Radio Programs In The 1920s

Here is part 2 of my documentary on 1920s radio. It took a long time to complete because I had to sift through so many radio magazines and other sources.
Part 1: • The Development Of Rad...

[@powellmountainmike8853]

I am a collector of antique radios. I'm almost 70, and have been collecting them since I was 12 years old. I became an electronics technician in the Navy, and later an EE for my profession. My radios span the entire history, from early crystal sets through the battery sets of the early 1920s, to later regular AC powered radios from the mid twenties onward. I really enjoyed this video. Very well done. It largely corroborates things my parents and grandparents told me about the early days of radio. Of course, from about 1958, when I built my first radio at 6 years old from a Remco kit on, I can vouch for the development of the medium myself.

[@kylw3460]

WOW..!!! You must be a goldmine of historic info..!!! Frankly, I'm a little surprised the host hadn't replied to your very interesting comment..!? I would love to see your collection, and hear you talk..!!!

[@soarornor]

It would be awesome if you’d create a video about your collection. If you have an iPad you could do this easily using the iMovie app which makes editing and adding voiceover very simple.

[@powellmountainmike8853]

@@soarornor On my channel you will find several videos of me demonstrating a few of the radios in my collection after I restored them... kzbin.info/door/EjPNjzEUNoRYD4qSpCqHjg

[@TheDavejmcknight]

Respect!

[@stuart8663]

Just wanted to thank you for sharing some wonderful radio history, without bias or a mocking attitude towards the religious aspects of individuals. It is so refreshing that this was respected. It shows a very professional attitude. Well done. I'm subscribing. Cheers from an Australian radio presenter.

[@valentinius62]

The cover art of those radio magazines are so beautiful!

[@scottlarson1548]

My favorite stories I think from the book _Empire of the Air_ are how many people discovered opera on the radio. Opera had been an upper class metropolitan genre with rich people getting dressed up in expensive clothes to hear it performed live. When radio first broadcast it, it was a sensation to people who had never heard anything like it before. One man said the first performance he heard on the radio brought him to tears. People who lived nowhere near an opera house had never heard such dramatic singing before and became fans. Opera became one of the biggest sellers on records and opera singers became celebrities and the "rock stars" of their day.

[@kellycoleman715]

Enrico Caruso comes to mind.

[@uslines]

When I was a wee lad, I would listen to the Met on Saturday afternoons, NBC network, Toscanini conducting. Milton Cross presenting as MC. All live.

[@richholoch8230]

All of your postings are awesome. I'm a ham radio operator since 1973 and have done a lot of radio history and even restored old tube radios. Your research and presentation is superb. Thank you.

[@marciodpsh]

Nice documentary, man. Did not expect that information about jazz not being mainstream.

[@GeeBoggs]

This was awesome work! What great research you did and how beautifully you compiled the content. This is very informative to me. Gee Boggs, Sonoma, CA

[@thosewhohaveearstohear....3838]

Really enjoyed this wonderful video that compliments the origins of radio you did previously. Extremely well done, entertaining and informative. At 80, and a Amateur radio (HAM) I can remember listening to AM stations as early as elementary school. I still have a AM/FM/SWL radio (Tecsun 660) on my night stand and the 1953 Motorola 56L portable / AC that my Mom bought me for my Jr High School graduation in 1954. . Thank you and keep up the great work.

[@kidmohair8151]

excellently well done old bean!

[@kesmarn]

All the hard work and perseverance you put into building your channel has really paid off. So professional, but still lively and entertaining.

[@thepennyplunderer2854]

I love the 20's

[@danielthoman7324]

1920s or 2020s?

[@RadioHist]

Heard your presentation as I am restoring a 1924 Phenix Radio Ultradyne L-2 superheterodyne radio. They and a number of others made kits of parts to build this relatively high performance circuit. As a 55 year vintage radio hobbyist, I think you provided a well balanced narrative. Good luck on spreading your knowledge to a new audience.

