America's Town Meeting of the Air
America's Town Meeting of the Air was a public affairs discussion broadcast on radio from May 30, 1935, to July 1, 1956, mainly on the NBC Blue Network and its successor, ABC Radio. One of radio's first talk shows, it began as a six-week experiment, and NBC itself did not expect much from it. Broadcast live from New York City's Town Hall, America's Town Meeting of the Air debuted on Thursday May 30, 1935, and only 18 of NBC's affiliates carried it. The topic for that first show was "Which Way America: Fascism, Communism, Socialism or Democracy?” The moderator was George V. Denny, Jr., executive director of the League for Political Education, which produced the program. Denny moderated the program from 1935 to 1952 and had a major role in choosing weekly topics. Denny and the League wanted to create a program that would replicate the Town Meetings that were held in the early days of the United States. Current events and issues The show's introduction tried to evoke the old town meetings, as the voice of the mythical town crier announced, “Town meeting tonight! Come to the old Town Hall and talk it over!” Denny and the League believed that a radio town meeting could enhance the public's interest in current events. Denny worried that an uninformed public was bad for democracy; and he believed society had become so polarized that the average person didn't listen to other points of view. His goal was to create a new kind of educational program, one that would be entertaining as well as mentally challenging, while exposing listeners to various perspectives on the issues of the day. Explaining the rationale behind a radio town meeting, Denny wrote that it was "... a device which is designed to attract [the average American's] attention and stimulate his interest in the complex economic, social and political problems which he must have a hand in solving." Audience participation On paper, America's Town Meeting looked like a typical panel discussion, with high-profile celebrity guests, who were experts on a particular current issue. For example, on a December 19, 1935, show about Social Security, one of the panelists was U.S. Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins, who explained and defended the new government program. (What she said about it can be heard here.) But while many shows had well-known experts, few had the kind of audience participation that this one did. They cheered or applauded when they liked what a speaker said, and they hissed or booed when they felt the speaker was wrong. They also heckled: part of the format of the show was to allow members of the audience to ask questions, and while the rule was the question had to be brief—about 25-30 words maximum, with no insults or name-calling, that didn't stop people from using sarcasm, or strongly disagreeing with what a guest had said. Even the listeners at home could take part: while at first there was no easy way to get callers on