis in programming away
from radio-grown talent and toward Big Names. Agency control of program
development builds on this trend -- taking the responsibility for program
building away from the networks, and placing it under the control of sponsors:
firms interested more in selling product than in encouraging real creativity.
The result, from the mid-thirties forward: a compulsively cautious attitude
toward innovation in programming that dominates the medium until the rise
of television
11. Andy sued for breach-of-promise by Madame Queen January-March
1931
Movie theatres really do interrupt their screenings to play "Amos 'n'
Andy" over the sound systems. Department stores really do broadcast the
show over their public address speakers. Water consumption really does
take a drop for fifteen minutes, six nights a week. And when Andy Brown
is taken to court by his beautician fiancee Madame Queen in early 1931
-- the climactic event in a storyline that's been brewing for over a year
-- an estimated 40 million listeners hang on the outcome of each night's
episode. For a weekly show, that would have been an unprecedented audience
-- but for a nightly show, it's a stunning accomplishment. The secret of
the program's success is readily apparent to anyone who digs back into
the early scripts: a gallery of finely-drawn, fully-realized, and all-too-human
characters, and an instinctive, near-Dickensian grasp of serial storytelling
technique. What also becomes apparent is that by and large, listeners don't
tune in to laugh at the characters. They tune in because they truly care
about what happens to Amos, Andy and their friends -- fictional characters
who are as real to Depression America as the people next door.
10. War Of The Worlds 10/30/38
Like a lot of legends, the story of Orson Welles and his Martian Invasion
has grown with the telling. It's probable that no more than six million
people heard the broadcast, and Professor Hadley Cantril in his landmark
study of the "invasion" estimated that at most only about a million people
were actually fooled -- out of a total population of around 150 million,
and compared to the 35 million Americans who went on blithely listening
to Charlie McCarthy, unaware that anything was out of the ordinary. But
the numbers, in the end, don't really matter. What matters is that Welles
and company provide a graphic demonstration of just how powerful the audio
medium can be -- and even more significant, the post-mortem public response
to the broadcast reveals just how unprepared Americans really are for the
brave new Media Age ahead.
9. FDR's First Inaugural 3/4/33
The winter of 1932-33 may have been the most grim in our nation's history.
The economy was in ruins, the banking system was collapsing, tens of millions
were hungry, with no money, no jobs, and no hope. But on a chilly March
afternoon, a newly inaugurated President reaches out with his voice to
calm the panic, to convince a terrified America that, indeed, the only
thing it has to fear is fear itself.
8. The Hindenburg Description 5/8/37
Is there a living American who hasn't heard WLS staff announcer Herbert
Morrison's sobbing account of the explosion of the legendary German dirigible?
Without doubt the most famous actuality recording of all time, Morrison's
description of the disaster is so vivid that it becomes the first notable
exception to NBC's prohibition on the airing of recordings. It only aired
twice over the network -- and never in its entirety -- but Morrison's recording
has nonetheless transcended the original event to become one of the most
familiar audio documents of the twentieth century.
7. FDR's first Fireside Chat 3/12/33
"My friends. I want to tell you what has been done in the last few
days, why it has been done, and what the next steps are going to be." In
a calm, reasoned, thirteen-minute talk, the new President outlines the
steps taken to prevent a full-scale collapse of the nation's banking system
-- explaining the complexities of industrial economics in terms that any
citizen can understand. This gentle, informal approach projects the atmosphere
of a man talking to his neighbors by the fireside -- and CBS-Washington
manager Harry Butcher coins an enduring phrase to describe the style: a
"fireside chat."
6. The European Crises: 9/38 and 8/39
Mounting tensions in Europe work to a peak over a years' time -- beginning
with the Sudetenland crisis in September 1938 and culminating in the dispute
over control of the Polish Corridor and the free city of Danzig the following
August. The Sudeten crisis proves to be the first great international challenge
for radio news -- still hamstrung by the terms of the 1933 Press-Radio
Agreement. But the medium rises to the occasion, making household voices
out of CBS's Ed Murrow and William Shirer, NBC's Max Jordan and Fred Bate,
and Mutual's John Steele -- and above all, CBS's H. V. Kaltenborn, who
provides a continuing stream of concise and well-reasoned commentary as
the crisis unfolds. Following the agreement at Munich -- the "peace in
our time" accord -- radio documents the continuing deterioration of European
peace, until the German invasion of Poland leads to the declaration of
war. The tired voice of British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain announcing
that declaration early on the morning of September 3, 1939 is evidence
of a terrible lesson, learned too late: if you sit down at table with Hitler,
prepare to be the main course.
