Dec. 19, 1943: A new Philco radio cost the equivalent of of $1,721.07 in 2013 dollars.

I had such an interesting time exploring Archive.org in search of radio broadcasts for Christmas 1943 that I have decided to try adding radio broadcasts as a regular feature. When I began heavily researching Los Angeles in the 1940s, there was some OTR (old-time radio) online, but most of it was held by collectors who sold copies of shows on cassette.

Today, however, OTR enthusiasts have shared many hours of recordings with Archive.org or otherwise placed some of their collections online, which makes it possible to follow our base year, 1944, through radio broadcasts.

Although it’s impossible to reconstruct a complete radio schedule (except for the upcoming D-day coverage on June 6), I was able to find at least one recording — and sometimes several recordings — for almost every day. The summer breaks are a challenge and I may fill those gaps with earlier versions of shows that were still on the air or some undated shows from sometime in the 1940s.

Among the selections are: Fred Allen, Jack Benny, “Duffy’s Tavern,” “Lux Radio Theater,” “The Great Gildersleeve,” “Suspense,” “Inner Sanctum,” “Amos ‘n’ Andy,” “Fibber McGee and Molly,” and lesser-known shows like “Information Please” and “Strange Dr. Weird.”  Some shows like “Lux Radio Theater” are well represented. On the other hand, I could only find one episode of “Gangbusters.” In another example, there are lots of episodes of “Lum and Abner,” but nothing from 1944.

Tune into 1944: The Year in Radio  starting Jan. 1, with “Challenge of the Yukon.”