Where Did the Classical Radio Shows Go?

When radio first hit the National airwaves a few years after its invention in the 1890’s, it was an extension of other earlier styles of entertainment. It makes perfect sense that the first entertainment uses of radio were similar in style and form. “Old time radio” as those who remember it like to call it, was grounded in classic theater acts.

A History of Old Time Radio
The first true radio broadcast was reportedly made on December 24, 1906, but it wasn’t until August 1920 that radio news programs arrived with Detroit’s 8MK news station. Later that year, KDKA was established in Pittsburgh as the first true commercial radio station. Within three years, the Rose Bowl college football championship was being broadcast. Entertainment programs had arrived.

During the Golden Age of radio, hundreds of different radio programs were broadcast across the world. Shows included everything from comedies and horror stories to big band recordings and sports broadcasts. Programs were not only recorded live, they were not allowed to be recorded and re-aired. This meant that many radio actors would perform the same show twice for the west and east coasts. Recording of radio programs was incredibly expensive in the early years, so only a handful of broadcasts were wholly documented.

By the time, World War II was casting its shadow over the world. Radio shows were so popular that the US Army had created its own radio service and was issuing personal radios to service men to help keep morale up.

Big Band Music and Music Hours
In the earliest days of radio, classical radio shows were largely sponsored musical hours. Instead of tacking on commercials to a radio broadcast, which many stations considered intrusive, shows were sponsored by a single company, resulting in names like Champion Spark Plug Hour. Throughout the 1930’s and 40’s, big band music was broadcast throughout the country by remote, on other shows such as The A&P Gypsies, The Planters Pickers, The Silvertown Cord Orchestra, or The Yeast Foamers.

Comedy’s Early Hitters
Comedy shows also saw something of an explosion in this time, offering some of the biggest comedians of the era a chance to reach a national audience. Comedians such as Fred Allen, Jack Benny, Billie Burke, Bob Burns, Jimmy Durante, Bob Hope, Groucho Marx, and many more, performed ther own radio shows for years. Before the American sitcom was born, Abbott & Costello and Amos ‘n’ Andy kept audiences entertained over the airwaves.  The format allowed comedians to try new and exciting things. Mel Blanc offered his numerous character voices and impressions to listeners, while weekly gag shows like Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One were devoted to the art of telling a good joke.

Serials Galore
It was the serials though that truly defined Old Time Radio. For nearly three decades, radio broadcasts from coast to coast carried the weekly (or sometimes even daily) adventures of some of the most popular characters. 

Broadway hits like The Aldrich Family found new homes on NBC as long running series, while comic strips found unprecedented success as weekly serials. Popeye, Little Orphan Annie, and Li’l Abner became sensations, and in 1930’s, soap operas took their very first steps on WGN, Chicago’s famous broadcast network. Soap opera serials were carried by sponsors too – in this case, detergent companies.
Shows like The Cisco Kid, Jack Armstrong, and plenty of other cowboy, adventure, and shoot ‘em up style shows littered the afternoon airwaves for kids, complete with cereal promotions and send away offers for decoder rings.

Remembering Classic Radio Shows
The shows of the past were as multi-faceted and engaging as any television line up today. Often times, Hollywood films found their way to radio through shows and theaters like The Screen Guild. The Grand Ole Opry first aired in 1925 as a forum for new country music. It still runs today as the nation’s longest running radio program. While radio might have evolved and found itself marginalized by television, its memory lives on with the original format and style of storytelling we are familiar with today.