August 14 in Radio History

August the 14th in 1933, Crosley Broadcasting's WLW in Cincinnati premiered the daytime drama "Ma Perkins." Just four months later, "Ma" moved to WMAQ Radio in Chicago and was heard over the entire NBC radio network. Virginia Payne was 23 years old when she started in the title role, operating a lumberyard in Rushville Center. Her children were Evey, Fay and John (who was killed in the war). One of the other characters in the show was Shuffle Shober. Virginia Payne played Ma Perkins for an incredible 27 years -- and 7,065 episodes.

In 1942, Garry Moore hosted a new radio program on NBC. "The Show Without a Name" was an effort to crack the morning show dominance of Arthur Godfrey (CBS) and "Don McNeil’s Breakfast Club" (ABC). A prize of $500 was offered to name the show and someone came up with the title, "Everything Goes".



In 1945, on the day of Japan's surrender ending World War II, CBS radio began the series, "Columbia Presents Corwin". Orson Welles did a special reading about the fall of Japan, titled, "Fourteen August".