PORTS OF CALL was an obscure series from 1935 and 1936 in which each episode deals with a voyage to a different country where events of that country's history are dramatized. They each begin with the low moan of a tramp steamer's whistle and the announcement of the series title, followed by a musical interlude. First heard simultaneously in the Bay Area and Southern California, the program appears to have debuted in September 1935, running almost continuously throughout California and as far away as Washington, D.C., as late as 1937 during its first runs.
The Los Angeles run premiered over Los Angeles radio station KFWB, a Warner Bros. owned station. Pierce Brothers Funeral Directors picked up the tab for the entire KFWB run of twenty-six programs as weekend or Monday night features. Don Lee-Mutual network station, KFRC, premiered its first broadcasts of Ports of Call in the San Francisco Bay area as a Sunday afternoon feature.
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