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Podcast: Breaking Walls: The Podcast on the History of American Network Radio Broadcasting
Episode: BW - EP154—001: Stars On Suspense In 1944—Suspense Is Born In Forecast
Description: Support Breaking Walls at https://www.patreon.com/thewallbreakers
In July of 1940 CBS’ Lux Radio Theatre was scheduled for its summer hiatus. Lux aired sixty-minute condensations of films Mondays at 9PM. Pulling a rating of 23.7, it was CBS’s highest-rated show and Monday’s most-listened to program.
Head of CBS William Paley and Program Director Bill Lewis wanted to use the vacated time slot to attract both audience participation and potential sponsors. At that time, CBS’s story editor was William Spier.
They decided to launch a pilot series to workshop new shows. They called it Forecast. It debuted on July 15t...