Editing Golden Age of Radio (section)

==Programming==
{{Main|Radio programming}}

In the period before and after the advent of the broadcast network, new forms of entertainment needed to be created to fill the time of a station's broadcast day. Many of the formats born in this era continued into the television and digital eras. In the beginning of the Golden Age, network programs were almost exclusively broadcast live, as the national networks prohibited the airing of recorded programs until the late 1940s because of the inferior sound quality of phonograph discs, the only practical recording medium at that time. As a result, network prime-time shows would be performed twice, once for each coast.

[[File:You Can't Do Business with Hitler rehearsal.jpg|thumb|300px|right|Rehearsal for the World War II radio show ''You Can't Do Business with Hitler'' with John Flynn and Virginia Moore. This series of programs, broadcast at least once weekly by more than 790 radio stations in the United States, was written and produced by the radio section of the Office of War Information (OWI).]]

=== Live events ===
Coverage of live events included musical concerts and [[play-by-play]] [[sports radio|sports]] broadcasts.

=== News ===
The capability of the new medium to get information to people created the format of modern [[radio news]]: headlines, [[remote broadcast|remote reporting]], sidewalk interviews (such as ''[[Vox Pop (radio)|Vox Pop]]''), [[panel discussion]]s, [[weather forecasting|weather reports]], and farm reports. The entry of radio into the realm of news triggered a [[The Press-Radio War|feud between the radio and newspaper industries in the mid-1930s]], eventually culminating in newspapers trumping up exaggerated {{citation needed|date=November 2022}} reports of a [[mass hysteria]] from the (entirely fictional) radio presentation of ''[[The War of the Worlds (1938 radio drama)|The War of the Worlds]]'', which had been presented as a faux newscast.

=== Musical features ===
The sponsored musical feature soon became one of the most popular program formats. Most early radio sponsorship came in the form of selling the [[naming rights]] to the program, as evidenced by such programs as ''[[The A&P Gypsies]]'', ''[[Champion Spark Plug Hour]]'', ''[[The Clicquot Club Eskimos]]'', and ''[[King Biscuit Time]]''; commercials, as they are known in the modern era, were still relatively uncommon and considered intrusive. During the 1930s and 1940s, the leading orchestras were heard often through [[big band remotes]], and NBC's ''[[Monitor (NBC Radio)|Monitor]]'' continued such remotes well into the 1950s by broadcasting live music from New York City jazz clubs to rural America. Singers such as [[Harriet Lee (singer)|Harriet Lee]] and [[Wendell Hall]] became popular fixtures on network radio beginning in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Local stations often had staff organists such as [[Jesse Crawford]] playing popular tunes.

[[Classical music]] programs on the air included ''[[The Voice of Firestone]]'' and ''[[The Bell Telephone Hour]]''. [[Texaco]] sponsored the [[Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts]]; the broadcasts, now sponsored by the [[Toll Brothers]], continue to this day around the world, and are one of the few examples of live classical music still broadcast on radio. One of the most notable of all classical music radio programs of the Golden Age of Radio featured the celebrated Italian conductor [[Arturo Toscanini]] conducting the [[NBC Symphony Orchestra]], which had been created especially for him. At that time, nearly all classical musicians and critics considered Toscanini the greatest living maestro. Popular songwriters such as [[George Gershwin]] were also featured on radio. (Gershwin, in addition to frequent appearances as a guest, had his own program in 1934.) The [[New York Philharmonic]] also had weekly concerts on radio. There was no dedicated classical music radio station like [[NPR]] at that time, so classical music programs had to share the network they were broadcast on with more popular ones, much as in the days of television before the creation of [[National Educational Television|NET]] and [[PBS]].

