This episode was originally released on 1/1/2019. 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 87, we spotlight some New Year’s Day radio programming from the Golden Age of radio, specifically beginning in 1946 after the end of World War II and television's post-war rise.

Highlights:

• Skelton

• Casey Crime Photographer and the Invasion of TV

• Radio City Playhouse and Our Miss Brooks

• The Railroad Hour and NBC’s Monday Night of Music

• Memories from the 1939-40 World’s Fair

• On Stage with Mr. and Mrs. Radio

• The Greatest Western

• Radio Drama’s Demise

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The reading material used in today’s episode was:

• On The Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio - by John Dunning

• Network Radio Ratings, 1932-1953 - by Jim Ramsburg

• And Edison Research’s June 2018 Podcast Consumer Statistics www.podcastinsights.com/podcast-statistics/

On the interview front:

• John Gibson, Tony Marvin and Jan Miner were with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC’s The Golden Age of Radio. The full interviews can be heard at GoldenAge-WTIC.org

• Jack Benny, Harriet Nelson, Elliott Lewis, Eve Arden, and Parley Baer were with Chuck Schaden. His interviews from an over 39-year career can be listened to at SpeakingofRadio.com

• Elliott Lewis, E. Jack Neuman, and Eve Arden were with John Dunning for his 1980s 71K Newstalk Radio program from Denver. Some of his interviews can be found at OTRRLibrary.org

• Al Lewis was with SPERDVAC’s Larry Gassman in 1998. For more information, please go to SPERDVAC.com

• And Norman Macdonnell, Bill Conrad, and WIlliam N. Robson were interviewed for a 5-part audio documentary on Gunsmoke in the early 1970s.

Selected music featured in today’s episode was:

• Voodoo Dreams, and Pyramid of the Sun by Les Baxter

• Exotique Bossa Nova by Martin Denny

• I’ll Be Seeing You, by Harry James

• Auld Lang Syne by the Manhattan Strings

• And Catch a Falling Star by Perry Como