The That Was The Year Radio Program

Background

Transcribed programming for syndication was all the rage over Radio beginning in the mid to late 1920s and quickly established itself as a viable, cost-effective and relatively risk-free programming alternative for early broadcast networks. The independents also thrived on canned programming. For many of the independents it was their primary means of obtaining new programming.

The better syndications aired over both the early networks and independent stations equally. Those that were produced specifically for a network often found themselves in wider syndication after the network had exhausted the run. Indeed the more popular syndications from the mid to late 1920s to the mid 1950s continue to be as popular with contemporary 21st Century audiences as they were 50 to 70 years ago.

The more successful syndicators invested in the finest talent, writing, and direction to ensure the highest sales potential for their programming. Some of the most interesting syndicated programming arrived in the wake of the Great Depression. The relatively young networks were understandably still recovering from the Stock Market crash and its wake. Thousands of 'mom and pop,' family-owned independents were equally struggling to hold their broadcast audience without risking deeper debt investing in original programming.

So it was that literally thousands of syndicated programs--both popular and not so much--flooded the airwaves of the late 1920s and early 1930s. The most successful syndicated programming of the era was of the music or variety genre. The most popular dramatic programming of the era took the form of comedies and adventures.

The Transcription Company of America, Ltd. (Transco) was one of the more prolific early developers of transcribed Radio programming for syndication. Some of the more commonly available programs from its extensive canon are as follows:

1930 The Story Behind the Song
1930 World Adventurer's Club
1931 Cocoanut Grove Ambassadors
1931 Slim Martin and His Transco All Americans
1932 Plantation Echoes
1933 Pinto Pete
1934 Nonsense and Melody
1935 That Was The Year
1935 Ports of Call
1937 Cinnamon Bear
1937 Komedy Kingdom
1938 Frontier Fighters
1949 The Adventures of Frank Race

Generally 15-minute features, many of its syndicated programs became perennial favorites in their own right. Transco's history features were almost always very entertaining, as well as historically accurate for the era.

Transco introduces That Was the Year for syndication

A west coast production, it may have been produced out of the studios of KMPC, Los Angeles. Transco executive Lindsay MacHarrie was an employee of both Transco and KMPC. While little is known about the production details, it's clear that Gerald Mohr narrated the entire series, with Lindsey MacHarrie himself providing most of the announcing. West coast talent heard in the series are Jay Novello, Gale Gordon and Gerald Mohr.

That Was the Year was a compilation of historical vignettes from the years 1896 through 1934, for a total of thirty-nine programs. Only fifteen minutes in length, the series followed a fairly consistent format. Each program focused on one year, highlighting the most significant social, scientific, political, crime and cultural events for each year, often closing with a popular song of the era.

Time permitting, each program dramatized two to four of the most important events of the year under review; an ambitious task given the eleven minutes or so alotted to the dramatic script. Transco was very good at dramatizing such vignettes and That Was the Year is no exception. As America has become more politically and socially polarized over the past twenty-five years, a great deal of our history--in K-12 textbooks, especially--has been rewritten to advance a political agenda, depending on how the political winds blow. This series and the many others like it from The Golden Age of Radio are compelling time capsules of the historical facts that preceded the era. Granted, that issues like race relations still weren't treated evenly during the 1930s, the remaining historical retrospectives of the era remained reasonably true to the most accurate scholarship then available.

If for nothing other than a showcase for the most popular--and often forgotten--songs of the years 1896-1934, the series remains a treasure. But the historical vignettes are equally priceless. As an example, in the episode for the year 1927, the first demonstration of a Television broadcast is faithfully dramatized. Each episode is full of such vignettes. Gerald Mohr's narration is particularly noteworthy. Clear as a bell, Mohr's enunciation of every word in the script makes the identification of events, places, names and songs of the era perfectly understandable.

First recorded in 1935, they first aired in 1937 and almost annually thereafter for another five to seven years. The package was a very attractive promotional vehicle for local sponsors throughout the U.S. and Canada. The circulating set of thirty-nine recordings are direct from the orginal transcriptions and are thus devoid of any commercial spots. The transcriptions provided ninety seconds of musical fill at the beginning of each recording and another ninety seconds to two minutes at the end.

These marvelous retrospective dramatizations from the 1920s and 1930s are remarkable booksmarks in time that should be a part of every student of American culture and history. The circulating recordings are wonderfully preserved and transferred and sound much as if they have if you'd heard them in your parlor during the late 1930s.

Series Derivatives:

Notes on Provenances:

The most helpful provenances were the log of the radioGOLDINdex and newspaper listings.

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[Date, title, and episode column annotations in red refer to either details we have yet to fully provenance or other unverifiable information as of this writing. Red highlights in the text of the 'Notes' columns refer to information upon which we relied in citing dates, date or time changes, or titles.]