SoundHistory

News and Commentary Radio Broadcasts from This Week in History: 1930s to 1970s

Below are news, interview, commentary, and event broadcasts from the week of April 27 to May 3

Dates change at midnight Eastern Time.

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Broadcasts that ran on today's date, April 27

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Babe Ruth's Farewell to Baseball

Broadcast Date:   April 27, 1947

Speaker(s):   Babe Ruth, Albert B. Chandler, Larry Cutler

On April 27, 1947, baseball legend Babe Ruth, diagnosed with a terminal case of throat cancer, attended "Babe Ruth Day" at Yankee Stadium. A 13-year-old boy representing the American Legion baseball program introduces Babe Ruth, who delivers a speech to the crowd from home plate.

Length:   3:49

The Broadcasts Below are From April 28 to May 3.

Ships to Sea: The Future of the Merchant Marine

Broadcast Date:   April 28, 1946

Series:   The National Hour

Speaker(s):   Robert St. John (host)

NBC ran "The National Hour" on Sunday afternoons at 4pm from November 1945 to September 1946. Each program dealt with a different subject or issue facing America as the nation moved forward after the end of World War II.

Length:   30:13

Program Producer:   NBC Radio Network

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Lord Haw-Haw's Final Broadcast

Broadcast Date:   April 30, 1945

Speaker(s):   William Brooke Joyce (Lord Haw Haw)

Lord Haw-Haw was the name British listeners gave to William Joyce (1906-1946), a German radio propaganda broadcaster during World War II. Born in Brooklyn, New York in 1906, Joyce moved with his English mother and Irish-American father to England in 1921. He joined the Nazi movement in England in the mid-'30s and fled to Germany just before war broke in 1939 and became a broadcaster for Joseph Goebbel's Propaganda Ministry. His radio program reached England weekly from 1939 to 1945. On the night of April 30, 1945, a drunken Joyce made his last broadcast from Hamburg as British troops entered the city. With his adopted world crashing down around him, but still committed to the Nazi cause, Joyce rambled on through his farewell speech. Joyce was convicted of one count of high treason in 1945 and sentenced to death, with the Court of Appeal and the House of Lords both upholding his conviction. He was hanged on January 3, 1946, making him the last person to be executed for the conviction of treason in the United Kingdom.

Length:   1:47

Program Producer:   German state radio

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Nixon Denies Wrongdoing in the Watergate Affair

Broadcast Date:   April 30, 1973

Series:   CBS News Special Report

Speaker(s):   Richard M. Nixon

President Nixon calls a news conference to deny he had any part in the Watergate Affair.

Length:   24:51

Program Producer:   CBS

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The Fall of Saigon

Broadcast Date:   April 30, 1975

This newscast reports the fall of Saigon, the capitol of South Vietnam; the end of the war. The South Vietnamese government prepares to turn over all rule to the Viet Cong.

Length:   3:32

Program Producer:   WCCO Radio, Minneapolis / St. Paul and CBS

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The White House is Swept Clean

Broadcast Date:   April 30, 1973

Series:   CBS News and Analysis

Speaker(s):   Richard C. Hottelet (anchor)

All Watergate-implicated members of the White House staff are gone.

Length:   5:45

Program Producer:   CBS

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Watergate Coverage: Staff Leaves White House

Broadcast Date:   April 30, 1973

This is local news from WBEN, a Buffalo NY radio station, and moves to CBS Network coverage of the firing and resignation of several White House staff in the Watergate affair, including Dean, Haldeman, and Erlichman.

Length:   16:49

Program Producer:   WBEN, Buffalo / CBS Network

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Speech by Senator Huey P. Long

Broadcast Date:   May 2, 1935

Speaker(s):   Huey P. Long

Huey Pierce Long Jr., nicknamed "The Kingfish", was an American politician who served as the 40th governor of Louisiana from 1928 to 1932. He was a member of the United States Senate from 1932 until his assassination on September 10, 1935. This speech was delivered in Washington DC.

Length:   28:48

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Bonus Vintage Radio

Commercial:
American Airlines

Public Service Announcement:
Buckle Up for Safety

Radio Station or Commercial Jingle:
Standard Motors

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Broadcast With No Exact Broadcast Date:

Returning from WWII

Broadcast Date:   June 1945

Speaker(s):   Bob Steele, Charles Connor, Henry Eastrich

Bob Steele, an announcer for WTIC in Hartford, Connecticut interviews two radio mechanics returning to the Bradley Field airport after service in World War Two. The airmen are 21-year-old Corporal Charles Connor of Homestead, Florida and 22-year-old Corporal Henry Eastrich of Booneville, Indiana.

Length:   3:24

Program Producer:   WTIC

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The broadcasts on this website have been pulled from a number of sources. They are here for your education and entertainment.

I was prompted to create this website when my son-in-law, David Riggle, tried to find a site like this on the internet, hoping to find radio news from this week in history. What a great idea! Then my son, Jim Hickcox, suggested this site would be good for research, so I added the search function (button above) for those who want to find a broadcast related to a person or event.

Copyright Notice: All recordings on this site are believed to be in the public domain. The Library of Congress states that radio programs prior to January 1, 1978 were not qualified for copyright protection when presented, nor was any attempt to place them under such copyright protection made when the window of opportunity for such existed in 1978-1979 when the copyright law regarding such recordings changed.

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