Within the Library’s NBC Radio History Collection there is an amazing and comprehensive card catalog of network programs, performers and guests from 1930 to 1960. The 8 x 5 inch cards give a complete history of commercial and sustaining programs (programs without a sponsor and with no advertising), performers and artists, and “radio personalities” including anyone who went on the air, from politicians and presidents to authors and what today we’d call celebrities.
You’ll find a complete rundown of every broadcast, including cast changes, guest performers, and even plot summaries. A cast member’s final appearance will be underlined in red and the date of the new cast member will be noted. Daytime serials are described in great detail. One such program is Carleton Morse’s radio drama, One Man’s Family. The program ran on NBC for twenty-seven years and is described on forty-six, two-sided cards, some of which contain detailed genealogies of the fictional Barbour family.
I went browsing through the cards to take a look at what was on the air for New Year’s Eve in the past. Here’s the line-up for what you would hear in 1932 if you lived in New York. The programs were broadcast on radio stations WEAF (Red) and WJZ (Blue), which pre-dated the creation of the NBC network. There was something for everyone on the radio!
As you can see, programing started in the afternoon of December 31, 1932 on station WEAF with a children’s program Father Time’s Birthday Party, written by Grace Henry. It was followed by an international broadcast from Berlin celebrating the new year from Haus Vaterland, a huge building containing a cinema and café. Changing to station WJZ, listeners are given