Sit down, close your eyes and let your mind form the images as you relive the golden age of radio programs. Each week we'll feature a different and exciting program in MP3 format. Just click on the radio image below to be transported back in time.

This Week

Standard School Broadcast

George M. Cohan

November 9, 1951

The Standard School Broadcast began airing in 1928 under the sponsorship of Standard Oil of California, making it one of the earliest educational radio programs. The program was dedicated to music appreciation and included lessons music as drama, classical and non-classical music, basic music theory, Jazz, introduction to folk music, as well as profiles of great composers and musicians. Guests included soprano Dorothy Warenskjold and Louis Armstrong.

Seventy-two schools are known to have tuned into the broadcast when it first aired over the NBC Pacific network. NBC eventually dropped the program in the early 1950s, but Standard had it produced in syndication to keep it on the air. The program was awarded a Peabody Institutional Award in 1975, however, by this time it was becoming more difficult to find radio stations to carry the program. Recordings were edited from the broadcast material and made available, free of charge, to elementary and junior high schools throughout the West.

  Huntington Beach News