Make Believe Ballroom

The show was created as filler by announcer Martin Block to fill in time between news bulletins covering the Lindbergh kidnapping trial.

The concept proved successful and led to the launch of Make Believe Ballroom on February 3, 1935, as a 15-minute experimental program, with Block borrowing both the concept and the title from West Coast disc jockey Al Jarvis, who had launched the similarly named The World's Largest Make Believe Ballroom in 1932, with Block as his assistant.

[2] WNEW's program consisted of Block playing records from popular bands and singers with the conceit that they were live performances in an imaginary ballroom.

[9][10] After leaving WNEW, the show was revived in 1996 by Bill Owen on WVNJ[11] and then on WNSW in Newark, New Jersey where it was hosted by Julius La Rosa in the late 1990s.

[12] The show is currently based at WGMC in Rochester, New York, with Jeff Bressler as host, and is heard on public and community radio stations across the United States.