BW - EP135—003: Luke Slaughter Of Tombstone—Slaughter Launches

Breaking Walls: The Podcast on the History of American Network Radio Broadcasting

When Luke Slaughter debuted on Sunday, February 23rd, 1958 over CBS, network radio had shifted focus. Car radios had become standard. That month, U.S. Radio Magazine reported fifty-five percent of all peak listening came from cars. Auto-rating measurements were underway, but ineffective. If you’d have turned on your radio to WCBS in New York that Sunday, you’d have heard news reports at the tops of most hours. Concerts and other music programs filled the dial between 11:30AM and 2:00PM. Slaughter signed on at 2:05 with CBS’s first fiction show of the day. Chairman William Paley still believed in radio drama. Americans were on the move and there was still an audience to reach. Opposite Slaughter, NBC broadcast a talk show The Sound of Science. ABC was in the midst of Dr. Oral Roberts. Mutual—WOR aired Studio X Matinee. Junius Matthews played Wichita. Vic Perrin guest-starred. Sam Edwards appeared as well.