A discussion about this blog and the Empire Builders Radio Series



Actor Harvey Hays (aka "the Pioneer, aka "the Old Timer")



Since this is a blog, and not a “web site” (although that may be in my future as well – we’ll see), let’s get started with a discussion of the Empire Builders radio series. 

Where to begin? Somewhere in the general vicinity of the beginning, I suppose. 

Rather than jumping into a complete historical report on the Empire Builders, I’d like to know what brings you to this blog. What are the circumstances that drew you here? What is your interest in Empire Builders? Do you think of yourself primarily as a railroad enthusiast? A fan of Old Time Radio (OTR)? A history junkie? Fascination with radio/Hollywood stars? Following up on some genealogy leads? Something else? 

For me, this topic represents an ongoing area of interest that I expect to continue researching and learning about for some time. While I have developed a very solid factual foundation, there are many unique aspects of this story that I have yet to understand. I am hopeful that this blog will be, among other things, a means for me to get in touch with others who have knowledge of this topic that I can learn about.

Soon – possibly in March, 2014 – I expect to have a 40-page article published about the Empire Builders radio series. This will be part of the quarterly publication of the Great Northern Railway Historical Society (GNRHS). When the publication is assured, I will confirm it on this blog and provide information on how anyone not a member of GNRHS can obtain a copy.

I was drawn to this story for several reasons. I’ve been generally interested in railroads since I was a little kid. By my teens I began to develop an interest in history, nostalgia, and antiques/collectibles. I soon learned even a kid with only his lawn mowing money as a source of income could find and afford to buy some interesting pieces of railroading history. Thus began a hobby of collecting railroad antiques and artifacts that has persisted for nearly forty years. But merely collecting such things is not quite enough. Surrounded by all these pieces of history one becomes intrigued by how they were created and distributed. Beyond the merely utilitarian value of ephemeral objects, how did they impact people’s lives? How did they help create a framework for our cultural foundations? Who were the talented people who created the advertising material?

Although I consider myself a collector, I am careful to avoid being an accumulator (or worse, a hoarder). There is a purpose to my collecting. I have some specific goals in mind when I decide what to pursue. In many cases, I look for topics represented by my collections that inspire me to try to learn more. So in addition to being a collector, I am also an amateur historian. I conduct research as a hobby. No kidding. I really enjoy what I see as a treasure hunt to discover information about obscure topics.

I learned many years ago that the GN had been behind the Empire Builders radio show, but knew very little about it. Prior to the explosion of information-sharing available to us via the internet, there was very little information about the Empire Builders available in any one place. Almost nothing has ever been written about this radio series, and even now, much of what you can find on the internet or in books is woefully incomplete and in some cases, rife with inaccuracies.

One thing I hope to accomplish is set the record straight on a few issues that are not presently described accurately through other sources. I have compiled a complete program log of all 104 broadcast episodes. In many cases, I have confirmed the correct title of the program, as designated by the Great Northern Railway, original story author, or both. There are currently 9 or 10 broadcasts circulating on the internet that apparently originated from sound check discs made at the time of the live broadcasts. It seems that whoever first began wide dissemination of those recordings came up with their own titles for those episodes. Some are accurate, perhaps gained by consulting newspaper previews of the day, but many are clearly made up by whoever put the recordings out there for broad consumption. I will provide the correct titles where available to try to return some accuracy to those few existing samples of the series.

With regard to Empire Builders, it strikes me that there are multiple overlapping themes here that may provide a varied audience for the information I’m learning about. Among these themes are:

• Early commercial radio history in the United States
• Early efforts to make radio broadcasting pay (how do you make money in broadcasting?)
• Ground-breaking innovations in early radio
• Telling a story solely through sound
• Effectively interweaving music throughout a radio broadcast
• Developing effective sound effects to convey atmosphere and carry a story along
• The aggressive use of radio broadcasting to advertise a transportation company – specifically a railroad
• How a business assesses the effectiveness of their advertising investment, especially when the thing they are selling is a service
• How to measure the value to a business of goodwill advertising
• The impact of early radio series on pop culture in America
• The development of theatrical or dramatic talent adapted to radio
• The development of dramatic script writing for radio
• The way railroad companies learned to utilize the marvels of radio for a range of purposes:
• Operational use, such as allowing dispatchers to communicate with train crews, and freight conductors riding in a caboose to communicate with the locomotive crew
• Providing on-train entertainment for passengers (and how to do this in a way that would allow people to either elect to listen to broadcasts or choose not to)
• Using commercial radio to convey messages representing the interests of the company, and to engage in advertising meant to stimulate “brand loyalty” and increased business (for both freight and passenger traffic, as well as for facilities such as the hotels and concessions of Glacier National Park – served exclusively via rail by the Great Northern Railway)

I plan to use this blog to share some of what I’ve learned about the topics above, and hopefully to engage my blog visitors in discussing the unique aspects of this innovative radio series. I also hope to connect with people who are descendants of those who helped bring Empire Builders to the airwaves.