Breaking Walls

Hey everyone, James Scully from Breaking Walls here to give you the schedule of Breaking Walls episodes for the rest of 2022. I'll be putting out more of these informal snippets throughout the rest of the year.

02.01.22 - BW - EP124: February 1954—Benny, McCarthy, and McCarthy

03.01.22 - BW - EP125: March 1954—A World In Turmoil

04.01.22 - BW - EP126: April 1954—Joseph McCarthy vs. The US Army

05.01.22 - BW - EP127: May 1954—A Portrait of The United States

06.01.22 - BW - EP128: June 1954—The End as We Knew It

07.01.22 - BW - EP129: Radio, Roswell and The Flying Saucer Craze

08.01.22 - BW - EP130: Philip Marlowe Comes to Radio (1947)

09.01.22 - BW - EP131: Radio and the Squared Circle Wrestling Ring

10.01.22 - BW - EP132: Orson Welles is The Shadow (1937 - 1938)

11.01.22 - BW - EP133: The Birth of the Mutual Broadcasting System

12.01.22 - BW - EP134: Christmas With Jean Shepherd and WOR

Reach me with questions, comments, and concerns at [email protected]

Support the show for as little as $1 per month at https://www.patreon.com/TheWallBreakers

For those who wanted Breaking Walls episode 123 in the traditional format.

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In Breaking Walls episode 123 we open 2022 with a six-part mini-series on radio business and programming in 1954. We’ll begin with January, in a radio half-season that was for many, the end of the line.

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Highlights:

• Ringing in the New Year with Fibber McGee and Molly

• Gunsmoke’s Stage Holdup

• People Are Funny is Radio’s Top-Rated Show

• January 1954 with Ozzie, Harriet, David, and Ricky

• Jack Benny’s Face is Familiar on Suspense

• Smog and Other Current Events

• Beulah

• The Death of Edward Howard Armstrong

• Looking Ahead to February 1954

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The WallBreakers:

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Subscribe to Breaking Walls everywhere you get your podcasts.

To support the show:

http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers

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The reading material used in today’s episode was:

•The General: David Sarnoff & The Rise of the Communications Industry - by Kenneth Bilby

• On the Air — By John Dunning

• Network Radio Ratings — by Jim Ramsburg

As well as articles from

• Broadcasting Magazine

• LIFE Magazine

• Time Magazine

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On the interview front:

• John Guedel, Phil Leslie, and Don Wilson spoke to Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingOfRadio.com.

• Norman MacDonnell and George Walsh spoke to John Hickman, the longtime host of WAMU’s Recollections. Today, this program is heard each Sunday evening as The Big Broadcast. For more information, please go to WAMU.org

• Art Linkletter spoke to John Gassman.

• Ozzie Nelson was with James Day.

• Jack Benny spoke for Great Radio Comedians.

• Jack Benny and Don Wilson spoke with Jack Carney.

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Selected music featured in today’s episode was:

• Auld Lang Syne — By The Manhattan Strings

• January Stars — By George Winston

• The Klezmer’s Wedding — By André Moisan

• Love in Bloom — By Bing Crosby

• Seance on a Wet Afternoon — By John Barry

• Danse Macabre — By Camille Saint-Saëns

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A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene.

For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com.

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Thank you to:

Tony Adams

Steven Allmon

Orson Orsen Chandler

Phil Erickson

Jessica Hanna

Briana Isaac

Thomas M. Joyce

Ryan Kramer

Earl Millard

Gary Mollica

Barry Nadler

Christian Neuhaus

Aimee Pavy

Ray Shaw

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WallBreakers Links:

Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers

Social Media - @TheWallBreakers

I hope you like pepperoni on your pizza. Reach me at [email protected]

Special thanks to Brett Solimine for lending his voice talents. You can find out more about Brett here - https://brettsolimine.com/

Next time on Breaking Walls, we move into February and discuss polio, falling ratings points, and radio profit margins.

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The reading material used in today’s episode was:

• The General: David Sarnoff & The Rise of the Communications Industry - by Kenneth Bilby

• On the Air — By John Dunning

• Network Radio Ratings — by Jim Ramsburg

As well as articles from:

• Broadcasting Magazine

• LIFE Magazine

• Time Magazine

___________

On the interview front:

• John Guedel, Phil Leslie, and Don Wilson spoke to Chuck Schaden. Hear their full chats at SpeakingOfRadio.com.

