Ronald W. Lackmann

Have you ever wondered about early radio shows such as “The Adventures of Sam Spade, Detective” or “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes” or “Radio City Playhouse?” What about shows like “The Lone Ranger” or “Dragnet” or “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet” that began on radio and later made the move to early television? How about “The Brighter Day” and “The Guiding Light” and “Valiant Lady” and other daytime serials that got their start on the radio before becoming a staple of early daytime television programming?

And who provided the characters’ voices for these shows?

This compendium gives readers a glimpse into the shows and the performers of those early years of radio programming. Accompanying the listings is a collection of black-and-white photographs from the various shows.

Several appendices follow the alphabetical entries of both shows and performers. The first is a chronological timeline of radio events in the United States between 1864 and 1994, the second a similar listing for Canadian radio between 1901 and 1986. Listings of sponsors and other radio personalities come next, followed by vintage radio show clubs, conventions, museums, newsletters, and organizations. The sixth appendix listing is of stations featuring vintage radio shows followed by logs of long-running dramatic anthology shows. A selected bibliography is also included.

For readers interested in radio programming and the early days of radio broadcasting, there is much here to appreciate.… (meer)