And now, a word from our sponsor…

8/28 is Radio Commercial Day, marking the anniversary of what is widely credited as the first paid radio commercial.
On August 28, 1922, New York station WEAF aired an advertisement for the Queensboro Corporation.
And what were they selling?
Soap? Cereal? A shiny new automobile?
Nope. Real estate.
The company paid for airtime to promote apartments in Jackson Heights, New York—and unlike today’s quick commercial breaks, the pitch reportedly lasted around 10 minutes!
It didn’t take long for radio advertising to become much more entertaining. Companies sponsored entire programs, catchy jingles were written to make products impossible to forget, and brand names became closely tied to the shows listeners loved.
Soap companies were especially big sponsors of the serialized daytime dramas popular with homemakers. Their products became so closely associated with those emotional, ongoing stories that people eventually started calling the programs “soap operas.”
More than a century later, the commercials may be shorter, but advertisers are still trying to do exactly what they were doing back then: Make sure you remember their name.
This Fun Fact Friday has been brought to you by the Antique Mall at Cashmere—where you can find an old radio that once delivered a few of those commercials itself.
Want to hear how commercials sounded decades ago? Give the link a listen and tell us which one made you laugh, surprised you, or stuck in your head the most?