Frank and Anne Hummert's Radio Factory : The Programs and Personalities of Broadcasting's Most Prolific Producers

Frank and Anne Hummert are credited with bringing at least 125 separate series to the airwaves. The consummate production dynasty over which they presided extended far beyond the serialized melodrama that became their trademark. Their genres also included music, mystery, juvenile adventure, quiz, sports, news, comedy and dramatic theater. The couple possibly influenced more old time radio listeners than anyone else of their time. The Hummerts, it seemed, tried to appeal to everyone's tastes and needs. By the 1940s, the twosome controlled four and a half hours of national weekday broadcast schedules. The characters they invented live on in the memories of people even many years after their deaths. Extensively researched, this is the first published biographical introspective into the fascinating private lives and professional dealings of broadcasting's most prolific creators-producers. Five appendices provide invaluable insight about the golden age of radio including: an alphabetical listing of all broadcast series that were created, adapted, supervised, augmented or influenced by Frank and Anne Hummert; an alphabetical listing of the most prolific producers and their best-remembered titles; a list of the most characteristic statements attributed to Frank or Anne Hummert embodying their philosophy of broadcast programming development and design; a chronology composed of some defining milestones in the Hummerts' personal and professional lives; and three sample programming schedules that give the reader a more inclusive perspective of the Hummerts' involvement in radio producing.