On This Day: The wireless brought everyone together

Long before the television took pride of place, families gathered around the wireless. A radio milestone on November 15 recalls the pleasure of listening together – and picturing the action for ourselves.

Someone would turn the dial, find the station and settle back. The pictures were up to you.

On November 15, 1926, America’s National Broadcasting Company began broadcasting with a gala at New York’s Waldorf Astoria Hotel. A thousand guests attended in evening dress, while 25 stations in 21 cities carried the programme to listeners as far west as Kansas City.

NBC’s launch, 100 years ago today, helped establish the power of network radio: people in distant places could hear the same performance at the same time.

For Australians who grew up with the wireless, that shared experience needs little explanation. The familiar opening music could bring a household to a standstill. A favourite serial’s characters became regular visitors, although nobody had ever seen their faces.

Blue Hills, which ran on ABC radio from 1949 to 1976, was one such companion. Even after television arrived, there was still room for stories told through voices and sound.

Elvis heads to Hollywood

Thirty years after NBC’s launch, another entertainment career took a new turn. On November 15, 1956, Love Me Tender opened at New York’s Paramount Theatre, marking Elvis Presley’s film debut. Originally titled The Reno Brothers, the Western had been conceived without songs. Casting Presley changed that: four musical numbers were added, and his ballad supplied the title. His recording and cinema careers were becoming closely entwined.

Home from space

On November 15, 1966, Jim Lovell and Buzz Aldrin splashed down in the Atlantic, completing Gemini XII. Their almost four-day flight ended NASA’s crewed Gemini missions, which helped prepare astronauts for Apollo. Aldrin had made three excursions outside the spacecraft during the mission. Sixty years later, those experiments belong to the remarkable preparation behind the Moon landings so many readers remember watching.

Born on this day

Petula Clark turns 94. Her hits include Downtown and Don’t Sleep in the Subway.

Sam Waterston turns 86. He is familiar as Jack McCoy in Law & Order.

Ed Asner, who died in 2021, would have turned 97. He played Lou Grant in The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Lou Grant.

Do you remember?

Which radio programme made everyone in your house stop what they were doing and listen?