Radio in its so-called Golden Age in the 1930s and 1940s
developed a means of expression that made use of sound as a tool of communication and that found a way to utilize sound in the service of dramatic presentation. For most of its history, radio drama and comedy were live, and their sound effects, music, and dialogue were delivered to a live audience both at home and in the studio in many cases. Comedies had an interactive and
participative audience, and the laugh track carried over into filmed television was an attempt to maintain that element. Both comedy and drama were experimental in terms of their use of sound, though this has not always been recognized. A serious drama such as a play by Norman Corwin or a CBS Radio Workshop would be recognized for their interesting use of sound, but comedies like The Jack Benny Show used sound to convey ideas and attitudes with just as much experimentation.
Radio developed simultaneously as an entertainment medium and as a means for conveying the news and public events to the people. By 1925, there were millions of radio receivers in American homes, and the consumers spent $430 million on radio products. Radio was now a major part of both the economy and American popular culture, and it would remain so in basically the same niche until the advent of television more than two decades later. Radio was a harbinger of a panoply of technological changes to come:
Ultimately, broadcasting was one more technological
contribution to American society from scientific investigation. In an age that saw the popularity of the telephone, electric lights, phonographs, automobiles, motion pictures, and countless other
electrical devices, the radio receiver was another
achievement serving to confirm the faith of Americans
There were two modes of presentation on radio--most shows
had a sponsor, but each network had a certain number of shows without sponsors. The entire advertising...