• Norman MacDonnell and George Walsh spoke to John Hickman, the longtime host of WAMU’s Recollections. Today, this program is heard each Sunday evening as The Big Broadcast. For more information, please go to WAMU.org

• Art Linkletter spoke to John Gassman.

• Ozzie Nelson was with James Day.

• Jack Benny spoke for Great Radio Comedians.

• He and Don Wilson also spoke with Jack Carney.

___________

Selected music featured in today’s episode was:

• Auld Lang Syne — By The Manhattan Strings

• January Stars — By George Winston

• The Klezmer’s Wedding — By André Moisan

• Love in Bloom — By Bing Crosby

• Seance on a Wet Afternoon — By John Barry

• Danse Macabre — By Camille Saint-Saëns

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A special thank you to Ted Davenport, Jerry Haendiges, and Gordon Skene. For Ted go to RadioMemories.com, for Jerry, visit OTRSite.com, and for Gordon, please go to PastDaily.com. I’d also like to thank Walden Hughes and John and Larry Gassman of SPERDVAC. Listen to their shows on the Yesterday USA radio network.

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Thank you to:

Tony Adams

Steven Allmon

Orson Orsen Chandler

Phil Erickson

Jessica Hanna

Briana Isaac

Thomas M. Joyce

Ryan Kramer

Earl Millard

Gary Mollica

Barry Nadler

Christian Neuhaus

Aimee Pavy

Ray Shaw

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WallBreakers Links:

Patreon - patreon.com/thewallbreakers

Social Media - @TheWallBreakers

Back in July of 1935, head of RCA David Sarnoff asked friend and inventor Edwin Howard Armstrong to remove his experimental FM equipment from RCA’s Empire State Building Laboratory. RCA wanted to test its TV system.

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Armstrong saw FM as a revolutionary new communications service that would make AM obsolete. Sarnoff thought it an important advancement and wanted it to be TVs audio supplement, but he didn’t see FM as a new core technology. Without the backing of Sarnoff, Armstrong decided to pursue FM development on his own. He got a license from the FCC, and built a station in Alpine, New Jersey. In 1938 he began broadcasting classical music and other test frequencies. Armstrong broadcast from station to station over the length of the East Coast, with virtually no signal deterioration.

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By the end of 1940, the FCC had received over five-hundred applications for FM licenses. Commercial FM broadcasting was authorized to begin on January 1st, 1941. Armstrong struck patent-licensing deals with all major radio manufacturers except RCA. They agreed to pay Armstrong two percent of all earnings from the sale of FM receivers and related equipment.

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When RCA engineers soon countered with their own version of an FM system, Armstrong sued. Sarnoff, wanting to avoid litigation, offered Armstrong one million dollars for a non-exclusionary license to use the FM technology. Armstrong refused. It led to the end of their close friendship.

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During World War II, construction restrictions limited the growth of FM. In the interest of national advancement, Armstrong turned over his patents to the government for the duration of the War.

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Although the Germans had the superior Panzer tanks, they were AM equipped. U.S. Sherman tanks were equipped with FM. The German's communication systems often jammed. As the War wound down, the FCC investigated spectrum allocation. It was feared that the lowest layers of the earth's atmosphere could cause bad FM interference. Both Armstrong and other scientists felt this was baseless.

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Then, both RCA and AT&T spearheaded a campaign to shift the FM band to higher frequencies. It also required radio stations to lease equipment from the companies.

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On June 27th, 1945, The FCC shifted the FM band. Today, FM operates between eighty-eight and one-hundred eight megahertz. It made more than fifty FM radio station transmitters and five-hundred thousand receivers obsolete. It nearly terminated FM radio broadcasting for more than a decade. The industry turned to TV and AM expansion.

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Meanwhile, unwilling to pay Armstrong the royalties he sought, RCA began developing FM circuits of its own. It also meant RCA owed Armstrong no royalties for the sale of their TV sets, which all used FM. RCA convinced other TV manufacturers to do the same.

In 1948, Armstrong filed suit against RCA and NBC, accusing them of patent infringement and deliberately impairing his invention’s value.

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Although he was confident the suit would be successful, the protracted legal maneuvering impaired his finances, especially after his primary patents expired in late 1950. Armstrong lacked the capital of the giant corporation. He ran out of money in 1952, and relied on credit to pay his lawyers.

