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Old-Time Radio (OTR) and the Golden Age of Radio are phrases used to refer to radio programs (audio theater) mainly broadcast, in the USA, during the 1920s through the late 1950s. According to a C. E. more...

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Hooper survey in the late 1940s, 82 out of 100 Americans were radio listeners in 1947.

Vintage radio is now most vividly remembered by its more famous fragments: fanfares and show openings, running gags, trademark sounds and newsworthy events, such as the headlines generated by The War of the Worlds when it was dramatized on Orson Welles' Mercury Theater on the Air. Some still recall the creaking-door sound effect on Inner Sanctum Mysteries, the Dragnet theme music, the "Hi-Yo, Silver!" call of the Lone Ranger or the cackle of The Shadow: "Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows." In the early 1950s, music radio began to replace the many familiar comedy/drama favorites. The end of the era is often marked by the final CBS broadcasts of Suspense and Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar on September 30, 1962.

History

The audio theatre art form was invented prior to radio, developing in the 1880s and 1890s on early wax recordings. The first examples were recordings of vaudeville sketches, sometimes modified for the medium, but original audio pieces were being created well before Reginald Fessenden first broadcast sound over the radio on Christmas Eve, 1906. In the United States, radio comedy and drama gets little airplay apart from satellite and Internet radio, but it continues full strength on British and Irish stations, and to a lesser degree in Canada. Regular broadcasts of radio plays are also heard in South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and other countries. Vintage shows and new audio productions in America are accessible more on recordings and by satellite and web broadcasters rather than over conventional AM and FM radio.

Before the expansion of television in the early 1950s, radio was the most popular home entertainment medium throughout the United States. With the rise of the movie industry, America's appetite for mass entertainment grew. As with films, early radio shows reflected vaudeville origins with cornpone gags and ethnic humor interspersed between song numbers. As the medium matured, sophistication increased. Soap opera was introduced in 1930 on Chicago's WGN. During the 1930s radio featured genres and formats popular in other forms of American entertainment—adventure, comedy, drama, horror, mystery, musical variety, romance, thrillers—along with classical music concerts, big band remotes, farm reports, news and commentary, panel discussions, quiz shows, sidewalk interviews, sports broadcasts, talent shows and weather forecasts.

Top comedy talents surfed the airwaves for many years: Fred Allen, Jack Benny, Victor Borge, Fanny Brice, Billie Burke, Bob Burns, Judy Canova, Jimmy Durante, Phil Harris, Bob Hope, Groucho Marx, Jean Shepherd, Red Skelton and Ed Wynn. More laughter was generated on such shows as Abbott and Costello, Amos 'n' Andy, Burns and Allen, Easy Aces, Ethel and Albert, Fibber McGee and Molly, The Great Gildersleeve and The Halls of Ivy.

Read more at Wikipedia.org