Origins

     At the inception of radio, classical music was omnipresent. Even before there were formal programs, stations would broadcast singers or orchestras performing familiar classics. Most early studios had a piano, and a pianist on call, useful for last-minute fill-in performances when a scheduled program for some reason could not be broadcast. Although popular music was also played, the classics were relied upon to fill airtime.

     Many stations in larger markets retained full orchestras and featured them regularly. Somewhat ironically in light of the situation decades later-when broadcasts of the classics have become increasingly rare-classical music was the first musical style to achieve large-scale exposure on radio. Many people were exposed to classical music for the first time on the radio, because few people could afford live concert hall performances in the few cities where they were available. The provision of such music over the air was also a way of gaining radio respectability among upper-class listeners.

     Although a rather extreme example, when station KYW first broadcast in mid-1921 in Chicago, it offered almost nothing but opera from the Chicago Civic Opera. Unfortunately, KYW soon discovered that the audience that wanted to hear opera all the time was relatively small.

Network Classical Music

     Radio's golden age was certainly golden for classical music listeners as the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) and the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) vied to present prestigious orchestras in live performances from the late 1920s into the 1950s. A typical offering on a Sunday, such programs were also heard on other evenings, and virtually all of the broadcasts were live. Among the better known and longer-running program series were the following: Voice of Firestone (192.7-54, NBC; 1954-57, American Broadcasting Companies [ABC]) offered a mixture of popular and more serious music, becoming more focused on the classics after 1932. The program's theme music was composed by the sponsor's wife. The radio audience declined after the broadcasts were simulcast on television beginning in 1949.

     Cities Service Concerts (1927-56, NBC) offered an hour­ long program until 1940, then a half hour. The title varied, but for a seven-year period (1930-37) its top star did not. Young Jessica Dragonette (1910-80) became hugely popular with her renditions of classical solo works and developed a devoted following.

     New York Philharmonic (192.7-53, CBS) was the major offering of the second network. With the Philharmonic conducted by the noted Arturo Toscanini until 1936, the broadcasts from Carnegie Hall were useful exposure for the orchestra, helping to sell its growing number of recordings.  

     Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra (1931-57, largely on CBS) helped to popularize the lush "Philadelphia sound" developed first by Leopold Stokowski and after 1938 by long­-time conductor Eugene Ormandy.

     Music Appreciation Hour (1928-42, NBC Blue) featured conductor Walter Damrosch (1862-1950) providing and explaining classical music to a youthful audience. Broadcast on Fridays for an hour (the program ended when Damrosch refused to cut it to a half hour), the program was widely used in schools across the country.

     Simonietta (1935-45, Mutual) was one of the few forays into classical music programming by the cooperative network. The orchestra was conducted by Alfred Wallenstein, and the program filled various half-hour time slots.

     NBC Symphony Orchestra (1937-54, NBC) marked the epitome of network classical music presentations. Radio Corporation of America's (RCA) David Sarnoff paid dearly to coax Arturo Toscanini (1867-1957) out of retirement by letting him establish his own orchestra and paying a handsome salary. Also featuring conductors Artur Rodzinski and Leopold Stokowski, some recordings of these broadcasts are still available. Regular broadcasts ceased when Toscanini finally retired in April 1954.

     The Bell Telephone Hom ( 1940-58, NBC) was actually a half hour long and melded light classics and sometimes popular orchestral music selected by conductor Donald Vorhees. Sponsored by American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T), the program helped promote the dignified view the company had of itself and its role in society.

     The Longines Symphonette (1943-49, Mutual; 1949-57, CBS) was unusual among these programs in featuring prere­corded programs.

Classics on Local Stations

     For most of radio, however, classical music from the 1930s into the 1950s was at best an occasional offering, usually from a network broadcast. A few university-owned stations (e.g., the University of Wisconsin's WHA in Madison) provided classical music among other educational and cultural programs. But, otherwise, classical music largely disappeared from AM stations.

     The development of FM radio from the 1940s into the 1950s, however, offered a new lease on life for classical music. By offering the classics (usually with recordings plus some live performances), FM outlets could differentiate themselves from the more common AM stations. Well into the 1960s, to both broadcasters and listeners, classical music meant FM radio­ and vice versa. FM stations often published program guides to help listeners (and to sell advertising, though few made money), and they thrived on audiences developed by the high­ fidelity craze that began in the 1950s. Many offered musical performances uninterrupted by announcements or commercials (again distinguishing themselves from AM) for those who wished to tape broadcasts off the air.

     Major cities soon enjoyed one or more classical music FM stations, including New York's WQXR (1939); Chicago's WEFM ( 1940), initially owned by Zenith with call letters featuring the chairman's initials), and WFMT (1951), which by 1958 became the first FM outlet reflected in local market audience ratings; WWDC (1947) and WGMS (1948) in Washington, D.C., WFLN (1949) in Philadelphia; WCRB (1954) just outside of Boston; and WFMR ( 1956) in Milwaukee, to name only a few examples.

     With the appearance of the first AM-FM non duplication rules from the Federal Communications Commission in the mid-1960s, however, FM's days as a bastion of classical music were numbered. As FM frequencies became more valuable, thanks to the larger audiences (and thus greater advertising income), they employed a wider variety of more widely popular musical formats. Small-audience classical music stations often either were sold or changed their formats to something more lucrative. Classics once again became relatively elusive.

     By the turn of the century, classical music programs appealed to only a small portion of the audience and were predominant on only a few dozen commercial and several hundred public radio stations, all catering to audiences with more education and higher income than the norm (and to the advertisers that want to reach them). A typical classical music station in the early 2.1st century provided not only music but also a blend of other cultural features designed to appeal to its audience.

    For nearly three decades, Robert Lurtsema (1931-2.000) hosted Morning Pro Musica each morning on Boston's WHDH, carried on public radio stations in New York and New England (and later by satellite to stations across the country). The program was broadcast five hours each day of the week (until 1993, when it shifted to weekends only) with musical selections introduced in Lurtsema's widely recognized slow and easy delivery. Programs often focused on a specific composer of theme, but music predominated. Along with Karl Haas' Adventures in Good Music, Lurtsema's program made classics readily available to sizable audiences.