Radio in the 1940's

By 1940, radio had become a mass medium. Almost 80 percent of the households in the U.S. owned a radio. Yet before the war, only seven percent of the airtime was devoted to news. By the end of the war, 25 percent of the airtime was news, and audiences had been transported to the battlefront in live and recorded reports.The desperate need for news spurred additional radio set sales despite a cutback in production because of wartime rationing.

Songs captured the emotions of the war. Some spoke of the longings that loved ones felt for each other when they were separated by events, and these are the songs that have endured. Other songs of longing included –

• "Shoo-Shoo Baby" where the Andrews Sisters told a young one don't cry because you're papa's off to the seven seas. "Papa's gotta be rough now / so that he can be sweet to you another day."
• "I'm Making Believe" that you're in my arms though I know you're so far away.
• "I'll Be Seeing You" talked about all the familiar places, including "the morning sun / And when the night is new / I'll be looking at the moon / But I'll be seeing you."
• In 1943,"I'll be Home by Christmas" struck a bittersweet note when it finished with "... if only in my dreams." The song was at the top of charts for 11 weeks, and the original Bing Crosby version along with countless others have been popular sellers ever since.

Yet there were other songs that dealt head on with the sense of loss when a relationship came apart.
"Somebody Else is Taking My Place" rose to number 11 on the charts in 1942.

"Somebody else is taking my place
Somebody else now shares your embrace
While I am trying
To keep from crying
You go around with a smile on your face
Little you care for vows that you made
Little you care how much I have paid
My heart is aching
My heart is breaking
For somebody's taking my place."

In "My Heart Tells Me," a jilted lover wonders whether or not to believe it when "you say our love means everything … My heart tells me I will cry again / Lips that kiss like yours could lie again… / Should I believe my heart or you?"