Radio: Transcriptions in the Twilight

"Come on out to Tessie's, on Route 7, and hear that Bing Crosby record on the jukebox."

Not many years ago, ad-hungry radio stations in U.S. small towns occasionally shut their eyes and accepted such commercials as this (a veiled ad for a local bawdy house). Today, an outfit called the Keystone Broadcasting System has brought the "coffee pots" and "light bulbs" such a haul of national advertising that they can turn down ads for Tessie's.

KBS was organized in 1940 by Adman Michael M. Sillerman, who found that "one-third of the nation, 32 million people who live in communities of 50,000 and...

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