The 4th of July in the Golden Age of Radio

[davideduardo]

I thought our nation's birthday might be a good moment to post a sample from Jim Ramsburg's blog. He has a monthly feature which this month is appropriately called "July in the Golden Age".

JUL 4 1934 The 12 CBS stations carrying the kids’ serial Skippy each release 100 balloons in the Skippy Derby. Kids finding cards attached to the balloons can redeem them for tubes of the sponsor’s product, Phillips Milk of Magnesia Toothpaste.
JUL 4 1939 A reported crowd of 75,000 attends a free holiday concert by Phil Spitany’s all-girl orchestra in Chicago’s Grant Park. (See The Hour of Charm on this site.)
JUL 4 1942 NBC’s National Barn Dance from WLS/Chicago, an hour long network feature since its debut on Blue in 1933, is cut by sponsor Alka-Seltzer to 30 minutes.
JUL 4 1943 Jack Benny and the cast of Information Please headline the Independence Day War Bond Rally at the Hollywood Bowl.
JUL 4 1943 The OWI establishes twelve low power stations in Great Britain connected by wire to London and called The American Forces Network, to serve American service-men and women based there during the war.
JUL 4 1944 Johnson Wax moves NBC’s late night public service program, Words At War, to its Tuesday night slot at 9:30 p.m. as the 13-week summer replacement for Fibber McGee & Molly. (See Words At War on this site.)
JUL 4 1944 Milton Berle’s struggling Let Yourself Go on Blue switches from an audience participation quiz to variety.
JUL 4 1944 George Hicks, hailed for his D-Day reports, begins a Tuesday and Thursday night commentary on Blue. (See D-Day On Radio on this site.)
JUL 4 1945 The U.S Treasury announces the total in War Bond sales sold by Truth Or Consequences’ seven personal appearance tours during World War II is a record $219.2 Million. (See Truth Or Consequences on this site.)
JUL 4 1945 Curtain Time, a failed Mutual light drama anthology from 1939, is revived by Mars Candies and begins its five season multi-network run on ABC.
JUL 4 1946 CBS gives the U.S. Army Thursday night’s FBI In Peace & War half hour for seven weeks to air the recruiting program Sound Off. (See FBI vs. FBI on this site.)
JUL 4 1949 CBS replaces Monday-Friday strip shows Club 15, Beulah and Jack Smith Show for the summer with Spin To Win, a combination disc jockey and quiz show hosted by Warren Hull.
JUL 4 1949 Joan Davis launches her sitcom Leave It To Joan as a six-week summer replacement for the first half of Lux Radio Theater before beginning a full season run on CBS in September.
JUL 4 1949 Young & Rubicam Advertising Vice President Sylvester (Pat) Weaver, 40, joins NBC to head network television operations.
JUL 4 1949 The first television adaptation of the radio mystery-comedy series Mr.& Mrs. North, starring Joseph Allen, Jr. and Mary Jo Taylor, debuts on NBC-TV.
JUL 4 1950 Singing host John Conte introduces his 15-minute Van Camp’s Little Show on NBC Tuesday and Thursday nights, alternating with Roberta Quinlan’s Mohawk Carpet Showroom.

Jim's blog is at http://www.jimramsburg.com/ and it has some fascinating articles, as well as the monthly date feature, that are fun, finely written and reveal the history of radio at a time few of us were yet around to listen!.

 

[drt]

David, Thanks for posting. I am interested in WWII History, on the homefront as well as the Eastern and Western war fronts and this has a lot of info of war related info on the radio. I would have loved to have been alive and able to hear this at the time. I know some of these broadcasts have been preserved and I heard many, but it’s not quite the same as being there at the time.

 

[FreddyE1977]

Phillips Milk of Magnesia Toothpaste

Wow, stay cavity-free AND regular!

 

[firepoint525]

JUL 4 1942 NBC’s National Barn Dance from WLS/Chicago, an hour long network feature since its debut on Blue in 1933, is cut by sponsor Alka-Seltzer to 30 minutes

Always wondered why this one didn't make it, and the Grand Ole Opry did. Well before my time, so I would not have any first-hand knowledge of why this was.

 

[TheBigA]

Always wondered why this one didn't make it, and the Grand Ole Opry did. Well before my time, so I would not have any first-hand knowledge of why this was.

One other thing that killed the Barn Dance was in 1946, WLS switched from NBC Blue to ABC (after the court ordered split) Then in 1952, ABC radio canceled the Barn Dance. In the meantime, the Opry remained on NBC for many years. Still, country music remains very popular in Chicago all these years later.

 

[davideduardo]

One other thing that killed the Barn Dance was in 1946, WLS switched from NBC Blue to ABC (after the court ordered split) Then in 1952, ABC radio canceled the Barn Dance. In the meantime, the Opry remained on NBC for many years. Still, country music remains very popular in Chicago all these years later.

And we have to remember that there was considerable competition, ranging from WWVA's Jamboree "from out of the hills of West Virginia" to KWKH's Louisiana Hayride. And there were quite a few local "Barn Dance" shows, including the one on clear channel WHO in Des Moines.

 

[TheBigA]

And there were quite a few local "Barn Dance" shows, including the one on clear channel WHO in Des Moines.

There were a bunch...I think WLW had one too. But despite their popularity, I wonder if that audience was tough to sell for NY-based networks like NBC or ABC. The WSM Opry had a built in client with National Life. Not as easy for the other stations.

 

[Cincinnati Kid]

I think WLW had one too.

The show on WLW Radio was first called "The Boone County Jamboree". Some years later, the show was called "Midwestern Hayride" which later went on to TV on the Avco/Crosley stations.

 

[Corky Marlowe]

I think WLS might have aired the Barn Dance for a number of years after ABC canceled it, maybe all the way until they went top 40 in 1960 after ABC bought them from Prairie Farmer magazine. At various times, the Barn Dance cast included George Gobel and Pat Buttram. And yes, there were quite a few Grand Ole Opry clones out there, including the Hoosier Hop on WOWO in Fort Wayne. That aired for maybe a season or 2 on NBC Blue in the early 40s, but was on WOWO for quite a while. Back to topic, the most significant item on the original timeline might be Pat Weaver heading NBC Television. He gave the world the Today show, the Tonight show, and Warrant Officer Ripley, after all...

 

[Cincinnati Kid]

The Opry remained on NBC for many years.

As late as 1959, NBC carried the Opry for 30 minutes on Saturday night as it interupted the network's weekend program "Monitor" for that period of time.