[[Country music]] also enjoyed popularity. ''[[National Barn Dance]]'', begun on Chicago's [[WLS (AM)|WLS]] in 1924, was picked up by [[NBC Red Network|NBC Radio]] in 1933. In 1925, ''[[WSM (AM)|WSM]] Barn Dance'' went on the air from [[Nashville]]. It was renamed the ''[[Grand Ole Opry]]'' in 1927 and NBC carried portions from 1944 to 1956. NBC also aired ''The [[Red Foley]] Show'' from 1951 to 1961, and [[Citadel Media|ABC Radio]] carried ''[[Ozark Jubilee]]'' from 1953 to 1961.

=== Comedy ===
Radio attracted top comedy talents from [[vaudeville]] and Hollywood for many years: [[Bing Crosby]], [[Abbott and Costello]], [[Fred Allen]], [[Jack Benny]], [[Victor Borge]], [[Fanny Brice]], [[Billie Burke]], [[Bob Burns (comedian)|Bob Burns]], [[Judy Canova]], [[Eddie Cantor]], [[Jimmy Durante]], ''[[Burns and Allen]]'', [[Phil Harris]], [[Edgar Bergen]], [[Bob Hope]], [[Groucho Marx]], [[Jean Shepherd]], [[Red Skelton]] and [[Ed Wynn]]. [[Sitcom|Situational comedies]] also gained popularity, such as ''[[Amos 'n' Andy]]'', ''[[Easy Aces]]'', ''[[Ethel and Albert]]'', ''[[Fibber McGee and Molly]]'', ''[[The Goldbergs (broadcast series)|The Goldbergs]]'', ''[[The Great Gildersleeve]]'', ''[[The Halls of Ivy]]'' (which featured screen star [[Ronald Colman]] and his wife [[Benita Hume]]), ''[[Meet Corliss Archer]]'', ''[[Meet Millie]]'', and ''[[Our Miss Brooks]]''.

Radio comedy ran the gamut from the small town humor of [[Lum and Abner]], [[Herb Shriner]] and [[Minnie Pearl]] to the dialect characterizations of [[Mel Blanc]] and the caustic sarcasm of [[Henry Morgan (comedian)|Henry Morgan]]. Gags galore were delivered weekly on ''[[Stop Me If You've Heard This One]]'' and ''[[Can You Top This?]]'',<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.museum.tv/rhofsection.php?page=274|title=Home|website=www.museum.tv|access-date=30 March 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120922034839/http://www.museum.tv/rhofsection.php?page=274|archive-date=22 September 2012|url-status=live}}</ref> panel programs devoted to the art of telling jokes. Quiz shows were lampooned on ''[[It Pays to Be Ignorant]]'', and other memorable parodies were presented by such satirists as [[Spike Jones]], [[Stoopnagle and Budd]], [[Stan Freberg]] and [[Bob and Ray]]. British comedy reached American shores in a major assault when NBC carried ''[[The Goon Show]]'' in the mid-1950s.

[[File:Radio - Keep It Free.jpg|right|thumb|250px|Radio-related World War II propaganda poster]]
Some shows originated as stage productions: [[Clifford Goldsmith|Clifford Goldsmith's]] play ''[[What a Life (play)|What a Life]]'' was reworked into NBC's popular, long-running ''[[The Aldrich Family]]'' (1939–1953) with the familiar [[catchphrase]]s "Henry! Henry Aldrich!," followed by Henry's answer, "Coming, Mother!" Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman's Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway hit, ''[[You Can't Take It with You (play)|You Can't Take It with You]]'' (1936), became a weekly situation comedy heard on Mutual (1944) with Everett Sloane and later on NBC (1951) with [[Walter Brennan]].

