There were politically-oriented old time radio shows as well. One that comes to mind right away is Destination Freedom, which chronicled the racial divides and injustices in the U.S.
Others were perhaps more subtle, such as I Was a Communist for the FBI, under the guise of crime, but they certainly delivered political messages.
And then there were the in-your-face, religious oriented shows that wandered into political commentary, such as The Radio Priest, Father Coughlin, who vented against The New Deal and the "money-lenders" in the 1930s.
Some of the politics wasn't overtly recognized during the times shows aired, but is evident today. For example, Command Performance, broadcast over shortwave to American troops during WWII, never once had (at least in the shows I've listened to, and I've listened to a lot) a black host. Some (a very few) black guests, but that was it (and in one I heard, Nat King Cole was called 'boy'). Black entertainers had to appear on all black shows such as Jubilee, which was, like Command Performance, beamed to the then segregated Armed Forces in WWII.
In Have Gun Will Travel (aired in the late 1950s, spun off from the TV series), there is a Chinese character called Hey Boy that is treated little better than a slave to the main character Paladin.
And then there are numerous western OTR shows which stereotype indigenous people.
Whether or not America was great once depended on your point of view (and the colour of your skin, your religion and many other factors).
All that being said, there were shows that rose above the politics of the day. As for the others, you have to treat them within the context of history, and learn from them how not to be.
@artisan-radio You left out Bob Dylan! The #1 protest/political songwriter ever.
A lot of the songs by artists that Artisan mentioned and so many others were more protest songs rather than political opinion
Wait ..fooled me. This was a reply to your post about artists who wrote political songs.
How could I leave out Dylan? Silly.
What are protest songs but opposition to an issue in the politics of the day? Tom Paxton wrote about gun control (Buy a Gun For Your Son comes to mind). Phil Ochs wanted to start a people's revolution against the powers that be - Ringing of Revolution is a great example of that.