Home Entertainment
Agnes Moorehead and sound-effects man in a live broadcast of "Sorry, Wrong Number"
WHAV.net
Television was almost ready to unseat radio as the primary medium for home entertainment, except that the coaxial infrastructure needed for national network broadcasting was not yet completed. Until it was, radio would hold on, and our parents would keep listening.
In 1946, the nation's top radio shows were a potpourri of live dramas, variety shows, and situation comedies. Some of them we may now know only by title, if at all:
Lux Radio Theatre, Fibber McGee and Molly, Suspense, The Kate Smith Show, The Bickersons, Inner Sanctum, The Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy Show, Truth or Consequences, The Adventures of Sam Spade, The Fred Allen Show
No one minded that the lips of Edgar Bergen - whose humor was based on his being a ventriloquist - could not be seen on his hit radio show. Nor that you could not see the dancing on Saturday night's National Barn Dance.
Radio performers whom we recognize because they later would transition to TV included:
Bing Crosby, Burns and Allen, Bob Hope, Jack Benny, Red Skelton, Abbott and Costello, Jimmy Durante, Garry Moore, Jack Webb
Radio listing for evening of March 9, 1946
New York Daily News
Soon to begin their successful runs on television were radio favorites Dragnet, Richard Diamond, and Gunsmoke. Never at the top with her own radio show was Dinah Shore, but she would have great success on television.
Our parents also listened to, and we heard, lots of, recorded music. According to Billboard, these were the performers of 1946's ten top-selling hits: The Ink Spots, Perry Como, Frank Sinatra, Freddy Martin, Vaughn Monroe, Frankie Carle, Johnny Mercer, and Nat "King" Cole. Having held down the Number 1 spot for ten weeks, The Ink Spots' record of "The Gypsy" was the hit of the year.
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