radio serials

Radio serials were episodic dramatic programs broadcast in installments, typically daily or weekly, from the 1920s through the 1960s.

Each episode ended with unresolved tension to bring listeners back.

Daytime serials targeting homemakers became known as soap operas for their detergent sponsors.

Evening serials offered adventure, mystery, and science fiction: The Shadow, The Lone Ranger.

Television largely displaced them by the 1960s.