Breaking Walls: The Podcast on the History of American Network Radio Broadcasting

In Breaking Walls Episode 73 we spotlight the 1970s CBS and Mutual Broadcasting dramatic radio revival and why it ultimately failed.

Highlights:



• Go Inside the November 1, 1973 Mutual Broadcasting closed circuit press conference from the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City announcing Zero Hour


• How Jay M. Kholos came to create The Zero Hour

• How Elliot Lewis came to produce and direct the Zero Hour

• How Himan Brown got CBS to say yes to the CBS Radio Mystery Theatre

• Why Himan Brown wanted the Mystery Theatre on 7-nights per week

• Rod Serling’s feelings about radio

• How the AFRS furthered Howard Duff and Elliott Lewis’ lifelong friendship

• New storytelling methods for the 1970s

• New recording technology

• Why the Zero Hour had immediate Advertising difficulties

• How Tom Bosley of Happy Days got involved in the radio revival

• Why Sears paid $1.2 Million to get involved in dramatic radio in 1979

• What Richard Widmark, Cicely Tyson, Vincent Price, Lorne Greene, and Andy Griffith had in common

• Dramatic Radio of the 1980s

• Why the popularity of FM hurt The CBS Radio Mystery Theatre

• Major Network Dramatic Radio Comes to a close

• What’s next?

Beginning February 15th, 2018 Breaking Walls will be presenting the first in a long-term story arc: Chapter 1 on The History of American Dramatic Radio. To support the show for as little as $1 per month and receive all kinds of BTS material, please go to http://patreon.com/TheWallBreakers

Today’s episode of Breaking Walls could not have been possible without the interviews by Chuck Schaden, Dick Bertel, Ed Corcoran, SPERDVAC, and John Dunning.

• Chuck’s interviews are available at http://www.speakingofradio.com

• Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran’s interviews are at http://otrrlibrary.org by searching for The Golden Age of Radio program.

• John Dunning’s interviews are also located at http://otrrlibrary.org under “John Dunning interviews”

• The Society To Preserve and Encourage Radio Drama, Variety and Comedy can be found at http://sperdvac.com

The reading material used in today’s episode was:

• The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio by John Dunning

• A Pictorial History of Radio’s First 75 Years by B. Eric Rhoads

• The Radio Career of Rod Serling by Martin Grams Jr’s

• The CBS Radio Mystery Theater Handbook by Martin Grams Jr’s and Gordon Payton

I’d like to thank them both for providing fantastic information that helped me put this episode together today.

as well as The Digital Deli’s page on the Mutual Radio Theater - http://www.digitaldeliftp.com/DigitalDeliToo/dd2jb-Mutual-Radio-Theater.html

WallBreakers Links:

Patreon - http://patreon.com/thewallbreakers

Social Media - @TheWallBreakers

URL - http://thewallbreakers.com

Online Store - jamesthewallbreaker.com/shop/

In Breaking Walls Episode 72 we tell some of the story of American dramatic radio’s last decade on the air through one of the last shows to air, Yours Truly Johnny Dollar.

Highlights

• The cautionary tale of the Mutual Broadcasting System and why CBS, NBC, and ABC killed their own radio business

• The 3rd Floor of NBC and Colby's Restaurant

• Why Johnny Dollar was relaunched as a 15 minute, 5x per-week serial in 1955

• Jack Johnstone's unusual and effective directing methods

• The many voices of Johnny Dollar

• Why Bob Bailey was so popular as Johnny Dollar

• The many actors and actresses who doubled and tripled parts on various broadcasts

• Why these stories were so strong

• What the dying radio industry was like in the late 1950s

• How the death of the radio industry ruined Bob Bailey and so many other people’s careers

• Life after the Golden Age of Radio… what happened next and what is yet to come

Today’s episode of Breaking Walls could not have been possible without the interviews by Chuck Schaden, Dick Bertel, Ed Corcoran, SPERDVAC, and John Dunning.

• Chuck’s interviews are available at http://www.speakingofradio.com

• Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran’s interviews are at http://otrrlibrary.org by searching for The Golden Age of Radio program.

• John Dunning’s interviews are also located at http://otrrlibrary.org under “John Dunning interviews”

Editor's Note: I incorrectly stated the OTRR Library URL vocally. The above is correct.

• The Society To Preserve and Encourage Radio Drama, Variety and Comedy can be found at http://sperdvac.com

The complete list of today’s interviewees is:

Chuck Schaden

with Hans Conreid - 1.1971

with Norman Corwin - 8.1976

with Virginia Gregg - 3.1984

with Parley Baer - 3.1984

with Shirley Mitchell - 10.1984

Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran

with Bill Spier - 11.1970

with Hans Conreid - 8.1971

with Vincent Price - 11.1972

with Mandel Kramer - 9.1974

and with William Robson - 1.1976

SPERDVAC

with director Jack Johnstone - 8.8.1987

John Dunning

with Roberta Bailey-Goodwin - 2.1982

E. Jack Neuman - 5.1982.

The reading material used in today’s episode was:

Raised on Radio - Gerald Nachman

Speaking of Radio - Chuck Schaden

On The Air - The Encyclopedia of Old Time Radio - John Dunning

The Who Is Johnny Dollar Matter - John C. Abbott - who also edited this week’s show

as well as numerous articles from the Radio Recall archives, courtesy of The Metropolitan Washington Old-Time Radio Club, who’s website is http://mwotrc.com

The podcast growth statistical information I mentioned can be found at http://edisonresearch.com

WallBreakers Links:

Social Media - @TheWallBreakers

URL - http://thewallbreakers.com

Online Store - jamesthewallbreaker.com/shop/

In Breaking Walls Episode 71, we offer season’s greetings, glad tidings, and a preview of what our next episode (72) of Breaking Walls will be on January 1st.

