What the Kids Listened To

The April 13 Billboard magazine analysis of the March 30 Hoopers also listed the highest-rated primetime and daytime shows for "juvenile" urban audiences.

Comedy shows, including sit coms, were favored by younger audiences. The CBS network, represented in New York by WABC, did well with this group. According to Hooper the top evening shows for this audience were:

  1. The Aldrich Family

  2. Blondie- A sit com based on the popular newspaper comic strip. It aired at 7:30 PM Sundays on WABC and was sponsored by Colgate Palmolive soap and Perl shampoo. Its stars, Arthur Lake and Penny Singleton, also played Dagwood and Blondie in the popular movie series. It began as a summer replacement series in 1939.

  3. Edgar Bergen

  4. Fibber McGee and Molly

  5. Bing Crosby

  6. Bob Hope

  7. Jack Benny

  8. The Lone Ranger-- sponsored by Cheerioats, the cereal introduced by General Mills in 1941 and later renamed Cheerios. It premiered in 1933, originally as a local show in Detroit.

  9. Fred Allen

  10. Lux Radio Theatre

  11. Red Skelton

  12. Fannie Brice- Comedy/Variety show starring the former Ziegfeld Follies comic star as Baby Snooks that aired at 6:30 PM Sundays on WABC. It launched in 1938. Sanka sponsored.

  13. Screen Guild Theatre of the Air

  14. Big Town- Dramatic series about a newspaper that aired at 8:00 PM Tuesdays on WABC. Contour Yeast sponsored. When it premiered in 1937, Edward G. Robinson and Claire Trevor starred.

  15. Eddie Cantor (surprisingly over Frank Sinatra which aired at the same time)

  16. The Great Gildersleeve

The daytime favorites were:

  1. Let's Pretend

  2. Jack Armstrong

  3. Stars Over Hollywood

  4. Hop Harrigan- Adventure serial on WJZ at 4:45 PM based on a comic book about a pilot. It also was a Saturday afternoon movie serial in 1946. The radio show was sponsored by Grape-Nuts.

  5. Terry & the Pirates- 5 PM on WJZ. Adventure serial based on a comic strip that appeared in the Daily News. The characters were pilots and soldiers of fortune. The series was sponsored by Quaker Oats and premiered in 1937. Shows about pilots became especially popular during the war but ratings dropped steadily after the war and within a couple of years most were off the air.

  6. Tom Mix

  7. Billie Burke

  8. Superman - 5:15 PM on WOR. Adventure serial based on the popular comic strip. It premiered in 1940. Kellogg's Pep was the sponsor.

  9. Theatre of Today

  10. Captain Midnight- 5:30 PM on WOR. Adventure serial about a pilot. Ovaltine was the sponsor. The show offered lots of tie-in products like decoder rings. It began as a syndicated series in 1938 and went national on the Mutual Broadcasting System in 1940.

  11. Grand Central Station

  12. When a Girl Marries

  13. Life Can be Beautiful

  14. Breakfast Club

  15. Young Widder Brown

Weekday Morning Radio