[Magdalen] What's My Line? On Facebook and YouTube

[Jim Guthrie]

David writes

>Actually, I suspect, 75% of the morning radio listening in the 1950's
>was for the "Arthur Godfrey and Friends Show".  Who can forget Carmel
>Quinn, Haleloke, Frank Parker, Julius LaRosa, Pat Boone, the McQuire Sisters,
>etc?

Not to mention "Lipton Zoup."

>But, then, this is maybe a decade earlier than the period being  discussed.

That depended on the market. Breakfast Club generally won when head to head. At
some point -- I think it was when Art Linkletter's "House Party" ended its run
(it followed Godfrey) the Network gave its stations the ability to run it at any
time between 10 AM and 1:30 PM.

WOR with its Chatter program format was still the winner over both in NYC. It
ruled the roost until Rick Sklar finally got rid of "Breakfast Club" (it went to
WJRZ, Hackensack), Paul Harvey (always a loser in the Northeast even as his
national ratings gave ABC the ability to advertise "More people get their News
from ABC News than any other network. Of course, some stick in the muds would
say Harvey was hardly "News" as in the measure of Frank Reynolds or Harry
Reasoner.

It should be noted that some of the programs -- Galen Drake, the McCanns and the
Fitzgeralds came from other stations in the city a they phased out such
programs. The McCanns had started in the 1920s; Ed and Pegeen in the 1930s. It
was sad at the end that they didn’t retire, as both Ed and Alfred suffered from
Alzheimer's and would use track and drift off mid sentence. The wives coped, but
it was terrible to listen to on several levels.

I've always found the transition from the old radio scheme of comedies, variety
shows quiz shows and drama to rock and talk formats in the 1950s the most
interesting period in radio history. My first paying gig on keyboard was playing
piano and organ in the band on "Ray Heatherton's Breakfast Club" Saturday
mornings on WTHE, Mineola NY. I was still in high school  A member of Broadcast
Pioneers once pointed out that we were about the youngest people to start in the
sputtering days of "Old Time Radio.".

Had I first lost my sight a year earlier and went into a hospital a year
earlier, I could have enjoyed <?> Queen for a Day on WOR at 11:30 AM and  a few
other stragglers from the old days.
,
But CBS still had a lineup of Soaps in the afternoon -- concluding with "The
Romance of Helen Trent" at 4-4:15 PM. I generally listened to the soaps rather
than Arlene Francis and Celeste Holme. And Saturday evening, there was Suspense
and Yours Truly Johnny Dollar as late as 1962. I also remember listening to the
radio version of "Gunsmoke" and "Have Gun Will Travel" (the latter distinguished
by being the only program after to transition from television TO radio) but don’t
remember when they were on. I do remember Matt Dillon was William Conrad in
"Gunsmoke."

Cheers,
Jim





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David Strang.