War-time radio

Like so many of those who lived during the four years and nine months of WW II, I have countless memories of what it was like during those tumultuous and unforgettable times.

While we teenagers of the time did our share to support the war effort, we also had other interests. We all had our favorite movie stars, athletes, singers and bands. Plus, we all had our favorite radio programs. TV was still a few years off.

In the mid-1930s, with the advent of affordable radio, Americans were exposed to entertainment as never before. Most families had a radio that occupied a prominent place in the living room.

During the normal broadcast day, stations played music of the big bands and popular singers. On the hour, there would be recaps of the latest news. After noon, several of the radio networks featured soap operas.

Except for music, most programs were “live” as you listened to them because the ability to pre-record programs was still a ways off. Picture, if you will, the announcer and the actors all gathered around a microphone holding scripts in front of them and reading their parts. That was radio in those days.

Prior to moving to Napa in 1942, my family lived in Los Angeles and my stepfather had a job at CBS radio station. He was able to get tickets to some of the popular radio shows and my mother and I would take the street car across town and watch the programs as they were being broadcast. It was a great experience.

The nightly radio offerings were varied. Early in the evening, before dinner, serials such as “Jack Armstrong, the All-American Boy,” “Tom Mix,” “The Lone Ranger” and “The Green Hornet” were broadcast for the kids. They were on five nights a week. Then came the newscasters with the news of the war and the home front. Prominent during that time were H.V. Kaltenborn, Walter Winchell and Gabriel Heatter.

After the news, what we now refer to as “prime time” began with mysteries, comedy and music, even a soap opera or two.

At our house, like most other households, we sat in front of our radios every night and listened to our favorite programs.

So we would know which programs were on during a particular evening, I designed a radio schedule with the days written across the top of the page and the hours down the left side. Our favorite programs were in the appropriate time slots. (Most TV and radio schedules of today are in that format. Maybe I should have copyrighted it!)

Some of our regulars were mysteries such as “I Love A Mystery,” dramas like “Lux Radio Theater,” crime-fighting stories like “Mr. District Attorney” and musical variety shows like “Kay Kyser and His College of Musical Knowledge.” For the quiz show-minded there was “Dr. IQ.”

We never missed the comedy programs of such stars as Eddy Cantor, Fibber McGee and Molly, Fred Allen, George Burns and Gracie Allen, Bob Hope and Jack Benny.

One of the highlights of our radio week was “Your Hit Parade.” We would sit and listen or sing along with the band and the singers as the top 10 most popular songs of the week were played. They started with number 10 and ended with a flourish at number one. Frank Sinatra was a featured singer on the program during the mid-40s.

Radio in those days was fun and it was very entertaining. What is unique about radio, compared to TV, is that you can listen and know what’s going on while going about your business of working a crossword puzzle or knitting, or whatever. You didn’t have to sit and look at a screen.

In the late 1960s, our three children had their favorite TV programs. They would sit mesmerized in front of the TV staring at it. I was in the military service at the time and received orders to Germany. My family was able to accompany me.

The only TV in Germany when we arrived was in the German language. The Americans had access only to Armed Forces Radio Network. During the evenings, AFRN broadcast a lot of the old radio programs that were so popular during my youth.

Our children had been upset that they would not be able to watch TV in Germany, so we assured them that they would really like the radio programs that Mom and Dad enjoyed when they were young.

When the big night for us to begin our radio listening finally came, we all gathered in front of the radio and, while my wife and I listened while doing other things, all three of the kids sat on the floor in front of the radio and stared at the radio dial as if it had a picture tube. It was obvious that our love of old-time radio programs was not going to be passed on to our children.

“Napa As It Was” appears every other Monday in this space, alternating with Betty Rhodes’ “Senior Corner.”