5. Farewell Speech of the former King Edward VIII 12/12/36
The "Love Story Of The Century" transcends national borders, as the
American people join with all the rest of the English-speaking world in
listening to the thin, weary voice of a man who gave up the throne of the
world's most powerful empire for the woman he loves. The poignant broadcast
by Edward, Duke of Windsor, is the single most-listened-to moment of the
1930s.
4. Pearl Harbor 12/7-8/41
A typical Sunday afternoon by the radio -- light music, sustaining
drama, public affairs programs, pro football. But at 2:22pm, a one-line
bulletin flashes over the Associated Press wire, shattering the tranquility.
Within minutes, the news of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii
is being relayed by all four networks -- and all the debate between Isolationists
and Interventionists is suddenly and terribly rendered moot. Radio covers
the story in depth -- and perhaps the most chilling moment is the voice
of an unnamed staff announcer at NBC's Honolulu affiliate, proclaiming
"This is no joke! This is war!" The following day, record audiences tune
in as President Roosevelt's message to a joint session of Congress sets
the tone for the next four years.
3. The Rise of Toll Broadcasting 1922-23
Radio advertising didn't just suddenly spring into being one afternoon
in August 1922 at WEAF. There's evidence to suggest paid commercials had
aired on stations in Massachusetts and Washington state several months
before the WEAF landmark, and barter advertising goes back at least as
far as 1916 and Lee deForest's experimental station 2XG. But WEAF doesn't
have to have been the birthplace of the commercial for it to have been
the most important station in the evolution of modern broadcasting -- for
it was indisputably the first station to be established for the specific
purpose of selling time to advertisers. WEAF's success leads in October
1924 to the formation of the first permanent radio network -- and the concept
of "toll broadcasting" proves to be the foundation on which the entire
structure of American radio -- and later, television -- would be built.
2. End of the War 8/14/45
V-E Day on May 8th was just the beginning of the end -- and the enthusiasm
that greets the end of the war in Europe is tempered by the realization
there's still a war to be won in the Pacific. But the use of atomic weapons
against Japan changes the whole complexion of the conflict -- and beginning
with the dropping of the Nagasaki bomb on August 9th, radio listeners anxiously
wait for word on Japan's imminent surrender. August 10th goes by - the
11th -- the 12th -- the 13th -- all with a steady stream of bulletins,
but no official statements. Unofficial reports come in early on the morning
of the 14th -- and at 4:18 that afternoon, NBC's Max Jordan reports from
Berne, Switzerland with the first word confirming that the intermediaries
have received a message from the Japanese Government. "I myself," announces
Jordan in his distinctive clipped voice, "am going to a party of the American
consulate here to celebrate V-J Day!" Shortly after 7pm, official word
is released by the White House -- and the long-delayed celebration finally
erupts. Radio paints an unforgettable sound picture of celebrations in
Times Square, outside the White House, and in towns and cities all over
the United States as the nightmare of the Second World War finally draws
to a close.
1. D-Day 6/6/44
It is arguably the single most important news story of the 20th Century
-- the beginning of the Liberation of Europe from a regime which has come
to embody modern evil. And radio covers it from beginning to end, in depth
and in person. The highlights are many: Wright Bryan of NBC describing
the disappointment of a paratrooper who failed to make his scheduled drop,
Charles Collingwood of CBS making his way to a Normandy beach, George Hicks
of the Blue Network describing the joy of Navy gunners bringing down their
first Nazi plane. But perhaps the greatest thrill comes at 3:32 am on June
6th, as Colonel R. Ernest Dupuis reads the concise, understated communique
the entire world awaited: "Under the command of General Eisenhower, Allied
naval forces, supported by strong air forces, began landing Allied armies
this morning on the Northern Coast of France." History in the making--
and, for me, radio's finest moment.