If You Had Your Own Radio Program

[happyfilmluvguy]

During the Golden Age of Radio

What type of program would it be? (Variety, music, sci fi, comedy, drama, suspense, etc)

If you had a co-star or co-stars, who would it be? (ala. Jack Benny Program)

What company or product would sponsor your program? Let's hear the lyrics to their advertisement.

What time and day would your program be broadcasted?

Would you have guest stars such as other radio personalities, movie stars, and other well known folk?

Would it be a radio serial, where each episode transitions into the next?

 

[dhermann1]

If I had my own radio program in the Golden Age of radio . . . . .
Ah, if only . . . . . .
It would definitely be the comedy/variety type. I'd be going head to head with Benny, Fred Allen, Burns & Allen, etc. I'd have the best band I could get, with a FUNNY band leader. My sponsor would be something like Campbell's soup or Mother's Oats, something that everyone uses. Time slot? 8 o'clock on maybe a Wednesday or Thursday night, when everybody's at home (to listen to my show, of course!) I'd have great guest stars from all branches of show biz. I'd have a couple of comical side kicks, like Ishkabibblea, and Fanny Brice .
I'd maybe do one movie a year, like Jack Benny, just to get my face in the public's mind.
Oh, boy. Would I love to have been a radio star in the 30's!!!

 

[LizzieMaine]

I'd do a fifteen minute nightly comedy-dialect serial about life in a small Maine town called Abysmal Point. I actually wrote an audition script for this many years ago for a station where I was working, but alas, they couldn't see the vision. I'd play several roles myself, and there'd only be one or two other actors, who would also do multiple voices. There'd be no live audience, no elaborate production, and no orchestra -- just ten minutes of dialogue spinning out a meandering plotline, sandwiched between two commercials.

Ideally, forty million people a night would listen to this, or at least they would if Correll and Gosden hadn't come up with something similar first...

 

[dhermann1]

Sort of "Liz and Abner". I guess they just couldn't see the point.
(Painful, I know, but irresistible.)

 

[Starius]

Ooooh, I think I'd have a serial radio show inspired off the pulp sci-fi / adventure / mystery stories. (Big Surprise considering my avatar, eh?)

 

[dhermann1]

HFG: Great idea for a thread!

 

[happyfilmluvguy]

dhermann1, considering your avatar, I think you should have a comedy show about a criminal who's always getting caught (in a funny way) Down and out man during the Depression who has a family and steals but gets into even deeper situations with the mob, murderers, muscular thugs and every night when he gets home his family thinks he's just been out looking for a job. In one episode, he could even come face to face with his wife during a bank robbery whose trying the same thing and they see each and say, "honey, what are you doing here?!".

Any others?

 

[dhermann1]

That's moi in Noises Off last year. I played the "Old Actor", who played a burglar in the play within a play. Much fun, many bruises.

 

[ScionPI2005]

I would most definitely have a crime/detective show. I'd love to have something along the lines of Richard Diamond; the mixture of comedy and mystery in that show was just superb. Like all the other crime shows, it would probably end up being sponsored by a cigarette company, though other than the usual Camel or Phillip Morris.

 

[The Wolf]

Hmm

Definately comedy/variety with me and someone else as the leads. Special guests would drop in: a knock at the door,
Me: "Why, it's Basil Rathbone"
Basil: "I heard you playing violin and I had a request."
Me: "Sure thing, B.R. What is it?"
Basil: "Stop!"
My co-star:"Say, I hear you are doing a film with William Powell"
Basil: "Yes MGM is putting it out. It's called Crossroads" etc., etc.

of course their would also be music:
Me:"Where did I leave my glasses. While I look for them Tim Bucktoo and his Fabulous Five will play "Says Who? Says You, Says I"

But tell me, happy, what would your show be?


Sincerely,
The Wolf

 

[The Wolf]

Well?

happyfilmluvguy, what type of program would you have?

Sincerely,
The Wolf

P.S. Because of you I keep thinking how the script would work on my comedy. My first guest is Frank Buck.

