Talk shows through the ages

[Dan.Strassberg]

As I grew up in New York in the '40s, I remember Mary-Margaret McBride
under her own name on WEAF and before that as the first (I believe)
Martha Dean on WOR. (Mary-Margaret may even have gone on to WABC (770,
not 880) after she left WEAF/WNBC.) Her programs certainly had more
emphasis on cooking than shows not directed at a female audience, and,
IIRC, her sponsors included a lot of foodstuffs and household products
that didn't advertise much on other programs. But aside from the chef
guests, I remember her talking with many authors of books not
strictly, or even primarily, aimed at a female audience. Probably the
NPR talk shows On Point (Tom Ashbrook) and Fresh Air (Terri Gross) are
the closest in content today to what Mary-Margaret covered back then.
Although it was almost two decades before two-way telephone talk
became technically feasible, there was A LOT of pretty decent talk
programming in those days (at least in New York City). Tex McCrary and
Jinx Falkenburg's AM drive show was one such program. Ed and Pegeen
Fitzgerald's was another. Dorothy Kilgallen and her husband (whose
name I can't recall) had a third. The last two shows I mentioned were
on WOR. Also on WOR was the precursor of many of today's infomercials
that tout miracle cures for everything under the sun--Carleton
Fredericks. My impression was that Fredericks bought the time from the
station and sold the ads himself--just as in today's brokered-time
shows. There doesn't seem to be much new under the sun--at least in
radio.

-----
Dan Strassberg (dan.strassberg@att.net)
eFax 1-707-215-6367

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Donna Halper" <dlh@donnahalper.com>
To: "Bill O'Neill" <me@billoneill.us>; "Keating Willcox"
<kwillcox@wnsh.com>
Cc: <boston-radio-interest@lists.BostonRadio.org>
Sent: Monday, August 27, 2007 2:40 PM
Subject: Re:


> Actually, these days there are a lot of things that both guys and
> ladies like to listen to-- it used to be that only guys liked
> sports,