Breaking Walls: The Podcast on the History of American Network Radio Broadcasting

The U.S. spent the first ten months of 1949 in a recession. Competition for the advertising dollars was stiffer. There were now over two-thousand-six-hundred AM and FM stations. Television was becoming a serious threat. Over a hundred TV stations were on the air. Only two Network Radio shows had a rating higher than 20. Just two years earlier, there were fifteen. Radio’s average Top 50 ratings dro...

Although their radio show got canceled, Martin and Lewis were concurrently guest-appearing in a My Friend Irma film. Irma was one of CBS’ top shows starring Marie Wilson. The movie debuted on August 16th, 1949. Critics panned everything about the film, except Martin and Lewis, and the duo continued to be a smash at live shows. NBC brought the program back on Friday October 7th 1949. The network ha...

As part of NBC’s programming development, One-point-five Million dollars was allocated towards new shows. The network’s first major signing was Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. In August of 1948 they made their Hollywood debut at Slapsie Maxie’s. They were soon guest-starring on Milton Berle’s TV show, and other comedians thought their Elgin appearance groundbreaking. On December 22nd the duo recorded...

Jerry Lewis was born Jerome Joseph Levitch on March 16th, 1926 in Newark, New Jersey. His father was a Vaudevillian and his mother was a pianist for WOR. By fifteen, Lewis had developed a "Record Act", miming lyrics to songs while a phonograph played offstage. To supplement his income he worked as a soda jerk at the Paramount Theater while he honed his act. In 1943, Lewis met singer Dino Paul Croc...

It’s 4PM eastern time on November 25th, 1948. Elgin Watches annual Thanksgiving Day special is on the air from NBC’s KFI in Hollywood. Don Ameche is the emcee. Ken Carpenter is announcing. This November Radio ratings are robust. Eleven shows have ratings higher than twenty points, and Lux Radio Theatre’s 33.2 is the most listened-to show on the air. But a major shift is about to happen just as the...

In Breaking Walls episode 138 in honor of opening day, we’ll share stories, and sounds from Baseball history and the radio. —————————— Highlights: • Dots and Dashes • The Babe • Mel Allen • Dizzy • The War • Jackie • The Death of Babe Ruth • Baseball Radio Drama • The Shot Heard Round The World • Westward Ho! • The TV Era and the Death of Jackie Robinson • Looking Ahead To May with Frank, Dean, Je...

Well, that brings our episode of baseball stories to a close. But speaking of heroes and heroines. Next time on Breaking Walls, it’s the 1950s and four people are taking the world by storm for different reasons. We’ll cover all four of them under the guise of one show. Who are the four? Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Frank Sinatra, and Ms. Marilyn Monroe.

Radio ratings peaked in 1948 and the networks used excess profits to help launch TV. By 1950 NBC, CBS, and ABC were filling their entire primetime TV schedule. After eighteen years as one of radio’s highest-rated weekly shows, the just-heard Fibber McGee and Molly began airing five nights per week for fifteen minutes on October 5th, 1953. As America moved west after World War II, turning farms int...

In 1954, it took a historic season to dethrone the Yankees who were five-time defending world champions. Although they won one-hundred three games, the Cleveland Indians won a then-American League record one-hundred eleven. The Indians were led by Center Fielder Larry Doby, the first African-American player in the AL, Third Basemen Al Rosen, and slugger Vic Wertz. Their pitching staff was anchored...

1951 seemed like the season it would all finally come together in Brooklyn. The Dodgers were led by Catcher Roy Campanella, First baseman Gil Hodges, Outfielder Duke Snider, and now second-baseman, Jackie Robinson. Through one-hundred sixteen games, Brooklyn had seventy wins. On August 11th the New York Giants trailed the Dodgers in the standings by thirteen games. Then, Giants manager Leo Duroche...

The man you just heard is acting legend Vincent Price. Price’s only continuous radio role was as star of The Saint where he played Simon Templar. Leslie Charteris created the character as a suave private eye. He was a dapper dresser, equally at home at the wheel of a fast car, in an airplane, or on horseback. The Saint would also break the law if the result justified it. The show had begun on CBS...

In 1946, Babe Ruth, always a heavy smoker, began to experience severe pain over his left eye and difficulty swallowing. Tests were bleak. Ruth had an inoperable malignant tumor at the base of his skull. He was one of the first cancer patients to receive both drugs and radiation treatment simultaneously. He lost eighty pounds and was discharged from the hospital in February of 1947. Baseball commis...

Tuesday, April 15th, 1947. 12:30PM. It’s damp and overcast. We’re at Ebbets field in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, New York. The visiting Boston Braves are playing the Brooklyn Dodgers on opening day. We can smell hot dogs, pretzels, popcorn, knishes, and beer. Manager Leo Deroucher has been suspended by MLB’s offices for conduct detrimental to the team. He’ll have to sit out the whole season....

