The emergence of radio as we know it–programming that emanates from a reasonably priced box placed in the living room–was in its infant stages when the above one-hour broadcast was made, from a station in Newark, New Jersey. As you’ll see from this rare and invaluable Edison experimental recording from September 11th, 1928, the concept of a ‘broadcasting day’ was already very much in development, as the pioneers of the medium found interesting ways to provide a new sort of entertainment programming. A little talk, a little music,  a little humor–the idea seems to have taken root early on that the medium could offer a variety of things that movies, vaudeville and theater could not, all of which was delivered to your home without having to shlep to some theater. As I said, the above recording is extremely rare–very few air checks of shows exist prior to the advent of national broadcasting. At that point Amos and Andy became the first coast to coast radio phenomenon–although the broadcasts were not made simultaneously– each show was  performed twice three hours apart. The concept of sponsorship was introduced around this time as well, largely stemming from a young man in the family cigar business in Chicago who was surprised and impressed by how much business his cigar company did after airing a few local radio advertisements on a local station. Convinced that this was the future of communications, he borrowed money from his father, went to New York and bought a fledgling (and failing) radio company called Columbia Phonograph Corporation. Yes, ‘Kid Cigar’ was William Paley…