Don McNeill's Breakfast Club

Some might say that "The Breakfast club" fronted by the inimitable Don McNeill and team was created by accident. The show originally took a different format and was an hour of unsponsored entertainment called "The Pepper Pot".

With a stroke of imagination and no small creative risk, McNeill formulated what is hailed as the first early-morning variety show on radio, one which gained both the series and the host a lasting sponsor and loyal fans who supported McNeill through an amazing 35 year long tenure as host, beating "the Tonight Show's" Johnny Carson's personal record by six years!
The variety format of these The Breakfast Club shows took the form of much unscripted dialogue liberally interspersed with music and short jingles as well as interviews with some of the more interesting and often eccentric members of the audience.
Originally broadcast from the NBC studios in the Merchandise Mart in Chicago the show moved after (an incredible) 4,500 broadcasts to the new ABC Civic Studio in 1948 where it gained such a following that it spawned a TV show affectionately known as "Don McNeill's TV Club" which first aired on September 5, 1950.
The translation of this popular radio format to TV was less successful and the simulcast format of both TV and radio was eventually brought to a close in February 1955. The radio show however continued until 1968 where it enjoyed its final broadcasts under the well deserved name of "The Don McNeill Show."

Happy listening my friends,