[@richardmcleod1930]

In Los Angeles and many other cities, the public listened to the sermons and gospel music from Sister Aimee Semple McPherson on the 4th radio station built (1924) in Los Angeles, KFSG (Four Square Gospel). Her station was so powerful, it blocked out other radio stations in the California area. Sister Aimee had her own radio station with towers on the top of the largest church building in Los Angeles. The church building is still there (Angelus Temple) but the station closed down in 2004. A long run indeed!

[@ScottGrammer]

In the South, if you drive away from a large city, invariably, the last AM station to fade away will be a religious station. Driving towards a large city, a religious station will always be the first to come into range. On FM, it's usually a country station. I once lived across the street from a small 1,000 watt AM religious station that caused a lot of interference for miles in all directions. It was because they were intentionally overmodulating their transmitter to make it louder. The FCC had a little talk with them, and they toned it down.

[@richardmcleod1930]

Same thing happened with Sister Aimee Semple McPherson in Los Angeles at her Angelus Temple back in the 1920's.

[@dendroleon]

stumbled upon this channel recently, and i'm happy about it. keep up the great work!

[@miketackabery7521]

You're awesome: love that you cite your sources! Great show!

[@812guitars]

Great job. I loved your first video on early radio, but this one rounds everything off. Great stuff, keep up the good work!

[@senior_ranger]

A good source for this topic is the book, "Hello Everybody!: The Dawn of American Radio" by Anthony Rudel.

[@monsieurlespike7265]

Really interesting and very well done. It held my attention throughout.

[@lyncourt1]

Excellant presentation and very informative! Thank you for all your time and effort. I truly enjoyed this look at 1920s radio!!

[@Yeoman1346]

Thank you for such an informative and fun channel. I appreciate your content and I can’t thank you enough for your hard work. You really have a great channel.

[@douglaso6428]

Best video yet! You really raised the standard for yourself and that’s a wonderful accomplishment. This was both interesting and informative. Thank you for your labor; it was worth it!! Congratulations…

[@rhoanjenson7475]

New subscriber and really enjoy your channel.

[@Shays_Shellac_Shelf]

To be honest, I was somewhat surprised that Jazz wasn’t mainstream on Radio in the 1920’s, but then again, I kinda figured that Jazz wasn’t very popular with older people then, as the younger generation is almost always gonna make music that older people don’t particularly like. Also kinda surprised that what they considered “Country” today was, at the time, popular on Radio!

[@michaelmcdonald8452]

Why do people preface their comments by addressing their honesty?

[@Shays_Shellac_Shelf]

@@michaelmcdonald8452 idk lol

[@johsiantorres8495]

City people from the north hated it in those times

[@deanronson6331]

@@michaelmcdonald8452 It doesn't have much to do with "addressing one's honesty". It's a crutch that's been replaced by "really" in contemporary speech.

[@eddieboggs8306]

@@michaelmcdonald8452 Huh?

[@rebeccawhite7448]

Great Job, the work shows thank you for your time 🙏🏻💐🥂🍾😉

[@ProfessorEchoMedia]

Absolutely riveting in every respect. Informative, engaging, highly compelling and proving yet again the superior caliber of this channel, one of the best on KZbin. Thank you for all your hard work and the stunningly effective way you present it. As Little Orphan Annie once said: “Even learning can be fun-when you don’t HAVE to do it.”

[@history_by_lamplight]

Say, kid, this show was the darb! Thanks awfully!

[@jeffking4176]

As a radio collector, I find this, and most of your videos very interesting. [ I also collect old movies, and have some 27 silent movies, and 24 Hal Roache’s Our Gang, -and other shorts]. 📻🙂👍❗️

[@smokerings9588]

Thank you for all the work you put into this. Old radio programs are so entertaining as is the story of how radio developed and how the tropes we see today on TV and the net came about. I really loved this amazing program. Thanks!

[@RobinGH]

Good job! Very informative and well presented.

