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The most
historic broadcast in history began in the midnight
hours of June 6, 1944, when most of America slept.
Wire services began flashing the bulletins at 12:37
a.m., citing German sources which reported that the
long awaited Allied invasion of Europe had begun.
Radio Berlin immediately began a running account of
the early paratroop landings and bombardment of the
northern coastal areas of France … After three hours of German reports, shortwave confirmation came from
General Eisenhower’s headquarters in London
that the invasion was underway. Then the
networks went about the business of describing the
5,000 vessel armada crossing the English Channel
with 150,000 Allied troops headed for the beaches of
Normandy.
The “D” in
D-Day has no definition, military or otherwise. But
it was the
Day of
Deliverance
for
broadcasting from the shadow of newspapers as a
primary source for news. A special C.E. Hooper
survey commissioned by CBS estimated that radio
listening on D-Day was 82% higher than normal.
President Roosevelt’s
address to the nation that evening resulted in a
45.2 rating.
Commercial
radio had its biggest year since 1937 - both the
entire industry and the networks enjoyed over a 20%
gain in revenues. The paper rationing that limited
newspaper and magazine advertising was part of the
windfall. The Internal Revenue Service also
played its part, ruling that monies spent on
advertising were deductible from a wartime excess
profits tax. Advertisers were given a choice -
spend it or send it to the government. Most chose to
spend it ... During the spending spree, two
previously unsold network series were sold for more
than a million dollars each: U.S. Rubber paid
seven figures for The New York Philharmonic’s Sunday
afternoon broadcasts on CBS which had gone without a
sponsor for 13 years. General Motors paid a million
for The NBC Symphony’s concerts two hours later.
Edward J.
Noble was only 30 when he and a partner
bought the idea for Life Savers from a Cleveland
candy maker in 1913. Thirty years and billions of
Life Savers later, Noble’s business successes
included ownership of WMCA, a popular New York City
independent station … During the summer of 1943,
Noble offered RCA $8.0 Million for the Blue Network
and its three owned stations - WJZ/New York City,
KGO/San Francisco and WENR/Chicago. Sold!
… Under
the FCC’s duopoly provision limiting owners to one
AM station per market, Noble sold WMCA and took
control of Blue in January … Noble then used the
FCC ‘s duopoly edict to his advantage. He went to
work on West Coast Packard automobile dealer
Earle C. Anthony to buy one of Anthony's two Los
Angeles stations, (KFI and KECA). With Anthony
under the government gun to sell, Noble bought KECA
for $800,000.
Radio continued to devote more total time to selling War
Bonds than any other single product. The second
highest rating of the season was 44.4, scored on
Monday, January 17, when Let’s All Back The Attack! was broadcast on all four networks at 9:00.
It
was an hour-long kickoff to the Fourth War
Loan war bond drive with a goal of $14 Billion. The
30 day campaign exceeded its goal by nearly 10%.
NBC and Philco were both pioneers in early television. The
war had severely limited development of the medium,
but the two companies accomplished the first
publicized attempt to link two stations on May 25,
1944. WNBT’s signal from New York City was picked
up by a relay tower in New Jersey and pushed on to
Philco’s WPTZ in Philadelphia. In effect,
television networking was born with the transmission
- but it didn’t come without some labor pains
... NBC’s Eddie
Cantor appeared on television’s inaugural chain
hookup and launched into a duet of We’re Having
A Baby, My Baby And Me from
his 1942 Broadway musical, Banjo Eyes. TV’s first “network” censors found the
lyrics objectionable and cut the telecast’s sound
midway through the song.
The act
embarrassed and angered both Cantor and Philco. In
retaliation, Philco invited Cantor to appear on its Radio Hall of Fame show on Blue the following Sunday, May 28th.
He did and sang the song in its entirety.
The Top Five Network Radio programs in the 1943-44 season
were comedies. Twenty-two of the season's Top 50
shows were comedies - a new high of 44%. Bob Hope
led the parade of comedians who logged countless
miles to entertain the troops at home and abroad -
and sell War Bonds to the civilian population
… Sunday’s Top Five - Edgar Bergen & Charlie
McCarthy, Jack Benny, Walter Winchell, Take It Or Leave It and
Fred Allen - finished in the same order as the
previous season. It was the first time
that any night’s Top Five repeated in order from one
season to the next. The same names would continue
appearing in Sunday’s top tier of programs for the
next three seasons with one notable exception.
Fred Allen
wasn’t well. His high blood pressure led
to heart problems in 1943 and delayed his return
from “summer” vacation until December. Texaco
covered the 9:30 timeslot on CBS with tenor
James Melton and a half hour of light
classics and standards that registered a meager 8.5
rating in early December. In contrast, Allen’s
homecoming show later in the month scored 20.4, his
highest rating in five years. He went on to enjoy
his best rated season since 1939-40. But by June,
the burdens of his weekly show took their toll
again. Doctors ordered Allen off the air for the
entire following season.
Blue lost a dependable weeknight Top Ten program when NBC
took full custody of Lowell Thomas in January
during Blue’s transition from a co-owned to a
competing network. Although his program was
already broadcast by a number of NBC affiliates in
scattered markets, his departure formally ended a 13
year association with Blue. It was the first time
that Blue had been totally shut out of any
weeknight’s Top Ten … Thomas joined Top Ten hits
Jack Benny, Fibber
McGee & Molly, The Aldrich Family and Mr. District Attorney - plus a host of
other programs from Information
Please to The National Barn Dance - who were all
alumni of Blue and graduated to the more powerful
NBC.
NBC continued to dominate the 1943-44 Top 50 with 30 of the
most popular programs, including eleven of the Top
15. CBS added 18 to the Top 50 and Blue was
down to two.
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