by Billy Jones
Radio, then and now
Recently, I began thinking about the good old days of radio and how it has changed since the 30s, 40s and 50s. Radio was a wonderful source of entertainment and it didn't interrupt our day. I mean that we didn't have to stop what we were doing to watch it. We could just listen and use our imagination while we went about our daily chores.
Radio provided daily soap operas with live radio actors. Children's programs, interviews and informational programs were always available. Live play-by-play sports broadcasts were commentated so well that we could picture ourselves being there. We were even treated to a daily diet of live music programs.
Radio announcers were special people and, when they weren't hosting their own programs, they co-hosted other feature shows. Many of these live shows featured people like Hank Snow, Wilf Carter and The Breakfast Club. Around noon and into the afternoon, there was the Happy Gang, the King Ganam Show and Tennessee Ernie Ford. In the evening and weekends radio provided top name trios and big bands.
There were local live country bands playing on the radio just about everywhere. I played on several radio stations in Toronto and the surrounding area for several years. The U.S.A. beamed popular country, western, and pop programs North to our waiting antennas.
The CBC spawned never-to-be-forgotten announcers, musicians and singers. Many of these CBC programs were recorded live and passed on to their affiliates across the country to be played at a later date. Their broadcast standards were very high and it terrified me to know that I was playing in the big league. One of our best singer/musicians succumbed to CBC pressure and we were told to replace him.
Radio began to change with the advent of television. To keep the cost down, many stations dropped some of their live studio shows and began playing more recordings. Local announcers began doing double duty and the control room operators were no longer needed. Without them, live programs gradually became history.
Sadly, radio has become a jukebox with commercials. Most stations specialize in one style of music with a news update every hour. Instrumental music is limited to commercial backgrounds. For those of us who remember radio as it was, this is radical.
There is still a listening audience where television isn't accessible during the day and this doesn't even include vehicles on the road with radios. Vehicles are where radio has a captive audience eager for a more palatable diet of variety programming.