[@wild-radio7373]

I can not express how delighted you have made me when I listen to your description of oldschool radio♡♡♡ absolutely fantastic 🥰

[@jillfeldman110]

Congrats on the increase of views KZbin. I found you a while back but have recently became a subscriber. i started watching silentcomedywatchparty during the pandemic and my interest grew from there. My father who was born in 1911 introduced it to me to silent film in 1971 with a PBS show. I enjoy your show becuse you research trade papers and magazines of the time...a common man outlook. Much of the slang in the twenties was still prevailent in the 50's ...I still use cheaters.

[@glennso47]

Ronald Reagan got his start in show business at WOC Davenport as a sports announcer in the early 30s Reagan was connected by phone to a person at the stadium and Reagan was supposed to repeat over the air what he was hearing over his phone.

[@LemmyCaution66]

Loved the video. Thank you for putting so much time in the research as it was very informative and interesting. Thank you and greetings from Belgium 🇧🇪

[@johnny6171]

Thank you for taking the time and energy to put together this documentary! I was Radio broadcaster a long long time ago And I enjoyed your documentary And I enjoy the radio drama on KZbin. They do a great job! Thank you and Thank you KZbin.

[@alanrogers7090]

Thanks, that literally opened my ears, and my mind, to how things were done back then. One hundred years ago, it was all new, and everyone had to figure out how to actually do these programs, and, of course, they were all LIVE. I liked the fact that the boxing match had to be phoned into the station so the announcer could "emote" as if he were there at the fight. It was a lot like early television, except that television had an edge, it FOLLOWED radio, so, with the exception of images, they already had a blueprint of what must be done. In early TV, there was no video tape, but some programs, "'I Love Lucy", for example, were filmed for posterity. This is why we, today, can watch those just as hey were performed in front of a live audience. Today, we don't thing of anything as being a pioneering industry, but look at smartphones, as an example. Yes, they make phone calls, and many are happy with that one feature. But they also tell you the time, (no watches needed), they can allow you to play games, show you videos or look up information. Yesterday my wife was given a prescription for a new medicine. I looked it up to see if it might react to her other medicines, as this was not her regular doctor. (It wouldn't cause any reactions, but did have a certain side-effect that might bother her later on.) Did anyone predict this smartphone as a "thing" before Apple brought out the first one, knocking down both Nokia and Blackberry as the best-selling cellphones in their day? And that was in 2007, just fifteen years ago. I remember reading that if Henry Ford had taken a survey of what people wanted in their transportation, they would have replied, "A faster horse". They just couldn't concave of an automobile. "What, no horse? How does it go?" The entire concept of something brand new is alien to our everyday lives. Before airplanes were carrying passengers, earlier examples were flimsy and open to the air. Today we fly almost six hundred miles an hour in total comfort at altitudes to high to think about, (typically seven miles high, or so). Did anyone ask for that, specifically? No one would, yet, we accept it as a daily occurrence today. One hundred years ago, when radio was new, you would have been sent to a home for the insane to suggest that it was a normal, everyday thing in the years to come.

[@williamharvey8895]

Well done

[@ladywisewolf3942]

I'm a new subscriber, and love your thorough research in these videos. I've always been a big movie buff, mainly early talkies to 1940's but lately have turned my attention to everything 1920's in pop culture and have read several books on 1920's Hollywood. You are helping tremendously with my new education. Thank you.😊👍

[@luv2sail66]

Very interesting! Thank you for going into such great detail. This must have taken a lot of research.

[@jeffreyhunt1727]

Fantastic content. I recently discovered your channel and I'm really enjoying these radio related episodes.

[@roberta8918]

Great video. I really enjoy watching your channel!

[@Junzar56]

Very informative! Great!

[@SomeRandomOldFatGuy]

Fascinating! Thanks for this!

[@ianpeddle6818]

Thank you - really fascinating and filled a LOT of gaps in my own knowledge

[@billymoretti8437]

Excellent job! Thanks for this!

[@equteachme]

The 20's is in no way a nostalgic journey for me but for some reason the equipment and stories of early public radio does get my interest. Thanks for your efforts on this subject.

