I actually can’t say definitively that these Hooper rankings are for October of 1948 because the article they’re included in doesn’t specify. The New York Times published a list of the Top Ten programs in New York City on October 29th, 1948, noting that six were on NBC and two each on CBS and DuMont [1]. Topping the list was NBC’s Texaco Star Theatre, later known as The Milton Berle Show. It was broadcast in New York City over station WNBT.
Here’s the list:
1. Texaco Star Theatre (The Milton Berle Show) (WNBT)
2. Toast of the Town (WCBS)
3. We, the People (WCBS)
4. Amateur Hour (WABD)
5. The Bigelow Show (WNBT)
6. Small Fry Club (WABD)
7. Kraft Television Theatre (WNBT)
8. The Chevrolet Tele-Theatre (Chevrolet on Broadway) (WNBT)
9. The Gulf Road Show (The Bob Smith Show) (WNBT)
10. Stop Me, If You’ve Heard This One (WNBT)
The following day, The New York Times published another article pointing out that the above list only included commercial programs, not those broadcast on a sustaining basis [2]. Here’s the Top Ten with sustaining programs mixed in:
1. Texaco Star Theatre (The Milton Berle Show) (WNBT)
2. Toast of the Town (WCBS)
3. We, the People (WCBS)
4. Amateur Hour (WABD)
5. Winner Take All (WCBS)
6. The Bigelow Show (WNBT)
7. The CBS Film Theatre (WCBS)
8. Small Fry Club (WABD)
9. Howdy Doody (WNBT)
10. Alexander Korda Films (WPIX)
The article noted that on radio sustaining programs rarely manage to compete with commercial programs.
Works Cited:
