Minnesota Orchestra: Radio Broadcasts

The First Broadcast: March 1923

In March 1923, the illustrious Bruno Walter was on the podium when the Minnesota Orchestra went on the air for the first time. It was the first radio experience not only for the Orchestra, but for Walter as well. An enthusiastic Walter exclaimed: "Imagine playing to an audience all across the continent, with thousands listening!"

Thousands were indeed listening, and more than 500 letters arrived in response to an offer of a $25 prize for the one from the most distant point reached by each broadcast. A lumberjack in northern Wisconsin reported that an older man at camp, who had never heard symphonic music before, became so excited by the concert that he danced a jig and swallowed his tobacco. Two boys in Denver, who had built their own receiving set, stayed up late to hear the entire concert and wrote, "We didn't know there was such music." And a disabled war veteran in London, Ontario described the broadcast as "a godsend."

The Minnesota Orchestra continued broadcasting concerts intermittently on a variety of stations for the next 50 years, until it initiated a regular weekly series on Minnesota Public Radio in 1971.