[@michaelmcdonald8452]

Why would it be a nostalgic journey?

[@johsiantorres8495]

Why would it be nostalgic to someone who was not born in that era.

[@deanronson6331]

@@michaelmcdonald8452 Because if you feature almost anything on YT from the bygone eras, so many commenters will swoon over how everything was so much better, more beautiful, cleaner, etc. - as if they'd lived back then and knew what they were talking about. It's an example of fake nostalgia.

[@nathaliebatiste9521]

This video was awesome! You clearly outdid yourself. I had never heard of Sam and Henry. Great job! 🎉

[@derekmyers3258]

You're really great at what you do. I pray for your success in this endeavor, and that it brings you a lot of money.

[@nicholassheffo5723]

Another excellent video. Thanks!

[@MichaelYoder1961]

I'm working on a novella set in 1927 - this is really a great addition to my research! Thanks, interesting examination, and thanks for all your work (I know the rabbit holes)

[@CarswithNash]

I really enjoyed this, thank you.

[@carmelbrain7399]

Thanks this is so informative

[@ScottGrammer]

Good job. Now I have to go back and watch the first video!

[@vladtepes481]

Great video. Donna is among the best for radio history

[@PoetUnderhill]

I love the golden age of radio, this was a true gift to listen to. Thank you.

[@roderickfernandez5382]

Thank you so much for putting in all that work I enjoy the two episodes very much and I love listening to old time radio and I had an old time radio for many years with a big speaker on top until the tubes all blew out and it was an early days and I didn't have the internet and I couldn't get troops for it so out it went wish I had it now

[@ThePeaceableKingdom]

A lot of early radio programs are available on the net under the term Old Time Radio or OTR. But as you would expect, there is much more available from the '30s and '40s than from the '20s. Still there is quite a bit and they're very interesting.

[@guygriesse8402]

Good info. Thank you.

[@jeremybear573]

Yes. I've been an huge OTR listener since 2014 and listen almost daily. I have yet to hear a recorded program from the 20s. I don't believe there are many programs that were recorded before the late 1930s. I believe it was because of the desire to ship recorded shows to American troops overseas and during WW2 through the AFN (Armed Forces Network) in 1942. This need to have programming for overseas troops led to the advanced technology of recording live programs which many of the shows did but not all and not all were properly maintained. So there are many lost episodes or episodes of poor quality exist today. Luckily the ability of remastering the shows has allowed so many these wonderful programs to be available on the internet today and mainly thorough KZbin!

[@ThePeaceableKingdom]

@@jeremybear573 Quite some time ago, I collected a series called (I think) the Adventurers Club, which was from about '29 to '31, as I recall. They were short, much shorter than the half hour and hour long stories in later radio shows. But that was 3 or 4 computers ago, and although I have them archived somewhere, they're not at my fingertips, so my memory may be faulty. Everything I've found from the '20s was from the very end of the decade. Except phonograph records. There is a great archive at the University of California Santa Barbara Library called the Cylinder Digitization Project, and it's full of wonderful, beautiful and horrible records from the early years of recorded history. I do have a recording of the morse code reports of the Dempsey Tunney fight as it was relayed up the west coast. Except it isn't exactly *_Morse_* code, and no one today seems able to interpret the dots and dashes. I sure can't! Still an interesting historical artifact.

[@jeremybear573]

@@ThePeaceableKingdom Thanks for the insight 🙏🏻

[@kylw3460]

Good job, man ! Comprehensive, and VERY well done..✌🏻😉

[@TheDavejmcknight]

You're channel is lovely!

[@ruckusamongus]

I love your channel very good work ! I am having no luck researching what my grampa and great aunts and great uncles they had a traveling touring orchestra show in the late 20s called "the Little Ruckers". They were all kids and there like 8 of them they all played instruments and traveled across the country but I can't find ANY info!! Keep a lookout please or steer me in the right direction! Much appreciated your channel! Sincerely, Scott

[@allenjones3130]

On Jan. 1, 1927, NBC subdivided its radio operations into two separate networks, Blue and Red. In the 40s, NBC was pressured into selling the Blue, which became ABC.

