Wheatena was created by George H. Hoyt in the late 19th century, when retailers would typically buy cereal (the most popular being cracked wheat, oatmeal, and cerealine) in barrel lots, and scoop it out to sell by the pound to customers.

[1][2] Hoyt advertised the cereal in newspapers as early as 1879 and sold the business six years later to Dr. Frank Fuller, a physician with an interest in nutrition, who had founded the Health Food Company.

[5][6] "WHEATENA Corporation, Rahway, N. J., started Nov. 3 to stage its "Raising Junior" feature, an NBC-WJZ offering, over an NBC Pacific Coast network consisting of KPO, San Francisco; KGA, Spokane and KJR, Seattle.

- BROADCASTING, 15 November 1931[7]"Peter Dixon,[8] author of Raising Junior, a daily sketch, found his way to the air through the press relations department of the NBC.

[10] "In 1932, “Wheatenaville Sketches” debuted on the NBC[11] and Columbia networks, in which the fictitious Batchelor family ate a daily breakfast as “good, wholesome and nourishing” as the show itself.

[15] Wheatena sponsored 87 episodes of the thrice-weekly Popeye the Sailor radio program on NBC's Red Network, from its Tuesday, Sept.10, 1935, premiere through March 28, 1936.

[16][17][18] After this initial run, the show was broadcast Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 7:15–7:30 p.m. on WABC (now WCBS-AM) from August 31, 1936, to February 26, 1937, for an additional 78 episodes.