The first decade
Radio Before It Settled Down
Before the networks perfected the sitcom and the soap, radio was still improvising its own form. A path through the earliest surviving broadcasts.
1930 – 1935 · 6 stops · 2h 32m
- 1
A railroad-sponsored adventure serial from radio's first commercial years.
- 2
Vaudeville comedy transplanted whole onto the air, jokes and all.
- 3
Pulp adventure, adapted before the studios had settled on how serials should sound.
- 4
A nightly quarter-hour serial, the format that would define daytime radio.
- 5
Rural comedy, plain and unhurried, from before the gag rate sped up.
- 6
Odd survivals from the opening years, kept for what they show about the medium finding its feet.
First Nights — Singles from the First Decade · VintageWAAM Newark — an hour of 1928 local radio
11 Sep 1928 · 1h 0m