Golden Age of Radio

Old-time radio , also known as the Golden Age of Radio, refers to the era of radio broadcasting that lasted from the 1920s to the 1950s. During this time, radio was the primary source of entertainment and information for millions of people around the world. It was an innovative and transformative technology that changed the way people lived and communicated. Radio broadcasting began in the early 20th century with a handful of experimental stations. However, it wasn’t until the 1920s that commercial radio broadcasting took off in the United States. Radio stations sprang up all over the country, and by the mid-1920s, there were hundreds of stations nationwide. Radio offered a new form of entertainment, allowing people to hear live music , drama, comedy , and news from the comfort of their homes. One of the most popular programs of the Golden Age of Radio was the soap opera. These melodramatic serialized dramas were broadcast daily and became a staple of radio programming. They were follo...

  William Spier Director of CBS ’s Philip MorrisPlayhouse and Sam Spade . A bearded veteran of twenty years in radio, William Spier, director of the Philip Morris Playhouse , heard Fridays at 10 P.M. EDT over CBS , is generally rated radio’s top-notch creator of suspense-type dramas. Born in New York City, October 16, 1906, he began doing things upon graduation from Evander Childs Highs School . When nineteen, following a series of small jobs, Spier went to work for the Musical America magazine. Deems Taylor was then editor of the magazine and it was under his watchful eye that Spier rose to the position of chief critic during the five years he remained with the magazine. Spier’s next important assignment was that off producer-director for the Batten, Barton, Durstine and Osborn Agency in New York City. During his years with BBD & O, leaving there in 1941 to join CBS on the West Coast, Spier produced such radio programs as the Atwater Kent Radio Hour, G...