This episode was originally released on 1/1/2022. While new episodes of Breaking Walls are on hiatus I'll be going back and posting the older episodes.

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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 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