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1946-1947 Network Radio Schedule | May 27, 2015
By Todd Nebel
On this page you will find the complete prime time schedule for the 1946-1947 radio
season. Radio programming changed constantly in those golden days, and schedules such
as these offer a reflection of the choices and offerings during a given week of radio
listening.
The schedules shown are from the third week in January, 1947, the peak of radio
listenership during the months of a network season. The radio industry long had the
custom of introducing new series in October and usually wrapping up in May of the
following year. The series introduced in the fall of each year would last for at least three or
four months and more often lasting for a full year, even when unsuccessful.
The information provided in the schedules was pieced together from four sources: John
Dunning's Tune in Yesterday, Harrison B. Summer's A History of Broadcasting 1926-1956,
and more importantly, The New York Times and Chicago Tribune daily radio schedules. In
comparing the newspaper's radio listings, we are able to notice whether a single program
was heard locally (Chicago) or nationally (Chicago and New York).
In the schedules, "Prime Time" is shown as 6:30 pm to 10:00 pm and Sundays 6:00 pm to
10:00 pm Central Standard time. The letters to the far left of each schedule stand for the
network: ABC, CBS, MBS (Mutual), NBC. If you had been listening in Chicago in January,
1947, your dial for the ABC network would have been WENR or WLS. The network affiliate
for CBS was WBBM. WGN was the affiliate for Mutual and WMAQ was NBC's affiliate.
Program ratings in the schedules appear when a program was heard nationally and was
sponsored. We have included the ratings so you may be able to notice how the program
fared against others in its own time slot. Sustaining (S) programs represent nationally heard
un-sponsored programs, without ratings (the Hooper rating service did not provide ratings
for sustaining programs). An asterisk (*) represents local programming (Chicago and its
broadcast boundaries) with no ratings available for local shows. The letters (NA) mean that
the radio program was heard nationally and was sponsored but for some unknown reason,
a rating is unavailable for that particular program.
By the way, if you are curious about which network was the overall leader in available
ratings among the four networks during the given week, NBC was the victor, taking first
place every night except Monday and Friday when CBS took first place.
CLICK ON A CHART BELOW TO ENLARGE.