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While there is evidence of efforts at call-in Talk Shows on radio as early as 1929 (I'm finishing up a book about the history of talk shows), the first radio talk show was probably "America's Town Meeting of the Air," which was first heard in 1935. Technology didn't make it easy for people to call in, but there was a live studio audience that participated actively-- they would boo or cheer or heckle the guests (who were experts on whatever the current events issue of the week might be) , they asked tough questions, etc.

In the late 40s, as call-in talk shows became easier to do, Jack Eigen and Barry Gray were among the early practitioners of this type of radio show. Some sources say they were doing call-in talk as early as 1946, but there is no independent way to verify those claims. I have seen several newspaper articles that say such shows were being tried in late 1946, but I don't know if they were being done on a regular basis or just an occasional experiment. One late night host mentioned as a talk host on radio was Steve Allen, out in Los Angeles on KNX circa 1947. And by 1948-49, there absolutely were regular call-in talk shows in many cities-- New York, Miami and even smaller markets-- some sources say Joe Pyne was doing an early experimental version of a talk show in 1949.

Ah, but this question is about television. Well, many of the most popular radio hosts in each city simply migrated over to TV as soon as they could. Some, like Steve Allen, became as successful on early television as he had been on radio-- Allen did a talk and variety show on New York's WCBS-TV in 1951, and then went on to be the first host of The Tonight Show. Arthur Godfrey also had success on both radio and TV-- he was among the first of the radio stars to move over to TV, making the transition in 1949 and becoming a huge star almost immediately. Like Allen, Godfrey knew how to make good use of his studio audience and he interacted well with them as well as with his guests.

But some shows were not able to make the switch because they were better suited to radio-- a good example of this was women's show host Mary Margaret McBride. She was a legend on radio, but when she tried to do some TV, she was (by her own admission) awkward and uncomfortable.

Bottom line-- since there was no videotape in common use and most of the kinescopes of early TV have not survived, we have to rely on the biographies of the performers and the reports of the press about the pioneering TV talk shows and what year they first appeared on TV. I can't really say that one person was first -- as with radio, many hosts in various cities were experimenting with TV from about 1948 on, and chances are, they weren't aware of who their competition in other cities was. But once the TV networks began giving people like Arthur Godfrey and Steve Allen national exposure, the talk show genre took off on television and national stars were born, which is exactly what had happened on radio.

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Clare Bestall started the first phone-in (phone call heard over the air) radio program in 1952 in St. Thomas, Ontario, Canada. It's a fascinating story about liberating women to speak their minds at a time when most were stuck at home. In an address to the Canadian Association of Broadcasters in 1954 she promoted the concept only to hear the pros tell her, "People in a small town like St. Thomas might be interested in what their neighbours think, but no one in a big city would."

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13y ago
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11y ago

Joe Franklin is credited with hosting the first television talk show. The show began in 1951 on WJZ-TV (later WABC-TV) and moved to WOR-TV (later WWOR-TV) from 1962 to 1993.

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