Planet Podcasts
Vintage

Jubilee

AFRS

AFRS · 1942–1952

126 EpisodesFortnightlyPGSince 1942

The run

Network
AFRS
Years active
1942–1952
Surviving broadcasts
126
Genre
variety

Jubilee was produced by the Armed Forces Radio Service from 1942 for broadcast to American fighting men and women overseas, and featured a largely Black cast and orchestra at a time when network radio rarely did. Appearances include Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Lena Horne, Nat King Cole and Joe Louis. The transcription discs are in the public domain.

1952 · 11949 · 11948 · 251947 · 331946 · 71945 · 161944 · 7

Restoration quality — measured from the surviving files

Clean transfer · 126 of 126

Source collection

Internet Archive audio collections

Rights

Public domain — no renewed US copyright

Cataloguing

Air dates and notes from the Archive item record

Every broadcast below carries its own provenance sheet — transfer quality, file source and rights.Archive record: JubileeOldTimeRadio

The shape of the run

What survives, year by year

59 dated broadcasts across 11 years on the air, with 2 years where nothing is known to survive. Brightness is transfer quality; empty cells are months lost to time.

JFMAMJJASOND
1942
1943
1944
1945
1946
1947
1948
1949
1950
1951
1952
Clean transferListenableRough but complete No surviving recording

Episodes

Start here

Listen to the run in order

Restored broadcasts from 1944, in original transmission order.

  1. 1. Elmer Fain Tommy Dorsey · 7 Aug 1944
  2. 2. Count Basie Thelma Hopkins · 11 Sep 1944
  3. 3. Count Basie Rochester · 2 Oct 1944
  • Ray Anthony Judd Conlon 1sthalf

    25 Dec 1952 · 14 min

    Transferred from the Internet Archive item 'JubileeOldTimeRadio' (public domain).

  • Gene Krupa Delores Hawkins

    1 Jan 1949 · 30 min

    Transferred from the Internet Archive item 'JubileeOldTimeRadio' (public domain).

  • Dizzy Gillespie Stan Kenton

    10 Dec 1948 · 30 min

    Transferred from the Internet Archive item 'JubileeOldTimeRadio' (public domain).

  • Eddie Gill Orchestra Patty Piper

    6 Aug 1948 · 30 min

    Transferred from the Internet Archive item 'JubileeOldTimeRadio' (public domain).

  • Peggy Lee Dave Barbour

    30 Jul 1948 · 30 min

    Transferred from the Internet Archive item 'JubileeOldTimeRadio' (public domain).

  • Frances Wayne Neal Hefti Quartet

    23 Jul 1948 · 29 min

    Transferred from the Internet Archive item 'JubileeOldTimeRadio' (public domain).

  • Jimmy Witherspoon Ella Fitzgerald

    9 Jul 1948 · 31 min

    Transferred from the Internet Archive item 'JubileeOldTimeRadio' (public domain).

  • Billy Eckstine The Trenner Twins

    2 Jul 1948 · 31 min

    Transferred from the Internet Archive item 'JubileeOldTimeRadio' (public domain).

Same night on the air

14 Nov 1947

Everything else the archive still holds from the night of 14 Nov 1947.

Dick Tracy

Case of the Honorable Mr. Malice

14 Nov 1947 · 13 min

Originally broadcast on Mutual, 14 November 1947. Restored from the Old Time Radio archives.

Molle Mystery Theatre

The Four Fatal Jugglers

14 Nov 1947 · 28 min

Originally broadcast on NBC, 14 November 1947. Restored from the Old Time Radio archives.

Also on AFRS

AFRS in 1942–1952

Other series the network carried while Jubilee was on the air.

Same seasons

variety on the air then

Series in the same genre whose runs overlapped this one.

What it became

Friends in front of a microphone

Jack Benny and Fibber McGee sold intimacy: recurring characters, in-jokes, a house style. The modern hang-out show is the same trick without the script.

Lineage is written by our editors, not inferred from listening data.

Descendants

Working in the tradition of Jubilee

Modern series carrying this form forward.

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