East Goes West from Movietown Radio Theater aired in 1947 starring Jimmy Wakely. Jimmy was born in Arkansas but was raised in Oklahoma during the Depression and the tragic Dust Bowl era. He became interested in music and ultimately developed an act named the "Bell Boys", which was named after the sponsor, and they performed locally and made a few recordings. The story goes that Gene Autry was touring, and had stops in Oklahoma. Somehow, Wakely and group connected with the Republic Pictures star, and Autry invited them to California to work on his Melody Ranch radio program. Monogram, and their production boss, Scott R. Dunlap, wanted to field a singing cowboy because of the popularity of Gene Autry and Roy Rogers. In 1944, Wakely signed a Monogram contract and over the next five years, he would star in 28 sagebrush yarns.Calfkiller Old Time Radio
Old-Time Radio (OTR) and the Golden Age of Radio refer to a period of radio programming in the United States lasting from the beginning of radio broadcasting in the early 1920s until television's replacement of radio as the dominant home entertainment medium in the 1950s. During this period, when radio was dominant and the airwaves were filled with a variety of radio formats and genres, people regularly tuned in to their favorite radio programs. In fact, according to a 1947 C. E. Hooper survey, 82 out of 100 Americans were found to be radio listeners. The end of this period coincided with music radio becoming the dominant radio form and is often marked in the United States by the final CBS broadcasts of Suspense and Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar on September 30, 1962. (wikipedia}
