SoundHistory

Radio News and Interviews -- This Week in History

January Broadcasts by Day of the Month

40 broadcasts


New Year's War News

Broadcast Date:   January 1, 1941

Series:   Robert Arden News Commentary

Speaker(s):   Robert Arden


Arden looks back at the year 1940. He analyzes the war between England and Germany as an ideological battle.

Length:   15:13

Program Producer:   KFWB


The Story of the Armed Forces Radio Service

Broadcast Date:   January 1, 1953

Speaker(s):   Jack Benny and Others


Length:   30:01

Program Producer:   AFRS


The Year 1939 in Review

Broadcast Date:   January 1, 1940


The voices and events of 1939 from WOR and the Mutual Broadcasting System.

Length:   58:28

Program Producer:   WOR / Mutual Broadcasting System


A Review of the Year 1941

Broadcast Date:   January 1, 1942

Series:   The March of Time


A review of the events of the past year, told with the program's usual rhetoric, i.e.: "Every continent on earth lay on the scales of destiny!" The voice impersonations of Roosevelt and Churchill are very well-done! The program features a dramatized portrayal of the recent events at Pearl Harbor, leading up to the Japanese attack. The system cue has been deleted. Sponsored by Time Magazine. The quality of this edition of The March of Time is not as good as most, but this is an important program in the series.

Length:   29:15

Program Producer:   ABC Blue Network


The Atlantic Migration

Broadcast Date:   January 2, 1946

Series:   The Human Adventure

Speaker(s):   MBS-1.jpg


The story of a mass movement of peoples, unparalleled in human history; the first great phase of the Atlantic migration. The program is produced in collaboration with The University Of Chicago.

Length:   28:55

Program Producer:   Mutual Broadcasting System


The Year 1937 in Review

Broadcast Date:   January 2, 1938


The voices and events of 1937 from WOR and the Mutual Broadcasting System.

Length:   30:19

Program Producer:   WOR / Mutual Broadcasting System


CBS Looks Back at the News of 1955

Broadcast Date:   January 2, 1956

Series:   Years of Crisis

Speaker(s):   Edward R. Murrow, many CBS Correspondents


This is a CBS News annual year-end review of International events and developments. Edward R. Murrow is the host. He is joined by many CBS Radio correspondents around the world.

Length:   53:21

Program Producer:   CBS Radio News


New Year's Special

Broadcast Date:   January 3, 1942

Series:   The March of Time


Length:   27:24

Program Producer:   Time Magazine / ABC Blue Network


The First Days of 1943

Broadcast Date:   January 3, 1943

Series:   World News Today


Recorded on WBBM, Chicago

Length:   24:09

Program Producer:   CBS


The Fall of Seoul, Korea

Broadcast Date:   January 5, 1951

Series:   Hear It Now

Speaker(s):   Edward R. Morrow and many others


The major stories of this week included the end of the 81st Congress and the fall of the city of Seoul, Korea.

Length:   59:54

Program Producer:   CBS


20th-Century Nomads

Broadcast Date:   January 5, 1960

Series:   The Hidden Revolution

Speaker(s):   Edward R. Murrow, host


In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the CBS Public Affairs Department explored important social trends in US culture, like the increase in leisure time, the constant threat of nuclear war, and the American propensity for "moving on".

Length:   29:15

Program Producer:   CBS Radio News


The Future of Aviation in Peace Time

Broadcast Date:   January 6, 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:   29:32

Program Producer:   NBC Radio Network


FDR's Four Freedoms Speech

Broadcast Date:   January 6, 1941

Speaker(s):   Franklin D. Roosevelt


The Four Freedoms were goals articulated by United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt on Monday, January 6, 1941, in an address known as the Four Freedoms speech (technically the 1941 State of the Union address). He proposed four fundamental freedoms that people "everywhere in the world" ought to enjoy: freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. Roosevelt delivered this speech 11 months before the surprise Japanese attack on U.S. forces in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii that caused the United States to declare war on Japan,

Length:   37:48


The March of Time

Broadcast Date:   January 6, 1938


Length:   29:37

Program Producer:   Time Magazine / ABC Blue Network


Manhunt in Manhattan

Broadcast Date:   January 7, 1948

Series:   The Big Story

Speaker(s):   Bob Sloane (host)


The Big Story is the dramatized account of how a newspaper reporter solved a crime, exposed a corrupt political administration, smashed a racket, or performed some other notable public service. Today's story is from reporter Ted Prager.