As recounted by hall of famer Bob Feller, the summer of 1941 proved to be one of the greatest seasons in Baseball history. Ted Williams hit .401 for the Boston Red Sox — the last man ever to do so, while Joe Dimaggio hit in fifty-six consecutive games and won the AL MVP for the New York Yankees. The Yankees met the surprising Brooklyn Dodgers in the world series. The Dodgers drew the most fans in...

Jerome Hanna "Dizzy" Dean was born on January 16th, 1910 in Lucas, Arkansas, only attending school into the second grade. He made his professional debut in 1930 for the St. Louis Cardinals, sticking with the big club in 1932. The team was soon nicknamed the Gashouse Gang for their on and off field exploits. Two years later Dean was the 1934 World Series team’s ace. His brother Paul was also on the...

In 1939 the just-heard Mel Allen became the New York Yankees radio announcer. He was born in Birmingham, Alabama on February 14th, 1913. While attending the University of Alabama he became the public address announcer for the Crimson Tide football team. In 1933, when radio station WBRC asked Alabama coach Frank Thomas to recommend a new play-by-play announcer, he suggested Allen. Allen graduated f...

In forty-four seasons from 1921 to 1964, The New York Yankees won the World Series twenty times. The dynasty began with Babe Ruth’s sale from the Boston Red Sox after the 1919 season. Ruth learned his craft in an orphanage in Baltimore, making the Red Sox as a teenager in 1914. He quickly established himself as the best left-handed pitcher in the American League, but he could hit a ball further th...

If you’ve tuned into Breaking Walls episodes before, you know I rarely editorialize. I’m just the messenger bringing the news. The origins belong to men and women who gave radio their blood, sweat, and tears through radio’s highest highs and lowest lows. I grew up in a home with my grandparents and great-grandparents listening to The Golden Age of Radio. It was a hobby and nothing more. By the tim...

In Breaking Walls episode 137 we celebrate the Irish by focusing on St. Patrick’s Day on the air. —————————— Highlights: • Fred Allen — The End and the Beginning • Beat the Band • Burns and Allen at the NYC Parade • Bill Stern’s Sports Newsreel • Dennis Day Returns from the Navy • Fred Allen is King For a Day • Elliott Lewis and Broadway Is My Beat • The Death of Fred Allen • Ending with Jean Shep...

Well, that brings our look at St. Patrick’s Day to the close, but not to worry the green fields of the mind will remain in April. Next time on Breaking Walls, in honor of Major League Baseball’s opening day, we take a trip to the batter’s box and bring our radios with us. We’ll tell and hear baseball stories from some of the most famous broadcasters and players in American history.

Although Fred Allen’s death left an unfillable hole in mid-century comedy, it’s not as though there weren’t other humorists battling with networks and sponsors. Just ask Jean Shepherd. Jean Shepherd was born on July 26th, 1921 in Hammond, Indiana. He served in the Army Signal Corps in World War II, and briefly attended Indiana University. Shepherd began his broadcast radio career in early 1945 on...

By January of 1949 Fred Allen was worn out. He’d spent years battling with sponsors and with NBC. In December of 1948 his Sunday at 8:30 rating was a healthy 20 points, but after Edgar Bergen left NBC’s airwaves the network moved Allen’s show up a half hour to 8PM. Meanwhile on ABC, Stop the Music’s popularity was soaring. Allen lost nearly half his audience in a single month. By March Stop The Mu...

Broadway Is My Beat first took to the air on CBS from New York on February 27th, 1949, starring Anthony Ross and directed by John Dietz. After fifteen weeks, with Dragnet breaking new ground on NBC, CBS moved the show’s production to Hollywood. Elliott Lewis was by then helping to edit scripts for Bill Spier on Suspense. With the urging of men like Spier and Bill Robson, the twenty-eight-year-old...

In 1944 Fred Allen had to quit the Texaco Star Theatre as a battle with high blood pressure forced him off the air. The next fall, in 1945, he returned to NBC Sundays at 8:30PM with The Fred Allen Show, sponsored by Blue Bonnet Margarine & Tender Leaf Tea. With he and Jack Benny back on the same network, the two rekindled their feud. It came to a climax on the May 26th, 1946 episode of Fred’s show...

Jack Benny’s most famous Irish Tenor, Dennis Day was born on May 21st, 1916 in New York City and raised in the Throggs Neck section of The Bronx. Day graduated from Cathedral Preparatory Seminary and attended Manhattan College, where he sang in the glee club. Eventually he made his way to radio. Dennis Day made his Benny debut on October 8th, 1939. During World War II, Day enlisted in the Navy. He...