The comedic duo of Bob Elliott and Ray Goulding first appeared on radio in 1946 for WHDH in Boston. In July of 1951 they joined NBC’s full network with two shows. One was a daily-morning show, and another was a sixty-minute primetime show. With radio audiences leaving for television and NBC’s bouncing both programs around its schedule, both shows achieved only mediocre success.

Bob and Ray next appeared on Saturday Mornings for NBC’s Monitor and In October of 1955 they joined the Mutual Broadcasting System for a 45 minute weekday disc jockey series. That lasted until September 20th, 1957.

By the time they joined CBS radio on June 29th, 1959 the team had refined their spoof-character approach. One famous character was the bumbling reporter Wally Ballou. Voiced by Bob Elliott, in 1963 Wally was reporting from down in the new "quiet" subway in New York.