Professor Quiz was radio's first true quiz program, broadcast with many different sponsors from 1936 to 1948 on CBS and ABC. The program featured Professor Quiz, his wife Betty and his son, Professor Quiz Jr. The program's announcer was Robert Trout.
It began May 9, 1936, sponsored by George Washington Coffee, on a limited CBS hook-up from Washington, D.C., expanding to the full network on September 18, 1936 from New York. George Washington Coffee also sponsored Uncle Jim's Question Bee, radio's second quiz show which began four months after the debut of Professor Quiz. Arthur Godfrey was a host of the program in 1937. The series moved to ABC on January 24, 1946, continuing until the last program on July 17, 1948.
Winners who correctly answered questions received $25 in silver dollars. The quizmaster, Professor Quiz, was Dr. Craig Earl, a pseudonym for Arthur E. Baird, who claimed to have a degree in theology from Tufts University, and did an early exercise and health program on Boston radio in the early 1920s under that name. Baird eventually reinvented himself as Craig Earl, scholar and world traveller. Radio historian Donna Halper writes: