The Early Days of Radio

We had the first radio in the Prairie Home community. It was hand built by a “high tech” Dalton City man in 1922. When this fellow made a new, improved model for himself in 1923 Dad bought the original one and set it up at home. It was magic--the voices and music came right out of the air! The neighbors came over to marvel at this exciting new invention. (When the Cox’s came to hear it, Grandpa Cox asked Dad to “have it play The Old Rugged Cross.”) Dad took a picture of me laying in my baby carriage “listening to President Calvin Coolidge in Washington.”

You can imagine how crude that radio was--this was 16 years before we had electricity on the farm! It was built in a heavy oak box where the main section slid out like a drawer to allow for internal adjustments. There were three simple black dials on the front for tuning, etc., and there were headphones instead of a speaker. It was battery powered.

In the later 1920s we got a Philco console radio that was much more sophisticated than that first one, and it had a big speaker so the whole family could listen at the same time. And by this time there were nine or ten different stations available for a wider selection of programs--although when it was stormy we got so much static that it would drown out everything. The main problem with that big Philco was that it took a rather expensive “battery pack” to power it; and after the depression hit we often couldn’t afford to replace the battery when it ran down. We usually had the radio working in the winter months, but if the battery-pack failed in the spring Dad might explain that “everybody’s too busy to listen to it in the summer anyhow, so we’ll just let it go ‘til fall.”

When I was in grade school I listened to two fifteen-minute action serials that came on at about five each afternoon. Sky King was about the adventures of a boy who flew his own airplane, the Scarlet Tanager (it had a black body and red wings). Jack Armstrong, the All-American Boy had all kinds of exciting and suspenseful escapades.

I loved the WLS Barn Dance that came on every Saturday night, broadcast from the Eighth Street Theater in Chicago. My favorite stars were Lulu Belle and Skyland Scotty (who sang duets), Red Foley and Pat Butram. (We even named a pet calf Lulu Belle.) I really liked the simple country music and good-natured banter. But there was a family conflict. Donald and John were older (and hence more sophisticated) and they much preferred to listen to Your Hit Parade, which featured the ten top popular songs of the week--but the two programs came on the air the same time! We usually were able to work out a compromise, such as listening to one show for half and hour then switching to the other. Once John paid Paul and me a nickel each for the privilege of listening to Hit Parade all the way through.

I was a big fan of the comedy shows on the radio. I can remember hurrying to finish my evening chores before The Jack Benny Show came on at 6:00 every Sunday evening, sponsored by Jello. That show was a part of my life then (just as many years later I tried to arrange my schedule around The Honeymooners program on television). We also listened regularly to Amos & Andy, Lum & Abner and George Burn & Gracie Allen.

After we got electricity on the farm in 1939 Dad bought a small Philco “Transitone” radio (about the size of a loaf of bread) and put it on top of the new refrigerator in the kitchen. Now the radio became more important to us than before because we could listen while working in the kitchen, eating breakfast, etc.; in other words we could listen casually without worrying about wearing down that expensive battery-pack. I gained my first appreciation for classical music by listening to The Northwestern Hour with Norman Thomas and Wieboldt’s The Musical Clock--programs that came on while I was washing breakfast dishes. That “Transitone” radio was such a hit the Dad bought a second one for the dining room; this eliminated arguments when two favorite programs came on at the same time.

And the radio provided a lot more than just entertainment in those days. Station WLS, “the Prairie Farmer station,” had frequent market reports that gave the current prices for grain and livestock at the Chicago Board of Trade. Crop reports told of crop conditions in other parts of the Midwest. Up-to-date weather forecasts were critical for planning work in the fields. Mother liked to listen to the Modern Homemakers program as she sewed in the afternoon. And we all enjoyed listening to the news as we ate supper--particularly about the latest developments in the war in Europe.