The documentary programs that were presented, although small in number, often were inventive in their use of voices, music, and sound effects: they created great prestige for the networks and helped stations satisfy requirements for public service programming. Some received much critical acclaim and are still remembered as the pinnacle of radio writing and production.

  "Drama documentaries" broadcast during World War II were among the most exciting and accomplished examples of the art of radio and are still studied and enjoyed by students of radio history. Many American documentaries were produced at this time dealing with U.S. history and patriotism. These programs told war stories about America's fighting men and about its allies-especially the British-or encouraged civilians to conserve resources and support the war effort (and reduce inflation), especially by buying savings bonds. The forms and techniques of such documentaries, combined with the traditions of the film documentary, were precursors to the television documentaries that began in the 1950s.

Origins

     The earliest American radio dramas included documentary­ type programs such as Biblical Dramas and Great Moments in History, both on NBC during the season of 1927-28. For several seasons following, at least one radio series presented historical stories or biographies in a dramatic form.

     In 1931 the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) began American School of the Air, which was intended for students. Although this was more specifically an "educational program," it did have documentary elements-and an eavesdropping audience of adults listening at home. The landmark program ran for nearly two decades.

     On 6 March 1931, The March of Time began airing on CBS and was carried hy 20 of the approximately 80 CBS affiliates. Each program dramatized several important news stories. Initially sponsored by Time magazine, The March of Time had been ​​developed by Fred Smith, who earlier had dramatized news at WLW-Cincinnati and for syndication. Although the news stories were "re-created"-actors portrayed the characters of important events-this was the first important documentary program on radio. Under various sponsors, The March of Time was broadcast for 13 seasons and was partly responsible for Time, Inc. developing a monthly newsreel. By the late 1930s The March of Time on film had evolved from a collection of several short reports-the format of the typical newsreel at the time-to a documentary on a single topic. At the end of the 1930s the radio program was off the air for two seasons, but it returned during World War II, and increasingly it made use of the actual persons featured in the news stories.

     During the 1930s and World War II, the high cost of using telephone lines for the transmission of remote stories and the lack of portable, high-quality recording equipment that allowed for easy editing made studio re-creation of events easier and less expensive than coverage of the actual event.

     In 1936, to create a better image for itself, the DuPont chemical company began sponsorship of Cavalcade of America. A broadcast of 2 September 1936 told "the story of rayon," which was said to "rank with the automobile and radio in its speed of development and in the way it has opened a wide new field of employment." The program dramatized events in American history, although it carefully avoided any mention of gunpowder or dynamite, which were also manufactured by the company. Commercials always spoke of the progress and benefits of chemistry. This program introduced many young listeners to American history; it continued for nearly two decades until the end of most network dramatic programs.

     Also in 1936, CBS introduced We The People. This pro­gram dramatized stories of generally well-known people, using music and a narrator, and was said to be based on actual documents.

     In the late 1930s some factual programs were produced with or by the U.S. Office of Education, the Smithsonian Institution, the Library of Congress, the Rockefeller Foundation, and a number of universities. Some, such as The Ballad Hunter, produced by John Lomax, about folklore and folk songs, used recordings made on location. Alan Lomax, John's son, also produced a 1941 program with the Library of Congress about people displaced by the Tennessee Valley Authority. Alan Lomax would eventually collect thousands of hours of sound and film recordings, and later develop television documentary series about folklore.

     William Lewis, as CBS vice president of programming, had been given carte blanche by the network for experimental dramas; he assembled the group that created Columbia Workshop. From 1936 until 1941, Columbia Workshop produced experimental dramas and labeled some of these programs "documentaries," especially when they dealt with social problems and issues. In February 1939, Words Without Music presented "They Fly Through the Air with the Greatest of Ease," written and directed by Norman Corwin: the program described airmen bombing homes and then strafing the people who fled them. Accompanied by narration, dialogue, and sound effects, the story of the pilots involved their completing their missions of destruction but then being themselves shot down. A pilot describes the sight as one of the bombs hits its target: "Gee, that's fascinating! What a spread! Looks just like a budding rose unfolding!" Although it was not noted during the radio program, the speaker was Vittorio Mussolini, a pilot and the son of II Duce, the Italian dictator. But Corwin did make this clear in his introduction to the published version of the radio play: "One group of horsemen gave the impression of a budding rose unfolding, as the bombs fell in their midst and blew them up. It was exceptionally good fun." -Vittorio Musso­lini. (The younger Mussolini had written his impressions of dropping bombs on Ethiopian cavalry and watching the horses and riders as they were blown to bits.)

