Sentence:  In the field of entertainment there is no spur to financial daring so effective as audience boredom , and the first decade of the new device <WSD>was</WSD> not over before audiences began staying away in large numbers from the simple-minded , one minute shows . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  have the quality of being; (copula, used with an adjective or a predicate noun)