WO9-8989 was Talk shows through the ages

[Dan Strassberg]

You're showing your age--or, actually, the lack thereof! Before there was
two-way telephone talk on the radio, the only telephone talk that was
broadcast was the one-way kind you described--and quite a few people did it
in a lot of markets. Nevertheless, two-way telephone talk didn't really take
off until you could hear both the callers and the host on the air. It's
pretty obvious why. It was very hard to make it interesting. To hear what
the caller was saying, the host had to remain silent--except for the ritual
"uh-huh" every so often. That led to long pauses that really spoiled the
pacing of the show, It could drive listeners nuts--but worse yet, it would
drive them away--in droves!

As for Donna's question about whether two-way talk was technically
impractical until the '50s, I think the answer is that it was practical LONG
before that--as long as the station was willing to to air calls without the
legal protection of the seven-second delay. The delay didn't become
practical until the late '40s when commercial tape recorders became
available. Were there FCC restrictions on airing both sides of the
conversation and did those restrictions impede the development of two-way
telephone talk as a radio format? I think the answer is yes on both counts.

--
Dan Strassberg, dan.strassberg@att.net
eFax 707-215-6367

----- Original Message -----
From: "Richard Chonak" <rac@gabrielmass.com>
To: "Kevin Vahey" <kvahey@gmail.com>
Cc: <boston-radio-interest@lists.BostonRadio.org>
Sent: Thursday, August 30, 2007 2:01 PM
Subject: Re: WO9-8989 was Talk shows through the ages


< only his
> side of the conversation was broadcast: it was one of the few one-way
> call-in shows I ever heard.