Remembering Radio

The initial findings for this research has found that people’s first radio was a significant event, control over the dial was shared, listening habits varied and included music as well as some favourite programs. In addition to these the research indicates that mother tongue, proximity to many stations, and types of programming such as news were all important factors that influenced radio listening.

Your First Radio

The purchase of the first radio was an event in Canadian homes and frequently recalled in detail. Many Canadians waited until almost the end of the 1930s to make their first radio purchase. A number of factors may have come into play firstly the economic depression of the 1930s. Even though there was a wide range of prices for radios extending from the simple, owner-assembled crystal set to the larger radio sets housed in large pieces of furniture, the table-top models introduced in the 1930s did a great deal to bring the price down. Radio set sales across Canada outpaced other new consumer durables such as the automobile, refrigerator and the electric vacuum cleaner. Even so the price of a radio set represented a substantial portion of the average worker’s wages. Radio reception and the national coverage provided by stations remained a concern even after the creation of the CBC.

Two interview subjects remarked that their families purchased their first radio in the last few years of the 1930s, both lived on Cape Breton Island and just beyond the guaranteed broadcast range of the CBC’s newly constructed regional station in 1939. Thus their listening choices would have been limited in the same way as those of the rural Quebeckers.

The first radio was special event for many people and a purchase recalled with ease.

One listener, a Montreal newlywed in 1931, explained that she had a large radio housed in an elaborate piece of furniture that was a wedding gift that year from her brother. Another listener from the 1930s remembered that their family’s first radio was a surprise and a Christmas present to the whole family from her brother, who had recently started working and had saved up for the purchase. Yet another recalled that her parents went out to buy the radio. A Toronto listener remembered her uncle assembling their radio from a cereal box.

Image source: Wikipedia, A 1930s Philco Cathedral Radio

Who Controlled the Dial?

No real trend has emerged in the interviews with regard to the control of the dial. In some cases, if a crystal set was used in the home, the person who assembled it used it most and then others took turns. Women home during the day sometimes felt too busy to sit down to listen to radio and others tuned it on for company all day long. Usually parents decided when the family would listen to radio, how long it would be on, and to which program it would be tuned. Some families shared it all around.

Frequently the selection of the programs was left to one family member, usually one of the parents. However in some homes, especially later in the decade older children had a chance to choose some of the programs. In the case of the homes where the father controlled program choices news was more frequently offered as a preferred programming choice.

Image source: Wikipedia, A 1930s Zenith Cube Radio

Listening Habits

Listening and sharing

Listening habits varied with the region, circumstances, place of the respondent in the family, and availability of the leisure time to listen to the radio. The family who received the radio as a Christmas present eagerly shared the radio, each member having a preference: the brother sports, the respondent loved music, and her father having already established a pattern of listening to the news on a neighbour’s radio continued to listen to the news.

Saving electricity

Two respondents indicated that given the economic circumstances of the time electricity was viewed to be an expensive commodity not to be frivolously wasted. In each case radio listening was very specifically selected by a parent and turned off immediately after the chosen program ended. The newlywed having access to a variety of stations in Canada’s largest city at the time, declared that the radio played all day long and much of the evening.

Wonderful or too busy?

Although some listeners felt enriched by the content that the programs brought into their homes, others viewed it as difficult to schedule into their busy days. Usually the mothers or older daughters, noted that family responsibilities absorbed so much of their time that there was no time to listen to the radio, seeming to indicate that some perceived listening during the 1930s as active rather than a passive background companion. Others felt it was a treasure that brought them music and entertainment.

Active listeners

One Toronto listener explained that the radio was not for children, they listened to one daily program, a favourite of her mother’s. While it was on for 30 minutes daily all activity ceased and everyone “stood around to listen to the program.” In her home her father preferred to get his news from the newspaper. He continued to play the fiddle and visitors danced; the radio did not assume the place of any their other traditional entertainments. Two respondents indicated that the children in their family waited in line for their respective turns to listen to the radio.

A solitary pursuit

Another Toronto listener remembers the earphones and the crystal set in their home as the solitary activity of her father in the rocking chair.

Image source: Wikipedia, A 1920s Crystal Radio Advertisement

Music on the radio

Music crossed cultural and language barriers allowing for greater enjoyment of the medium. One young mother of three in Belleville remembered that her Italian-speaking husband, who was less comfortable in English, would select radio programs during the evening and have her translate the news. Certain programs required too much effort to comprehend and consequently held little appeal, but he always enjoyed musical programming. Another Toronto listener from a Polish-speaking family with seven children explained that there was little time to listen to the radio, but her father enjoyed the news and all of them liked to listen to music. Different genres of music were mentioned, country music in particular was a popular choice for some of the listeners interviewed. In Montreal an Italian-speaking family listened to the opera on the weekends as did the family of Italian descent in Belleville. Yet another from Nova Scotia remembers the Gaelic music as a favourite in her home.

