Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Back to the 1940s

Advertisers got hip and realized that everybody was changing the channel when the commercials came on.

The trip is how 1940s Radio Hour turned back the clocks, focusing on sponsored content and live reads.
The trip is how 1940s Radio Hour turned back the clocks, focusing on sponsored content and live reads.
Video:

Dunkin Donuts SNL

Meet Donny (Casey Affleck), a real Dunkin Donuts customer.

Meet Donny (Casey Affleck), a real Dunkin Donuts customer.

Not a lot of people know this, but I wasn’t actually around in the 1940s. It’s true! I was still waiting for my parents to get born so that I could get born; but I’ve heard good things. I would have guessed I’d glean some historical fact or three from New Village Arts’ production of 1979’s 1940s Radio Hour (just in time for the end of 2016), but my big takeaway from the show was a little more indirect. In the name of verisimilitude, the play incorporates a series of “advertisements” for the the variety show’s “sponsors,” and what should have seemed like an anachronistic practice felt all too familiar to me, which got me thinking.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Has anyone else noticed the uptick in live-read advertising on the radio these past few years? It’s like every DJ on the air wants me to try Ovation Cell Therapy, buy a mattress, or some freaky combination of the two.

How about the way Saturday Night Live is ditching conventional ads in favor of sponsored content? The SNL season finale this year incorporated a two-minute Dunkin Donuts commercial, featuring the cast and Casey Affleck, and more than a million people have already sought it out on YouTube. In a way, that’s totally crazy, because this is an ad we’re talking about; but it also makes sense, since the sketch is hilarious. It’s as if selling coffee is an incidental bonus to comedy.

The 1940s Radio Hour at New Village

It’s no surprise that advertisers got hip and realized that everybody was changing the channel when the commercials came on. The trip is how they turned back the clocks to the 1940s, focusing on sponsored content and live reads. For decades, advertisers have been struggling to break away from the in-your-face techniques of early radio, but all of a sudden history is repeating itself in this really weird and unexpected way. I guarantee somebody will write a 400-page doctoral dissertation on the subject in the next couple of years. For now, the 1940s Radio Hour plays through December 31.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

OSHA rules wall falls our fault

Who, U.S.?
Next Article

Flowering pear trees in Kensington not that nice

Empty dirt plots in front of Ken Cinema
The trip is how 1940s Radio Hour turned back the clocks, focusing on sponsored content and live reads.
The trip is how 1940s Radio Hour turned back the clocks, focusing on sponsored content and live reads.
Video:

Dunkin Donuts SNL

Meet Donny (Casey Affleck), a real Dunkin Donuts customer.

Meet Donny (Casey Affleck), a real Dunkin Donuts customer.

Not a lot of people know this, but I wasn’t actually around in the 1940s. It’s true! I was still waiting for my parents to get born so that I could get born; but I’ve heard good things. I would have guessed I’d glean some historical fact or three from New Village Arts’ production of 1979’s 1940s Radio Hour (just in time for the end of 2016), but my big takeaway from the show was a little more indirect. In the name of verisimilitude, the play incorporates a series of “advertisements” for the the variety show’s “sponsors,” and what should have seemed like an anachronistic practice felt all too familiar to me, which got me thinking.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Has anyone else noticed the uptick in live-read advertising on the radio these past few years? It’s like every DJ on the air wants me to try Ovation Cell Therapy, buy a mattress, or some freaky combination of the two.

How about the way Saturday Night Live is ditching conventional ads in favor of sponsored content? The SNL season finale this year incorporated a two-minute Dunkin Donuts commercial, featuring the cast and Casey Affleck, and more than a million people have already sought it out on YouTube. In a way, that’s totally crazy, because this is an ad we’re talking about; but it also makes sense, since the sketch is hilarious. It’s as if selling coffee is an incidental bonus to comedy.

The 1940s Radio Hour at New Village

It’s no surprise that advertisers got hip and realized that everybody was changing the channel when the commercials came on. The trip is how they turned back the clocks to the 1940s, focusing on sponsored content and live reads. For decades, advertisers have been struggling to break away from the in-your-face techniques of early radio, but all of a sudden history is repeating itself in this really weird and unexpected way. I guarantee somebody will write a 400-page doctoral dissertation on the subject in the next couple of years. For now, the 1940s Radio Hour plays through December 31.

Comments
Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Angry Pete’s goes from pop-up to drive-thru

Detroit Pizza sidles into the husk of a shuttered Taco Bell
Next Article

Making Love to Goats, Rachmaninoff, and Elgar

Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.