It was the start of the second half of the century. With the Allied victory in World War II and the departure of troops from Korea, America was on the move. The Baby Boom was on, suburbs blossomed, incomes for many Americans rose, and the “Sunday Drive” became a staple family activity. Along with medical breakthroughs like the polio vaccine and a landmark Supreme Court ruling on the integration of public schools, many Americans felt a sense of optimism.
Keeping the Network Alive
Graduating magna cum laude from Dartmouth in 1930 with a degree in philosophy, Weaver spent much of the first two decades of his career at advertising agencies including Young and Rubicam, where he developed content for radio and television programming and built that content around a single sponsor.
In 1949, Weaver was hired by the National Broadcasting Company (NBC), a division of Radio Corporation of America (RCA), to head television programming. He was named NBC’s president in 1953, and in that broader role faced the biggest challenge of his career: keeping NBC’s radio network alive.
Public interest in TV had spread like wildfire. Before 1947, only a few thousand households owned a TV set. By 1955, half of all American homes had one. While Weaver helped NBC rake in advertising dollars by creating TV programs like the “Today” show (the first network morning show) and “The Tonight Show” (with Steve Allen), he also witnessed advertising dollars slipping away from NBC’s radio network as Americans remained transfixed by the screen in their living rooms.
Weaver set out to design a one-of-a-kind solution. It was his intent to rebuild radio, hour by hour, with live programming that would entertain, inform, and educate listeners from coast to coast, all while making money.
Something for Everyone
“In the feverish world of broadcasting, the dreams of NBC president Sylvester (Pat) Weaver are generally conceded to be the biggest and the best around,” Newsweek proclaimed.
Weaver developed a heady mix of diverse programming available to not just one, but multiple advertisers in a given time period, and peppered ongoing bites of music, comedy, and interviews across 40 hours each weekend, with the network—not advertisers—responsible for programming. In the book “Live TV,” as quoted in the Los Angeles Times, Weaver said he believed that while “a lot of the public interest will be covered, [the advertisers] still won’t want to do a lot of things that ought to be done,” a reflection of his desire to introduce more audiences to opera, the symphony, and Shakespeare.
Originally starting at 8 a.m. Saturday and continuing until midnight Sunday (some hours were later changed), “Monitor” debuted on June 12, 1955. It was an immediate hit.
Rather than having one host, “Monitor” showcased the voices and personalities of multiple anchors including Gene Rayburn, Hugh Downs, Tony Randall, Garry Moore, Bill Cullen, and David Brinkley. A pleasant assortment of middle-of-the-road vocal and instrumental music—“Goin' Out of My Head,” “April in Paris,” “If It Takes Forever I Will Wait For You”—kept listeners relaxed each hour.
Also in the mix were the likes of comedy duos Mike Nichols and Elaine May; celebrity chef Graham Kerr (“The Galloping Gourmet”); sports with Joe Garagiola; Gene Shalit’s movie reviews; analyses of domestic and global events from Chet Huntley and other correspondents; and advice from noted experts like Joyce Brothers, “the first psychologist of the television era.”
Breaking the Mold
The 20 years of broadcasting magic “Monitor” kicked off that June had a sound that might have startled some listeners into believing that Martians had landed: a mix of audio-manipulated telephone tones and the sound of an “oscillator emitting the Morse code signal for M (“Monitor”), according to the weekend program’s Online Tribute Pages dedicated to ”Network Radio’s Last Great Show.” This otherworldly sound was used for station breaks and transitions, sometimes accompanied by the tagline: “You’re on the ‘Monitor’ Beacon.”
Weaver told listeners that his new program would be a series of “vignettes” available “wherever you are—in your cars, at home, at the beach with your portables, everywhere.” (Portables were also known as transistor radios, first commercially introduced in 1954.)
Next came a jam-packed roster of news, music, and comedy: News headlines from Dave Garroway; a comedy routine by Bob and Ray; jazz by Howard Rumsey and the Lighthouse All-Stars at the Lighthouse Café in Hermosa Beach, California; a visit to San Quentin Prison (“as long as we don’t have to stay,” cracked executive producer Jim Fleming); sports talk at Hurley’s Bar and Grill, a popular pub at the time that was frequented by many broadcasting personalities; and an audio pickup aboard a TWA flight leaving Idlewild Airport for London (ironic, given that a fast-paced musical piece “Night Flight to Madrid” was often used coming out of newscasts).
“Monitor” quickly proved a financial success, with $1.4 million in advance billings from multiple advertisers that kept rising, reaching an annual take of $6 million in 1959. By 1965, 30 million people were listening to “Monitor” on 199 NBC Radio stations.
Many comedic talents—Ernie Kovacs, Bill Cosby, Phyllis Diller, Jonathan Winters and political satirist Art Buchwald, to name a few—kept their listeners chuckling. There were likeable little nuggets, too, like beatniks getting a haircut, a hobo who traveled internationally, and a physician who moved to Tangier Island, Virginia, after hearing a “Monitor” report about the retirement of the only doctor there.
But as the 1960s came to a close, trouble began. Many big-city affiliates removed “Monitor” from their schedules in favor of local disc jockeys, local advertisers, and a local identity, resulting in many “Monitor” sponsors departing. In some smaller markets, other stations cut back the number of hours “Monitor” could be heard, for similar reasons.
By then, Weaver had long since left the network due to disagreements with David Sarnoff, who over the decades served either as president or chairman at RCA. With Weaver gone, network management tweaked the playlist of “Monitor,” programming more recent musical talent like Blood, Sweat & Tears and Chicago while retaining old favorites like Bing Crosby. One segment featured Frank Sinatra Jr. performing live at the Rainbow Grill atop the RCA Building. Several popular disc jockeys, including Murray the K, tried to build back the audience for “Monitor,” but to no avail.
Fifty years ago, on Jan. 26, 1975, “Monitor” said goodbye to its fans, with 125 stations still carrying the program. There were reminiscences all around and numerous audio clips from the past, including a Garroway interview with Marilyn Monroe and a thoughtful conversation between NBC News veteran Frank McGee and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., assassinated seven years earlier and whose hopes remained in many Americans’ hearts.
“Monitor” signed off later that day at 5:58:50 p.m. Eastern time with its telephone tones and oscillator, capped by NBC’s three traditional chimes.
“Monitor” is now history. “Today” and “The Tonight Show” live on.
Weaver, a titan of the broadcasting business, who created all three programs and revolutionized mass media, died in California in 2002 at the age of 93.
