This is a snipper from Breaking Walls Episode 119: Radio and The Diner (1937 - 1965)

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The American Broadcasting Company never overtook NBC or CBS in ratings or revenue during the Golden Age of Radio. But by 1964, the only network drama airing was part of vignettes on NBC’s Monitor.

That spring, ABC announced they were launching a new show. They hired former NBC writer Jack Wilson as story editor and assigned the series to directors Warren Sommerville and Frederick Bell.

Edward Byron, creator of Mr. District Attorney was brought in to advise. Fred Foy, longtime Lone Ranger announcer, joined the production. The new series would be a weekday half-hour anthology called Theater Five in honor of its broadcast time in the New York market.

Theater Five premiered on August 3rd with a play called “Hit and Run.” A month after its launch, sixty-one stations were carrying the transcribed series. ABC President Robert Pauley announced they were hiring a dedicated salesman to pitch Theater Five in the country’s top markets.

The kinds of stories produced ran the gamut. Many plots were taken from contemporary newspapers.

A funny thing happened along the way: As young actors turned to TV in the 1950s, radio child actors became extinct. In November of 1964, Broadcasting Magazine announced that ABC Radio was setting up a Children’s Acting Workshop to teach kids how to perform for radio. Classes were ninety minutes long and students would work with director Ted Bell.

In January of 1965 ABC’s radio department reported a sixteen percent gross billing increase. That same month actor Lee Bowman joined the team as an executive producer.

On May 4th, Theater Five broadcast “Incident on U.S. One.” It guest-starred James Earl Jones.