The Way it Was…
…The early days of radio
By Al Eicher

If you were born in the 1920s or as late as the mid 40s you might remember listening to some great programs on radio. If you don’t remember some of the programs you might have listened to, I hope my research stimulates your memory banks. What prompted me to write this article came from two experiences this year. At our cottage on Sand Point we do not have cable TV. Some of our grandchildren were at the cottage one weekend and, after swimming and playing volleyball, they decided to come in and watch TV. Naturally, they couldn’t find anything to watch with only 4 channels...boring!

One of them asked me, “What did you do for entertainment when you were young?”

That was easy to explain; we organized our own neighborhood baseball and softball games, played “kick the can”, went to the movies and most of all, listened to radio. Radio, for me, in the 1940s had some really great programs. The Thumb area didn’t have many stations in the 1940s, as Bay City and Saginaw were the nearest. Network radio stations had good programs for kids and adults, which originated mostly from New York City. Programs presented on Saturday morning and after school were great times to listen to Let’s Pretend, Archie and Friends and a host of other exciting shows for kids.

Little did I know back then, that I would be an owner of a radio station in 1960 with my long time friend and partner, Ray Lane. The station was located in the West Branch, Houghton Lake and St. Helen area. So for years, I have held a strong interest in radio and television. Let’s face it, back then it was a great way to spend some leisure time and, most of all, we used our imagination! It was truly, The Theater of the Mind! Great things can happen when you use your imagination.

The second experience that prompted me to write this article occurred one evening this past summer when my wife, Kathryn, and I couldn’t find anything worth watching on TV and I asked her, “What radio shows did you listen to when you were a kid?”

She quickly mentioned a whole list of shows such as, Let’s Pretend, Amos’ 'n Andy, The Shadow, The Major Bowes Amateur Hour, I Love a Mystery and several others. That evening I wrote down a list of the radio shows I listened to and I was amazed at the number of shows offered to children and adults from the 1920s to the mid 1950s... and then Television came along and changed radio programming forever!

Let’s take a look back in time to August 20th, 1920. It was on this date that the first radio station in Michigan was put on the air by the Detroit News. This was the beginning of WWJ Radio. In 1922, WCX, owned by the Detroit Free Press, went on the air. This station changed ownership several times in the early days of radio and by 1928 was known as WJR. These early Michigan stations started out with low power transmitters of only 517 watts. WCX, by 1925, had increased power to 5,000 watts. It is interesting to note, that by the end of 1922, nationwide, there were 550 radio stations with one and half million listeners. Every state in the nation had at least one station. California had 16 stations by 1925.

It didn’t take long for radio to catch on with the public. Some called the service “The Wireless Telephone” or “The Radio Telephone” but eventually it was called “Radio”. The first radio sets had several dials to adjust. To listen to the broadcast you had to put on a headset, which was similar to a telephone operator’s headset. We didn’t have loudspeakers until the early 1930s. Some of the early radio sets were Philco, Stromberg Carlson, RCA, General Electric, Westinghouse and Atwater Kent.

If you wanted to use a crystal set work, in the Thumb area, you had to have a long wire antenna and scratch the cat whisker on the crystal. I rarely could get more than two stations on these crystal sets in the 1940s. If you lived in Detroit and were close to the radio stations you could get many more stations on these crystal sets, which required no electricity.

Let’s take a look at the programming of the early days and how it evolved. The National Broadcasting Company in New York City had a Blue and Red network of stations. There were about 80 stations on each of the networks. The Columbia Broadcasting Network was next to form and in 1935 became the network of WJR radio. WJR had been an NBC network station for many years previous. CBS was so pleased with the WJR switch that they sent Kate Smith to do her show from the Masonic Temple in Detroit to celebrate the event. In 1935 the F.C.C. revamped the broadcast frequencies and permitted WJR to go to 50,000 watts of power making it a “Clear Channel” station. Several other stations in the USA were also given clear channel status and radio set sales soared during the 30s. For those using the crystal sets the signal strength was much better if you lived in the rural area.

Eventually, there would be four major program networks. The American Broadcasting Company and the Mutual Network would complete the four programming networks. The following list of programs is what I remember hearing on radio from 1941 to 1953. You may recall many more...let’s see how good your memory banks are operating today!

