Broadcast 1945-04-12. Transferred from the Internet Archive's 1945 Radio News collection (public domain).
← A Century on the Air
12–17 April 1945
The Death of Roosevelt
Bulletin, silence, then a funeral train
The bulletin runs twenty-five seconds. What follows is the strangest four days in American broadcasting: all four networks cancelled their commercial schedules and carried memorial programming with no sponsors at all — something they had never done and would not do again until November 1963. You can hear the machinery of a country improvising: La Guardia on WNYC, Murrow reporting Buchenwald on the 15th because the war had not stopped for the funeral, the description of the train moving north from Warm Springs, and a small Nebraska station signing off its own day five days later.
25 recordings · 10 broadcasters
Who carried it
CBS8US network pool5NBC3NBC Blue2KGKY Scottsbluff (CBS)2Mutual1WNYC1BBC1WMCA1CBC1
Thursday, 12 April 1945
Broadcast 1945-04-12. Transferred from the Internet Archive's 1945 Radio News collection (public domain).
Broadcast 1945-04-12. Transferred from the Internet Archive's 1945 Radio News collection (public domain).
Broadcast 1945-04-12. Transferred from the Internet Archive's 1945 Radio News collection (public domain).
Broadcast 1945-04-12. Transferred from the Internet Archive's 1945 Radio News collection (public domain).
Broadcast 1945-04-12. Transferred from the Internet Archive's 1945 Radio News collection (public domain).
Broadcast 1945-04-12. Transferred from the Internet Archive's 1945 Radio News collection (public domain).
Friday, 13 April 1945
Broadcast 1945-04-13. Transferred from the Internet Archive's 1945 Radio News collection (public domain).
Broadcast 1945-04-13. Transferred from the Internet Archive's 1945 Radio News collection (public domain).
Broadcast 1945-04-13. Transferred from the Internet Archive's 1945 Radio News collection (public domain).
Broadcast 1945-04-13. Transferred from the Internet Archive's 1945 Radio News collection (public domain).
Broadcast 1945-04-13. Transferred from the Internet Archive's 1945 Radio News collection (public domain).
Saturday, 14 April 1945
Live description of President Roosevelt's funeral train and the Washington procession, April 1945.
Sunday, 15 April 1945
Broadcast 1945-04-15. Transferred from the Internet Archive's 1945 Radio News collection (public domain).
Broadcast 1945-04-15. Transferred from the Internet Archive's 1945 Radio News collection (public domain).
Broadcast 1945-04-15. Transferred from the Internet Archive's 1945 Radio News collection (public domain).
Broadcast 1945-04-15. Transferred from the Internet Archive's 1945 Radio News collection (public domain).
Broadcast 1945-04-15. Transferred from the Internet Archive's 1945 Radio News collection (public domain).
Broadcast 1945-04-15. Transferred from the Internet Archive's 1945 Radio News collection (public domain).
Monday, 16 April 1945
Broadcast 1945-04-16. Transferred from the Internet Archive's 1945 Radio News collection (public domain).
Tuesday, 17 April 1945
Broadcast 1945-04-17. Transferred from the Internet Archive's 1945 Radio News collection (public domain).
Broadcast 1945-04-17. Transferred from the Internet Archive's 1945 Radio News collection (public domain).
Broadcast 1945-04-17. Transferred from the Internet Archive's 1945 Radio News collection (public domain).
A small Nebraska CBS affiliate's own air, five days after the President's death — local news, promotions and the station sign-off.
A small Nebraska CBS affiliate's own air, five days after the President's death — local news, promotions and the station sign-off.