     The program excoriated "all aviators who have bombed civilian populations and machine-gunned refugees." While the U.S. was still neutral, and public opinion was evenly divided on the coming war in Europe, CBS was brave not to censor this program or other similar dramas that were based on fact. "They Fly Through the Air with the Greatest of Ease" received an Ohio State Institute for Education by Radio award in May 1939, as the program "best demonstrating the cultural, artistic, and social uses of radio." It was a great boost for Corwin's career, and it was the first of his many dramatized documentaries about the events leading up to World War II and the war itself.

     Lewis now told Corwin that he wanted a new series that would build pride among Americans and promote self-awareness of the American heritage. The result was the series Pursuit of Happiness, which CBS publicity described as "dedicated to the brighter side of the American scene," bringing us "reminders that today, with thankfulness and humility, we Americans still enjoy our constitutional rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Begun in October 1939, the program presented a spectrum of Americana. It was not an immediate success. But the third program, "Ballad for Americans," a musical written by Earl Robinson and John Latouche and sung by Paul Robeson, received much critical praise. By the time the series ended in May 1940-although there had been many arguments along the way-Corwin had successfully explored his idea of presenting "American sound patterns and phenomena." This series would set the pattern for Corwin's and many other CBS programs throughout the coming time of war.

World War II

     On  15 December 1941, all four networks presented the Cor­ win production "We Hold These Truths," honoring the 150th anniversary of the Bill of Rights: it presented short dramatized stories illustrating the importance of, and conflicts inherent in, each of the rights. Although the program had been in preparation for several months, its broadcast just one week after the attack on Pearl Harbor gave it special emotional appeal. In 1942 Corwin produced a series called An American in England, which sought to show how our allies lived, worked, and fought. As previous documentaries had been, these programs were mostly studio-produced dramatizations, but this series distilled research on actual people.

     During World War II, the major emphasis of the networks was on reporting the news of the war. Most of that reporting was by newscasters in studios, mainly in New York. There was, of course, much news from London, and some from Asia, transmitted via shortwave-especially at the time of very big stories such as the June 1944 D-Day invasion. The vast majority of such reporting was broadcast live. Recordings were used only sparingly because available equipment was heavy, fragile, unreliable, and required too much battery power for use over long periods.

     During the seasons of 1942-43 to 1944-45, radio saw a three-fold increase in the amount of documentary programming. Virtually all of the new programs were war related, often produced with the Office of War Information, and included salutes of each branch of the armed services. Because of a special wartime excess profits tax, many companies preferred to buy sponsorship of programs with money that would otherwise go for taxes, and some companies were willing to pay for documentary and information programs that in the past would have had to be self-sustaining. This additional funding meant that broadcasters could produce more elaborate and expensive documentaries.

     At the end of the war in Europe, all networks again carried a Corwin-produced dramatized documentary called "On A Note of Triumph." The program was well received and was subsequently released as a phonograph album. On that same night of 8 May 1945, however, the real future of documentary was revealed-although there seems to be no evidence that this change was understood at the time. An NBC program, arranged primarily by Prof. Garnet Garrison of Wayne State University in Detroit, presented a history of the war through phonograph recordings of the most important speeches and events of the war. There was a narrator as well as musical bridges, and some speeches had to be re-created because recordings were not available. This was the first use (on such a scale and for such an important occasion) of a substantial compilation of the actual voices and sounds recorded over a period of years.

Postwar Developments

     In June 1946, Norman Corwin left New York for a four­ month trip around the world "in a search for common ties and yearnings for world unity." He returned with hundreds of hours of interviews recorded on magnetic wire and acetate discs. By this time plastic magnetic audio tape, to which all of the material was transferred, made editing much easier. The twelve programs produced from this material aired on CBS from 14 January to 1 April 1947 under the series title One World Flight.