Other shows were adapted from comic strips, such as ''[[Blondie (comic strip)|Blondie]]'', ''[[Dick Tracy]]'', ''[[Gasoline Alley (comic strip)|Gasoline Alley]]'', ''[[The Gumps]]'', ''[[Li'l Abner]]'', ''[[Little Orphan Annie]]'', ''[[Popeye the Sailor]]'', ''[[Red Ryder]]'', ''[[Reg'lar Fellers]]'', ''[[Terry and the Pirates (radio serial)|Terry and the Pirates]]'' and ''[[Tillie the Toiler]]''. Bob Montana's redheaded teen of comic strips and comic books was heard on radio's ''[[Archie Andrews (comics)|Archie Andrews]]'' from 1943 to 1953. ''The Timid Soul'' was a 1941–1942 comedy based on cartoonist [[H. T. Webster]]'s famed [[Caspar Milquetoast]] character, and Robert L. [[Ripley's Believe It or Not!]] was adapted to several different radio formats during the 1930s and 1940s. Conversely, some radio shows gave rise to spinoff comic strips, such as ''My Friend Irma'' starring [[Marie Wilson (American actress)|Marie Wilson]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Everybody's Friend: Remembering Stan Lee and Dan DeCarlo's 'My Friend Irma' |work=Hogan's Alley |volume=#16 |publisher=cartoonician.com |url=http://cartoonician.com/everybodys-friend-remembering-stan-lee-and-dan-decarlos-my-friend-irma/ |year=2010 |access-date=2013-03-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130319184704/http://cartoonician.com/everybodys-friend-remembering-stan-lee-and-dan-decarlos-my-friend-irma/ |archive-date=2013-03-19 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

=== Soap operas ===
The first program generally considered to be a daytime serial drama by scholars of the genre is ''[[Painted Dreams]],''<ref>{{Cite book|last=Cox|first=Jim|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YPlPfU9KSGMC&pg=PA171|title=Historical Dictionary of American Radio Soap Operas|year=2005|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=978-0-8108-6523-5|language=en}}</ref><ref name="hummert">{{cite book|last=Cox|first=Jim|title=Frank and Anne Hummert's radio factory: the programs and personalities of broadcasting's most prolific producers|publisher=McFarland|year=2003|isbn=978-0786416318}}</ref> which premiered on [[WGN (AM)|WGN]] on October 20, 1930.<ref name="hummert" /> The first networked daytime serial is ''[[Clara, Lu, 'n Em]]'', which started in a daytime time slot on February 15, 1932. As daytime serials became popular in the early 1930s, they became known as [[soap opera]]s because many were sponsored by soap products and detergents. On November 25, 1960, the last four daytime radio dramas—''[[Young Dr. Malone]]'', ''Right to Happiness'', ''The Second Mrs. Burton'' and ''[[Ma Perkins]]'', all broadcast on the [[CBS Radio Network]]—were brought to an end.

=== Children's programming ===
The line-up of late afternoon adventure serials included ''[[Bobby Benson and the B-Bar-B Riders]]'', ''[[The Cisco Kid]]'', ''[[Jack Armstrong, the All-American Boy]]'', ''[[Captain Midnight]]'', and ''[[Tom Mix#Radio|The Tom Mix Ralston Straight Shooters]]''. Badges, rings, decoding devices and other [[radio premiums]] were often linked to a sponsor's product. These items were offered on adventure shows. Young listeners had to mail in a [[boxtop]] from a breakfast cereal or other [[proof of purchase]].

=== Radio plays ===
Radio plays were presented on such programs as ''[[Norman Corwin|26 by Corwin]]'', ''NBC Short Story'', ''[[Arch Oboler's Plays]]'', ''[[Quiet, Please]]'', and ''[[CBS Radio Workshop]]''. [[Orson Welles]]'s ''[[The Mercury Theatre on the Air]]'' and ''[[The Campbell Playhouse (radio series)|The Campbell Playhouse]]'' were considered by many critics to be the finest radio drama anthologies ever presented. They usually starred Welles in the leading role, along with celebrity guest stars such as [[Margaret Sullavan]] or [[Helen Hayes]], in adaptations from literature, Broadway, and/or films. They included such titles as ''[[Liliom]]'', ''[[Oliver Twist]]'' (a title now feared lost), ''[[A Tale of Two Cities]]'', ''[[Lost Horizon]]'', and ''[[The Murder of Roger Ackroyd]]''. It was on ''Mercury Theatre'' that Welles presented his celebrated-but-infamous [[The War of the Worlds (1938 radio drama)|1938 adaptation]] of [[H. G. Wells]]'s ''[[The War of the Worlds]]'', formatted to sound like a [[breaking news]] program. ''[[Theatre Guild on the Air]]'' presented adaptations of classical and Broadway plays. Their Shakespeare adaptations included a one-hour ''[[Macbeth]]'' starring [[Maurice Evans (actor)|Maurice Evans]] and [[Judith Anderson]], and a 90-minute ''[[Hamlet]]'', starring [[John Gielgud]].<ref>{{Cite AV media |title=Hamlet (Episode 065) |format=MP3 |work=Theater Guild on the Air |publisher=[[Internet Archive]] |url= https://archive.org/download/TheaterGuildontheAir/Tgoa_51-03-04_ep065-Hamlet.mp3 |date=1951-03-04}}</ref> Recordings of many of these programs survive.