Jack Armstrong...the all American boy, The Shadow Knows, The Green Hornet, The Fat Man, Sergeant Preston, Sherlock Homes, Captain Midnight, Let’s Pretend, Corliss Archer, Mr. Keen, I Love a Mystery, Tom Mix, The Hermit’s Cave, One Man’s Family, The Crime Doctor, Gang Busters, Mr. District Attorney, G-Men, The FBI in Peace & War, Amos’ 'n' Andy, Henry Aldrich, The Jack Benny Show, Fibber MeGee and Molly, Charlie Chan, George Burns and Gracie Allan Show, Major Bowes and the Original Amateur Hour, The Ted Mack Amateur Hour, Sky King, The Edgar Bergen-Charlie McCarthy Show, George Burns and Gracie Allen Show, The Red Skelton Show, The Goldbergs, Suspense, Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts, Stop the Music, The Life of Riley, My Friend Irma, Baby Snooks, Duffy’s Tavern, Sherlock Holmes, The Judy Canova Show, Abbott and Costello Show and The Lone Ranger.

About 1935, radio programming changed because loudspeakers were now built into the radio. The headsets were no longer needed and women at home had the freedom to get things done around the house without wearing those headsets. This was the era of the “soap opera”. Here is a list of the Soaps...Ma Perkins, Stella Dallas, Helen Trent, Our Gal Sunday, Just Plain Bill, Lorenzo Jones, Backstage Wife, Portia Faces Life, Big Sister, Life Can Be Beautiful, Hilltop House, When a Girl Marries and the Don McNeil Breakfast Club from Chicago. This is just a short list of what Mom could listen to in the late 30s and into the 1950s.

If you don’t remember some of the characters or the setting here are a few leads. Hilltop House was about the woman manager of an orphanage. In Portia Faces Life, Portia is a lawyer. The Romance of Helen Trent...Can a woman over 35 still find romance? Our Gal Sunday was a girl from a little mining town in the west. Lorenzo Jones was a soap designed around comedy. Just Plain Bill was on the air for over 20 years.

Let’s see how good your childhood memories are with these programs. The Shadow, “knows what lurks in the minds of men”...this was the introduction to this show accompanied by some scary music. The shadow was Lamont Cranston, a wealthy young man who had hypnotic powers to read people’s minds and appear invisible to them. I Love a Mystery, was the adventures of Jack Packard, “Doc” Long and Reggie York...this was a crime and adventure thriller. The Hit Parade started in the late 30s and featured the top ten best selling songs based on the 78 rpm record sales. Baby Snooks was played by Fannie Brice, a very funny show! The Jack Benny Show always featured his friend and driver, Rochester. Captain Midnite in 1941 was striking fear into the enemy of freedom and democracy. The Adventures of Ellery Queen were wartime programs, as was Terry and the Pirates. Sherlock Holmes presented an Englishmen, fighting crime with his friend Dr. Watson. The Lux Radio Theater went on the air in 1941 and lasted until 1955.

Gene Autry was a Sunday afternoon show in the late 1940s. One of my favorite mystery shows was Suspense, which started in 1942 and lasted for 20 years. Also in the category of mystery “super thrillers” was Hermit’s Cave. This show was so popular that by 1947 they had created and broadcast 500 episodes.

The Lone Ranger was created here in Michigan and first aired on January 30th, 1933, on WXYZ radio. The voice of the Lone Ranger was played by Mr. Deeds, but after a few performances, George Stenius took the role and lasted only six months. Brace Beemer played the role for only two months and finally Earle Graser became the Lone Ranger for eight years. In the early episodes, the lone mask man rode the Chisholm trail, recovered stolen maps and met famous historic figures such as General Custer, Wild Bill Hickok, Billy the Kid and President Grant. Earle Graser died in 1941 from a car accident and at this time Brace Beemer became the Lone Ranger. Beemer lived on his farm just east of Oxford where his trusted horse, Silver, was stabled. Silver was the great white stallion with the thundering hooves that traveled at the speed of light. Beemer was a great showman. He rode Silver in many parades and rodeos and often went to schools to talk with the children. Brace Beemer passed away at the farm on March 1st, 1965. For many of us we will never forget “Hi Ho Silver...Away!”...and That’s The Way It Was.