In the roaring 1920s, at the dawn of the radio era, nobody knew quite what to do with radio.
They had used it to flash news of the Titanic going down. They had thought of it as a giant walkie-talkie or invisible telegraph line.
But the ’20s brought “broadcasting.” It was a new idea. Somebody sitting somewhere talking about something to hundreds, then thousands, then millions.
And what did they talk about? Well, sex. And god. And politics. And the blood sport of boxing. And the next thing they knew, FDR was using radio to calm a nation.
This hour, On Point: when radio was young.
You can join the conversation. Can you imagine radio as strange and new as the Internet of the early ’90s? Were you there to hear it? Share your thoughts and your stories.
-Tom Ashbrook
Guest:
We’re joined from New York by Anthony Rudel. He’s an adjunct professor of communications and writing at Manhattanville College and author of the new book, “Hello, Everybody! The Dawn of American Radio.”
You can read an excerpt at Amazon.com.
More links:
You can hear thousands of old-time radio selections at the site Old Time Radio Show Catalog.
(Don’t forget WGN–Chicago Tribune’s “World’s Greatest Newspaper”
Posted by Bill W., on October 17th, 2008 at 11:19 am EDTWhen I was growing up, I had to put the bedspread over the radio so my parents wouldn’t see the dial light while I was listening (well past my bedtime, with earphones) to:
Corliss Archer, The Jack Benny Show, Lamont Cranston/The Shadow (”Who knows what evil lurks in the heart of man? The Shadow do,” was our apocryphal joke–from Flip Wilson’s era), Stella Dallas (”Can a young woman from a mining town out west? find happiness in the throbbing metropolis of New York?” –’s best I can recall w/out googling it.)
Posted by Bill W., on October 17th, 2008 at 11:31 am EDTGreat topic! Anthony Rudel is a fabulous guest I can’t wait to buy his book.
Heather Mazzoni - PD WHRV FM
Posted by Heather Mazzoni, on October 17th, 2008 at 11:41 am EDTNorfolk VA
I remember a comedy skit I heard on the radio that was particularly helped by the way we imagine the speaker we hear on the radio. It was in the days of operator-assisted phone calls and exhibited the regional accents all over the country. It was about someone making a long distance telephone call from one coast to the other. The connection went back and forth with operators from Cape Cod, New York, Texas, and probably others, handing off to each other in their regional accents. It was quite funny.
Posted by Mike H, on October 17th, 2008 at 11:58 am EDTI find the growth and ongoing evolution of radio to be a collection of fascinating and interwoven stories. One narrative line links the changes in technology/hardware with the introduction of new radio formats and/or forms of community.
- Early radio sets first regional/national connection
- Transistor radios Youth, rock & roll, portable music
- FM radio Album oriented rock, higher quality sound
If this narrative applies, it makes me wonder what changes in content and community might drive:
Posted by Paul Cosway, on October 17th, 2008 at 12:41 pm EDT- Satellite radio
- HD radio (DAB in UK and rest of world)
- Internet radio
Very interesting and stimulating show. I heard it on WBUR Boston. I was waiting for some mention of developments somewhat later in the timeline. Specifically of the development of “educational radio” in the 1940s as I understand it. Not quite the beginning of radio, but early in my experience. And a predecessor of WBUR and other school radio.
Posted by Tom Connors, on October 17th, 2008 at 12:51 pm EDTWhen I was in Brooklyn Technical High School in New York City in 1945 I discovered the existence of WNYE, “The FM Station for the New York Schools” - with studios, transmitter, and antenna atop the school building. The station operation was performed (under faculty supervision) by students. Much of the programming was syndicated from other sources, but some were locally produced dramatic and talk shows (no call-ins).
My first involvement was as a sound-effects man. Later, the head of the English Department originated a program for “homebound children” who had physical infirmities that kept them from attending high school. They had visiting teachers for one-on-one instruction. Our teacher invited two or three students in our school to be his “radio class” in English, for credit. The Red Cross and other charities provided each student with a radio and a typewriter.
