Radio Days: Trailblazing Women Journalists on the Airwaves

Dorothy Thompson on the cover of Time Magazine 1939

Starting in the 1920s, trailblazing American female radio broadcasters used their voices to open their fellow citizen’s eyes — or more accurately ears — to news of the wider world.

Historically, women had to fight like crazy to participate in every form of journalism. Though women faced less resistance in the early days of radio, they still had to fight for the right to report hard news.

Early days of radio broadcasting

Radio started crackling its way into American homes in the early 1920s. The airwaves expanded the way news and entertainment reached people. Stations sprang up in cities everywhere, exciting listeners with sounds coming out of a strange little box. Radio came on the scene several years even before the first “talkie” movie (1927), so it truly seemed like magic.

You might think of early radio as an old-fashioned form of podcasting. After all, podcasts are basically radio shows, except they’re distributed on the internet. For people who were lonely and isolated (especially during the Great Depression), radio helped them feel more connected to what was going on in the country and the world.

The industry welcomed women broadcasters because they were good for business. In the 1920s, women spent eighty percent of American income (though they certainly weren’t earning that share), so advertisers loved programs by and for the ladies.

In turn, this opened up other jobs in radio: research, publicity, advertising, talent search, secretarial, and more. A good number of women became executives, too.

Early radio programs were filled with lots of fluff, soap operas, and “women’s topic” programs aimed at housewives. But there was also plenty of serious journalism on the air. It wasn’t all smooth sailing for female journalists, who were sometimes told that their voices didn’t have as much authority as men’s. But a good number of women broke through to bring the important news of their day to the airwaves. Here are three of them.

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Dorothy Thompson

Dorothy Thompson advocates repeal of Neutrality Act, 1939

Dorothy Thompson advocates for repeal of Neutrality Act, 1939
Photo by Harris & Ewing, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Dorothy Thompson (1893 – 1961) used her charm, wit, sense of adventure, and strong work ethic to create an incredibly varied career in journalism. She started out by promoting the suffrage movement.

After women won the right to vote in 1920, she moved to Europe and became one of America’s first foreign correspondents. Based in Berlin, she reported from across the continent and at the same time enjoyed a fabulous social life. Her circle of friends included many writers and artists that we still remember today.   

By the 1930s, Dorothy was one of the most trusted American journalists. She never sugar-coated the truth, and because she warned so loudly against the rise of fascism, she was thrown out of Germany in 1933.

As a news commentator for NBC radio in the 1930s, Dorothy’s show, “On the Record” was heard by millions. When Nazi Germany invaded Poland in 1939, legend has it that Dorothy stayed on the air for fifteen days and nights in a row (it’s not clear what she did about sleep!). The June 12, 1939 issue of Time magazine featured her on the cover, speaking into an NBC radio microphone.

“Peace has to be created in order to be maintained. It will never be achieved by passivity and quietism.” That’s just one of the countless pearls of wisdom on the strands of radio pioneer Dorothy Thompson’s life.

Dorothy Thompson’s life and work inspired a 1942 film, Woman of the Year. Katherine Hepburn plays Tess Harding, a character based on Dorothy. It also became a Broadway musical, with Lauren Bacall as Tess.

Dorothy Thompson was considered the most influential American woman, second only to first lady Eleanor Roosevelt. With all she accomplished, and being immortalized in a movie and a musical, isn’t it amazing that few people today have heard of her?

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Pauline Frederick

Pauline Frederick Reporting

Pauline Frederick (1908 – 1990) was one of the journalists who was told that “a woman’s voice doesn’t carry authority” when she first tried breaking into broadcast news. After doors had been opened to women in radio, after World War II, they started to close. Pauline pried them open, over and over again.           

Pauline couldn’t convince any radio network to hire her. That frustrated her because as a print journalist she’d covered international news, including the Nuremberg trials. Finally, she freelanced for ABC radio, where she was assigned to the kind of women’s topics she dreaded. One of them was “How to Get a Husband.” Pauline regretted it, saying, “I don’t think I learned anything from it, and I don’t think the audience did either.”

Pauline persisted and finally got to report on news stories. She became the first female journalist to broadcast from China in the late 1940s and followed that with reporting from Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.

After she covered the first televised political convention in 1948, ABC hired her to do a weekday news program called Pauline Frederick Reports. That made her the first woman news commentator on TV. She was also the first woman to moderate a televised presidential debate (1976).

Toward the end of her career, Pauline Frederick returned to her passion for radio. Now one of the stars of broadcast news, she no longer had to struggle for the chance to get on the air. She worked on National Public Radio for five years before retiring in 1980.  

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Kathryn Cochran Cravens
 Kathryn Cravens

[Photo: Kathryn Cochran Cravens, 1938. Image available online
and used in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107.]

Kathryn Cochran Cravens (1899 – 1991) started out as an actress in stock theater companies and silent films. Needing more work during the Depression, she found a job in radio. Food, fashion, health, children, and saving money were popular topics, so KMOX in St. Louis hired her to do a broadcast called “Let’s Compare Notes.” It went on air in 1933.

But Kathryn soon grew bored and noticed that there weren’t any women hosting news programs. She convinced the station to let her do a show called “News Through a Woman’s Eyes.” That made her the first-ever female radio news broadcaster. With her acting background, she brought wit and drama to the program. It was such a success that CBS swooped in and lured her to New York City.

By 1936 she had two million listeners and was making a thousand dollars a week — a fortune at the time. And getting more than 3,000 pieces of fan mail every week proved that she was a big hit in the big city!

With every passing year, there was more competition for Kathryn as a female radio news broadcaster. Having blazed the trail, she was no longer a novelty. In 1938, CBS dropped her program. But her experiences sharpened her skills as a journalist, and she became a radio war correspondent during World War II — another first for women.

World War II Female War Journalists

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