When did drama become a mainstay of network radio programming?
In the late 20s or early 1930s. The first dramatic radio series, an anthology program, was introduced on WGY, a General Electric station in Schenectady, New York in September 1922. An actor by the name of Edward H. Smith is credited with first suggesting the idea of real radio drama. He was associated with “The Masque,” a theatre group in Troy, NY, and in the summer of 1922, approached WGY Program Director Kolin Hager with the idea of doing radio adaptations of some popular plays. Hager liked the idea, and agreed — on the provision that none of the plays run more than forty minutes. He was concerned that the attention span of the audience might not be up to the challenge of a longer production, so new was the idea. Smith immediately went to work on an adaptation of a play by Eugene Walter, entitled The Wolf (1908). This three act drama was cut down to exactly forty minutes by focusing on the action of the second act, adding just enough of the material from the first and third acts to
