The Golden Age of Radio
Radio shows made free use of the ethnic humor and racial stereotypes of the time. For example, actors Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll performed Amos ‘n’ Andy (1928-1960) using blackface minstrelsy stereotypes.
Vaudeville star Fanny Brice starred as “Baby Snooks” on the radio. Listen to her here: https://archive.org/details/BabySnooksOldTimeRadio FUN FACT: Barbra Streisand played Fanny Brice in the musical Funny Girl! |
RAdio Advertising
Radio stations sold air time for advertisements as early as 1920, although the first official “on the books” advertisement was sold by AT&T’s WEAF station on 28 August 1922 to advertise a new apartment complex in Jackson Heights, Queens, New York.
In a 1922 anti-advertising article for Radio Broadcast magazine, Joseph H. Jackson writes, “Can you picture…the horror of sitting down to listen…then being forced to listen to a broadcasting programme that is nine tenths advertising matter?”
The term “soap opera” comes from daytime radio dramas sponsored by cleaning products and aimed at homemakers.
Like podcast hosts today, radio actors read the ads live as part of their on-air performance.
Listen to radio ads for Camel cigarettes here: www.oldtimeradiofans.com/old_radio_commercials/Camel_Cigarettes.mp3
Listen to a 1948 Lifebuoy Soap ad here: http://www.oldtimeradiofans.com/old_radio_commercials/Lifebouy_Health_Soap_1948.mp3
In a 1922 anti-advertising article for Radio Broadcast magazine, Joseph H. Jackson writes, “Can you picture…the horror of sitting down to listen…then being forced to listen to a broadcasting programme that is nine tenths advertising matter?”
The term “soap opera” comes from daytime radio dramas sponsored by cleaning products and aimed at homemakers.
Like podcast hosts today, radio actors read the ads live as part of their on-air performance.
Listen to radio ads for Camel cigarettes here: www.oldtimeradiofans.com/old_radio_commercials/Camel_Cigarettes.mp3
Listen to a 1948 Lifebuoy Soap ad here: http://www.oldtimeradiofans.com/old_radio_commercials/Lifebouy_Health_Soap_1948.mp3
Radio and Propaganda
As a tool of mass communication, radio was used to support, and to raise support for, the war effort.
Captain Midnight, 1938-1949, was a popular program about a fictional US Army pilot sent on high risk missions. Listen to an episode here: https://www.zootradio.com/uploads/Captain_Midnight/Captain_Midnight_01.mp3
John Flynn and Virginia Moore perform on You Can't Do Business with Hitler, an anti-Nazi program produced by the Office of War Information. Listen to an episode here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1X2Nws4h74&t=149s
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