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Armstrong now wanted to settle. He asked for three-point-four million dollars over a ten year period. In December of 1953, RCA offered him two-hundred thousand dollars. Armstrong rejected the offer.

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In a fit of rage in November of 1953, Armstrong hit his wife Marion. She fled their New York City apartment. Bankrupt and ashamed by his actions, on the evening of January 31st, 1954, Armstrong wrote an apology note to his wife. He then opened a window in their thirteenth floor apartment, and stepped out. He was sixty three. David Sarnoff claimed no responsibility for Armstrong’s actions.

Amanda Randolph was born on September 2nd, 1896 in Louisville, Kentucky. Her father was a methodist minister and her mother a teacher, but she would find her calling in music, vaudeville, and eventually radio.

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A star by 1948, she led her own musical TV program for the DuMont network. It made her the first African-American woman with her own daytime TV show.

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Her sister Lilian was also a big radio performer, starring in both The Great Gildersleeve, and Amos ‘n’ Andy.

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In September of 1953 Randolph took over the title role of Beulah. It had been Hattie McDaniel’s until she got sick in 1951. For a time Amanda and Lilian alternated the lead. This incarnation of the show aired on CBS weeknights at 7:15PM.

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Beulah was supposed to be in her mid-30s and man crazy. She worked hard and played harder, and had an affinity for high heels and short skirts. The cast featured Hugh Studebaker, Mary Jane Croft, Henry Blair, Ruby Dandridge, and Bubbles Whitman.

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Randolph simultaneously starred in Amos ‘n’ Andy while leading this cast. On January 26th, Beulah broadcast an episode called “Bill’s Streetcar Lunchroom.”

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Beulah would air until May 28th, 1954.

By the mid 1950s, smog was becoming a serious problem in American cities, especially Los Angeles. On January 15th, 1954 KNX broadcast a special called “The Troubled Air.”

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Residents of Los Angeles suffered from burning eyes, runny noses, persistent cough and shortness of breath. It came from pollutants caused by automobiles, factories, and garbage incinerators. This documentary aired in an effort to drive awareness, and speed-up City Hall’s solution to the problem.

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Five days later, The National Negro Network was formed by Chicago ad executive W. Leonard Evans. Evans was the first African-American radio network owner in the country.

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Other partners were Ms. Reggie Schuebel, VP and Treasurer, and John M. Wyatt, Executive VP. The duo owned a New York-based radio and TV consulting company. Among those on the board was Cab Calloway. The network launched with forty-six affiliates. Broadcasting Magazine reported that twelve to fifteen million African-Americans were expected to be reached.

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In other news, on January 21st, The first nuclear-powered submarine, the USS Nautilus, was launched. Four days later The Berlin Conference launched with ministers from The U.S., U.K., France, and The Soviet Union. Its purpose was to discuss a settlement to the recent Korean War and the ongoing First Indochina War.

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The conference would last until February 18th.

Although Jack Benny spent his TV time on September 13th, 1953 dreaming of being with Marilyn Monroe, on January 15th, 1954 she was officially taken off the market. That day she and retired baseball star Joe DiMaggio were married at San Francisco’s city hall. They would divorce the following year, but remain close friends for the rest of her life.

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Airing in his familiar Sundays at 7PM eastern time slot, in 1954 Benny had a radio rating of 8.2, second-highest on the air. For twenty years, Benny’s rating had never fallen out of the top ten, and twelve times he’d had a top-three show.

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The January 10th episode celebrated announcer Don Wilson’s twentieth anniversary with the program. In further evidence of the changing broadcast landscape, that season Benny had a TV rating of 33.3. Jack Benny would air one more season of original radio shows.

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Eight days later, Benny appeared on Suspense in a story called “The Face is Familiar.” 1954 was Autolite’s final season sponsoring the program. Airing Mondays at 8PM, Suspense pulled a rating of 6. While it was a far cry from the listener heights of just five years earlier, it was tied for seventh overall.

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The final autolite Suspense episode aired on June 7th. CBS refused to cancel the series. That fall, Antony Ellis took over as producer/director. The show would continue to air sustained by CBS until the ad department found multiple sponsorship, and the program moved to Sunday afternoons in November of 1956.

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On March 8th, 1974 Rick Nelson was a guest of Johnny Carson's on the Tonight Show. During the interview the (then) thirty-three year-old Nelson briefly spoke with Johnny about people still thinking of him as the child star he was during the 1940s-1950s.