     Although the word "documentary" was now regularly used to describe programs (CBS had formed a documentary unit in 1946), studio re-creation was still the preferred means of presenting non-fiction material. Robert Lewis Shayon created CBS Is There, which began 7 July 1947: it dramatized historical events as if they had been covered by CBS correspondents at the time that they happened. For example, on 7 December of that first season, the program was "The Exile of Napoleon," with CBS reporters "covering" the events that marked "the end of the Napoleonic era." The next season the title was changed to You Are There, and the program continued on radio until 19 50. It later had two runs on CBS television narrated by Walter Cronkite.

     Many stations began using audio tape as an aid in gathering news and covering actualities. Yet it was another medium, the phonograph record, that helped show the way to documentary based on audio compilation of bits of recorded sound. In 1948 Fred W. Friendly and Edward R. Murrow compiled a history of the 20th century to that time; marketed as "I Can Hear It Now", it was based on fragments from newsreel sound tracks and on radio recordings. But many items were also re-created, or edited drastically for a more dramatic effect. The success of the record (first released on 78 rpm records, and then re-released in the new LP format), and the several that followed, showed that there was a viable market for audio compilation history.

     Working again with Friendly as producer, Murrow made the next significant breakthrough in documentary with his reporting of the 1950 election. "A Report to the Nation" was broadcast just 48 hours after election day; it was a compilation of the voices and sounds of the campaign-speeches, commercials, song, rallies, winners' declarations, and losers' laments. Within a few weeks this new format became the basis of a weekly program called Hear It Now, which the announcer introduced "as a document for ear." A segment on 9 February 1951 called "Biography of a Pint of Blood" was not only one of the most dramatic of the series but also showed how audio­ tape recording would be used in future documentaries. With Murrow narrating, the program offered listeners the story (in interviews, reportage, and the sounds of the events) of one pint of blood-its being donated in the U.S., its transportation to the war front in Korea, and its use in saving a wounded soldier.

The Murrow commentary is spare, limited mostly to essentials needed for transition. Now the real reporter was the tape recorder gathering reality sound, to which narration as needed could be added. But with the decline of radio network audiences because of television competition, in April 1951 CBS cut radio advertising rates for the first time ever. The future of broadcast documentary programming, combining with the traditions of the film documentary, was now on television. Hear It Now lasted only that first season; it returned to television in rhe fall as See It Now.

Documentary After 1950

     During the next half century there were many fine radio and audio documentary programs and series. But none would attract the audience, achieve the critical praise, or reach such large audiences as their counterparts on television.

     For four seasons beginning in 1956, NBC Radio presented Biography in Sound; often it was the story of a performer and was based on radio, phonograph record, and movie sound clips, as well as recorded interviews with colleagues and historians. Also in 1956 NBC produced 33 half-hour summaries of the history of radio called Recollections at 30. Often the phonograph records of radio performers had to be substituted for actual recordings of the radio programs because none could be found-an unfortunate result of the networks' earlier ban on using recordings of programs or of their carelessness: many of the recordings that were made were either lost or destroyed.

     From the middle 1950s, most radio stations developed new music formats; there was little radio documentary. Sometimes audio-only reporting was used, especially if it was much less expensive and more convenient than bulky and expensive film equipment. In 196 5 there were two notable series about poverty in America. This Little Light was a 10-program series produced in Mississippi by Chris Koch and Dale Minor for Pacifica Radio. Westinghouse Broadcasting also produced for the stations it owned a series on poverty called Outskirts of Hope.

     CBS radio sent its own reporters to cover the Vietnam war, but from the beginning news president Fred Friendly insisted that they also provide TV coverage. ABC produced a weekly radio documentary about the Vietnam War for several years. NBC and CBS produced a very few radio documentaries each year, usually including one that was a summary of news for that year. These documentaries, as well as similar collections from Associated Press Radio, were often also made available as phonograph albums.

     Since the 1970s, even smaller and more portable audio­ recording equipment has made advances in the documentary art possible, but there are now few stations where radio documentaries can still be heard. Currently, National Public Radio in the U.S., the CBC in Canada and the BBC in Britain each typically broadcast several hours of documentaries each week. Producer David Isay has won numerous awards for his sound documentaries, many of which have aired on National Public Radio.

     In December 2000 ABC News produced what it called the first "Webumentary," a biography and recollection of John Lennon on the 20th anniversary of his death.