 

[Fletch]

My program - The Big Program - would be one hour long and happen on Sunday nights. It would combine elements of The March of Time (dramatizations of current events with crackling narration by y.t.), Your Hit Parade (pop/swing/novelties by a big steaming juggernaut of an orchestra), illuminating interviews with notable figures of the day, and occasional spotlights of talented vocal/instrumental artists - with a pause every fifteen minutes for news bulletins.

Every year, on the Sunday closest to April 1, we would play an elaborately constructed prank on the audience, to be revealed over a music bed at the close of the broadcast.

We would be early experimenters in TV, where we would present a smaller-scale edition called The Big Picture.

It would all be sponsored by...hmmm, I'll have to get back to you on that bit.

 

[carter]

I'd have a show called Tempest in a Teapot aka Much Ado About Little aka The Death of Comedy. The station would be WONK with a sister station in the UK, WOTT.

A Monty Pythonesque improvisational format that takes as the jumping off point for each program an innocous topic each day.

It would all be in good fun and certainly not for the humorless.

The cast would be The Chaos Reigns Players with a core group and the occasional guest star.

We would do our best to avoid offending anyone and dodge the censorship bullet.

 

[happyfilmluvguy]

Hmm...

I'd have a night time show on NBC sponsored by "The Flebo Company", and would be a travelling talk show, where a different guest star hosts it, and would travel to different night life social gatherings like clubs, bars, restaurants, dance halls, and concert halls, around the world. I'd be the announcer and introduce the guest and location.

It would be called "Guests of the Night", on Friday nights at 7:30 on the west coast, and 10:30 on the east , and would also broadcast to parts of England, China, Africa, and a few other countries. There would also be special shows with guests speaking in their native language.

Sort of a combination of Saturday Night Live and Insomniac with Dave Attell

(Music begins)

"Ladies and gentlemen, the sun is down and the moon is out, and night life is all about, we take you now to (insert location), with today's Guest of the night, (insert guest name).

 

[MrNewportCustom]

Interesting Question.

Mine would be a variety show. I would have an hour show, with a different theme for each quarter hour, depending on the length of the story. There would be comedy, drama, suspense and mystery, comedic suspense and mystery, news and interviews.


Lee

 

[Forgotten Man]

I’d love to have a show in the same vain as Jack Benny… just silly, enjoyable… kinda screwball but, just down to earth funny stuff!

If I may, I’d like to go even further… I’d love to run a radio station and play old radio shows and music along with classic commercials to products that are still manufactured… then, have a live hook-up where Big Bands play in the area; broadcast that just as they used to do. Also a stage where variety shows and such could be preformed in front of a live audience wile being broadcasted.

A big dream but, what’s the point in dreaming small?

FM~

 

[carter]

Now that would be a station worth listening to!

Of course you'll need someone to be your Rochester.

 

[happyfilmluvguy]

During the golden age of radio was the time frame I was looking for, but the present is fine too.

 

[ScionPI2005]

During the golden age of radio was the time frame I was looking for, but the present is fine too.

Actually, I've often thought that it would be really cool to bring back radio theatre. I think I could really enjoy getting into a career where I could write crime dramas, and perhaps voice act as well. Of course, that's a very big dream, and truthfully, I'm not so sure radio dramas could really survive these days. Everyone likes their TV's and shooter games just a little too much...sign of the times I guess.

 

[Forgotten Man]

Actually, I've often thought that it would be really cool to bring back radio theatre. I think I could really enjoy getting into a career where I could write crime dramas, and perhaps voice act as well. Of course, that's a very big dream, and truthfully, I'm not so sure radio dramas could really survive these days. Everyone likes their TV's and shooter games just a little too much...sign of the times I guess.

Yes, there is that bitter realization that if there were radio programming carried out into this generation, it wouldn't last due to the TV programs and video games you motioned.

But, there are many today who would listen to them... there are still a lot of people listening to the radio... more stop listening to the radio because of a serious lack of good programs... also, there are WAY TOO MANY COMMERCIALS!!!!!!! I enjoy Art Bell some evenings and I get tired of the long commercial breaks... makes me tired.

There used to be a station that would broadcast old time radio shows in the late evening... they'd play an hour or so... it was so neat. But, they canned that hour of radio shows to become a full 24 hour news station. But, it caused a good outburst of hate emails... now, they carry the show on the internet... where's the fun in that? It's so much better on an old tube type radio.

FM~