We've been getting a lot of traction with the golden age of radio mini-documentaries we've have been producing. If this is foreign to you, check out episode 70 which delves into the life and career of comedian Jack Benny, featuring show clips and interviews with Jack Benny and his supporting cast by Chuck Schaden, Dick Bertel, and the late Ed Corcoran.

Our next episode of Breaking Walls will focus on a show called Yours Truly Johnny Dollar and the decline of the American radio drama.

Johnny Dollar was a freelance insurance investigator with the "action packed expense account." The show came to radio in the late 1940s and featured three unremarkable runs before a 1955 reboot with a new star, under a new format.

In 1955 CBS director Jack Johnstone cast radio actor Bob Bailey in the title role and rather than one weekly 30 minute show, the show aired mon-friday in a 15 minute serial format. So, the total runtime for the show each week was 75 minutes, allowing for great story and character development.

As a lead-in for Episode 72, today we will feature the 5-part "Nick Shurn Matter," which aired on CBS at 8:15PM from 12/19 - 12/23/1955. It was that year's Christmas movie.

We've remastered the audio and added new sound effects where applicable, while cutting each episode's epilogue so that this story runs as one feature movie.

Happy Holidays!

More episodes of Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar can be found at the Old Time Radio Researchers Library at OTRRLibrary.org

WallBreakers Links:

Social Media - @TheWallBreakers

URL - thewallbreakers.com

Online Store - jamesthewallbreaker.com/shop/

In Breaking Walls Episode 70, we’re celebrating the month of December by spotlighting The Jack Benny Program. Jack Benny was the highest rated comedian of his era. Beginning on radio in 1932, he was a radio mainstay until 1958. The programs’ Christmas shows are some of their most famous.

Highlights:

• Jack’s beginnings in Waukegan, IL

• How Jack began playing the violin.

• His transition to comedy

• How Ed Sullivan changed Jack’s career in 1932

• How Jack Benny saved Jell-O

• The secret to Jack’s comedic success

• How Jack Benny was a situation comedy pioneer

• What Bugs Bunny and Bing Crosby have in common

• How Jack Benny used a tax loophole to change the entertainment industry’s entire tax structure

• How Jack helped CBS become the broadcasting giant of the 1950s

life after radio and television

• A gentle man

The episodes featured in today’s broadcast were from:

December 11, 1938

December 18, 1938

December 24, 1944

March 16, 1947

December 26, 1948

December 31, 1953

Special thanks to Chuck Schaden for his interviews with Dennis Day, Phil Harris, Don Wilson, and Jack Benny. The full versions of these interviews are all available to stream for free or to download for a small fee at SpeakingofRadio.com. I’d also like to thank Dick Bertel and the late Ed Corcoran for their interviews with Elliot Lewis and Mel Blanc. All of their interviews from the 1970s hartford-based Golden Age of Radio program can be found at the Old Time Radio Researchers Library at OTRRLibrary.org

Reading material used in this episode:

The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio by John Dunning

Raised on Radio by Gerald Nachman

WallBreakers Links:

Social Media - @TheWallBreakers

URL - thewallbreakers.com

Online Store - jamesthewallbreaker.com/shop/

In Breaking Walls Episode 69, I talk about some of the things I’m most grateful for this year. For the past four months I’ve been working on a podcast that will launch in January on The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/?menu=1300.

These 17 goals are an incredibly important initiative to end world poverty, reduce inequality, provide climate action, take care of life on land and below water, and create a more sustainable, economical rising world that’s better educated and gender equal.

Through the podcast I’ve met people like Robert and Barney Swan of 2041 http://www.2041.com. Rob’s the first man to ever walk to both the North and South Poles. He (now 61) and his son Barney (23) are currently walking the 600 mile journey to the South Pole using only renewable energy sources. The point to this exhibition is to drive awareness for conservation. If we can remove 326 million cubic tons of C02 from the atmosphere by 2025, we’ll help keep more of Antarctica from melting, and in turn keep earth’s climate stable. It’s simple. If we plant a tree, make sure to recycle, and get involved with like-minded people, we’ll all be able to make a difference.

You’ll notice (if you’re watching) that the shirt I’m wearing is from Nalu https://nalu.com. They’re a fashion brand founded by a teenage sister and brother, Dali and Finn Schonfelder. This socially conscious brand donates school uniforms to children in need in developing nations like India, where school uniforms are mandatory and unprovided by the government after 12 years of age. They employ local tailors and seamstresses to help bolster the local economy while keeping kids in school and keeping young girls from being married and young boys from a hard life in a factory. This breaks the poverty cycle. We can all help just from buying a shirt.

