The first broadcast - the opening and dedication of the Cascade Tunnel on January 12, 1929

Two days prior to the first of the Empire Builders weekly broadcasts, the GN went on the air with a special program to celebrate and advertise the opening and dedication of the GN's new 7.79-mile Cascade Tunnel. It took three years to dig out and construct the tunnel. A banquet was held on May 1, 1928, to celebrate the milestone of holing through from both the east and west faces.

Menu for the Holing Thru Banquet to celebrate the tunneling crews meeting from east and west.



Plans to air the Empire Builders series as a corporate advertising campaign had been in the works for many months when the GN teamed up with the young NBC radio network to broadcast the Cascade Tunnel opening on January 12, 1929. With the first of their Monday night broadcasts just two days after, the GN publically referred to the January 12th broadcast as the first of the Empire Builder series. It's a bit of a stretch, but since the GN called it the first broadcast of the series, it is included in the total count of broadcasts - a total of 104, from January 12, 1929, to June 22, 1931.



Graham McNamee at the east portal of the Cascade Tunnel



Veteran radio announcer Graham McNamee was hired to be emcee for the program celebrating the opening of the Cascade Tunnel. McNamee was already a household name by that time, having participated in many high profile radio events up to this point. Sharing the MC duties with McNamee was Phillips Carlin, likewise a well-recognized personality in the radio business.  In fact, the two of them had teamed up to broadcast the past three baseball World Series.


Many dignitaries were brought together to speak or otherwise participate in the broadcast. Heard on the broadcast were Pennsylvania Railroad president W. W. Atterbury, GN president Ralph Budd, and president-elect of the United States, Herbert Hoover.


The broadcast, scheduled to last a full hour, actually dragged on for about 6 extra minutes. This was due to some difficulties encountered by the electric locomotives that were idling just inside the east portal of the tunnel while the broadcast activities were taking place. This caused the train's passage through the tunnel to be delayed.

A brief audio/video clip is provided below (wmv file format) - let me know if it does not appear for you (a possible problem if you're using a Mac).



At the end of the broadcast, co-announcer Phillips Carlin explained that listeners could tune in Empire Builders on Monday nights, beginning with the first of a three-part episode of the life of James J. Hill on Monday, January 14, 1929.


To advertise the start of the Empire Builders series, the GN placed advertisements in newspapers around the country. Here's one example.



Remarkably, though, over the years the GN did very little to advertise this radio program. It helps to understand this, however, when you realize the radio series was itself an advertising campaign. It must have seemed totally illogical to advertise the advertising, but today we could relate to such a strategy if they had. But back in the day, about the only thing the GN did to call attention to the radio series was to post a couple of newspaper advertisements (usually one the day of the Monday broadcast, and later on, an occasional advertisement the day AFTER the broadcast) and some subtle references to it in other GN magazine ads and in their public timetables. Very little time, effort, or money was devoted to increasing attention to the radio series or to increasing its popularity.