At that time, coast-to-coast radio transmissions, while possible, were rarely done and most West Coast radio stations had to rely on themselves for most of their programming. Weaver's writing, then, could certainly be put to use in helping the station fill up the almost eighteen hours it was on the air each day. His ability to persuade must have been good even then because Weaver was successful in his attempt to persuade Lee to hire him.

As Weaver's comedy writing abilities began to warm up, radio was really beginning to warm up. And, as he grew into adulthood shaping radio, radio was shaping him. The World Almanac reported that in 1932, when Weaver took his first job in radio, there were 16,809,562 American homes that had radio. And this radio, whether it was a Philco, a Stromberg Carlson, a Majestic or an Atwater Kent console, was the centerpiece of furniture in the house. It was also in 1932 when radio's greats Jack Benny and Fred Allen seriously came onto the scene.

Weaver's job at KHJ gave him the chance to be a major player in creating, writing and programming the shows that would be broadcast from the station in the Los Angeles area. It was a large task since the station was on the air for eighteen hours a day and only a few of those hours were filled by East Coast radio shows. As Weaver writes, "It was a very inventive time in radio, because there were no preconceptions about what programs were supposed to be. If we thought something might work, we simply tried it" (p. 25). This inventiveness gave him the priceless experience that would later enable him to truly understand all the aspects that go into creating programming that pleases people.

By 1934 Weaver had been promoted to program manager for Lee's San Francisco CBS station, KFRC. The station was suffering and feeling the effects of the Depression. Weaver decided to do what he had been doing best: increase revenue through good programming. He was successful and, within a year, bored and without a significant challenge. It was time to move on to the big time, the other coast - New York.

Radio, as he knew it on the West Coast, was controlled largely by the station's programming manager. He would create shows and find sponsors willing to underwrite the show and then the show would air. Since radio was still a process of invention, most sponsors were hands off in those days and allowed the station to take charge of the show. This was especially true on the West Coast because it was still tradition for stations to contract directly with sponsors. Back East, however, all this was starting to change; ad agencies had assumed the role of programmers, thus control was stripped from individual stations and given to the ad agencies and their sponsors.

This was a shock to Weaver when he arrived in New York in 1935. He had planned to get a job with CBS in the programming department but, instead, found that Columbia Broadcasting System did not do their own programming for the biggest of the big, the East Coast, radio shows. In addition, Weaver was also shocked to find out that, not only did CBS not do its own programming, but it did not even own the shows it was airing. The advertising agencies owned the shows. The advertising agencies did the programming. In short, the ad agencies called the shots.

At that time, the networks acted not only as sellers of airtime, but sellers of talent. Most networks had their own artists' bureau in which they kept a talent pool available for hire by ad agencies or sponsors. Weaver joined the CBS Artists' Bureau. It wasn't long before he was hired to produce a show for Evening in Paris perfume called Evening in Paris Roof.

Next, through the artists' bureau, Pat began his next stint in which he worked a short time at United Cigar Stores and Whelan Drug Stores. United-Whelan desired to get into radio but, since their advertising was done in-house, they didn't have the know how to do so. They hired Weaver to create for them a variety show organized around an orchestra. This show came to be called Good Evening Serenade.

Pat's personal life was moving along at about the same rate as his career. He had begun dating Rosalind Russell, sister of Mary Jane (later to become famous as Jane) Russell. Rosalind had another sister, Clara, who was married to Chester LaRoche, then president of Young & Rubicam.

In the thirties Young & Rubicam, due to its agile understanding of the phenomenon of radio, was New York's most powerful advertising agency. Most of Y&R's clientele was made up of big corporations wanting to sponsor radio shows and it was radio shows that young Weaver already knew well. It was LaRoche who made possible Weaver's foray into the big time when he offered him the opportunity to produce the popular Fred Allen show. Thus, in the fall of 1935, Pat Weaver became the producer of Allen's show, Town Hall Tonight, sponsored by Bristol-Myers and aired on the NBC network.

Weaver's talents did not go unnoticed; by 1937 Y&R had already promoted him to the role of supervisor of programs for its radio division. In this position, he began to truly understand the power that was held by the advertising agencies and the consequent lack thereof by the networks. In his memoir he illustrates this with a story of his frustration with NBC's error-filled scheduling of rehearsal bookings and his response as ad man. The problem was that it was not uncommon to arrive for rehearsal at NBC's studios only to find another show being rehearsed. Since Weaver was ultimately responsible for the quality of the show come airtime, he began getting irritated with NBC, so irritated, in fact that he threatened to pull shows such as Town Hall Tonight from the network if they kept "screwing up." Thus, as Weaver notes in The Best Seat in the House, what ensued was "a perfect illustration of the ad agencies' power over the networks." Weaver also notes that while "this demonstration of the naked power of advertising agencies impressed me, if also made me uncomfortable after I had time to reflect upon it" (p. 81). It wasn't long after this that Weaver realized that there had been a shift in his own self-identity; he had spent his career thus far thinking of himself as a radio man, now he was beginning to see himself as an ad man.

Thus, while America had entered the golden age of radio, so too had the advertising agency entered its golden age. The fact that, by 1937, almost every home in America had a least one radio set, which, once purchased, offered free entertainment, allowed advertising to proliferate even during this nation's most trying economic crisis. That year there were 37.6 million radio sets in the nation, most of which were in homes, where families would listen to radio shows together. Advertising was reaching more people than ever before.

Weaver was appointed to the Y&R board by the end of 1937 and was again promoted, this time to director of the radio division for the agency. It was in this capacity, that his bi-coastal knowledge and experience growing up came to serve him well. A transition was occurring whereby many shows were being produced on the West Coast. Because of the movie business and Hollywood, that's where the talent was beginning to coalesce.

