10 Biggest Radio broadcast moments in journalism history.
Throughout this semester we have explored the history of American media and all the different aspects and eras that have shaped how we understand our media. For the final project on ten historical American media moments I wanted to look at a specific communication medium and in doing preliminary research I settled on radio.
I choose radio because I’ve spent a lot of time studying the topic this semester. Both this class on the history of American media and one of my other classes this semester foundations of mass communication spent weeks of class time discussing the impact of radio on the American media.
The American media at the turn of the twentieth century went through a number of remarkable transformations in style, content, and purpose. At the same time, a number of technological innovations began to take hold, changing the press on levels even more profoundly. Not only did print media explode to reach unprecedented levels of readership, engineering developments in radio and later television re-defined the press.
More specifically Because of these developments at the twentieth century point-to-point communication later became broadcasts to millions of listeners and viewers. Technological innovations in broadcast affected the press’s storytelling techniques. Individual inventors built upon the successes of one another to create the modern radio and television industries. We also see the influence of twentieth century changes to mass communication on social media platforms in the twenty-first century.
In choosing my ten moments I wanted to focus on people who used radio as a tool to send messages to reach the American public or look at individual broadcast events that had influence on the way we study communication devices.
Although no single person or device can take credit for the development of modern media, broadcast would not exist without the contributions of radio.
Now before getting into my list I decided not to rank my broadcast moments based on impact. I decided to put the list one to ten in the order that they happened. One being what happened first.
1- Reginald Fessenden (First Radio Broadcast) — 1906
The few weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas are typically when radio stations start blasting holiday tunes across the country. In 1906, though, there was one radio station as we think of them today and on Christmas Eve roughly 113 years ago it had the world’s first radio show.
On Christmas Eve, Reginald Fessenden produced a program heard up to 12 miles away involving music like songs “O Holy Night,” and readings from the bible, “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to men of good will,” Fessenden read aloud. broadcast today still follow the same format
Radio has since become an ordinary technology. But this is the beginning moments of radio, which would go on to become a massive mass communication technology.
2- Calvin Coolidge (State of the union Broadcast) — 1923
On Dec. 6, 1923, the first presidential address was broadcast on the radio. President Calvin Coolidge delivered what is now known as the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress.
To summarize the impact this broadcast had the New York Times anticipating his address on Dec. 5, 1923. wrote “The voice of President Coolidge, addressing Congress tomorrow, will be carried over a greater portion of the United States and will be heard by more people than the voice of any man in history.”
Mr. Coolidge was known as a quiet man, but he was the first president to use the medium of radio to his advantage. He gave regular radio addresses and his 1925 inauguration was the first to be broadcast on radio.
3- Franklin D. Roosevelt (Fireside Chats Radio Broadcast) — 1933
following in Calvin Coolidge’s footsteps On March 12, 1933, Franklin Delano Roosevelt gave his first “fireside chat” on the radio. It was just eight days after his inauguration. During the depths of the Great Depression, FDR used the radio to explain to Americans why there had been a recent “bank holiday.” After a series of bank failures, FDR closed all U.S. banks on March 6, to prevent them from failing as panicked citizens tried to withdraw their holdings.
Imagine, that your bank has been closed for six days, banks are failing left and right, and the newly-inaugurated president gets on the radio to talk about the situation. You would likely listen, and you’d want a really solid answer. That’s just what Americans got.
In his 13-minute speech the American president spoke directly to the people. He asked people to trust what he and Congress were doing to resolve the problem. While the chat didn’t solve the country’s financial problems, it did create a remarkable sense of connection between FDR and the citizens of the United States. This event was among the best examples of a president using mass media to send a message directly to the American public. He would go on to do 29 more chats over the course of his presidency.
4- Herb Morrison (Hindenburg Radio Broadcast)- 1937
The Hindenburg disaster is so well-remembered because it was so well-documented.
The airship Hindenburg, the largest dirigible ever built and the pride of Nazi Germany, bursts into flames upon touching its mooring mast in Lakehurst, New Jersey, killing 36 passengers and crew members.
Herb Morrison and his very human reaction to the tragedy would become one of the most famous news radio broadcasts of all time: “It’s burst into flames. … Get out of the way, please; oh my, this is terrible. … It is burning. … This is one of the worst catastrophes in the world … oh, the humanity!” Morrison chokes up and sounds like he is sobbing. At times throughout the broadcast, he apologizes to listeners and falls into a stunned silence. He would then return moments later to describe more of the scene.
5- Orsen Welles (War of the Worlds Radio Broadcast) — 1939
“The War of the Worlds” — Orson Welles’s realistic radio dramatization of a Martian invasion of Earth — is broadcast on the radio on October 30, 1938. The show began on Sunday, October 30, at 8 p.m. A voice announced: “The Columbia Broadcasting System and its affiliated stations present Orson Welles and the Mercury Theater on the air in ‘War of the Worlds’ by H.G. Wells.” Sunday evening in 1938 was prime-time in the golden age of radio, and millions of Americans had their radios turned on. But most of these Americans were listening to ventriloquist Edgar Bergen and his dummy “Charlie McCarthy” on NBC and only turned to CBS at 8:12 p.m. after the comedy sketch ended and a little-known singer went on. By then, the story of the Martian invasion was well underway.
