unfindable radio history MONITOR launch Dave Garroway ART BUCHWALD Ogden Nash...

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1955 Private Press for NBC Affiliates MONITOR The New NBC Radio Service narrated by Pat Weaver ( Sylvester Weaver) President of NBC & James Fleming Executive Producer of Monitor
Vinyl: VG looks EX plays VG not surprising for a 1955 LP it has steady surface sound but it is never nearly overpowering and I did not find it particularly distracting.  Sleeve: VG- It is a top loader, It had some splits which I invisibly glue repaired.
Side 1: includes examples of programming:  Comedy & Commentary by Ogden Nash, Dave Garroway, George Gobel & Ogden Nash Clem McCarthy calling the end of a Sea Biscuit Horse Race (you'll never guess who won) Critique & outtake of the Movie Blackboard Jungle starring Glen Ford which was highly controversial then A Humorous German Drinking song and a few news features about the Soviet Union etc. Side 2: Is NBC President explaining how Monitor is a solution to Radios dropping ratings due to Television. I found it interesting. Truly an important piece of radio history.
FROM THE MONITOR TRIBUTE PAGE

It became the greatest show in network radio history, the forerunner of talk radio and one of the most-copied formats ever. Its creator, the brilliant NBC President Sylvester L. “Pat” Weaver Jr., described it as a “kaleidoscopic phantasmagoria.” To the rest of us, it was simply, and wonderfully, “Monitor.”

It was born out of desperation and inspiration. When “Monitor” made its splashy NBC Radio debut on Sunday, June 12, 1955, traditional network radio, with its half-hour and hour comedy, drama and variety shows, was in desperate shape. Television was stealing — had stolen — most of radio’s audience, and it was clear that something new and different was needed — fast. Weaver, who already had created “Today” and “Tonight” on his TV network, came up with a format so audacious and grandiose that nothing like it had ever been heard.  

Monitor was an American weekend radio program broadcast live and nationwide on the NBC Radio Network from June 12, 1955, until January 26, 1975. It began originally on Saturday morning at 8am and continued through the weekend until 12 midnight on Sunday. After the first few months, the full weekend broadcast was shortened when the midnight-to-dawn hours were dropped since few NBC stations carried it.

The program offered a magazine-of-the-air mix of news, sports, comedy, variety, music, celebrity interviews and other short segments (along with records, usually of popular middle-of-the-road songs, especially in its later years). Its length and eclectic format were radical departures from the traditional radio programming structure of 30- and 60-minute programs and represented an ambitious attempt to respond to the rise of television as America's major home-entertainment medium.

The show was the brainchild of Sylvester (Pat) Weaver, whose career bridged classic radio and television's infancy and who sought to keep radio alive in a television age. Believing that broadcasting could and should educate as well as entertain, Weaver fashioned a series to do both with some of the best-remembered and best-regarded names in broadcasting, entertainment, journalism, and literature taking part. 

M   reserved for sealed records.

NM Near Mint with no more than a couple of insignificant defects.

EX   Plays just short of NM

VG++ A very strong VG+

VG+ Used but not abused. Will have some audible imperfections but no serious problems.

VG A well used record that still sounds OK but will have some pops &/or surface noise but nowhere near the volume of the music

VG- A very worn record that plays through without repeating or has a skip that loses more than a couple of notes/words.

It will have defects that will be noted.