Weekday Morning Radio
Radio programming during the hours before noon on weekdays was a mix of talk shows, recorded music, soap operas and quizzes. Among the more notable programs:
6:00 AM:
Galen Drake on WJZ. Homespun anecdotes, observations and philosophy.
This Is New York on WABC. The radio forerunner to the television news show "Eye on New York." Bill Leonard, then a recently returned veteran hosted. Three decades later he would be president of CBS News.
6:30 AM:
Arthur Godfrey on WABC. Godfrey also had a show later that morning. He was emerging as a radio star but did not yet have the Hooper ratings of some of his competitors. This would soon change. He was not a newcomer, having been an announcer on several national shows including a short-lived stint with Fred Allen. His former Washington D.C.-based morning show had been carried in New York. He gained national attention for his folksy style when the CBS network assigned him to cover FDR's funeral which led to his network morning show. He was also appearing on Broadway at this time in the revue "Three to Get Ready" with Ray Bolger and Gordon MacRae. Later this year, he would be given another radio show, "Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts," which would become one of the most popular shows on TV in the 1950s.
8:00 AM
The Fitzgeralds on WABC
8:15 AM:
Breakfast with Dorothy and Dick on WOR
8:30 AM:
Nancy Craig's "The Woman of Tomorrow" on WJZ. Talk and women's interest.
Missus Goes A Shoppin on WABC. Game show.
8:45 AM:
Margaret Arlen on WABC. The highest rated women's talk show in New York.
9:00 AM
Honeymoon in New York on WEAF. Interviewa with honeymooners and other vacationing married couples visiting New York. Also musical guests. Here is a show from 1947 on youtube.
Myrt and Marge on WOR. Soap opera about two showgirls who were also best friends. It debuted in 1933. Originally the two women were played by real life mother and daughter, Myrtle Vail and Donna Damerel. A few hours after doing a broadcast in 1941, Damerel died in child birth. Her character was written out of the storyline temporarily until another actress was cast in the role. The series was one of several long-running soaps that folded in 1946.
Breakfast Club on WJZ. Don O'Neill's popular variety, talk and audience participation show broadcast from Chicago.
News/Arthur Godfrey on WABC
News/Isabella Beach on WMCA. The matronly home economist was billed as "your radio neighbor."
The Gloom Dodgers on WHN. WHN carried Dodgers baseball and during the season Morey Amsterdam emceed a radio comedy show to chase away the blues from Dodgers fans who frequentky were disappointed in their favorite team's performance on the diamond. Amsterdam was appearing this week at the Playgoers Club and is remembered today from the TV show "The Dick Van Dyke Show."
9:15 AM:
Aunt Mary on WOR. This soap opera which aired on the West Coast NBC station hookup from 1942 to 1951 had a simultaneous national broadcast for a year on the Mutual network. Jane Morgan, who may be remembered by older readers as Eve Arden's elderly landlady. Mrs. Davies, on the TV series "Our Miss Brooks," starred as a warmhearted farm woman who gets involved with her neighbor's problems.
9:30 AM:
Alfred McCann Jr. on WOR. The host had taken over the program from his late father who was a muckraking nutritionist known for his crusades against impure foods and evolution. The son emphasized the pleasures of fine food and wines. The show was done in a Q&A format.
9:45 AM:
Robert St. John on WEAF. Commentary from veteran globe-trotting journalist who was NBC's answer to Edward R. Murrow during the war. He scooped the other networks by 20 seconds in announcing the end of the war. The news wire in the newsroom rang out when important news was coming in, anywhere from one to ten bells. With the end of the war imminent, once St. John heard six bells ring out he made the announcement before receiving the copy, taking a calculated risk that this was the story that was moving. He would later become one of the many victims of the Red Scare. In 1948 he had published a book on Yugoslavia. In a review for The New York Times Book Review, C. L. Sulzberger, wrote that St. John had been too reliant on Communist sources for the book. making him ''a subconscious follower of the 'party line.' '' This was sufficient for him to be named as a Communist sympathizer by Red Channels and subsequently to be fired by NBC. He continued to write and occasionally appear on radio, specializing in Middle Eastern affairs. He died at 100 in 2003.
Estelle Sternberger on WLIB. Sternberger was a social activist as well as radio commentator. She was prominent in Jewish women's organizations.
Denver Darling on WNEW. The performer specialized in nostalgic songs and folk music from the American past.
10:00 AM:
Lone Journey on WEAF. Another soap from the Hummerts. In this one an architect and his wife leave Chicago to live on a ranch in Montana. It originally aired from 1940 to 1943 but returned this month for a one year run with Carnation as a sponsor. It would be revived again in the early 1950s.
My True Story on WJZ. Dramatization of stories from True Story magazine.
Valiant Lady on WABC. Soap about a former actress who marries her childhood sweetheart, a plastic surgeon who turns out to be unstable and insanely jealous. Yet another serial from the Hummerts. It debuted in 1938, had several network changes and was among those to bite the dust in 1946. It returned briefly in 1951.
The World of Woman on WNYC. On Monday Countess Lydia Tolstoi was the guest.
Make Believe Ballroom on WNEW. This show debuted in 1935 and was immensely popular in New York, where it originated at this time, and was syndicated to other stations. The music was recorded but the fictional premise was that the big bands were playing live. It's success made the use of recorded music on the radio respectable, although live performances were still the norm elsewhere.