[@aamodtss]

Thanks- Great channel and content!

[@The1920sChannel]

Thanks so much!

[@dawnreneegmail]

Boffo‼️‼️ I would think WGN would have scads of their own history🤗

[@Zebred2001]

I recently came across, in a local second hand bookstore, a reference work called The Big Broadcast 1920 - 1950 by Frank Buxton and Bill Owen. Flare Books published by Avon 1966, 1972. 301 pgs. It is a listing of pretty much every (American) radio programme at that time with basic production information.

[@farpointgamingdirect]

I love OTR! I have close to 100,000 different episodes in my collection

[@T-41]

Thanks, a very well researched organized, and informative program. I found it interesting to hear about early radio programming from around the country, having researched local radio broadcasting, primarily Crosley Broadcasting ( WLW, “The Nation’s Station”) as well as others of the time. Radio was the first mass communication system where millions could hear about events simultaneously.

[@joseybryant7577]

I wonder if people will view the early days of KZbin, much like we view early radio

[@bennorwood8433]

Can you please do a video about radio station wrny New York

[@sortedsortof3474]

I know that video's like these take much longer to make but this is the kind that really keep me tuned in. I very much prefer your summaries of a topic that highlight the overall trends of things that happened 100 years ago. The wordy, over exaggerated narrative played well to their target market then but don't carry the same resonance now. Anyway, I love the channel and watch as many of the ones I missed every day. Thank you.

[@JaminJim2010]

Thank you, very much appreciated.

[@vickikeller6046]

Loved it!

[@hrsweet3]

Older technical people, especially hams like myself, have a strong appreciation of the earlier vacuum tube technology and its development. For us, reading about it is pretty interesting. Did you know that the great Edward Armstrong was a ham? For the technical development of radio, see the QST magazine published by the American Radio Relay League starting in 1914 and continuing to today.

[@lundsweden]

I'm about 50, and back 40 years ago when I was a kid I had neighbors who were in their 90s (This was in Sydney Australia). So these were people who would've been about 25-30ish in 1920. They most played 1930s era Jazz 78" records, maybe some earlier stuff but just Jazz. But of course this was just one couple's musucal tastes, but I doubt it was rare.

[@lkmsl]

Thank you , you did a great job !!!

[@MrPillowStudios]

I cannot believe that Jazz was hated in the 20's.

[@yedon68]

He doesn't have his facts correct & many times makes up stories or adlibs...

[@larryboysen5911]

I'm vintage radio collector/restorer, but my favorite interest in radio is announcing/acting. I have been part of an amateur radio acting company...I know that's the profession I would have chosen in the time of the Golden Age of Radio! You don't have to look like a handsome man, just at times, sound like one!

[@steelers6titles]

I believe the earliest recorded actual radio broadcast still extant is the National Defense Test Day broadcast of September 12, 1924, which was broadcast over 18 stations across the country, before the formation of commercial radio networks. The fidelity is remarkably good for the time. The program contains an interesting tribute to John J. Pershing, who was retiring from the military, from a number of his old service buddies. If there are any recordings of actual broadcasts which predate this, I would be interested to know what they are.

[@DrMoorehen]

Marvellous thanks! xxxx

[@stevenikazy2943]

Well written, well presented.

[@Frida3728]

Perhaps you could make a video on how to tune those radios with five or six dials. I imagine they had to aim antennas in the correct direction too

[@undergroundman1993]

My Grandpa told me when he listened to baseball games on the radio as a kid it was just some people in a studio reading off a ticker tape. He said occasionally when there was a foul ball someone would kick over a garbage can as though the ball had landed in the studio.

[@glennso47]

This was how it was done by Ronald Reagan when he worked for WOC Davenport Iowa. He was reading the play by play off a ticker tape.

