Denny and the League wanted to create a program that would replicate the Town Meetings that were held in the early days of the United States.

Denny worried that an uninformed public was bad for democracy;[5] and he believed society had become so polarized that the average person didn't listen to other points of view.

Explaining the rationale behind a radio town meeting, Denny wrote that it was "... a device which is designed to attract [the average American's] attention and stimulate his interest in the complex economic, social and political problems which he must have a hand in solving.

"[7] On paper, America's Town Meeting looked like a typical panel discussion, with high-profile celebrity guests, who were experts on a particular current issue.

For example, on a December 19, 1935, show about Social Security, one of the panelists was U.S. Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins, who explained and defended the new government program.

Educators found it so useful that Denny and NBC put program listings and what the speakers had said into booklet form, which was disseminated to public school civics teachers.

Denny did not shy away from controversy: his panelists included Socialist presidential candidate Norman Thomas, American Communist Party leader Earl Browder, and civil libertarian Morris Ernst.

But there were also guests from the world of literature (author Pearl Buck, poets Carl Sandburg and Langston Hughes) and a number of famous scientists, politicians, journalists, and public intellectuals.

[2] ABC Radio and George V. Denny, Jr. were given a 1945 Peabody Award for Outstanding Educational Program for America's Town Meeting of the Air.

[22] In 2009, the National Recording Preservation Board selected the May 8, 1941, episode of America's Town Meeting of the Air ("Should Our Ships Convoy Materials to England?"