Length:   29:36

Program Producer:   NBC


Truman Press Conference

Broadcast Date:   January 10, 1952


Length:   19:21


World News Roundup

Broadcast Date:   January 10, 1978

Speaker(s):   Dallas Townsend, Newscaster


Length:   11:30

Program Producer:   CBS News


The Top News Stories of 1935

Broadcast Date:   January 10, 1936

Series:   Sunoco News

Speaker(s):   Lowell Thomas, introduced by Basil (last name unknown)


News from the Sun Oil Company asks Lowell Thomas to pick the top news stories of 1935.Among his picks: the Italian invasion of Ethiopia, dust storms in the American Midwest, the development of a 200" telescope, the aviation deaths of Will Rogers and Wiley Post, Captain Albert Stevens and Captain Orville Anderson riding 14 miles into the atmosphere on a balloon, and the development of painless dentistry.

Length:   5:57


Retreat in Korea

Broadcast Date:   January 12, 1951

Series:   Hear It Now

Speaker(s):   Edward R. Murrow and Voices in the News


Length:   59:29

Program Producer:   CBS


The Struggle for Individual Betterment Through World Brotherhood (The United Nations)

Broadcast Date:   January 13, 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:   29:39

Program Producer:   NBC


The Evolution of the Black Movement

Broadcast Date:   January 14, 1969

Series:   Night Call

Speaker(s):   James Forman, Del Shields (host)


James Forman (1928-2005) was a prominent African-American leader in the civil rights movement. He was active in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the Black Panther Party, and the League of Revolutionary Black Workers. As the executive secretary of SNCC from 1961 to 1966, Forman played a significant role in the freedom rides, the Albany movement, the Birmingham campaign, and the Selma to Montgomery marches.In 1968, Forman had just published the book, "Sammy Younge, Jr.". Younge was a civil rights and voting rights activist who was murdered in 1966 for trying to desegregate a "whites only" restroom. In this program the discussion focuses on the various Black movements and which may make progress in civil rights.

Length:   57:40

Program Producer:   The United Methodist Church


Radio in the American Sector, Berlin

Broadcast Date:   January 15, 1953

Series:   Operation Information


West Berlin was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin during the years of the Cold War. There was no specific date on which the sectors of Berlin occupied by the Western Allies became "West Berlin", but 1949 is widely accepted as the year in which the name was adopted.

Length:   29:49

Program Producer:   Air Force Network


World News Tonight

Broadcast Date:   January 16, 1975

Speaker(s):   Douglas Edwards (anchor)


Length:   10:48

Program Producer:   CBS


President Eisenhower's Farewell Address

Broadcast Date:   January 17, 1961

Speaker(s):   Dwight D. Eisenhower


This speech may be best known for advocating that the nation guard against the potential influence of the military-industrial complex, a term he is credited with coining. The speech also expressed concerns about planning for the future and the dangers of massive spending, especially deficit spending, the prospect of the domination of science through Federal funding and, conversely, the domination of science-based public policy by what he called a "scientific-technological elite".

Length:   16:05


Heavy Allied Air Activity

Broadcast Date:   January 17, 1943

Series:   CBS World News Today

Speaker(s):   John Daly (anchor) and reporters around the world by shortwave


Length:   23:42

Program Producer:   CBS


The March of Time

Broadcast Date:   January 18, 1937


The March of Time is information and dramatized stories from the editors of Life Magazine and Time Magazine.

Length:   30:04

Program Producer:   Time Magazine / CBS


Edward R. Murrow with the news

Broadcast Date:   January 18, 1957

Speaker(s):   Edward R. Murrow (anchor)


World News

Length:   14:26

Program Producer:   CBS


U. S. Navy Ships Are Recommissioned

Broadcast Date:   January 19, 1951

Series:   Hear It Now

Speaker(s):   Edward R. Murrow (anchor)


For an unknown reason, this hour-long program cuts off about half-way through.