10:15 AM:
Lora Lawton on WEAF. Another soap from the Hummerts. In this one a divorced housekeeper marries her employer, the handsome head of a shipping company. Bab-O sponsored. It offered many premiums to listeners such as Christmas cards supposedly designed by the title character.
Bessie Beatty on WOR. Talk show hosted by veteran journalist who had covered the Russian Revolution. Handpicked by Mary Margaret McBride as her successor, She became a rival when McBride decided to return to the air after a very brief absence..
Light of the World on WABC. Bible stories presented in soap opera format, sometimes with the adition of fictional characters. It debuted in 1940. Later in 1946. in the middle of the flour shortage. General Mills pulled the plug provoking an outcry from fans. It returned in December on NBC.
10:25 AM:
News/Betty Crocker on WJZ. Recipes from the fictional Betty Crocker.
10:30 AM:
Road of Life on WEAF - A The trials and travails of a doctor in a small town. Was in its peak years in the early 1940s. Ran from 1937-54. This was Irma Phillips' first big success. and first of the daytime serials to have a medical setting. It aired in the afternoons on WABC. Concurrent runs on different networks was not unusual in this time when advertisers often called the shots.
Hymns of All Churches on WJZ. General Mills sponsored this popular program of religious music that had a choir and orchestra.
The Strange Romance of Evelyn Winters on WABC. A sopa that premiered in 1944. A playwright recently discharged from the military discovers he has been named guardian of the beautiful young daughter of his former colonel. They fall in love. Complications ensue.
10:45 AM:
Joyce Jordan, M.D. on WEAF. A serial drama that addressed the question "Can a woman doctor be a woman … and a doctor … at the same time?" It began in 1938 as Joyce Jordan, Girl Interne (stet)
Lisa Sergio on WJZ. Mondays
Listening Post on WJZ.Tuesday-Friday: Listening Post on WJZ. Dramatization of stories from Saturday Evening Post.
11:00 AM:
Fred Waring on WEAF. Music from Fred Waring and His Pennsylvanians, who had been popular since the 1920s. He was best known for his choral ensemble. He also owned the Shawnee Inn in the Poconos and broadcast from there.
Breakfast In Hollywood on WJZ. Popular variety and audience participation show hosted by Tom Brenneman.
Amanda of Honeymoon Hill on WABC. The beautiful daughter of a brickmaker in the Virginia hill country marries a wealthy artist and moves to a mansion on a hilltop. Neither family approves. The soap ran 1940-46.
News followed by "Other People's Business" with Alma Dettinger on WQXR. Guests from the theater and art world.
11:15 AM
Tello-Test Quiz on WOR. The host called a housewife who would win $5 if she could answer a question within a minute. If she couldn't, another $5 would be added to the prize and another listener would be dialed and so on until the question was answered correctly. The show's format was sold to stations across the country who produced local versions using questions supplied by the Chicago producers. The show sent listeners scurrying to encyclopedias. In October 1946 Time ran an item about how Brooklyn's chief librarian had decided that Brooklyn libraries would no longer take questions from the show's fans who tied up the lines in search of the correct answer in the hope that they might be called next. he is quoted as explaining ". . . The normal work of the library is suffering. . . . In some cases [telephoned queries] have resulted in actual impairment of [staff] morale."
Second Husband on WABC. This soap was about a widow with children who marries a wealthy man and then decides to pursue an acting career over his objections. It had aired on and off since 1936 and would be off the air again at the end of April.
UN Security Council Session on WMCA (Monday)
11:30 AM
Barry Cameron on WEAF. A soap about the problems of a returning vet and his wife. Originally known as "The Soldier Who Came Home" the show debuted in April 1945 but was off the air in October 1946.
Take It Easy Time on WOR. Variety show.
Oscar Brand on WLIB on Monday and Friday. Oscar Brand is a Canadian born folksinger who turned 26 in 1946 and has had one of the longest running shows on radio, having been on the air since 1945. His show has provided a venue for many of the leading folksingers of the era and consequently was dubbed a "pipeline for Communism" by the Right, although they had nothing on Brand himself.
Milton Bacon on WJZ. Bacon was a raconteur.
11:45 AM
David Harum on WEAF. Serial about a banker/ horse trader on 19th century rural New York town. It debuted in 1936 and was based loosely on an 1899 novel that had been made into a popular movie starring Will Rogers in 1934.
Victor Lindlahr on WOR. Talk from the nutritionist who wrote You Are What You Eat
Ted Malone on WJZ. Stories, anecdotes and sentimental poetry from the commentator satirized in the 1950s by Ernie Kovaks as Percy Dovetonsils.
Aunt Jenny's Real Life Stories on WABC. Aunt Jenny, who was a trademark character for Spry shortening, offered recipes and then launched into a story, each of which spanned a week's worth of episodes. Aunt Jenny also appeared in magazine and newspaper ads, made personal appearances and wrote cookbooks. just like Betty Crocker, another imaginary character.
This Woman's World on WMCA. The show was hosted by Susan B. Anthony, the grandniece as well as namesake of the famous suffragette. She also spoke out on women's issues and in 1943 published a book Out of the Kitchen-Into the War on the state of the feminist movement, followed in 1945 by Women During the War and After. She was later targeted by the Right Wing for her feminism and blacklisted. She became active in the Catholic church and with the National Council of Alcoholism.