Oh, the radio serials!  Gunsmoke, the Lone Ranger, Dragnet, Amos 'n' Andy, the Shadow, Keen—The Tracer Of Lost Persons, Johnny Dollar, Sergeant Preston Of The Yukon, and so many more.  Radio serials required thought and imagination—items sorely missed among today's people. There was a ton of comedy.  Burns and Allen, Jack Benny and Bob And Ray were excellent and there were others.

There is no Lowell Thomas today—no one is even close.  In his prime he was not alone...Walter Winchell "Good evening Mr and Mrs America, from border to border and coast to coast and all the ships at sea. Let's go to press."   Edward R. Murrow,  H.V. Kaltenborn, Eric Sevareid, Gabriel Heatter "Ah, there's good news tonight!"  Today  you only get tired diatribe from political hacks shilling for their political party—one long commercial—one long propaganda broadcast.  There are some holdouts to quality.  Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion would be classy in any generation.  National Public Radio survives, informs, entertains and serves.  Many University campuses feature radio stations of quality, variety and service (many relying on NPR.)  Paul Harvey is a throwback to the great ones of the past.  Jim Hightower is refreshing as is Jim Bohannon.  A few radio stations still maintain balanced and fair standards.  KGO in San Fransisco leads. 

While most kids in the 50's were into TV I stuck with the radio—NBC's Monitor on weekends followed by radio serials.  During the week there was "Moon River" and  Vespers From Mt. St. Mary's Seminary.  Local guys on the radio—"Rolling Along" with Big Bill Albert and Jazz with Miles Foland.  Stan Matlack and his "Magazine of the Air."  The "Good Guys" at old WSAI in Cincinnati bring rock.  WCPO brought its Summer Folk Festival in the 60's!  WPFB had the  new wave of rock in the late 50's!  Sure I watched TV—The Alaskans, Gunsmoke, Cheyenne—that kind of stuff.  Davy Crockett was King Of The Wild Frontier.  All of us had crushes on Annette Funicello.  Kids growing up in California were living on a different  planet from us.

American radio is in a deplorable state today.  I find it almost unlistenable.  Huge corporations have gobbled up many stations. Programming and news lack local flavor.  It's all a cookie cutter format and dull as possible.  All of the news and talk shows have the same tired political slant.  Almost no new talent is being developed.  Modern radio "personalities" go out of their way to copy the examples of the big boys in talk radio.  There is a sameness and dullness that is sad across the dial.  "Canned" programs are heard in numerous markets at the same time.  Where once you could turn on the radio at 2 A.M. and get emergency weather info  from a local voice, today you can find nothing even vaguely local.  True, Coast To Coast with George Nory and Art Bell operate in the best tradition of Boston's Larry Glick on WBZ but they are on numerous smaller stations and cancel out local talent from being developed.  The Oldies Rock format has kept some of the legends before the mike but that too is fading as they age and retire.  Local news reporting is a vague shadow of its former self.

Canadian radio is still holding out for the old higher standards. Q107 in Calgary, Alberta has an intriguing mix of quality personalities, strong local news and a formidable classic rock play list.  Light 92 FM in Regina, Saskatchewan is also good.  CHQT in Edmonton, Alberta (880 AM) is an excellent Oldies format and has good personalities and news. CFRB in Toronto and CHML in Hamilton, Ontario are excellent talk stations.

In the US there are still a few bright spots.  KGO in San Francisco is mentioned above.  It's talk radio with balance.  Topics are actually explored.  WGRR in Cincinnati has a good Oldies play list and interesting personalities.  WDBZ in the same city is talk radio with a balanced urban/minority agenda.  Nothing else in that city that once WAS radio in America is listenable—trite boring personalities and unimaginative programs are the model for much of the country.