Female Radio Pioneers: Women Who Shaped the Airwaves

My vintage Jewel clock radio is very cool: sleek Bakelite case, gold dials and old-school analog tuning make it a time capsule of the Golden Age of radio. I know a thing or two about the radio industry – my husband went from intern to on-air producer to program director all at the same station over the last 20+ years. 

But beyond the mid-century design, this piece recalls an era when radio still ruled the world and, against all odds, some women carved out spaces behind the mic, in the control room and even in the executive offices.

Let’s take a look at a few female radio pioneers who helped shape the radio industry. Their legacy lives on in every vintage radio still humming with static and history, or sitting quietly on collector’s shelves.

The Women Who Made Radio Their Own

Bertha Brainard (1890–1946): First Woman to Program a National Network

Image source: Wikipedia

Before radio was a serious medium, it was a novelty, something men in laboratories tinkered with while hobbyists built makeshift transmitters. But Bertha Brainard saw more.

She began as a theater critic, but by 1923, she was hosting and producing her own show, Broadcasting Broadway, for WJZ in Newark, NJ (not far from where I was born, actually). She recognized the potential of entertainment radio early, and by 1928, NBC had made her their first female executive. This is pretty significant because it opened the door for other women to hold similar roles.

Brainard was the force behind variety radio shows, even advocating for Rudy Vallée’s show, one of the earliest network programs to feature celebrity performances. She also believed that programming wasn’t just for men; she pushed for content that appealed to female listeners, as well. Her unique vision, that radio could be an entertainment powerhouse, shaped the format we recognize today, even as her name fades into history.

Dorothy Thompson (1893–1961): The Woman Who Took on Hitler Over the Air

Image source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

By the 1930s, radio was how Americans got their news, and Dorothy Thompson was one of the first female voices behind it. After working for the New York State Woman Suffrage Party and helping to secure the right for us ladies to have a voice in our democracy, she became a journalist by trade. In 1921, she “infiltrated” a German castle owned by King Karl I by pretending to be a nurse so that she could report from inside. 

She followed the rise of Nazism closely, and became the first American reporter to be expelled from Nazi Germany. This happened in 1934, after an unflinching interview with Hitler. She called him, and I quote, “a man whose countenance is a caricature, a man whose framework seems cartilaginous, without bones. He is inconsequent and voluble, ill-poised, insecure.” 

This is all pretty bad-ass of you, Dorothy. Those of us reading this may want to take note.

Instead of backing down to the bullying, she took her reporting to the radio. Through the 1930s and 40s, her political analysis could be heard across the country. She became one of the first female news commentators, a job (like so many others) that was almost exclusively held by men at the time.

Time Magazine called her (along with Eleanor Roosevelt) one of the most influential women in America. It’s a shame that she has been mostly forgotten today, and this is my small attempt to keep her legacy alive.

Irna Phillips (1901–1973): Creator of the Soap Opera

Image Source: Jewish Women’s Archive

In a path far less political, but no less impactful on our society, Irna Phillips is the woman who basically invented the format known as the soap opera. In the 1930s, she created the series “Painted Dreams,” the first radio soap opera. 

She began her radio career humbly, working for free over her summer vacations. She later went on to write and/or produce a few more you may have heard of: “Guiding Light,” “One Life to Live,” and “As the World Turns.” If that wasn’t enough, the creators of both “All My Children” and “The Young and the Restless” began their own careers under her tutelage. Not too shabby.

In her personal life, she made bold choices that were unusual for her time. She never married, yet still adopted two children on her own. Her storytelling innovations, like cliffhangers, internal monologues and dramatic music cues, became standard techniques across radio and television.

Ora Nichols (1893–1951): Sound Engineer for Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds

Image Source: Wikipedia

In an era when sound effects were entirely mechanical, not digitally-produced, Ora Nichols was the undisputed master. She ran the first-ever radio sound effects department and was the only woman leading the development of sound effects during the Golden Age of radio, working for CBS and later collaborating with the famous Orson Welles. 

Her partner and sound effects collaborator was her husband, Arthur Nichols. Together, they pioneered innovative ways to create sounds, recognizing that the “thing” that typically made the sound in real life may not be the best source for that same sound on the airwaves.

Nichols’ creativity and expertise in sound effects helped make Welles’ War of the Worlds (1938) so terrifyingly real for listening of the day. The clanking of metal, eerie alien sounds and simulated explosions that fooled listeners into thinking an actual Martian invasion was happening was all Nichols at work.

And she was a woman who demanded respect. Apparently, during an argument, Welles called her a “screwball” in front of her entire crew. She walked out on his ass, right before a live broadcast. She demanded a public apology – from Orson Welles – and got one, after which, she returned to work.

I love this for you, Ora.

What My Radio Taught Me About Women in Broadcasting

Every time a voice crackled through a radio like mine in the 1930s and 40s, there was a real chance that a female executive programmed the show, that a female journalist delivered the story, that a female writer penned the drama or that a female sound engineer brought it to life. For every famous broadcaster’s name you know, there may have been a woman whose contributions are still waiting to be rediscovered.

Looking for more on vintage radios (and the women behind them)? Read my article: Antique Montgomery Ward Radio: The Forgotten Woman Behind Its Design.