ABSTRACT
The 1950s were trying times for radio. Over a period of several decades, it had invented from scratch and refined an economic structure that took full advantage of its capacity to reach a huge, simultaneous mass audience. Now that structure was in grave danger of being undermined by television, which had taken that structure for its own, and, worse, was literally attracting away from radio the main spark which made the structure work: the big-name entertainer.