Length:   30:08

Program Producer:   CBS


The Peace-Time Problems of Surplus War Property

Broadcast Date:   January 20, 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:   29:03

Program Producer:   NBC


George VIII Abdicates the Throne

Broadcast Date:   January 20, 1936

Speaker(s):   King George VIII


After ruling for less than one year, Edward VIII becomes the first English monarch to voluntarily abdicate the throne. He chose to abdicate after the British government, public, and the Church of England condemned his decision to marry the American divorcée Wallis Warfield Simpson.

Length:   6:40

Program Producer:   BBC


The Champion of the Living Law

Broadcast Date:   January 23, 1946

Series:   The Human Adventure


A drama / documentary about Associate Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes from WGN, Chicago. The series is produced in collaboration with The University Of Chicago.

Length:   29:14

Program Producer:   Mutual Broadcasting System


Muhammed Ali News Conference at the United Nations

Broadcast Date:   January 24, 1979

Speaker(s):   Muhammed Ali, others


Length:   32:53


Four Foreign Correspondents Recall Their Best Stories

Broadcast Date:   January 26, 1956


Four of the Canadian Broadcasting Commissions's most experienced foreign correspondents tell the best stories they have covered.

Length:   13:16

Program Producer:   CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Commission)


Hear It Now

Broadcast Date:   January 26, 1951

Speaker(s):   Edward R. Murrow (anchor)


The cost of a pound of steak, and other stories.

Length:   59:15

Program Producer:   CBS


Will President Roosevelt Run for a 3rd Term?

Broadcast Date:   January 26, 1943

Series:   H. V. Kaltenborn Edits the News

Speaker(s):   H. V. Kaltenborn


Length:   11:57


The Great Ohio River Flood of 1937

Broadcast Date:   January 27, 1937


In January 1937, one of the largest floods in American history inundated the Ohio River Valley. Many cities and towns on the Ohio and its tributaries were affected. Louisville and Southern Indiana were among those most devastated. Torrential rain, together with some sleet and freezing rain, fell from January 9 to January 23, raising the Ohio River to its highest recorded level. On January 23 the river at Louisville crested at 51.1 feet, and eventually reached 57.15 feet above flood stage on the upper gauge.Here, on January 27, Nashville radio station WSM carried live flood information, and Baltimore radio station WFBR aired the news from WSM.

Length:   15:19

Program Producer:   WSM / WFBR


Apollo 1 Fire on Launchpad Kills 3 Astronauts

Broadcast Date:   January 27, 1967


The Apollo program changed forever on Jan. 27, 1967, when a flash fire swept through the Apollo 1 command module during a launch rehearsal test. Here, radio station WCCO in Minneapolis gets word of the tragedy. The recording is of several newscasts as they learn of the death of all three astronauts: Roger Chaffee, Ed White, and Gus Grissom. They soon switch to the CBS radio network newscasts. The three men inside perished despite the best efforts of the ground crew. It would take more than 18 months, and extensive redesigns, before NASA sent more men into space.

Length:   23:33

Program Producer:   WCCO. Minneapolis


The Fight to Protect the Money We Save

Broadcast Date:   January 27, 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:   29:08

Program Producer:   NBC


The March of Time

Broadcast Date:   January 27, 1938


Length:   28:56

Program Producer:   Time Magazine / ABC Blue Network


Revolution for the Hell of It

Broadcast Date:   January 31, 1969

Series:   Night Call

Speaker(s):   Abbie Hoffman, Del Shields (host)


Abbie Hoffman (Abbot H. Hoffman) (1936-1989) co-founded the Youth International Party, known as the "Yippies." Del Shields asked him if that party was "for real." He seems to indicate it was a lighthearted and useful way to move into dealing with some very serious issues. In the 1960s, he became an activist supporting Civil Rights and opposing the Vietnam War. This program is an edition of "Night Call", a coast-to-coast call-in show in the late 1960's.

Length:   59:03

Program Producer:   The United Methodist Church