Y&R, in the late-thirties, handled advertising for two of the American Tobacco Company's products, Half-and-Half pipe tobacco and Pall Mall cigarettes. These accounts were successfully generating sales for American Tobacco, but its Lucky Strike account, held by the Lord and Thomas agency was not. Weaver, as the ad man he had become, began to take a closer look at why this might be. American Tobacco was putting more money into Lucky Strikes' advertising yet its market share was falling. Weaver began to understand that it wasn't how much that was spent on advertising, it was where the money was spent that was important. [Author's Note: To today's advertising practitioners this may sound like a no-brainer, but in those days the concept of measuring advertising effectiveness was still very much in its infancy].

Thus, Weaver's new challenge and position were born; American Tobacco Company hired him away from Y&R in 1938 as ATC's advertising manager. He took the position because, as Weaver writes, the word 'challenge,' "was a green-light word to me" (p. 104). He also writes, "If I could bring Lucky Strike back to the top of the cigarette market, I would become a major force in the advertising world" (p. 105). In one year, the effective results of his undertaking were beginning to show and his title became advertising director. At that point ATC was spending millions of dollars less in advertising while at the same time its sales of Lucky Strikes were beginning to climb.

In 1941, Weaver's life underwent some major personal changes. It was in May of that year that he met Elizabeth Inglis, who would soon become his wife. It was also in the spring of that year that Weaver decided that he had a job to do for the nation. Hitler had, by that time, been successful in taking over most of Europe and it was evident to many that the United States would have to get involved in Europe's war soon. Because of a lifetime love and gift for sailing, Weaver chose the Navy as his branch of choice and submitted his application for a reserve officer with the Naval Intelligence Office.

Soon after, he received a call from his college friend, Nelson Rockefeller. Rockefeller had been appointed in the summer of 1940 as Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs (CIAA). He remembered his old friend Pat Weaver from the Dartmouth days and called to recruit him to help with the war effort. Thus, Weaver's new position in the world of persuasion was born.

Weaver's part in the war effort through the CIAA was born of the need to keep Latin America on our side. Hitler and his gang had been successful in spreading a degree of propaganda against the allies and it was thought that, when Hitler got his European conquests under control, he would find his way to the United States' backdoor via Latin America. President Roosevelt so believed that this was a legitimate concern that he created the CIAA and recruited Rockefeller to dispel this propaganda and replace it with pro-U.S. persuasive communication. Rockefeller, in turn, recruited Weaver (and many others) to assist him with this job.

Weaver worked with a team of advertising and radio professionals, most recruited by Rockefeller from lucrative jobs in industry, to create shows for the people of Latin America. The CIAA shows were in Spanish and sometimes sponsored by corporations but often not. The task was not only to find honest translators (because Hitler had already been somewhat successful in persuading many against the U.S.), but also to carefully produce the radio shows so that the people of Latin America didn't get wise to their real purpose and who produced them. Ultimately, what was born of the process was a type of informal network that provided free programming to radio stations in Central and South America. Many of the programs were very good and the radio stations, even though they eventually grew wise to the real purpose of the shows, appreciated the free programming.

As 1941 wore on, Weaver did his work for the CIAA, getting to do what he did best - create shows from the ground up that audiences would like. As usual, he tackled a challenge until it became something almost mundane for him. It was time for him to put his energies elsewhere; it was time for him to tackle the challenges presented by falling in love, for that he certainly was and with Elizabeth Inglis.

He and Elizabeth were preparing to go out to dinner on the evening of December 7, 1941 when the radio played the news of the attack at Pearl Harbor. America was now really at war and Weaver felt he needed to be more directly involved. But, before becoming so, he asked Elizabeth to become his wife. They married on January 23, 1942, just a little over a month after Pearl Harbor.

A few months later, Weaver finally received orders from the Navy. This hadn't happened before because Rockefeller had pulled strings to keep him from being called so he could continue his involvement with CIAA. But, a restless Weaver asked Rockefeller to release him from CIAA so that he might experience a more active participation in the war effort. Ironically, after looking up his background, the Navy found that he had been in radio and advertising. They decided then to make him a communications officer on a destroyer escort. Weaver balked; he wanted the kind of glory most young men seek (he was not even in his mid-thirties yet). He asked for a different assignment, appealing to them with his love for the water and his sailing abilities. They consented to change his orders and he was instead made an executive officer and second in command on a patrol craft headquartered off the coast of Brazil.

Eventually, in the middle of 1943, Weaver became the captain of the patrol craft, called simply #492. Weaver called his craft "my sub-chaser." After almost a year of no real action, Weaver was told to report to the Sub Chaser Training Center in Miami, where he thought he was going to be promoted to the position of captain of a destroyer vessel. A surprise was in store. Instead, Weaver was told to report to the Armed Forces Radio Service in Hollywood. Once again his nation needed his skills at persuasion and communication more than they needed his skills on the sea.

Weaver writes that when he reported to the Armed Forces Radio Service (AFRS) at Gower Street and Santa Monica Boulevard, Hollywood, he "found a staff loaded with so many Young & Rubicam people [he] almost felt [he] was back on Madison Avenue" (p. 147). The function of the Armed Forces Radio Service was to provide morale-boosting entertainment via radio shows to the nation's servicemen all over the world. Not only did some of the biggest shows on radio contribute to this cause, but the folks in AFRS like Weaver also made their own. One of the most famous and certainly best liked was Command Performance in which servicemen would 'command,' or request, that their favorite stars perform on the show.

Peace finally came in August of 1945. Earlier that year Weaver's wife, Elizabeth (he calls her 'Liz') found out that she was pregnant. She gave birth on October 20, 1945 to a boy they named Trajan. Weaver's love for classical history once again showed, for Trajan was named after one of Rome's most beloved benign emperors.