Re: First radio network broadcast

[Donna Halper <dlh@donnahalper.com>]

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.