Betty Roberts « Victor Comstock « Scott Sherwood « Mackie Bloom « Hilary Booth « Jeff Singer « Eugenia Bremer « Mr. Foley « Celia Mellon « Gertrude Reece « Tom Eldridge « Maple LaMarsh « C.J. McHugh « Enid Fairleigh « Gus Kahana « Rollie Pruitt « Lester « Gloria Redmond « Agatha Sherwood Finch «

          Note: Descriptions of characters
contain series spoilers.

Although  BETTY ROBERTS  is from Elkhart, Indiana, don't make the mistake of thinking of her as your stereotypical naïve country girl. She's college-educated, ambitious, and clever. Betty's the type of person you'd want as a best friend: she can keep secrets, and usually manages to keep her temper even when faced with overwhelming odds—or overwhelming idiocy. She's responsible for creating the majority of the scripts for the series appearing on WENN and has been called on to sub for missing actors. She also has a delightful singing voice which has been featured on the station several times. Her admiration for WENN's managing director, Victor Comstock, had grown into something more intimate before his departure; his apparent death left her in grief for many weeks. She was [seemingly] the only person entrusted with his secret activities as Jonathan Arnold before he returned to WENN. She was gradually coming to admire new station manager Scott Sherwood when she learned a disturbing secret about him.

VICTOR COMSTOCK  is the managing director of WENN when Betty joins the crew. He was once romantically involved with Broadway actress and singer Grace Cavendish and used to live in New York, but left more prestigious employment to work in Pittsburgh where he could enjoy more artistic freedom. Besides coping with the day-to-day problems of running the station—like how to pay the electric bill or the rent—Victor frequently contributed his own creations, including the "Looneyville" sketch or a modern-day adaptation of Shakespeare's Hamlet, to programming. In early 1940, at the request of the government, he traveled to London to present a series of broadcasts about the war in Europe, and was presumed killed in a Nazi air attack—only to reappear after hours at WENN to assure Betty of his survival before returning to undercover work in Berlin, posing as Jonathan Arnold, expatriot American broadcasting propaganda for the Nazis. However, the Nazis learned of his deception, brainwashed him, and sent him back to WENN; his programming was foiled by quick thinking by Betty.

Victor supposedly asked  SCOTT SHERWOOD  to replace him at WENN. Scott's creativity leans more toward money-making schemes and verbal fencing; he's brash, fast-talking, and not above doing something a little shady—but not totally illegal—to get the station back "in the black." His past is littered with various types of employment—and close shaves. He's at WENN only a few days, however, when he learns that the performers—and Betty—are not about to take his schemes lying down, and they're clever enough to beat him at his own games. The longer he stays at WENN, Scott undergoes subtle changes as he slowly becomes friends with the station personnel—and develops an interest in Betty; an interest it looked as if she was returning until Victor told her he had never heard of a Scott Sherwood. After his dismissal as station manager, Scott confessed to Betty that he forged Victor's signature on his referral letter for an opportunity to work at WENN. He then returned to the station to work as an actor when Jeff Singer left to work as a broadcaster in London.

MACKIE BLOOM  (McKinley Cornelius Bloom) is WENN's most versatile performer. As "The Man of a Thousand Voices," he can slide effortlessly from debonair lover to loving uncle to Conan Doyle's Dr. Watson to Hamlet's King Claudius. In reality he's a gentle, amusing man in his fifties who likes George Gershwin and Benny Goodman, enjoys an occasional beer, believes in the odd superstition or two, and secretly longs to be someone a little special, not knowing that he already is. His bachelorhood is tinged with past romance and discerning ladies still appreciate his friendship.

WENN's leading lady is  HILARY BOOTH; charming and talented, Hilary is also self-centered and egotistical, the very image of the stereotypical diva. Hiding behind that facade is a woman who can be tender and even charitable when she allows that side of her to be seen. Never quite a hit on Broadway—except in the oft-mentioned The Rivals—Hilary makes the most of her position at the station. While she is openly jealous of any woman's attention to her several-years-younger husband Jeff and most of her off-air time seems to be spent arguing with him, it's been revealed that underneath she cares about him deeply; she is therefore shattered when Pavla Nemkova, a Czechoslovakian actress who was working at the BBC with Jeff, appears bearing evidence of her legal marriage to him. She eventually learns that the marriage was part of a blackmail attempt—but is not about to forgive him that easily.

JEFFREY SINGER  is WENN's romantic leading man (to Mackie's great chagrin) and husband to Hilary Booth. Unfortunately Jeff also has an eye for the ladies, especially young blond ones, which constantly puts him at odds with Hilary. As with Hilary, his affection for his spouse is usually much suppressed. He has strong feelings, however, for the acting profession, especially radio acting, which gives him a chance to portray many different roles and try many different styles, rather than being tied to the constraints of the camera lens. Almost killed by a German bomb the first time he joined Victor in a BBC broadcast from London, Jeff returned to England to continue broadcasting—and there not only learned of Victor's survival, but was blackmailed by Pavla into marrying her lest she revealed Victor's identity to the Nazis.