Image source: Library and Archives Canada, Albert Campbell and Henry Burr of The Sterling Trio, 1919

Listener Favourites

Many of the interviews reveal a preference for local stations. However many of the listeners close to the border listened to U.S. stations.

Canadian radio programs

These are a few of the popular programs broadcast by Canadian radio stations.

Happy Gang

Image source: The Happy Gang display at the CBC Museum by Double Blue is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. “Knock, knock. Who’s there? It’s the Happy Gang! Well, come on in!”

The Happy Gang one of CBC’s first popular programs, running successfully from 1937 to 1959. The program produced by the CBC picked up on some of the early Canadian tradition of comedy and variety programming. The program aired at 1:00 p.m. in Toronto for 30 minutes from Monday to Friday. The Happy Gang featured a regular combination of comedy and variety. “In the show’s heyday, two million listeners were tuning in daily in Canada alone, and the program was exported to the United States.”
Sources: “On the Air,” The Globe and Mail, 1930-1939; More information can be obtained about the Happy Gang at: CBC Archives. Image: The Happy Gang display at the CBC Museum by Double Blue is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

The Romance of Canada

Image source: CNR Canadian National Railway Logo Vintage by Collin Douma is licensed under CC BY 2.0. The Romance of Canada, much like the recent Canada: A People’s History on CBC television, was series produced for the radio to chronicle the pagentry of Canadian history. The series of 24 programs written by Merrill Denison was broadcast by the Canadian National Railway Network in 1931 and 1932.
Image: CNR Canadian National Railway Logo Vintage by Collin Douma is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

Wilf Carter

Image source: Wikipedia, A record of Wilf Carter's Down The Old Cattle Trail. Wilf Carter was Canada’s famous yodelling cowboy. Although he started out on CFCN in Calgary his singing was known across the country through radio and his records. He recorded as Montana Slim in the United States. By 1937 Carter had a 15-minute program on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation network.
Source and more information:CBC Archives. Image: Wikipedia, A record of Wilf Carter’s Down The Old Cattle Trail.

American radio programs

One of the major concerns during the 1930s was that Canadians were listening almost exclusively to American programs. A few of the major American programs and descriptions are listed below. This is only a preliminary list. These are a few of the popular programs broadcast and produced by American networks during the 1930s.

Amos ’n’ Andy

Image source: Wikipedia, Illustration of Amos 'n' Andy in New Movie Magazine, 1930. Amos ’n’ Andy had a 34-year run as a wildly popular 15-minute weekday comedy. At its peak theatres stopped movies to pipe in the broadcast. It started out as Sam ’n’ Henry on January 12, 1926 at WGN in Chicago. Its creators and stars, Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll moved their blackface comedy to WMAQ also in Chicago in 1928. With the move came the name change and a more flexible contract that allowed for the pressing of electrical transcriptions of the program. The electrical transcriptions allowed stations all over Canada and the United States to buy the program even if the stations were not part of a network. Electrical transcription, its status as a network show on NBC and early sponsorship by Pepsodent toothpaste facilitated the show’s early rise to popularity.
To read more about Amos ’n’ Andy see: John Dunning, On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. Image: Wikipedia, Illustration of Amos ‘n’ Andy in New Movie Magazine, 1930.

Ma Perkins

Ma Perkins was a “serial drama” or soap opera first broadcast by WLW in Cincinnati in 1933. It then became part of the NBC network in late 1933. “America’s mother of the air” lasted until 1960. The show was a regular 15-minute weekday feature. In Canada the program was broadcast by stations such as CFCF in Montreal, an NBC affiliate, until the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation made the program a part of its schedule.
Source: John Dunning, On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998, 420-422; Anne MacLennan, “Circumstances Beyond Our Control: Canadian Radio Program Schedule Evolution During the 1930s.” Montreal: Ph.D. Dissertation Concordia University, 2001.

Vic and Sade

Vic and Sade was series of comedic sketches. For most of its run from 1932 to 1946 the program was broadcast by NBC, with short exceptions on CBS and the Mutual Broadcasting System. The sketches centred on Mr. And Mrs. Victor Gook’s household. The show’s theme song in the early 1930s was “Oh, You Beautiful Doll.”
Source: John Dunning, On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998, 695-702.

Major Bowes’ Original Amateur Hour

Major Bowes’ Original Amateur Hour was a weekly talent contest. Applicants came from all over the country and the craze for the show lasted from 1934 to 1945. The show received 10,000 applications weekly, 500-700 were auditioned and only 20 were selected for the broadcast while the others ended up on the streets of New York City on the relief rolls.
Source: John Dunning, On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998, 424-429.