Take It or Leave It was a CBS radio quiz show, which followed in the wake of
Professor Quiz, radio’s first quiz program. The show was first hosted by Bob Hawk ( 1940-41), followed by Phil Baker (1941-47). It aired until July 27, 1947. In 1947
the radio series switched to NBC and was hosted various times by Baker, Garry
Moore (1947-49), Eddie Cantor (1949-50), and Jack Paar who hosted the show beginning on June 11, 1950. On September 10, 1950, Take It or Leave It changed
its title to The $64 Question and continued, with Paar as host, until June 1, 1952. It
was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 1990.

Phil Baker

Your Hit Parade began as a 60-minute music program on NBC radio and ran
till 1955. The first number one song on the initial program was “Soon” sung by
Bing Crosby. 

 

Singer Helen O’Connell appears on Your Hit Parade

Lights Out was an extremely popular old-time radio program devoted mostly to
horror and the supernatural. The first series of shows ran on a local New York
NBC affiliate, WENR, at midnight on Wednesday, starting in January of 1934. It
was soon picked up by the NBC radio network, after huge demand. and was
broadcast nationally, usually late at night and always on Wednesdays until
the summer of 1947. The series eventually made the transition to TV. The
show was to radio, like what The Twilight Zone was to television.

Arch Obler, left, was the writer/director of Lights Out during the 
early years of the show. He is seen here with actor Tommy Cook. 
 

(Left to right: Guy Madison and Andy Devine) 

The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok was originally a western action radio series
that ran for 271 episodes from April of 1951 through December of 1954 on the
Mutual Broadcasting System. The main cast members were, Guy Madison as
U.S.Marshal James Butler ‘Wild Bill’ Hickok, and Andy Devine as Deputy Marshal
‘Jingles’ P. Jones (pictured above) The show was about a U.S. Marshall and his
300 pound sidekick who brought bad guys to justice in the old west. The first
episode was titled Behind Southern Lines. Unlike most series that made the
transition from radio to TV, The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok kept the
same cast as the radio show.

Kellogg’s cereal was the sponsor of the show

The first broadcast of a sporting event took place on 11 April 1921 when
Westinghouse station KDKA in Pittsburgh, Pa. broadcast a 10-round,
no decision boxing match between Johnny Dundee and Johnny Ray
at Pittsburgh’s Motor Square Garden.

Johnny Ray

Johnny Dundee