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Re: First radio network broadcast
At 02:20 AM 9/13/2003 -0400, you wrote:
>Another claim I am trying to pin down. The late beloved Sherm Feller
>claimed that he orginated the FIRST network talk show in the early 1940's
>and it was from Boston. In theory that seems unlikely, but having had the
>great pleasure of knowing Sherman the last few years of his life, I can
>not discount it either. He certainly was one of the great characters in
>Boston radio history.
Alas, the woods are full of people who claim they came up with the first
talk show-- I don't think Sherm was our guy, however. There were so-called
"vox pop" (man or woman on the street) shows in the late 30s on the Yankee
Network-- Jerry O'Leary did one. The technology made it difficult to do
what you and I would consider a call-in talk-show, but some stations
improvised. The best-known national program in which current events or hot
issues were discussed by a panel of experts and questions were asked by the
studio audience was probably "America's Town Meeting of the Air", which
began in 1935. Sherm was not yet on the air, I don't believe-- I have an
announcement from Broadcasting about when he first came to Boston-- I
believe he had been out at WLLH in Lowell and somewhere in New Hampshire
first, in the late 30s/early 40s, but I could be wrong.