Festival music director Chuck Redd opens this summer's celebration of the music of The Great Depression with a focus on the importance of the rise of commercial radio broadcasting to the entertainment industry during the period. While records and sheet music continued to play an important role in and movies commanded an increasing share of the popular music and entertainment market during the 1930s, it was the radio which dominated. Increasingly inexpensive to buy and free to use, radio went from being in 1 of 5 households in 1930 to 4 of 5 by 1939 and did more than anything to bring a nation in crisis together through a veritable host of live radio shows. Chuck and company dip into the Golden Age of Radio with a fine sampling.