The Radio Planet · the first decade
Radio before 1935, when nobody yet knew what the medium was for.
Almost nothing survives from radio's first decade. Network programmes went out live down telephone lines and were never recorded; what remains exists because somebody pressed it onto a disc — a syndicator shipping a serial to stations, a sponsor keeping a souvenir, a network filing a reference copy. Everything on this shelf is one of those discs, held by the Internet Archive and in the public domain. Dates and durations are the archives' own; where a disc carries no date we leave the broadcast undated rather than invent one.
257
Broadcasts
9
Series
59
Hours
1928–1934
Span
Start here
17 July
1928
NBC Blue / WMAQ Chicago
6 min
The surviving 1928–1933 quarter-hours from radio's first nightly serial, recorded when the form itself was being invented.
17 March
1932
Syndicated / KHJ Los Angeles
13 min
Frank Chandler, the American mystic, in the original West Coast syndication — one of the largest surviving pre-1935 serial runs.
12 September
1932
Syndicated transcription
10 min
The 1932 transcription serial, recorded disc by disc with Burroughs' own family in the cast.
26 July
1932
NBC
28 min
Texaco's Tuesday night variety hour, and the first big vaudeville comedian to work radio in full costume before a live audience.
1 December
1930
NBC Blue
27 min
The Great Northern Railway's sponsored dramatic series, broadcast from Chicago and Saint Paul.
26 July
1932
CBS
14 min
Frank Buck, the animal collector, retelling his jungle expeditions for Sunday-night radio.
Undated
Syndicated
12 min
Two old-timers minding a country store — a fifteen-minute rural comedy from the earliest years of syndication.
28 November
1933
NBC
15 min
Rare surviving NBC electrical transcriptions — Betty and Bob, Little Orphan Annie and other daytime quarter-hours.
11 September
1928
Various
1h 0m
Orphans of the earliest years: a full hour of 1928 local radio from Newark, the oldest surviving Goldbergs, the Marx Brothers' Flywheel, and the 1932 World Adventurers Club.
The shelf
1928–1933 · NBC Blue / WMAQ Chicago
The surviving 1928–1933 quarter-hours from radio's first nightly serial, recorded when the form itself was being invented.
35 recordings
1932–1934 · Syndicated / KHJ Los Angeles
Frank Chandler, the American mystic, in the original West Coast syndication — one of the largest surviving pre-1935 serial runs.
92 recordings
1932 · Syndicated transcription
The 1932 transcription serial, recorded disc by disc with Burroughs' own family in the cast.
77 recordings
1932–1933 · NBC
Texaco's Tuesday night variety hour, and the first big vaudeville comedian to work radio in full costume before a live audience.
9 recordings
1930–1931 · NBC Blue
The Great Northern Railway's sponsored dramatic series, broadcast from Chicago and Saint Paul.
9 recordings
1932 · CBS
Frank Buck, the animal collector, retelling his jungle expeditions for Sunday-night radio.
3 recordings
1930–1934 · Syndicated
Two old-timers minding a country store — a fifteen-minute rural comedy from the earliest years of syndication.
7 recordings
1933–1934 · NBC
Rare surviving NBC electrical transcriptions — Betty and Bob, Little Orphan Annie and other daytime quarter-hours.
9 recordings
1928–1934 · Various
Orphans of the earliest years: a full hour of 1928 local radio from Newark, the oldest surviving Goldbergs, the Marx Brothers' Flywheel, and the 1932 World Adventurers Club.
16 recordings