Old Radio

  January 25, 1937: For the first time The Guiding Light was broadcast on NBC. Sponsored by the Proctor and Gamble, Irma Phillips'  The Guiding Light   was the longest-running radio soap opera of all time. It started as a 15-minute radio show from 1937 to 1947, and was then adopted as television drama in 1956. For some time, it was simultaneously heard on radio and watched on television. The television series lasted up to 2009. The story was said to be based on Phillips' life experiences.  When she was aged 19, she gave birth to unfortunately a still-born baby, after which she found comfort by listening to the sermons of a preacher named Preston Bradley. Those sermons formed the basis of " The Guiding Light  ," which she created 27 years later. She also published them through her best selling book. The " Right to Happiness " was a spin-off series generated from " The Guiding Light  ."

January 24, 1930: On this day Ben Bernie (Benjamin Anzelwitz) started his weekly remote broadcast from Roosevelt Hotel in New York. Ben Bernie was an American jazz violinist and radio personality, also known as The Old Maestro. He was very popular with his showmanship and memorable bits of snappy dialogue. Bernie recorded his orchestra from 1920 - 1930 in various City. In 1925 Ben Bernie and his orchestra recorded the Sweet Georgia Brown. In 1930 Bernie made his debut in musical variety radio shows, titled, Ben Bernie. The Old Maestro' broadcast, reached high rating and placed him among radio's top ten programs. He started his debut on radio in the early 1923 on WJZ and the NBC Blue Network in 1930-31, sponsored by Mennen. In 1931-1932 his program run on CBS, sponsored by Pabst Beer and then heard Tuesdays on NBC from 1932 to 1935, also with Pabst and Jimmy Wallington as the announcer. Listen to an old time radio sample: H Link, Keller S "