He was the teacher. We broadcast English classes, he gave written assignments, and sent us letters to be read on the air (no phone-in shows at that time). It was called “The High School of the Air for Home Instruction”.
Since I moved away from NYC, I haven’t followed developments at WNYE, but I married a woman who was a student participant in Radcliffe College radio in Cambridge MA.
—tlc
There is a link to the Old Time Radio Show Catalog on the OnPoint site but they seem to sell their content only on CD’s. Am I overlooking an option on their website?
I love “Old Time” radio but I have very little patience with “Old Time” technology like CD’s. A few years ago I converted my 1500-CD music collection to digital files and since that time I’ve led a CD-free life and all the new music I’ve acquired has been downloaded from the web. (we keep the music on a network-attached harddrive and play it through our Sonos system, or on our iPods. Obviusly we do regular backups).
Obviously I can copy the CD’s to the HD but that still doesn’t get around the environmental/energy waste of pressing/shipping the CD’s) A lot of old-time radio material is available out on the internet for download if you Google for it.
Posted by Peter Nelson, on October 17th, 2008 at 12:55 pm EDTThe Old Time Radio Catalog site offers free daily downloads, here:
http://www.otrcat.com/today.php
Also, there are free sample episodes of the collections they sell on CD.
Enjoy!
Posted by Wen Stephenson, on October 17th, 2008 at 1:33 pm EDTDear Mr Tom:
Yesterday I was listening to your show “when radio was young’. It was really interesting. I still remember the good old days of radio way back in 1960. We used to pay the license fee for the government for having owned the radio. We used to depend on radio for all the news. Specially BBC for the international news. It was nice to hear old clippings of the broadcasts.(1920 and 1930s.)
During 1960 my favorite station was VOA.
I am a ham radio operator holding call vu2usa. I am radio DXer for the last 30 years. I used to use old RCA valve radio world war surplus for my dx listening. I still own radio from Zenith model Transoceanic. Unfortunately not in working condition.
I enjoy each and every show on NPR.I regularly listen to ONPOINT on my worldspace radio.
Bye
Posted by K S SHAMA SUNDER, on October 18th, 2008 at 12:00 am EDTShama Sunder K S
India
It’s unfortunate that a CD is not included with the book. I wonder why not? Cost or legal reasons I assume, but the value of the book would be hugely increased.
(I’m only half way thru the podcast, so perhaps an explanation is given)
Posted by dm, on October 18th, 2008 at 10:18 am EDTI enjoyed this interview and bought Rudel’s book. So far it’s a great read about early broadcasting media. Great topic! You should have him on again!
Posted by Ali, on October 19th, 2008 at 5:27 pm EDTBravos, Tom. Exceptional show. Great use of sound along with your usual fine job of interviewing. Congrats & cheers to Anthony on a good read.
Posted by Dave Martin, on October 21st, 2008 at 2:41 pm EDTTom’s guest tells the story for Brinkley’s goat glands as a means to correct male impotence. FYI - the Lyndon Johnson tapes record Johnson talking to Sargent Shriver about the ‘glands.’
Toward the Great Society
By Ernest May, Timothy Naftali
Published by W. W. Norton & Company, 2007
Page 19
The one topic missing in Tom’s discussion was the role of the Border Blasters (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Border_blaster) in the early days of radio.
Great show Tom!
Posted by CJ, on October 22nd, 2008 at 9:26 am EDT[...] Interview from WBUR with the author of this new book about the birth of American Radio: [...]
Posted by Infowars » Blog Archive » Must-hear for lovers of Radio, on October 30th, 2008 at 2:47 am EDTI used to go to sleep when I was a kid and wake up about 1AM to listen to Long John Nebel on WOR radio in NYC. Sometimes I even made it to 5AM when the show left the air and slept in class that day.
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