EUGENIA BREMER,  WENN's organist, is a cheerful woman with a consistently bright outlook on life. If a musical arrangement exists that can be played on an organ, Eugenia probably knows it, and she has an attractive singing voice as well; she has sung opera on at least one network radio broadcast. She's less talented at acting, but when occasionally tossed into the performing ring she gives it her best. Eugenia was absent from "the gang" for several months while hosting the all-night program Agitato Alert, but is now back on days thanks to the cancellation of the series. As the series progresses, she forms a relationship with WENN's sound effects wizard, Mr. Foley

The WENN sound effects are handled by  MR. FOLEY. Although Mackie, Jeff, and Scott have portrayed many mystery characters, Mr. Foley is the real mystery man of WENN: we don't know his first name or even much about his private life, save that he has an obnoxious and noisy older brother appropriately named Blair and parents who live in Philadelphia. In most things Mr. Foley prefers to let actions speak louder than words. His sound effects are almost always effective and often inventive. While he's flirted with both Betty and Maple, Mr. Foley has only recently discovered the love of his life, Eugenia.

WENN proved a good training ground for ambitious young actress  CELIA MELLON. Actually Celia Padrusky, she once worked as a maid for the millionaire Mellon family (as in Carnegie-Mellon), but began her acting career at WENN playing everything from sidekicks to sirens—and fending off the friendly advances of Jeff Singer. Celia has a good heart, but many times it's masked under spots of scatterbrain fits or youthful enthusiasm. She's not above using her feminine charms to get parts, and when we last see her, she has finally earned a role in a Hollywood film, Amorous Airwaves, and is assumed to be sleeping...ahem, climbing...her way up the studio ladder.

GERTRUDE REECE  is WENN's long-suffering receptionist/secretary. Gertie's release from what she sees as endless days at the switchboard (with occasional "breaks" to answer "Miss Booth's" fan mail) are her sharp remarks, which usually take any perpetrators down a peg. She has a soft spot in her heart for Tom Eldridge and a running feud with Hilary, who tends to treat her as an unpaid servant, and for whom she reserves her sharpest barbs.

At first glance elderly TOM ELDRIDGE  comes off as a pleasant but doddering man with a hearing—or maybe concentration—problem, but staffers at WENN know there's more to Mr. Eldridge than meets the eye. As a former doorman at several large Broadway theatres, Mr. Eldridge has seen all aspects of backstage life and the chaos at WENN fails to faze him. He's much more perceptive about events going on at the station than he lets on and several times his quiet understanding has helped someone over a large problem. A lottery windfall eventually leads him to purchase a controlling interest in the struggling station, but no one knows it but his great-nephew Harry.

Brassy but good-natured Brooklyn native  MAPLE LAMARSH , an old friend of Scott, originally came to WENN as an organist while Eugenia did an all-night series. Formerly employed by the Crimson Follies, a burlesque theatre, and no stranger to the more risque side of life, Maple is a virtuoso of the organ and not a bad actress to boot; in fact, now that Eugenia is back on the organ full time, Maple has joined WENN's troup of actors. She may not be highly educated, but she's friendly and outgoing as well as street-smart, and in the end, a good friend.

The technical aspects of the station are the domain of  C.J. MCHUGH,  the station engineer, who generally does his job and keeps his mouth shut—but sometimes he can't resist offering the occasional smart remark or knowing grin when the occasion calls for it. We know little about his personal life, but it's obvious the station is in capable hands with him at the controls.

ENID FAIRLEIGH  is a student of the Aldwych Academy of Drama and an intern at WENN. Young, earnest, and precise, Enid is a bit starstruck, but is willing to learn and has already participated in several small roles. She's also an aspiring writer, but, as Betty discovers, she's not quite ready to solo yet.

GUS KAHANA  is also a student of the Aldwych Academy of Drama and an intern at WENN. Gus' talent for imitating famous people, including actors and President Roosevelt, is unparalleled. However, radio work is only a sideline for Gus, who is a trucker who spends most of his time delivering goods. He was recently married.

ROLLIE PRUITT,  the financial manager for GLOBE Enterprises (the company that owns WENN), became a perpetual thorn in the side of the cast and crew when he took over the reins as station manager after Scott's embezzlement was revealed. His grasping, sarcastic, and callous—and those were his positive points!—manner made life at WENN a nightmare...until his tenure was ended when he was revealed to by a Nazi sympathizer.

LESTER  is the evening engineer who later takes C.J.'s place. He's an older gentleman with an eye for the ladies.

GLORIA REDMOND  is the power behind GLOBE Enterprises, founded by herself and her husband Ben (GLO for Gloria, BE for Ben). She is a quiet, unassuming performer who remained a recluse for the year of 1940 after her husband was killed in a plane crash on Christmas Eve of 1939. She was considering selling WENN until a visit to the station convinced her otherwise.

AGATHA SHERWOOD FINCH  is Scott Sherwood's aunt. Scott lied to her for years about his more questionable activities until she happened to visit the station and discovered the truth: he was as dishonest as the rest of the Sherwoods—a condition she heartily appeared to approve! Scott and Aunt Agatha are very close, to the point that it is suspected that she raised him. She lives in Nantucket, Massachusetts.