Juan Monroy — Electronic Media: Class 4, Golden Days of Radio Programming

AT&T
- establishes WEAF radio station
- establishes revenue system based on toll broadcasting
- interconnects stations over own telephone wires
- creates radio network to
  - spread coverage for national advertisers
  - reduce programming production costs
National Broadcasting Company
- AT&T sells broadcasting radio stations to RCA
- RCA establishes two networks
  - NBC Red: WEAF and old AT&T stations
  - NBC Blue: WJZ and stations RCA “radio group” interconnected prior to 1926
  - connected via AT&T telephone lines
- national radio networks would foster national mass culture
RCA expanded into recording (transcription, as it was known)
- merged with Victor Company
- formed RCA-Victor
- managed talent
  - performed on NBC radio stations
  - recorded on RCA-Victor
Columbia Broadcasting System
- Arthur Judson, talent agent who could not get his performers booked on NBC stations
- Columbia Phonograph Company, resented dominance of RCA-Victor
- Columbia Phonograph Broadcast Company (1927)
- Since AT&T would not lease telephone wires
  - interconnected stations over Western Union telegraph wires
- William Paley took helm in 1928
- signed stations unaffiliated
  - often second or third most powerful
- paid local stations to carry network programs
- lured talent to CBS
NBC and CBS Compared
- NBC
  - AT&T Telephone Network
  - charged affiliate stations for programming
  - local stations sold advertising against network programming
  - local affiliates could opt-out of airing programming
- CBS
  - Western Union Telegraph Network
  - paid affiliate stations to carry programming
  - national advertising packaged with network programming
  - local affiliates had to carry network programming
Golden Age of Radio
- features
  - not necessarily the best radio programming ever
  - dominance of national radio networks
  - national culture
- Amos and Andy
  - originated as a local program in Chicago
  - two white performers speaking in minstrel style dialog
  - became a television show in the 1950s
  - “Amos Reads a Law Book” (1929)
- FDR and Radio
  - Great Depression
  - World War II
  - Fireside Chats
  - “Bank Holiday of 1933”
- Clara Lu n Em
  - aired between 1931–1945
  - debuted on WGN Chicago then NBC Blue and finally CBS
  - first soap opera: sponsored by Super Suds and then Colgate-Palmolive-Peet
  - Three Northwestern University students: Louise Starkey, Isobel Carothers, Helen King
  - three women who talked about their men, housekeeping, recipes, and gossip
  - “Men are the Weaker Sex” (1936)
- Edward R. Murrow
  - CBS correspondent during the war
  - reports from London
  - “London After Dark” (August 1940)
- Burns and Allen
  - started as a variety show
  - became a situation comedy
  - “George Goes to College” (1945)