Planet Radio
Moments
One broadcast, one page. 25 surviving recordings — some fifteen seconds long, some an hour — with the story of the night each one went out. Every one is real archive audio in the public domain, and every one has an address you can send to somebody.
The Thirties
The War
9 December 1941
On the war with Japan
Fireside Chat 19, two days after Pearl Harbor
The White House · 27 min
12 April 1945
Bulletin: the President is dead
Twenty-five seconds that stopped the schedule
Warm Springs, Georgia · 25 sec
12 April 1945
Fulton Lewis reports the death
A commentator improvising in real time
Mutual, Washington · 64 sec
15 April 1945
Murrow at Buchenwald
Broadcast three days after the camp was reached
CBS, London · 11 min
16 April 1945
Truman before Congress
Four days into a presidency nobody prepared him for
The Capitol · 6 min
17 April 1945
A small station signs off
KGKY, Scottsbluff, Nebraska
Scottsbluff, Nebraska · 2 min
14 August 1945
The Forrestal flash
Thirty-five seconds: Japan has surrendered
NBC, New York · 35 sec
14 August 1945
Robert Trout: the war is over
Fifteen seconds on CBS
CBS, New York · 15 sec
14 August 1945
Times Square, V-J night
Ben Grauer in the crowd
New York · 4 min
15 August 1945
Attlee announces the surrender
Midnight from Downing Street
BBC, London · 55 sec
15 August 1945
The Emperor's voice
The Jewel Voice Broadcast
NHK, Tokyo · 11 sec
2 September 1945
MacArthur in Tokyo Bay
The surrender ceremony aboard USS Missouri
Tokyo Bay · 2 min
The Crown
11 December 1936
The abdication
Edward VIII leaves the throne
Windsor Castle · 7 min
13 October 1940
A princess speaks to evacuated children
Children's Hour, in the first year of the war
BBC Home Service · 3 min
21 April 1947
The Cape Town dedication
A twenty-first birthday broadcast
Cape Town, relayed by the BBC · 3 min
2 June 1953
Coronation night
Elizabeth II broadcasts to the Commonwealth
BBC, London · 3 min
24 May 1923
Empire Day, 1923
George V and Queen Mary, one year into the BBC
BBC · 3 min
The Republic
4 November 1952
Stevenson concedes
Fifty-five seconds, and the best joke of the night
Springfield, Illinois · 55 sec
12 September 1960
Kennedy and the Houston ministers
A Catholic candidate answers Protestant clergy
Houston, Texas · 11 min
26 September 1960
The first Kennedy–Nixon debate
The night the audio and the pictures disagreed
Chicago · 58 min