[@glennso47]

WHA Madison Wisconsin is the flagship station of Wisconsin Public Radio. And Wisconsin Public TV

[@hanschenk8256]

EXCELLENT VIDEO VERY IMPRESSED

[@mr50sagain55]

Another well researched exceptional video! I can’t help but think that 1920’s radio had a poor user experience. Sets requiring more than one type of battery, a separate antenna and no circuitry to reduce static. A free-for-all regarding radio broadcast frequency assignments. Did you find reference to these 1920’s era radio growing pains in your research?

[@glennso47]

WHA in Madison is still on the air. It’s a part of NPR now, and WHA has a tv station that is an affiliate of PBS.

[@robkunkel8833]

21:45 Radio News was 25 cents. That’s a hefty sum back then.

[@jeremybear573]

So Amos & Andy was the 1st OTR drama program? Wow

[@timburr4453]

My family at this time was in Oklahoma...a very sparsely populated, still fairly new state. My grandma would still recall its very first station WKY. Finally they had another link...a lifeline to more of America. It was a sign of the world getting smaller and smaller and new sounds, songs, voices, and cultures could be beamed into their homes

[@agostinodibella9939]

I was curious what song that music is from that you use at the beginning of most of your videos?

[@choppergirl]

i had to pull up some of these famous crooners of the 1920's and i was like... are you serious...?

[@zanity777]

LOVE IT!!!!!!!!

[@lorilorenz9758]

Have you ever come across anything about or from WTAS in Elgin? My great uncle, Frank Morris, was a tenor who sang regularly on that station throughout the 1920s, until he died young in 1925.

[@howardoller443]

In this very video, starting at 0:59, part of a page from Radio Digest is displayed on-screen. Towards/near the top left-hand corner of the screen is an article about WTAS and their decision to feature only male singers!

[@lorilorenz9758]

@@howardoller443 wow! That's great! I'll watch again and look for it! I have a recording of his on my channel if you are interested. I am trying to find more information about him. He passed young, in 1925, from diabetes. Thank you!

[@glennso47]

The WLS National Barndance was a popular show in the 1920s until 1960 when WLS became “wonderful “ At the same time WSM Grand Old Opry started. Both were country music in genre.

[@1912SimpleTune]

🎉🎉🎉 this channel!!❤

[@luxembourg]

Have you done a video on H. Gernsback yet?

[@krysti2]

Thankyou so much ❤❤❤🎉🎉🎉

[@glennso47]

“Loving You Has Made Me Bananas “ in 1969 was a parody of the dance music of the 1920s-30s

[@erpi-ks1by]

As a channel “about” the 20’s you have failed here by stating your found poll was from 1927. So what happened to 1920-1926? I’ll tell you since I own a lot of the actual equipment from those times. The AM “band” did not exist on receivers then. It was all short wave. And many many amateurs were on “broadcasting” code and later voice. KDKA was the first true station that brought voice to the air. There were others earlier using spark gap tech but that it was at the whim of the amateur. KDKA actually had a schedule. So this whole point of music and specifically “jazz” being the thesis of this video is misleading in the title. Be more specific and maybe do more research about 1920’s radio. There is so much more

[@The1920sChannel]

This is the 2nd part of a 2-part series, and the 1st part covers more ground than just the categories of programs. The first video also goes through a timeline of radio throughout the 1920s. It was also my goal to simplify things for a non-niche audience, so I purposely did not focus on any of the technical things. Hope this clears some things up.

[@feralbluee]

on the other hand, when Bugs Bunny and Max Fleishman came along and even the early cartoons, the music was Jazz. i still love that music on the old cartoons i saw in the ‘50’s on TV. :) 🐰🐱🦆🌷🌱

[@qzorn4440]

Most interesting video. The Shadow, and The Lone Ranger came along for real mystery detective fun. 🥰 Then Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon. 👽 Thanks.

[@davidclarke10]

How 20s radio programs were like compared with 50s and today?

[@glennso47]

Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway, I think become popular in the 20s Wayne King was an Orchestra leader. King was originally from Savanna Illinois and became a big name in Chicago.