The General Mills Radio Adventure Theater
was a 1977 anthology radio drama series with Tom Bosley as host. Himan
Brown, already producing the CBS Radio Mystery Theater for the network,
added this twice-weekly (Saturdays and Sundays) anthology radio drama
series to his workload in 1977. It usually aired on weekends, beginning
in February 1977 and continuing through the end of January 1978, on
stations which cleared it.
General Mills's advertising agency
was looking for a means of reaching children that would be less
expensive than television advertising. Brown and CBS were willing to
experiment with a series aimed at younger listeners, reaching that
audience through ads in comic books. Apart from Christian or other
religious broadcasting, this may have been the only nationwide attempt
in the U.S. in the 1970s to air such a series. General Mills did not
continue as sponsor after the 52 episodes had first aired over the
first 26 weekends (February 1977 through July 1977), and the series (52
shows) was then repeated over the next 26 weekends (August 1977 through
the end of January 1978), as The CBS Radio Adventure Theater, with a
variety of sponsors for the commercials.