Golden Age of Radio Timeline

In early 1922, American Telephone & Telegraph Company (AT&T) announced the beginning of radio advertisement-supported broadcasting on its owned stations, along with plans to develop the first radio network using its telephone lines to transmit content.

Image source: NBC

In July 1926, AT&T abruptly decided to exit the broadcasting field, and signed an agreement to sell its entire network operations to a group headed by RCA, which used the assets to form the National Broadcasting Company.

Originally founded as the National Broadcasting Company in late 1926, the company was almost immediately forced to split under antitrust laws to form NBC Red and NBC Blue. The NBC Red Network launched on November 15, 1926.

Image source: NBC Radio Network

Until 1926, broadcast radio power and frequency use was regulated ineffectively. Congress responded by enacting the Radio Act of 1927, which included the formation of the Federal Radio Commission (FRC) to bring order to the airwaves.

Image source: Radio Act of 1927

The National Broadcasting Company Blue Network (NBC Blue) launched January 10, 1927, after splitting from NBC Red. It was sold in 1942 and became the Blue Network, later transferring assets to the American Broadcasting Company on June 15, 1945.

Image source: Blue Network

The Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) launched on September 18, 1927, becoming one of the dominant national radio networks of the Golden Age of Radio.

Image source: CBS

Four national radio networks had formed by 1934. The Mutual Broadcasting System (Mutual) launched September 29, 1934, completing the big four of American radio networks.

Image source: Mutual Broadcasting System

Liberty Broadcasting System launched in 1948. Hampered by a massive increase in rights fees and severe blackout restrictions on its cornerstone sports broadcasts, the network folded in 1952.

Image source: Liberty Broadcasting System

Progressive Broadcasting System (PBS) launched November 26, 1950, but folded January 31, 1951, after only two months on air, due to lack of affiliate signups.

Image source: Progressive Broadcasting System

National Barn Dance, begun on Chicago's WLS in 1924, helped popularize country music on the airwaves and was later picked up by NBC Radio in 1933.

Image source: National Barn Dance

In 1925, WSM Barn Dance went on the air from Nashville. It was renamed the Grand Ole Opry in 1927 and remains one of the longest-running radio programs in history.

Image source: Grand Ole Opry

The first program generally considered to be a daytime serial drama by scholars of the genre is Painted Dreams, which premiered on WGN on October 20, 1930.

Image source: Painted Dreams

The first networked daytime serial is Clara, Lu, 'n Em, which started in a daytime time slot on February 15, 1932, paving the way for the soap opera genre on radio.

Image source: Clara, Lu, 'n Em

One of the first quiz shows was Information Please in 1938, helping launch the popular audience-participation genre of Golden Age radio programming.

It was on Mercury Theatre that Welles presented his celebrated-but-infamous 1938 adaptation of H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds, which caused panic among some listeners who believed a Martian invasion was underway.

Image source: Mercury Theatre

Bob Montana's redheaded teen of comic strips and comic books was heard on radio's Archie Andrews from 1943 to 1953, adapting popular comics for the airwaves.

Image source: Archie Andrews

Winner Take All, which premiered in 1946, was the first quiz show to use lockout devices and feature returning champions, innovations that shaped future game shows.

An early example was the 1939 show Pot o' Gold, but the breakout hit of the giveaway type was ABC's Stop the Music in 1948. Giveaway shows were extremely popular through 1948 and 1949, though often panned as low-brow; an unsuccessful FCC attempt to ban them as illegal lotteries came in August 1949.

Image source: Can't Stop the Music

By about 1936, 16-inch aluminum-based discs coated with cellulose nitrate lacquer, commonly known as acetates and recorded at a speed of 33⅓ rpm, had been adopted by the networks and individual radio stations as the standard medium for recording broadcasts.

Image source: Electrical transcription

This quest began with short-wave broadcasts of educational and information programs to troops in 1940. In 1941, the War Department began issuing "Buddy Kits" (B-Kits) to departing troops, consisting of radios, 78 rpm records and electrical transcription discs of radio shows.

Image source: American Forces Network

Command Performance was the first of the Armed Forces Radio Service programs, produced for the first time on March 1, 1942. On May 26, 1942, the Armed Forces Radio Service was formally established.

At its peak in 1945, the Service produced around 20 hours of original programming each week for American troops serving overseas during World War II.

Bing Crosby became the first major proponent of magnetic tape recording for radio, and he was the first to use it on network radio, after he did a demonstration program in 1947. By early 1949, the transition from discs to tape was complete for network programs.

Image source: Tape recorder

One of the very few still-running shows from the earlier era of radio is a Christian program entitled Unshackled! The weekly half-hour show, produced in Chicago by Pacific Garden Mission, has been continuously broadcast since 1950.

Notable events in radio's transition era included the first presidential debate broadcast on both radio and television in 1960, and the debut of the first locally produced talk radio show, 'At Your Service,' from KMOX in St. Louis.

Image source: United States presidential debates

The final broadcasts of Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar and Suspense on September 30, 1962 are widely considered the end of the old time radio era. This displaced full-service network radio and hastened the end of the golden-age era of radio drama by 1962.

Image source: Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar

Starting in 1974, Garrison Keillor, through his syndicated two-hour-long program A Prairie Home Companion, provided a living museum of the production, tone and listener's experience of this era of radio. Produced live in theaters throughout the country using era techniques, it ran through 2016 with Keillor as host.

Image source: A Prairie Home Companion