WAS AMERICAN IDLE?

How do you spell comeback? In the closing decade of Network Radio’s Golden Age it was as easy as ABC - a very determined ABC.

When Life Savers candy king Edward Noble purchased NBC’s Blue Network from RCA in January, 1944, he bought a ratings shell of what once was a major player in the networks’ annual race for prime time popularity.

From its peak of 16 programs in the Annual Top 50 of 1934-35, Blue began a steady decline pushed along by NBC’s raid of its most popular attractions beginning with Amos & Andy in 1935-36. Jack Benny and Fibber McGee & Molly followed in 1936-37 and by the end of the season Blue had only eight Top 50 programs.

The downward drift continued for the next dozen years, through Noble’s first two seasons of the network’s ownership, 1944-45 and 1945-46, when Blue claimed only one Top 50 program, Walter Winchell’s 15 minute Sunday night Jergens Journal.

What happened?

Annual program records found in Appendix B of Network Radio Ratings, 1932-1953 illustrate the predicament of this often neglected, then abandoned sibling of the more powerful and prestigious NBC. In the twelve seasons between 1933-34 and 1943-44, Blue lost 24 programs to NBC including ten Top 50 attractions.

Two of those ten, Jack Benny and Fibber McGee & Molly, would eventually register a combined 32 Top Ten seasons while The Aldrich Family would eventually peak with four in the Top Ten and Mr. District Attorney had three.. In its reformatted half hour sitcom form, Amos & Andy enjoyed seven Top Ten seasons.

Granted, Jack Benny and Amos & Andy left NBC for CBS in the late 1940’s, but one can only wonder how Blue might have fared it it had been able to hold on to these popular attractions.

Here’s the sad trail of Blue’s losses of programs and their sponsors’ revenue to NBC:

1933-34: First Nighter.1935-36: Amos & Andy, General Motors Concerts, Jimmie Fidler’s Hollywood News. 1936-37: Fibber McGee & Molly, Jack Benny, Warden Lawes at Sing Sing. 1937-38: Robert Ripley’s Believe It Or Not. 1938-39: Death Valley Days, Horace Heidt’s Brigadiers Orchestra. 1939-40: Hollywood Playhouse, Mr. District Attorney, Those We Love.

1940-41: The Aldrich Family, Cavalcade of America, Information Please, National Barn Dance, Plantation Party. 1941-42:  The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Bill Stern’s Colgate Sports Newsreel, Grand Central Station. 1942-43: The March of Time, Lowell Thomas News/Comment. 1943-44: Duffy’s Tavern.

It’s interesting to note that the year of the greatest movement of programs from Blue to NBC was 1940-41, shortly before it was announced that Blue would be operated as, “separate and independent from NBC.”

Blue programs were fair game to CBS, too. Columbia took 14 of Blue’s shows during the same decade including four Top Ten attractions. It’s biggest steal came in 1934-34 when it convinced Gulf Oil to move its fourth ranked Gulf Headliners starring Will Rogers. It’s raid of programs and sponsors continued these attractions:

1935-36: Lawrence Tibbett Sings, 1936-37: Al Pearce’s Gang 1937-38: Ben Bernie, 1938-39: Edgar A. Guest’s It Can Be Done, Grand Central Station, Lum & Abner..

The CBS raid got into high gear in just before Noble took control of Blue. 1942-43: American Melody Hour, Easy Aces, I Love A Mystery, Irene Rich Dramas, Mr. Keen, Tracer of Lost Persons. 1943-44: Dinah Shore, Inner Sanctum.

Blue lost a total of 38 attractions over the years. It was up to its team of young executives led by Mark Woods to develop new and popular properties. Nevertheless, their first priority was to raise revenue, which he and former ad exec Ed Kobak did in 1944 by pushing the network’s billings up to 40 Million dollars, (592.2 Mil in today’s money), primarily through news and daytime variety programming with assists from  Kobak‘s co-op and participating sponsorship concepts..

But the 1944-45 season resulted in only one Top 50 program for Blue/ABC, Walter Winchell’s Jergens Journal. What's more, the network’s placements between 51 and 100 in the season’s rankings looked like a lineup of retreads - Jimmie Fidler’s Hollywood News, Louella Parsons’ Hollywood Mystery Time, Gangbusters, Drew Pearson News/Comment, One Man’s Family, The Quiz Kids, Counterspy and Blind Date,

To make matters worse, the network’s first major show in years, Sunday night’s star-studded extravaganza, Radio Hall of Fame, was a critical success but a dismal ratings failure.

Much the same story was repeated the following season. Winchell had ABC’s sole program in the Top 50 with eight shows trailing low in the Top 100 and Radio Hall of Fame again sank under the hundred. In summary, the network’s seven year total of 72 Top 50 programs from 1932-1939 dropped to 20 between 1939 and 1946.

Finally, in 1946-47, things began to improve. Winchell was joined in the Top 50 by the new Bing Crosby Philco Radio Time and Gangbusters - the first time the network had multiple Top 50 shows in five years!

What’s more, eleven ABC programs were developing beneath the Top 50, within the season’s Top 100 - Louella Parsons’ Hollywood News, The Fat Man, This Is Your FBI, Break The Bank, The Lone Ranger, Theater Guild On The Air, The Henry Morgan Show, Jimmie Fidler’s Hollywood News, Murder & Mr Malone, Drew Pearson News/Comment and I Deal In Crime.

Although Crosby dropped off the list in 1947-48, Winchell, This Is Your FBI, The Lone Ranger, Break The Bank, The Fat Man and Theater Guild On The Air gave ABC six Top 50 favorites. What’s more, ABC turned in the most Top Ten programs for Friday nights. It was again cause for celebration and the best was yet to come. 

Bing Crosby’s final season on ABC returned to the list in 1948-49 along with Winchell, This Is Your FBI, The Fat Man, Louella Parsons Hollywood News, Break the Bank, Theater Guild On The Air, Groucho Marx’s new comedy quiz, You Bet Your Life , and the sudden big jackpot hit, Stop The Music. The nine Top 50 programs were the most that the network had enjoyed in 13 years.

It’s true that ABC fell back to five Top 50 entries during the next three seasons, but why spoil the point to a good story - how the radio network stripped of its most valuable properties survived the loss and returned to compete with its major competitors. And, no, there was nothing idle about it. 

Copyright © 2015 Jim Ramsburg, Estero FL    Email: [email protected]