Editing Charles Coughlin (section)

=== 1931 to 1934 ===
[[File:FDR 1944 Color Portrait (cropped).jpg|thumb|[[Franklin D. Roosevelt|President Roosevelt]]]]
[[File:George A Richards.png|thumb|[[George A. Richards|George Richards]]]]

By 1931, Coughlin had raised enough money from ''Radio League'' to construct the huge Charity Crucifixion Tower at the Shrine of the Little Flower.<ref name="coughlinbroadcast" />

In 1931, CBS received complaints from several affiliate stations about Coughlin's political views. CBS management was also concerned about his attacks on the administration of US President [[Herbert Hoover]].<ref name="coughlinbroadcast" /> CBS then demanded a review of Coughlin's scripts prior to broadcast, which he refused. When Coughlin's contract ended with CBS, the network decided not to renew it.<ref name="Cincin19310106p5">{{Cite news |date=January 6, 1931 |title=Air to Sizzle when Coughlin speaks |page=5 |newspaper=The Cincinnati Enquirer |agency=Associated Press |location=Cincinnati, Ohio |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/83692460/air-to-sizzle-when-coughlin-speaks/ |access-date=August 6, 2022 |via=Newspapers.com |archive-date=August 12, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220812211920/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/83692460/air-to-sizzle-when-coughlin-speaks/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Coughlin and Richards then established an independently financed radio network. His show became the ''Golden Hour of the Shrine of the Little Flower'', with WJR and [[WHKW|WGAR]] in [[Cleveland]] serving as core stations.{{r|RWCoughlin}}<ref name="WGARlaunch">{{Unbulleted list citebundle
|1={{Cite news |date=September 20, 1930 |title=See Sale Of WFJC As Network Move |page=3 |newspaper=Akron Beacon Journal |location=Akron, Ohio |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/83347009/see-sale-of-wfjc-as-network-move/ |url-status=live |access-date=August 13, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210813053226/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/83347009/see-sale-of-wfjc-as-network-move/ |archive-date=August 13, 2021 |via=Newspapers.com}}
|2={{Cite news |date=December 16, 1930 |title=WGAR Goes On the Air Without a Hitch |page=8 |newspaper=Cleveland Plain Dealer |location=Cleveland, Ohio}}}}</ref> With Coughlin paying for the airtime on a contractual basis, the number of affiliates carrying ''Golden Hour'' increased to 25&nbsp; stations by August 1932.<ref name="AkronB19320830p 28">{{Cite news |last=Doran |first=Dorothy |date=August 30, 1932 |title=Radio Fans To Hear About Sun's Eclipse |page=28 |newspaper=Akron Beacon Journal |location=Akron, Ohio |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/83692569/radio-fans-to-hear-about-suns-eclipse/ |access-date=August 6, 2022 |via=Newspapers.com |archive-date=August 7, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220807222015/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/83692569/radio-fans-to-hear-about-suns-eclipse/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Regional radio networks, such as the [[Yankee Network]], the Quaker State Network, the Mohawk Network and the Colonial Network, also started carrying ''Golden Hour''.<ref name="50Affilates">{{Cite news |date=January 15, 1938 |title=Net of 58 Stations for Fr. Coughlin |url=https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1938/1938-01-15-BC.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211108155230/https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1938/1938-01-15-BC.pdf |archive-date=November 8, 2021 |access-date=August 7, 2022 |work=Broadcasting |page=34 |via=World Radio History |volume=14 |issue=2}}</ref> Coughlin's radio network became the largest one of its type in the United States. Leo Fitzpatrick, who had given Coughlin his initial airtime over WJR in 1926 and was retained as a part-owner when Richards purchased the station,<ref>{{Cite news |date=September 17, 1971 |title=Leo J. Fitzpatrick Is Dead at 77; Served on Forerunner of F. C. C. |language=en-US |work=[[The New York Times]] |agency=Associated Press |location=New York, New York |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1971/09/17/archives/leo-j-fitzpatrick-is-dead-at-77-served-on-forerunner-of-fcc.html |access-date=August 15, 2022 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> continued to serve as a confidant and advisor to Coughlin.<ref>{{Cite magazine |date=March 21, 1938 |title=Music: Musical Mayhem |url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,788253,00.html |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |language=en-US |volume=XXXI |issue=13 |issn=0040-781X |access-date=August 7, 2022 |archive-date=August 12, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220812211930/https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,788253,00.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

With the United States suffering through the [[Great Depression]], Coughlin strongly endorsed New York Governor [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] for president in the [[1932 United States presidential election|1932 Presidential election]]. He was invited to attend the June 1932 [[1932 Democratic National Convention|Democratic National Convention]] in Chicago. An early supporter of Roosevelt's New Deal reforms, Coughlin coined the popular phrase "Roosevelt or Ruin". Another phrase Coughlin created was "The New Deal is Christ's Deal".{{sfn|Rollins|O'Connor|2005|p=160}}After Roosevelt was elected in November 1932, he politely received Coughlin's policy proposals, but showed no interest in enacting them.<ref name="coughlinbroadcast" />

By 1933, [[Securities and Exchange Commission]] President [[Joseph P. Kennedy Sr.]], a strong New Deal and Roosevelt supporter who reportedly was a friend of Coughlin, warned that he was "becoming a very dangerous proposition" as an opponent of Roosevelt and "an out and out [[demagogue]]".<ref>{{cite web |last=Renehan |first=Edward |date=June 13, 1938 |title=Joseph Kennedy and the Jews |url=https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/697 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210102195039/https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/697 |archive-date=January 2, 2021 |access-date=August 11, 2019 |website=History News Network}}</ref>{{sfn|Bennett|2007|p=136}} That same year, ''[[The Literary Digest]]'' wrote, "Perhaps no man has stirred the country and cut as deep between the old order and the new as Father Charles E. Coughlin."{{sfn|Brinkley|1983|pp=83–84}}