During the 1940s, [[Basil Rathbone]] and [[Nigel Bruce]], famous for playing [[Sherlock Holmes]] and [[Dr. Watson]] in films, repeated their characterizations on radio on ''[[The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes]]'', which featured both original stories and episodes directly adapted from [[Arthur Conan Doyle]]'s stories. None of the episodes in which Rathbone and Bruce starred on the radio program were filmed with the two actors as Holmes and Watson, so radio became the only medium in which audiences were able to experience Rathbone and Bruce appearing in some of the more famous Holmes stories, such as "[[The Adventure of the Speckled Band|The Speckled Band]]". There were also many dramatizations of Sherlock Holmes stories on radio without Rathbone and Bruce.

During the latter part of his career, celebrated actor [[John Barrymore]] starred in a radio program, ''Streamlined Shakespeare'', which featured him in a series of one-hour adaptations of [[Shakespeare]] plays, many of which Barrymore never appeared in either on stage or in films, such as ''[[Twelfth Night]]'' (in which he played both [[Malvolio]] and [[Sir Toby Belch]]), and ''[[Macbeth]]''.

''[[Lux Radio Theatre]]'' and ''[[The Screen Guild Theater]]'' presented adaptations of Hollywood movies, performed before a live audience, usually with cast members from the original films. ''[[Suspense (radio drama)|Suspense]]'', ''[[Escape (radio program)|Escape]]'', ''[[The Mysterious Traveler]]'' and ''[[Inner Sanctum Mystery]]'' were popular thriller anthology series. Leading writers who created original material for radio included [[Norman Corwin]], [[Carlton E. Morse]], [[David Goodis]], [[Archibald MacLeish]], [[Arthur Miller]], [[Arch Oboler]], [[Wyllis Cooper]], [[Rod Serling]], [[Jay Bennett (author)|Jay Bennett]], and [[Irwin Shaw]].

=== Game shows ===
[[Game show]]s saw their beginnings in radio. One of the first was ''[[Information Please]]'' in 1938, and one of the first major successes was ''[[Dr. I.Q.]]'' in 1939. ''[[Winner Take All (game show)|Winner Take All]]'', which premiered in 1946, was the first to use lockout devices and feature returning champions.

A relative of the game show, which would be called the giveaway show in contemporary media, typically involved giving sponsored products to studio audience members, people randomly called by telephone, or both. An early example of this show was the 1939 show [[Pot o' Gold (radio program)|''Pot o' Gold'']], but the breakout hit of this type was ABC's [[Stop the Music (American game show)|''Stop the Music'']] in 1948. Winning a prize generally required knowledge of what was being aired on the show at that moment, which led to criticism of the giveaway show as a form of "buying an audience". Giveaway shows were extremely popular through 1948 and 1949. They were often panned as low-brow, and an unsuccessful attempt was even made by the [[Federal Communications Commission|FCC]] to ban them (as an illegal lottery) in August 1949.<ref>{{Cite news|date=1949-08-20|title=FCC Bans Give-Away Radio Shows|page=1|work=The Miami Herald|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/60864265/fcc-bans-give-away-radio-shows/|access-date=2020-10-10}}</ref>