WGN

…Sam ’n’ Henry on Chicago’s WGN station in 1926 and quickly became a national phenomenon when it made its network debut under its new name in 1929. Although the characters on the show seem insultingly stereotypical by today’s standards, the show was hugely popular with both white and black radio…

…WOR in New York, and WGN in Chicago to form the Quality Group, an association that was soon rechristened the Mutual Broadcasting System. The network had 19 stations by the end of 1935; by the mid-1940s Mutual had more than 300 stations, more affiliates than either of its rivals. Mutual…

…Orphan Annie, first broadcast over WGN radio in Chicago in 1930. Annie was first a comic strip, created in 1924 by Harold Gray for the Chicago Tribune, which owned WGN. The radio series graduated to NBC-Blue in April 1931. The show’s format set the standard for juvenile adventure serials, running…

…AM radio stations—WXYZ in Detroit, WGN in Chicago, WOR in New York, and WLW in Cincinnati—agreed to form a cooperative, program-sharing radio network. WGN and WOR controlled the operation (first dubbed the Quality Group), and the Mutual Broadcasting System was incorporated in Illinois one month later. When WXYZ (which had…