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End of an era: The daytime radio serial

1961; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 5; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/08838156109385955

2331-415X

George A. Willey,

Radio, Podcasts, and Digital Media

Today we are highly aware of the transitory nature of broadcast programming. One season features comedy, another adventure‐drama. On radio, even the currently pervading popular music recordings were far less common thirty‐five to forty years ago. One of the longest “runs” that any program type ever had was that of the domestic daytime serial, better known as the “soap opera.” Although the radio soap opera is dead, this article is not a eulogy, but a history; the story of the rise and fall of an institution that many thought would last as long as radio itself. Perhaps, considering radio programming today and the current healthy state of the television soap opera, in a sense it did last as long as we thought it might.