Because of this many listeners missed the disclaimers saying it’s a dramatized production causing a panic primarily on the east coast. This broadcast which also aired the night before Halloween, in an effort to be realistic used actual locations and street names. Listeners in the areas being described by the broadcast would go to these locations creating a crowd. Because of the crowd police would go to these locations, creating the exact scenes being described in the broadcast.
This radio broadcast changed the way we viewed the power radio has on American citizens and ushered in a new paradigm in media research.
6- Edward Murrow (WWII London Rooftop Radio Broadcast) — 1940
On September 15, 1940, CBS News radio correspondent Edward R. Murrow described the bombing of London during World War II’s Battle of Britain. Murrow usually opened his broadcasts with the words “This…is London.” During the war, he often broadcast from rooftops as bombs fell on the city. But he also told countless stories about the daily life that goes on during a war.
One of Murrow’s most famous broadcasts came on the night of August 24, 1940. He began his report with the words, “This…is Trafalgar Square.” Murrow described the scene from the steps of the St. Martin-in-the Fields church with the sound of air-raid sirens in the background. A microphone captured the sound of footsteps on the sidewalk, as people walked slowly along the street to a bomb shelter below. He said the footsteps sounded “like ghosts shod with steel shoes.”
His CBS radio broadcasts continued until the end of the war in 1945.
7- Franklin D. Roosevelt (“A date which will live in infamy.” Speech) — 1941
President Franklin Roosevelt called the unprovoked attack on Pearl Harbor a “date which will live in infamy,” in a famous address to the nation delivered after Japan’s deadly strike against U.S. naval and military forces in Hawaii. He also asked Congress to declare war.
Roosevelt’s speech had an immediate and long-lasting impact on American politics. Thirty-three minutes after he finished speaking, Congress declared war on Japan. The speech was broadcast live by radio and attracted the largest audience in US radio history, with over 81% of American homes tuning in to hear the President. The response was overwhelmingly positive, both within and outside of Congress.
8- John F. Kennedy (Cuban Missile Crisis Speech) — 1962
It could have been the start of a war the likes of which the world had never seen. Films and history books have documented the hair’s-width margin that separated the United States and the Soviet Union from nuclear conflict during the cold war and the height of the Cuban missile crisis.
President John F. Kennedy warned the Soviet government that they must remove their nuclear missiles in Cuba or risk invasion of the island by the United States. The Soviets installed nuclear missiles in Cuba in retaliation for the American nuclear missiles the United States had in Turkey. The crisis lasted for 13 days in October of 1962.
President Kennedy spoke to the nation on October 22, 1962, informing the citizens of the United States that an agreement had been reached and the Soviets would dismantle their nuclear weapons which lessened the threat of a global nuclear war.
9- Martin Luther King (“I have a dream” Speech) — 1963
Martin Luther King had a vision of racial equality in the united states. His famous “I Have a Dream” Speech was delivered in 1963 at the Lincoln Memorial during a Civil Rights march in Washington, DC. His speech was geared towards jobs and freedom, and for blacks and whites to life together harmoniously and equally. King’s Dream Speech is considered a defining moment in the Civil Rights Movement in America.
The speech was delivered to nearly 250,000 people, more than any other rally in Washington D.C.’s history at that point. People took heed to his message, laced with truths from the Bible and the U.S. Constitution. It not only marked him as a master public speaker, but also put pressure on president Lyndon B. Johnson’s administration to push for civil rights laws to pass through congress.
His speech is considered by scholars as the Number one most influential and important speech of the 20th century.
10- Internet Radio, Future (Radio HK / Sirius XM) — 1995 / 2001
Almost 90 years after the first radio transmission, the first radio station to be broadcast on the Internet finally came into being, Radio HK. A Hong Kong based company.
During the mid-2000s, the number of Internet radio stations has increased constantly. More and more households got connections to the internet and individuals took advantage of this new medium to address their communities on various topics (video games, news, music, etc.). Over the years, other entities such as companies, the media or associations seized this medium to diversify themselves.
The American version of Radio HK, Sirius XM Satellite Radio officially launched on September 25, 2001. providing it’s services in the United States and Canada. It provided pay-for-service radio, analog to cable television. Its service included 73 different music channels, 39 news, sports, talk and entertainment channels, 21 regional traffic and weather channels and 23 play-by-play sports channels.
25 years later, online radio stations have become accessible to everyone and we can freely broadcast and listen to what we want. More than a hundred years old, radio is an ever-evolving medium that never ceases to define itself.
CITATIONS
Borchard, Gregory A. A Narrative History of the American Press. Routledge, 2019.
Latson, J. How FDR’s radio voice solved a banking crisis. Time. Retrieved from http://time.com/3731744/fdr-fireside-chat-banking/
PBS. (n.d.). Introduction: War of the Worlds. Retrieved from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/introduction/worlds/
Scott, Carole. “History of the Radio Industry in the United States to 1940″. EH.Net Encyclopedia, edited by Robert Whaples. March 26, 2008. URL http://eh.net/encyclopedia/the-history-of-the-radio-industry-in-the-united-states-to-1940/
Sies, Luther F. Encyclopedia of American Radio, 1920–1960. Jefferson, NC : McFarland, 2000.
