An advertiser, not a network, invented the serial radio program

Evidence

Ultimately, however, after nine months of wrangling, NBC agreed to take the order, for an enormous sum, over $1 million, and introduce its first sponsored serial program—indeed probably the first network “show” that wasn’t musical or educational. It agreed to sell thirteen weeks at 7 p.m. on its farm team Blue network, which, given Pepsodent’s dire financial straits, was effectively a bet on Pepsodent itself. “Never in the history of radio,” said one commentator, “had there been such an order as that.” — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 306

Categorization

• SEED: A strong angle for the ecosystem: the advertiser-driven origin of the first scripted network show, evidence that commercial pressures, not culture, birthed content forms.
• XREF: Extends the attention-merchants thesis that content formats are invented to capture attention for advertising. — connects to: Early radio advertising worked indirectly through sponsored content — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 292

Broader Connections

• Early radio advertising worked indirectly through sponsored content #corroborates (0.78) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 292