The radio skit concerns the WPB - "War Production Board." (More info below the video player.)

https://youtu.be/Kd13hwFDbVU



Wikipedia: "The WPB directed conversion of companies engaged in activities relevant to war from peacetime work to war needs, allocated scarce materials, established priorities in the distribution of materials and services, and prohibited nonessential production. It rationed such commodities as gasoline, heating oil, metals, rubber, paper, and plastics."

The poem is given by the radio show's resident poet, Falstaff Openshaw (Alan Reed), whom you might know better as the original voice of Fred Flintstone. The poem is called: "Strike Up the Band."

This WPB order is just the thing,
it definitely spells the doom of swing,
and those off-key bands with their raucous brasses,
have the jitterbug gate with their hep-cat lasses.
I hope they stop making saxophones,
clarinets, banjos, and slide trombones,
oboes, and fifes. and euphoniums,
piccolos, guitars, and big bass drums.
Don't get me wrong; I like swing bands.
I'm nuts about music of certain brands.
It's just one of them things, them paradoxes,
bands ruin my business.
I sell jukeboxes.