During the time that radio programs were the dominant medium in the United States, some programs advertised "souvenirs" of the various shows, which were sometimes called radio premiums. The first of these were generally cast photographs and the like, but eventually, these evolved into novelties that many children collected.
By the 1930s, premiums ranged from rings through pocket novelties to "decoder pins," also called "decoder badges". Most of these were obtained by sending the sponsor's agency a proof of purchase, such as a boxtop or jar's inner seal, and frequently a small amount of cash, such as a dime. One amusing address was for Chief Lone Wolf who was strangely on the 14th floor of the Wrigley Building in Chicago.
Many of the rings were multifunctional, having a feature beyond just being jewelry. All were "one size fits all". Quite a few had "secret compartments," and others had built-in siren whistles. Some rings were composed in whole or in part of luminous materials. A premium from Jack Armstrong, the All-American Boy program, offered in 1940, was a ring called the Dragon's Eye Ring, with images of crocodiles supporting a greenish "stone" made of Tenite. The molds for the ring were later used for two other premiums, one for Buck Rogers in the Twenty-Fifth Century, issued in 1947. The new ring was called the Buck Rogers Ring of Saturn, and had a red "stone" rather than the green one in the original. About the same time, a third ring, but with a black stone, was issued by Carey Salt for their sponsorship of The Shadow (another sponsor, Blue Coal, offered an entirely different luminous-plastic ring). Some rings had a hidden mirror for a "look behind" feature. Programs that offered such Look-Around rings included Tom Mix Ralston Straight Shooters,Captain Midnight, and The Lone Ranger. Other rings had spinners, photo viewers, ballpoint pens, magnifiers, signal blinkers, flashlights, etc.
Besides rings, there were many pocket items. These included sundial "watches," compass-and-magnifiers, pedometers, truth detectors, and signaling devices. Some premiums required many boxtops. These included cowboy outfits, a set of cooking equipment for camping and special badges such as "Chief Inspector", "General", etc.
During World War II, restrictions were placed on manufacturing materials, notably copper and brass. As a result, virtually all premiums manufactured during the war were made of "noncritical" materials, such as wood, paper (including cardboard and card stock), and cloth. Some items made of luminous material were made into items to help in blackouts. At least one show offered a "Plane Spotter" premium, showing silhouettes of various types of allied and enemy aircraft, like those used by Office of Civilian Defense personnel.
Capt. Midnight Decoder Badge
One subset of radio premiums were cryptological, mostly based on cipher disks. Ovaltine Foods issued these for Little Orphan Annie and Captain Midnight. At least once a week, secret messages were broadcast at the close of an episode, each of which was invariably a preview of the forthcoming episode. These could be deciphered with one of the "decoder" premiums. A spoof on this was depicted in the movie A Christmas Story.
Radio premiums got more multifunctional over the years, and by 1950, some of them had as many as four separate features. The Sky King radio program had several of the most innovative premiums. But by that time, the radio shows were phasing out because of the increasing influence of television.
Further reading
Hake's Price Guide to Character Toys Ted Hake (New York: Avon Books ISBN0-380-80076-4
Tomart's Price Guide to Radio Premium and Cereal Box Collectibles Tom Tumbusch (Dayton, OH: Tomart Publications ISBN0-87069-635-1
Jim Harmon, The Great Radio Heroes (MacFarland, 2001).
Trivia
In September 2006, Bill McMahon offered a presentation entitled "Old Time Radio Premiums" explaining in detail, why premiums were offered and constructed. The presentation was among the events held at the annual Mid atlantic nostalgia convention in Aberdeen, Maryland.
A collectable is any object regarded as being of value or interest to a collector. Collectable items are not necessarily monetarily valuable or uncommon. There are numerous types of collectables and terms to denote those types. An antique is a collectable that is old. A curio is something deemed unique, uncommon, or weird, such as a decorative item. A manufactured collectable is an item made specifically for people to collect.
The Golden Age of Radio, also known as the old-time radio (OTR) era, was an era of radio in the United States where it was the dominant electronic home entertainment medium. It began with the birth of commercial radio broadcasting in the early 1920s and lasted through the 1950s, when television gradually superseded radio as the medium of choice for scripted programming, variety and dramatic shows.
The Lone Ranger is a fictional masked former Texas Ranger who fought outlaws in the American Old West with his Native American friend Tonto. The character has been called an enduring icon of American culture.
A secret decoder ring is a device that allows one to decode a simple substitution cipher—or to encrypt a message by working in the opposite direction.
Ovaltine is a brand of milk flavoring product made with malt extract, sugar, and whey. Some flavors also have cocoa. Ovaltine, a registered trademark of Associated British Foods, is made by Wander AG, a subsidiary of Twinings, which acquired the brand from Novartis in 2002, except in the United States, where Nestlé acquired the rights separately from Novartis in the late 2000s.
Exonumia are numismatic items other than coins and paper money. This includes "Good For" tokens, badges, counterstamped coins, elongated coins, encased coins, souvenir medallions, tags, wooden nickels and other similar items. It is an aspect of numismatics and many coin collectors are also exonumists.
Captain Midnight is a U.S. adventure franchise first broadcast as a radio serial from 1938 to 1949. The character's popularity throughout the 1940s and into the mid-1950s extended to serial films (1942), a television show (1954–1956), a syndicated newspaper strip, and a comic book title (1942–1948).
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A cipher disk is an enciphering and deciphering tool developed in 1470 by the Italian architect and author Leon Battista Alberti. He constructed a device, consisting of two concentric circular plates mounted one on top of the other. The larger plate is called the "stationary" and the smaller one the "moveable" since the smaller one could move on top of the "stationary".
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The Code-O-Graph is a field cipher device and identifier from the Captain Midnight radio serial. In the story line they were used by agents of the Secret Squadron, a paramilitary organization headed by Captain Midnight. In addition to their use as devices in the radio program, they were offered as radio premiums for listeners. As radio premiums, listeners sent in an Ovaltine proof of purchase with their names and addresses.
A boxtop, in the context of being a proof of purchase, is understood to be the upper portion of a product box, detached, and mailed as part of a claim for a radio premium or other advertising offer. During the 1930s through 1960s, cereal boxtops were usually the most common proofs of purchase used to claim such premiums.
Columbia Workshop was a radio series that aired on the Columbia Broadcasting System from 1936 to 1943, returning in 1946–47.
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Sky King was an American radio and television series. Its lead character was Arizona rancher and aircraft pilot Schuyler "Sky" King.
Little Orphan Annie is an American radio drama series based on the popularity of the comic strip Little Orphan Annie. It debuted on Chicago's WGN in 1930, then moved to the NBC radio network Blue Network on April 6, 1931. It aired until April 26, 1942.
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