Volume 13 , Issue 38

Old Time Radio (OTR)

Old Time Radio (OTR) was a time of the "Golden Age of Radio" which refers to a period of radio broadcasting in the early 1920's until television's replacement of radio became the primary home entertainment medium in the 1950's.

It was during this Golden Age of Radio that radio dominated the airwaves, filling us with a variety of radio formats and genres as families tuned in to their favorite radio programs.

It was not until after the sinking of the Titanic catastrophe in 1912 that radio came in to use as mass communication, inspired by the work of amateur (Ham) radio operators. It was especially important during WWI as it was vital for air and naval operations. WWI brought about major developments in radio, superseding the Morse code of the wireless telegraph with the vocal communication of the wireless telephone, through advancements in the vacuum tube technology and the introduction of the transceiver.

After the war numerous radio stations were born and set the standard for later radio programs with the Detroit News station 8MK in Detroit, Michigan covering local election results, 31 August 1920. This was followed in 1920 with the first commercial radio station (KDKA) established in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

The first Rose Bowl was broadcast on January 1, 1923 on the Los Angeles station KHJ.

It was during the Golden Age of Radio that found many families gathered around their radios to listen to their popular adventure, comedy, drama, horror, mystery, musical variety, romance, thrillers, classical music concerts, farm reports, news and commentary, panel discussions, quiz shows, sidewalk interviews and weather forecasts. Do you remember your grandparents ever mentioning any of these?

In the late 1920s, the sponsored musical feature was the most popular program format. During the 1930s and 1940s, the leading orchestras were heard often through big band remotes, and NBC's Monitor continued such remotes well into the 1950s by broadcasting live music from New York City jazz clubs to rural America.

The first soap opera, Clara, Lu, and Em was introduced in 1930 on Chicago's WGN. When daytime serials began in the early 1930s, they became known as soap operas because many were sponsored by soap products and detergents.

In the beginning of the Golden Age, American radio 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. As a result, prime-time shows would be performed twice, once for each coast.   |  View or Add Comments (0 Comments)   |   Receive updates ( subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

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