Monitor host Dave Garroway
NBC Monitor was a weekend radio program broadcast from June 12, 1955 to January 26, 1975. Aired in four-hour blocks beginning Saturday morning at 8am and continuing through the weekend until midnight on Sunday, it offered a magazine-of-the-air mix of news, sports, comedy, variety, live music, celebrity interviews and other short segments. Many consider it to have been the most ambitious and dextrous radio program to have challenged the continuing rise of television as America's major home entertainment.
Regular segments included "Celebrity Chef," "Ring Around the World" and "On the Line with Bob Considine." One memorable Saturday evening feature brought live jazz to NBC in the form of on-the-spot remote broadcasts from New York City jazz clubs. Weather reports were delivered by Tedi Thurman in the role of Miss Monitor.
The show was the brainchild of legendary NBC radio and television network president Sylvester (Pat) Weaver, whose career bridged classic radio and television's infancy and who sought to keep radio alive by advancing it from the single-sponsor/strict-block ethic of old-time radio. Believing that broadcasting could and should educate as well as entertain, Weaver fashioned a series that could and would do both for two decades, with some of the best-remembered and best-regarded names in broadcasting, entertainment, journalism, and literature taking part. It was probably Weaver's last great contribution to NBC; he left the network within a year of Monitor's premiere.
Monitor's executive producers included Jim Fleming, Frank Papp, Al Capstaff and Bob Maurer. The many rotating anchors and hosts included Cindy Adams, Mel Allen, Johnny Andrews, Jim Backus, Red Barber, Frank Blair, Bruce Bradley, David Brinkley, Ted Brown, Ed Bryce, Art Buchwald, Al "Jazzbo" Collins, Brad Crandall, Bill Cullen, James Daly, Dan Daniel, Hugh Downs, Clifton Fadiman, Art Fleming, Jim Fleming, Art Ford, Allen Funt, Frank Gallop, Joe Garagiola, Dave Garroway, Ben Grauer, Peter Hackes, Monty Hall, Bill Hayes, Bob Haymes, Wayne Howell, Don Imus, Murray the K, Walter Kiernan, Durward Kirby, Jim Lowe, Hal March, Frank McGee, Ed McMahon, Garry Moore, Henry Morgan, Robert W. Morgan, Barry Nelson, Bert Parks, Leon Pearson, Tony Randall, Gene Rayburn, Peter Roberts, Don Russell, Ted Steele, John Cameron Swayze, Tony Taylor, John Bartholomew Tucker, David Wayne, Big Wilson and Wolfman Jack.
Various broadcasting personalities heard delivering reports and segments included Jerry Baker (the Master Gardener), Morgan Beatty, Joyce Brothers, Al Capp, Paul Christman, Marlene Dietrich, Len Dillon, Chris Economaki, Arlene Francis, Betty Furness, Curt Gowdy, Skitch Henderson, Chet Huntley, Graham Kerr (the Galloping Gourmet), Joe Kirkwood, Jr., Fran Koltun, Sandy Koufax, Bill Mazer, Lindsey Nelson, Kyle Rote, Gene Shalit, Jean Shepherd, Jim Simpson, Barbara Walters and Ted Webbe.
Many comedy talents appeared through the years, including Woody Allen, Bill Cosby, Selma Diamond, Phyllis Diller, Bob Hope, Ernie Kovacs, Elaine May, Anne Meara, Bob Newhart, Mike Nichols, Jerry Stiller and Jonathan Winters. Bob and Ray, who won a 1957 Peabody Award for their Monitor comedy routines, often remained at NBC during the weekend to step in if technical problems developed with remote segments.
In addition to Bob and Ray, several Monitor regulars in its early years helped the show bridge the classic and modern radio eras. Henry Morgan had been a controversial radio comedian in the 1940s. Clifton Fadiman was the legendary host of Information Please, the highbrow quiz show. Mel Allen and Red Barber were familiar baseball voices (respectively, the New York Yankees and the Brooklyn Dodgers) since the 1940s. Garry Moore had made his bones as Jimmy Durante's radio sidekick. Bert Parks had found fame hosting the radio hits Stop the Music and Break the Bank. Jim and Marian Jordan, better known as old-time radio favorites Fibber McGee and Molly, held down a regular five-minute Monitor segment and were said to be negotiating a new, longterm commitment to the show when Marian Jordan died of cancer in 1961. Peg Lynch and Alan Bunce, vintage radio's Ethel and Albert, also performed five-minute Monitor vignettes from 1963-1965. Peg Lynch made several of the vignettes available on compact disc to old-time radio collectors.
Monitor aired from a mammoth NBC studio called Radio Central on the fifth floor of the RCA Building in midtown Manhattan.
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Contents
- 1 Listen to
- 2 See also
- 3 Reference
- 4 External link
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Listen to
- NPR: Liane Hansen talks with Dennis Hart on the 50th anniversary of Monitor (6/12/05)
- Miss Monitor (Tedi Thurman)
- Monitor: Nichols and May (September, 1964)
See also
- Radio in the United States
Reference
- Hart, Dennis. Monitor (Take 2): The Revised, Expanded Inside Story of Network Radio's Greatest Program. 297 pages. New York: iUniverse, 2003. ISBN 0-595-28177-X
External link
- Dennis Hart's Monitor Beacon
Categories: American radio | American radio personalities | American radio programs | Comedy | Jazz
