Questions about "golden age" radio commercials

[installLSC]

Two questions:
--Were there any "spot" local commercials in radio's golden age? Most of what I've read implies that network programs were either sponsored by a specific company or were "sustaining" shows with no commercials. And if there were no local commercials on network programs, what were the incentives for affiliates to air network shows.
--For that matter, why did networks produce "sustaining" shows that earned them no ad revenue? And why did affiliates air them?

 

[Cincinnati Kid]

Off hand, I'm not familar with any specific network radio shows that were not sponsored. If you listen to the openings of shows from the 1930's and 1940's, you usually hear the sponsor's name right in the beginning, sometimes as a part of the show's title. In later years, some of the long-running shows (especially in the afternoon) may have been sustaining in their last months.

Since most of the recordings of the old radio shows you hear are taken from network sources, you may not be apt to hear a commercial done by a local station during a break, but I'm sure they were done.

 

[LKellerIII]

Early TV was the same way. Often, the sponsor's brand was even in the show's title - like the Dinah Shore Chevy Show, The Teaxaco Star Theatre (which begat The Milton Berle Show), etc. The first thing Dinah sang every week was "See the USA in your Chevrolet..." Even in the 60s, TV shows were heavily sponsored. You never see it in reruns, but the Flatt & Scruggs theme for The Beverly Hillbillies included the name of the sponsor...usually Kelloggs. And the opening Bonanza credits had a branding iron burning the Chevrolet logo into the screen. You could tell the scenes on Quinn Martin shows that were filmed on the backlot because there would be nothing but Fords on the "street." I could go on...

But I believe local affiliates still had some commercial time alloted to them within those shows. It was probably also true of radio, otherwise, as you say, what would be the affiliates' incentive to run network programming?

 

[JeffM]

Local stations were compensated in cash for carrying sponsored network programs, as the network was brokering their air time to the national advertisers. NBC in the 30's had an elaborate system in place by which stations were compensated for sponsored shows but charged for sustaining ones, and picked programs somewhat "a la carte." CBS instead offered sustaining shows free to affiliates but were obliged to clear time slots for all sponsored programs. Both of these systems were dropped in the 40's as a result of the same anti-trust case that spun off NBC's "blue" network to form ABC. (I'm not sure what system Mutual may have used.) Locals also had a short (30 second?) spot break they could sell between network shows.

 

[Silkie]

Don't forget Manny, Moe and Jack.

 

[ronald54321]

They had local ads during the morning local shows. Also just before the top of the hour. Listen to the whole broadcasting day of WJSV in1939, easily available on the Internet.

 

[JeffM]

Networks produced sustaining shows in order to try concepts or develop personalities that might attract a potential sponsor's attention as well as the audience's interest. Just to cite some CBS examples, Bing Crosby, Orson Welles, and "Suspense" all started as "sustainers." The cost of producing radio shows was not so prohibitive that a low-cost sustaining series could run literally for years without a regular sponsor if it served the purpose of "holding" an audience between sponsored shows or filling a gap in the schedule when another show was canceled. Some examples of this would include Mutual's "The Mysterious Traveler" and CBS's "Escape" and "Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar."

Sustaining series were sometimes the only shows a network actually owned. Many sponsored shows were owned by their sponsors and ad agencies, who bought time and placed the show on the network, and could move a show or a star performer to another network at will. There were also, as in TV, independent producers like Frank and Anne Hummert; whose Air Features Corporation controlled most of the daily "soap operas" on all the networks; and smaller-scale but prominent operators such as Phillips H. Lord, Carlton Morse, and Himan Brown.