15 Minutes with Bing Crosby for radio as for recording, he's a cinch for ether popularity." The nationwide shows continued daily (except Sundays) on a sustaining basis until October 31, 1931 from station WABC in New York. Harry Von Zell was the announcer. Freddie Rich led the orchestra after the first week. Russ Columbo was broadcasting for NBC at 11:30 p.m. each night as competition for Bing with "Variety" noting "Scrap between NBC & CBS over Russ Columbo and Bing Crosby is getting warm." Crosby's popularity soon attracted a sponsor - the American Tobacco Company - and rather than Lucky Strike cigarettes, the company's president,
Bing Crosby Entertains Bing Crosby Entertains A weekly show which ran for two seasons during 1933-1935, it was to cement Bing Crosby’s reputation as a radio star. Bing Crosby Entertains was Crosby’s most important radio series to date and it enabled him to fully develop as a rounded radio personality instead of a singer who did not speak. Bing Crosby’s radio career had taken off with his nightly nation-wide broadcasts from New York in 1931-32 and he moved on to the two nights a week "Music That Satisfies" show which ran for 13 weeks early in 1933. The nightly shows required him to