Sports Broadcasting

The first live broadcast of a baseball game took place in 1921. During the 1930s the availability of live sports on the radio provided a good reason for the purchase of the family radio. Major sporting occasions were chances for a party with everyone getting together to listen to the broadcast. These special broadcasts, like the Fireside Chats, could involve a entire family ritual of sitting by the radio with friends, family and neighbors. Boxing was particularly popular to be listened to over the radio because it could be easily understood. In the early 1930s when there were less radio around than later in the decade, a crowd could gather around the grocery, or other, stores which had a radio so that they could listen to the sports, in particular the Baseball World Series.

This was the first time that large numbers of distant people could all listen to the same games at the same time. The ability for the whole country to listen to the same sports on the radio was a great unifying factor in the United States. Being able to experience something the same as someone hundreds, even thousands, of miles away allowed people who previously may not have played or understood these games to take a small, if significant, part in the activities.

The regular sports programs can be seem in the table this shows that there was one regular boxing program plus a couple of commentary type programs. When there was something special on there would have been a special show, but these are just the ones which were on regularly.