Spotlight on the Golden Age of Radio

We could start with a definition of the Golden Age of Radio, but that in iteself seems a point of great controversy with Golden Age Radio fans and scholars alike. Most can agree that it falls somewhere between 1929 and 1957, but many would extend that well into the 1960's. Indeed, some the Radio Drama revivals continued well into the 1980's. Scholars and academics, aside, most fans 'know it when we hear it', irrespective of it's chronological date.

Our Spotlight on The Golden Age of Radio generally defines the Golden Age Radio Era as that period between the advent of commercial radio, 1921, and somewhere between 1965 and 1968.

For our purposes, we use 1921 - 1967.

As a point of reference we offer the following widely accepted definitions, for comparison:

1909 - 1962. Rationale: The invention of the Audion Tube by Dr Lee DeForest in 1909, and the end of both the "Yours, Truly, Johnny Dollar" and "Suspense" in 1962.

1921 - 1984. Rationale: The first commercial broadcast in 1921, through the last run of original CBS Radio Mystery Theatre (CBSRMT) broadcasts in 1984. Hyman Brown's excellent CBSRMT productions not only embodied all of the unique, high production value, well acted dramatic presentations of the very best examples of the Golden Age of Radio. Indeed, it was Hyman Brown's hope that CBS Radio Mystery Theatre would encourage others to realize the continued commercial viability of Radio dramatizations.

1920 - 1950. Rationale: Some people prefer to define the Era of Early Radio as separate from the remaining radio drama, variety, and comedy productions during the Cold War Years. They might further break the period down by defining 1950 - 1960 as 'The Silver Era', and Post-1960 radio drama as 'Revival'.

1924 - 1939. Norman Corwin is quoted as stating that The Golden Age of Radio effective ended with the adoption of The Television by the networks. From a purist standpoint, there's a poignant truth in Corwin's observation. Network Broadcasting has always been a ruthlessly commercial endeavor. There's no doubt that the advent of popularly available television sets marked the beginning of the end of network emphasis on Radio as the most viable commercial medium.

I began collecting Golden Age Radio in 1962, capturing both early FM rebroadcasts of Golden Age Radio shows, as well as recording the shows still airing over AM Radio at the time. I recorded them to tape. When I began collecting in earnest, it was the CBS Radio Mystery Theatre series that I attempted to find the most of, acquiring what I thought was a very extensive collection of over 600 at one time. . . . only to discover that my collection represented only a fraction of the CBSRMT shows produced. Needless to say, I'd 'caught the bug'.

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Few periods in modern human history seem so tightly interwoven into expressions of its culture than the period when the world entered -- then emerged from -- The Great Depression further extending through the years of yet another cultural catastrophe--a second World War . . . and then a third, right on it's heels. This topped off by the advent of The Atomic Age and Cold War Years.

Yet through all of those world shattering events, American culture throughout the Golden Age Radio Era -- as well as that of the rest of the modern world -- seemed drawn together in hopeful celebration--via song, radio, print, and telvision drama, dance and other arts, visual entertainment and audio-visual technology.

This is a difficult experience to articulate to those born after 1967, certainly to those born after 1984. But imagine for a moment, the wondrous, magical devices both the telephone and radio must have seemed to the people of the 20's and 30's. . . . and how quickly they came to be taken for granted -- much the same as we take our cell phones and laptop computers for granted today.

But it was the more highly attenuated focus on sounds decoded and translated from the airwaves and the human imagination that further processed them that made those first years of wondrous popular transmissions so very different from anything that preceded them -- or succeeded them, for that matter. They provided an often desparately needed distraction and means of escape from some of the most trying years in modern humanity's collective history.

Indeed it was that very attenuated -- often strained -- attention to those sounds magically emanating from a tabletop or cabinet radio that forced the listener to pay attention to every sound, every utterance, and every nuance of the presentation, be it music, news, variety, drama, or comedy.

There's no denying the very personal aspect of the simple, common experience of listening. We've all read or heard of any number of experiments regarding the individual -- and very personal -- impressions of the experience of listening to a common message. Indeed, of how very differently any two humans 'hear' or 'listen' to a commonly experienced audio message. It's those very different and presonalized interpretations that make a true common understanding of a medium all the more remarkable -- even unlikely. But such 'common experiences' were the very basic common denominator that fired the commercial possibilities of early radio. Early radio advertisers left no stone unturned in attempting to tap into that elusive 'common listening experience' that made a radio show -- and of course, it's commercial messages -- popular, as well as commerically successful to a wide audience.

Those of us 'of a certain age', can all remember our folks' anecdotes about the wonders of Radio in those early years. The main reason I demarcate the first of the Golden Years as '1929' is due to the Neutrodyne and Heterodyne circuitry (c.1922 - 1929) that made listening to early radio a vastly more enjoyable and involving experience. Granted, that the sheer novelty of it made even the earliest Radio transmissions a rivetting experience, despite all the pops, squeals and hisses. But then of course, social psychologists, contemporary anthropologists, and research psychologists -- as well as early advertising experts -- were learning that a human tends to focus more intently on a feint message as on a loud, blaring, monotonal message People 'listened' more because they had to. The medium of radio, and telephone before it, was often scratchy, feint, or garbled by atmospherics or 'dirty' or electrically 'noisy' applicances or wiring nearby. It forced the listener to focus or 'attentuate' more on the source of the sound.

With vastly improved circuitry came an even greater focus on sound -- and imagination. Sound clear enough to evoke far more than just auditory responses. These were sounds clear enough to take its audience anywhere the human imagination could listen to, or think. Even to places that its audience had never thought much about at all -- before.

I can't think of the term 'Golden Age' of Radio without immediately making the connection to what--for me--was truly 'golden' about it. . . literally.

It was the golden glow of that dial--day or night, but far better at night. The glow of that dial, and almost imperceptably, the faint glow of the tubes behind the grill cloth of the cabinet. It was almost hypnotic. And yet hypnotic to every individual that heard it, just a little differently.

So universal was the intensity of that focus, that beginning at about 8:15pm EDT on 30 October, 1938, a rather embarassed population took Orson Welle's masterful radio dramatization H.G.Wells' 'War of Worlds' as fact for as long as 36 hours in some parts of the country.

How tempting to laugh or scoff about such a possibility now, but its easy to understand how it could have happened, in those pre-television, pre-CNN, pre-MSNBC years of communication.