While the top soaps scored well in the Hooper ratings in April 1946, the trades reported that the audience for daytime soap operas was in decline from their peaks in the Thirties and early Forties. The average ratings for alternative programming such as talk shows, variety and audience participation and quiz shows were now actually somewhat higher on average than the ratings for serial dramas, a turnabout from the previous year. A number of the weaker soaps, some of which had been around for several years, were retired in the years right after the war. Serial dramas, however, remained an important part of radio daytime programming and a number of them transitioned to television once that medium began to take off a few years later. A number of the soaps of the era had a remarkably similar basic premise: the difficulties of a marriage between people from different social classes. This seems a good example of the paradoxical thinking of Americans. One one hand, we like to deny the existence of a rigid social class system in the United States; on the other, we are at times obsessed with it.
Among the most popular daytime radio formats in 1946 was the woman's chat show, the radio equivalent of the woman's section of the daily newspaper, in which a female radio host offered advice, opinions and recipes, read and answered some of her mail and interviewed guests. It is easy to imagine the typical housewife, at a time when most married women from middle and upper income families were stay-at-home housewives, listening to a talk show as she went about her daily chores. An anonymous writer reflecting the prevailing misogyny of the time sneeringly dismissed these radio women as "Mrs Know-It-Alls" in a Time magazine story in 1942 when the format was proliferating. Apparently to Mr Knows-It-All-at-Time, radio pontification was a male prerogative; there certainly were enough examples spread through the radio day, although the male hosts were more likely to either offer news commentary or share folksy anecdotes, poems and stories than give household advice; there were a few, however, who specialized in nutrition, health and even marital advice.
The noontime talk show hosted by singer Kate Smith on the CBS network had the highest Hooper ratings nationally. Locally, according to the "New York Pulse" ratings for June reported in the July 20 Billboard, Margaret Arlen, who could be heard at 8:45 AM on WABC, was number one. She was followed closely by Bessie Beatty at 10:15 on WOR. Then came Mary Margaret McBride on WEAF at 1:00 PM, Maggi McNellis on WEAF at 12:15, Martha Deane on WOR at 3:00 PM and Nancy Craig on WJZ at 8:30 AM. Martha Deane wads not a real person, like Betty Crocker and Aunt Jenny who also had programs. In this case she was a trademark owned by WOR and mutual and portrayed initially by Mary Margaret McBride before she dropped the personna of a grandmother of six to broadcast under her own identity. There were several other women hosts who broadcast on networks, in syndication or locally.
Breakfast shows were popular. Fred Brenneman's broadcast from Hollywood was the number one morning show nationally and Don McNeill's "Breakfast Club," was also popular. Both included audience participation segments along with celebrity interviews and musical performances. Ed and Pegeen Fitzgerald covered the New York scene from their apartment over breakfast, a successful format that was copied by newspaper columnist Dorothy Kilgallen and her husband, actor-producer Dick Kollmar. Arthur Godfrey, a newcomer to the network morning scene, was picking up steam, on his way to becoming a radio and later television powerhouse. Audience participation shows were also increasingly popular. Among them were "House Party," hosted by Art Linkletter and "Queen For a Day."
On weekday evenings the schedule transitioned from the soaps and talk show into the entertainment and comedy shows of prime time radio. WEAF had a roster of popular soaps at 5:00 PM while other networks went after kids, particularly boys. Top-rated shows included 'When a Girl Marries," "Portia Faces Life" and "Jack Armstrong, the All-American Boy." By 7:00 PM the schedule resembled the night time lineup.
The Daytime Ratings Leaders and Schedule
In the AM on Sundays, religious programming was a major part of the mix. Public affairs and news programs aired in the early afternoon. By mid-afternoon some shows drew audiences as large as prime time radio, The popular Sunday afternppn adn early evening programs included "The Shadow" on WOR and "John Charles Thomas," "One Man's Family," pianist/orchestra leader "Carmen Cavallaro" and "The Great Gildersleeve" on WEAF and "Ozzie and Harriet" and Fanny Brice on WABC. Sunday afternoon was also a time for sports, which this Sunday meant the exhibition game between the New York Yankees and the Brooklyn Dodgers, as well as for classical music including the NBC Symphony and a live broadcast of the New York Philharmonic.