We’ll be expanding the Breaking Walls t-shirt line currently available here - http://jamesthewallbreaker.com/shop/ to include more community activism with both sweaters and hats. Portions of the proceeds will go to help local kids. This way we’re not just talking about unity, we’re doing something to help.

Breaking Walls Episode 70 will premiere on December 1, 2017 and will celebrate the Jack Benny Program’s christmas episodes from the 1930s, 40s, and 50s.

Stay tuned. And keep getting out there, and keep breaking those walls!

WallBreakers Links:

Social Media - @TheWallBreakers

URL - http://thewallbreakers.com

Online Store - http://jamesthewallbreaker.com/shop/

In Breaking Walls Episode 68, we welcome November’s theme of “Gratitude” with an interactive look back at Norman Corwin’s radio plays, originally heard on U.S. radio around Thanksgiving of 1941. There are a lot of parallels that could be drawn from 1941 in 2017. That’s a scary thought! Perhaps the world isn’t in nearly as bad of a place today as we imagine? If we want to learn some lessons from the Americans that lived 76 years ago, radio—the main entertainment medium of the day—seems like a good place to start.

Featured on today’s episode will be:

The Columbia Workshop - Pslam for a Dark Year, originally broadcast on 11/9/1941

The Screen Guild Theater - Between Americans, originally broadcast on 12/7/1941

We Hold These Truths - originally broadcast on 12/15/1941

And interviews with Norman Corwin in 1976 and 2004.

WallBreakers Links:

Social Media - @TheWallBreakers

URL - http://thewallbreakers.com

Online Store - http://jamesthewallbreaker.com/shop/

Breaking Walls Episode 67, we’ve got a return guest in Staten Island based recording artist Brodie Jaymz. Brodie was a guest on Breaking Walls episode 26 in October of 2015, and Breaking Walls episode 42 in October of 2016.

The reason for the third October conversation in three years? Brodie has recently released a new LP, entitled Chasing Summer (available on all major music outlets).

Brodie and I get into his inspiration for, and execution of, the album, what’s been going on in his life, and what new growth has occurred since the last time Brodie and I sat down to talk.

WallBreakers Links:

Social Media - @TheWallBreakers

URL - http://thewallbreakers.com

Online Store - http://jamesthewallbreaker.com/shop/

In Breaking Walls episode 66, we weave the history of radio's outstanding theater of thrills, Suspense, into an interactive story told by producer and directors William Spier, William N. Robson, and Elliot Lewis, and actors and actresses June Havoc, Cary Grant, Vincent Price, Hans Conreid, Howard Duff, Robert Taylor, and Cathy Lewis.

Suspense aired on CBS Radio from June 17, 1942 to September 30, 1962. Over 900 of the 945 episodes survive, many in high quality. The production value for the shows between December of 1943 and June of 1954 was amongst the highest in radio. CBS featured Suspense in a prime-time time slot for over a decade. These shows offer the best scripts starring the best actors and actresses. They’re definitely worth a listen, especially with Halloween coming up. You can find the complete series through the Old Time Radio Researcher’s Library at otrrlibrary.org.

WallBreakers Links:

Social Media - @TheWallBreakers

URL - http://thewallbreakers.com

Online Store - http://jamesthewallbreaker.com/shop/

On Breaking Walls Episode 65, we open up a forum to discuss what we can do about the United States' rising student loan debt crisis which has now reached 1.4 TRILLION DOLLARS.

WNYC Link - http://www.wnyc.org/story/student-debt-paralyzing-lives-one-student-time/

This show features:

Pratt Institute Undergraduate Advisor, Mike Farnham

Xavier High School Art Professor Denise Iacovone

Comedian, podcaster, actress, and recent college graduate Nancy Pop Advertising sales account executive Teresa Triolo-Thompson

They give advice, tell stories, and offer up hope for patience and persistence.

Nancy Links:

Site - http://www.nancympop.com

Fire Signs Present - https://www.facebook.com/FireSignsPresent/?ref=bookmarks

Coffee and Anal - https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/coffee-anal/id1234102654?mt=2

WallBreakers Links:

Social Media - @TheWallBreakers

URL - http://thewallbreakers.com

Online Store - http://jamesthewallbreaker.com/shop/

In episode 64 of Breaking Walls, we sit down with New York City-based professional ballet dance Laura DeLaurentis for a chat about her life, career, and lessons she’s learned along the way. in order to see what her experiences can help teach us about our own.

Highlights

• How being adopted and growing up in Connecticut influenced Laura

• "There is only right now"

• The importance of working hard and training hard

• Finding out you're a leader

• The Homo Veritas Dance Theatre & What's next for Laura

Laura Links

Homo Veritas Dance Theatre - http://www.hvdt.nyc

WallBreakers Links

Social Media - @TheWallBreakers

URL - http://thewallbreakers.com

Online Store - http://jamesthewallbreaker.com/shop/