Morrison and engineer Charlie Nehlsen were cutting a routine feature onto acetate when the airship caught. NBC waived its own ban on recordings to carry it the next day. Recording held by the Internet Archive; public domain.
← The Live Wire
1937–1945
When It Went Wrong On Air
The bulletin that breaks the schedule
Radio learned to cover catastrophe by having catastrophe happen to it. Herbert Morrison was at Lakehurst to cut a soft feature about an airship landing; thirty-four seconds later he was describing something no one had ever described into a recording machine, and the disc kept turning while he broke down. Two years on, Chamberlain read a hundred and twenty words from the Cabinet Room and the BBC schedule ceased to exist. On a Sunday afternoon in December 1941 American announcers cut into the dance bands with a wire flash and then had to keep talking for hours with nothing confirmed. What you can hear across these recordings is the invention of a professional register: how to hold a voice steady in front of an open microphone when nobody knows anything yet.
10 recordings · 6 broadcasters
Who carried it
WLS Chicago (recorded)2BBC2Network bulletin2CBS2NBC1CBS · NBC · Mutual (pool)1
Thursday, 6 May 1937
When It Went Wrong On Air
The Hindenburg Disaster — Morrison's discs, second transfer
6 May 1937 · 1 min
A separate surviving transfer of the same Lakehurst acetates. Recording held by the Internet Archive; public domain.
Sunday, 3 September 1939
When It Went Wrong On Air
Neville Chamberlain — “This country is at war with Germany”
3 Sep 1939 · 12 min
Broadcast live from the Cabinet Room at 10 Downing Street on a Sunday morning, eleven fifteen. Recording held by the Internet Archive; public domain.
Tuesday, 9 April 1940
A BBC transmission from the morning Germany invaded Denmark and Norway. Recording held by the Internet Archive; public domain.
Sunday, 7 December 1941
The bulletin that broke into a Sunday afternoon schedule. Recording held by the Internet Archive; public domain.
When It Went Wrong On Air
H. V. Kaltenborn — Analysis of the Attack on Pearl Harbor
7 Dec 1941 · 14 min
Kaltenborn, radio's first news analyst, working live with almost no confirmed facts. Recording held by the Internet Archive; public domain.
Surviving off-air recording of the afternoon's coverage. Recording held by the Internet Archive; public domain.
Monday, 8 December 1941
When It Went Wrong On Air
Franklin D. Roosevelt — “A date which will live in infamy”
8 Dec 1941 · 11 min
The war message to Congress, carried live by every American network. Recording held by the Internet Archive; public domain.
Thursday, 1 January 1942
Murrow reporting from London by shortwave, the broadcast form he effectively invented on the roofs of the Blitz. Recording held by the Internet Archive; public domain.
Sunday, 15 April 1945
Murrow's broadcast of 15 April 1945, three days after Roosevelt's death and days after he walked into Buchenwald. Recording held by the Internet Archive; public domain.