Information needed on Radio in the 50s?

Question

I need any information posible about radio in the 1950s and how it affected popular culture

most information gets best answer

Answer 1

Okay even though i was born like 40 years later i still love the 50's and the generation of music! Um radio in the fifties had a huge affect on how the people grew up, well that's what i think anyways, back in the early 1900's the music was proper and elegant, and it reflected on there etiquette, and how they carried themselves, they were just well... proper.... but when the 50's came along everything changed. Rock and Roll legends rocked the charts people like Elvis, buddy holly, Ritchie valens, and even very early Beatles were so called pioneers of rock n roll history, i have noticed that the the parents thought the music was to " wild" and " barbaric" but the kids seemed to love it, my point is that the music effects every generation differently!

Answer 2

In the 1950s radio was fighting for its very survival. Television was coming on strong and radio found it hard to compete. I remember listening to radio dramas in the early 50s but by the end of the decade most if not all were gone. Music and news formats were expanding on radio. It became a media that people stopped sitting down to enjoy. The society was really solidly out of the war and the economy was doing well. People were becoming more mobile. Automobile radios were very common and I know my dad had something on all the time. Toward the end of the 50s, it may have been earlier, music and news was it. No more Roy Rogers, Red Ryder, Amos and Andy, The Lone Ranger, The Shadow and even the great bands were gone. It all went to television.

I thought TV was the best thing since sliced bread but looking back, radio dramas, even the 15 minute serials were more like reading a book. Your mind resolved the appearance of the heroes and villains as well as the scenery and the sets. Yes, in retrospect, there really was something special about radio.

I don't suppose this really speaks to your question, but I was there and have told you what I saw and felt. Popular culture was so far beyond me at the time that I wouldn't have known it if it bit me. You can read a historians perspective, but I was there, very young but there.

Hope that gives a feel for it.

Answer 3

Radio in the 50's wasn't all about music.

In the early 50's few people had tvs, and if you did have a tv (black and white of course) the programming was erratic e.g. a 15 minute show, then 15 minutes of a test pattern, followed by an old movie.

So, people were still listening to radio for drama and comedy as well as information (news) and music. Some of the radio soap operas and dramas were made into tv shows like the Lone Ranger.

Some people who had a huge influence on American pop culture, like Casey Kasem who did American Top 40 for 18 years before being replaced by Ryan Seacrest, started in those early radio dramas. I think Kasem did the voice of the Lone Ranger on radio.

The Jack Benny Show, a radio comedy became a tv show. When it was on the radio, Jack Parr guest hosted for him. Then he got a radio show of his own which then became a tv show. That tv show was the Tonight Show, later hosted by Johnny Carson and now by Jay Leno. The format for that show is used for almost all tv talk shows, and most everyone in America has watched it at one time or other.

This should be a fair jumping off point for you. You can look up some of these personalities and get more info.