Editing Metropolitan Opera (section)

===Broadcast radio===

{{main|Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts}}

Outside of New York the Met has been known to audiences in large measure through its many years of [[Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts|live radio broadcasts]]. The Met's broadcast history goes back to January 1910 when radio pioneer [[Lee de Forest]] broadcast experimentally, with erratic signal, two live performances from the stage of the Met that were reportedly heard as far away as Newark, New Jersey. Today the annual Met broadcast season typically begins the first week of December and offers twenty live Saturday matinée performances through May.

The first network broadcast was heard on December 25, 1931, a performance of [[Engelbert Humperdinck (composer)|Engelbert Humperdinck]]'s
''[[Hänsel und Gretel (opera)|Hänsel und Gretel]]''. The series came about as the Met, financially endangered in the early years of the Great Depression, sought to enlarge its audience and support through national exposure on network radio. Initially, those broadcasts featured only parts of operas, being limited to selected acts. Regular broadcasts of complete operas began March 11, 1933, with the transmission of ''[[Tristan und Isolde]]'' with Frida Leider and [[Lauritz Melchior]].

The live broadcasts were originally heard on [[NBC]] Radio's [[Blue Network]] and continued on the Blue Network's successor, [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]], into the 1960s. As network radio waned, the Met founded its own Metropolitan Opera Radio Network which is now heard on radio stations around the world. In Canada the live broadcasts have been heard since December 1933 first on the [[Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission]]<ref>[http://www.phonotheque.org/radio/reperes-eng.html Phonothèque québécoise] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080513142522/http://www.phonotheque.org/radio/reperes-eng.html |date=May 13, 2008 }}, accessed January 21, 2008.</ref> and, since 1934, on its successor, the [[Canadian Broadcasting Corporation]] where they are currently heard on [[CBC Music]].

Technical quality of the broadcasts steadily improved over the years. FM broadcasts were added in the 1950s, transmitted to stations via telephone lines. Starting with the 1973–74 season, all broadcasts were offered in [[FM broadcasting|FM]] stereo. Satellite technology later allowed uniformly excellent broadcast sound to be sent live worldwide.

Sponsorship of the Met broadcasts during the Depression years of the 1930s was sporadic. Early sponsors included the [[American Tobacco Company]], and the Lambert Pharmaceutical Company, but frequently the broadcasts were presented by NBC itself with no commercial sponsor.<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.operainfo.org/about/ab_broadcast.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030301171151/http://www.operainfo.org/about/ab_broadcast.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=March 1, 2003 |title=Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network Broadcast History |publisher=The Metropolitan Opera Guild}}</ref> Sponsorship of the Saturday afternoon broadcasts by The Texas Company ([[Texaco]]) began on December 7, 1940, with [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart|Mozart]]'s ''[[The Marriage of Figaro|Le nozze di Figaro]]''. Texaco's support continued for 63 years, the longest continuous sponsorship in broadcast history and included the first PBS television broadcasts. After its merger with [[Chevron Corporation|Chevron]], however, the combined company ChevronTexaco ended its sponsorship of the Met's radio network in April 2004. Emergency grants allowed the broadcasts to continue through 2005 when the home building company [[Toll Brothers]] became primary sponsor.

In the seven decades of its Saturday broadcasts, the Met has been introduced by the voices of only four permanent announcers. [[Milton Cross]] served from the inaugural 1931 broadcast until his death in 1975. He was succeeded by [[Peter Allen (US broadcaster)|Peter Allen]], who served for 29 years, through the 2003–04 season. [[Margaret Juntwait]] began her tenure as host the following season. From September 2006 through December 2014, Juntwait also served as host for all of the live and recorded broadcasts on the Met's [[Sirius XM]] satellite radio channel, [[Metropolitan Opera Radio (Sirius XM)|Metropolitan Opera Radio]].<ref name=obit>{{cite web |url=http://metopera.org/metopera/news/features/news-flash/remembering-margaret-juntwait |title=Remembering Margaret Juntwait |access-date=January 17, 2018 |url-status=dead |date=June 3, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150604183936/http://metopera.org/metopera/news/features/news-flash/remembering-margaret-juntwait |archive-date=June 4, 2015 }}</ref> Beginning in January 2015, producer [[Mary Jo Heath]] filled in for Juntwait, who was being treated for cancer and died in June 2015.<ref name=obit /> In September 2015, Heath took over as the new permanent host. Opera singer and director Ira Siff has for several years been the commentator, along with Juntwait or Heath. In September 2021, Debra Lew Harder took over as the Met's broadcast host, the fifth in company history.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Debra Lew Harder Named Metropolitan Opera Radio Host, Only the Fifth in the Company's History |url=https://www.metopera.org/about/press-releases/debra-lew-harder-named-metropolitan-opera-radio-host-only-the-fifth-in-the-companys-history/ |access-date=2025-02-25 |website=www.metopera.org |language=en}}</ref>