In the 1930s, we got news in"news broadcasts" usually in 15-minute segments in the morning and in the evening. Big news flashes would interrupt regular programming but this was pretty rare, e.g. the attack on Pearl Harbor, death of FDR. Most homes had a radio positioned centrally for everyone to listen, whether a table model or console which stood as a separate piece of furniture about 3 1/2 feet high. All broadcasts were AM; FM was still years away. Jack and I had our own small radio in out room which I used to hear my regular 15-minute programs starting about 4 p.m. with Little Orphan Annie, Captain Midnight, Terry and the Pirates, the Green Hornet, Jack Armstrong, and Sgt. Preston of the Yukon. Great stuff.
Occasionally there would be special offers such as Little Orphan Annie's secret decoder rings which shone in the dark "for just two Ovaltine labels and 10 cents." I actually got one and it did glow for a few minutes inside my closet or if I turned out the lights in the room. By rotating the outer ring, I could decode the secret message which was tacked to the end of each Annie broadcast for a week or two!
Starting about 7 p.m., we had half-hour programs like Mr. Keene "The Tracer of Lost Persons," The Shadow, ("Who knows what lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows!"), the Twilight Zone ("Lights out .... everyone!"), But the big one was The Lone Ranger at 7:30 p.m. every Monday, Wednesday and Friday--introduced with the William Tell Overture, "Hi, Yo, Silver!" and hoofbeats. Each story featured the Masked Man and Tonto, his faithful Indian companion who called him Keemosabe. At the end of each adventure, they would leave behind a silver bullet as a clue, so that one of the other characters would ask, "Who was that masked stranger?"
Family listening included mostly half-shows of comedy, mystery, and music: Bob Hope, Jack Benny, George Burns and Gracie Allen, Red Skelton, the Aldritch Family ("Coming Mother!), Mercury Theater (infamous for its all-too-realistic presentation of HG Wells' War of the Worlds), Dragnet, Your Hit List. The Lux Radio Theater presented audio versions of popular current movie scripts introduced by Cecil B. DeMille himself ("Ready when you are, CB!").
We were thrilled when Dick Van Patten had a part in a radio series of "Our Gang" one summer. When we asked what would happen in the next episode, he gave us a sample of what was in his script. At the broadcast, we actually heard him say it! We'd had inside information... Wow!
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