Radio on the Day America Entered World War II and on the Day World War II Ended
by Joseph Gallant notquite@hotmail.com
When radio broadcasting began in the early 1920's, one of the greatest potential services of the new medium would be to keep the nation informed of what was going on in the news and to immediately inform the American people of major news breaks. Yet, until the late 1930's, news on radio was "a little here, a little there."
The gathering war clouds over Europe were the impetus for the networks to finally build-up a comprehensive, world-wide broadcast newsgathering service. By December of 1941, millions of Americans had gotten into the habit of listening to news on the radio, provided by an ever-expanding (and ever-improving) corps of anchors, correspondents, writers, and engineers (although, of course, the term "anchor" wasn't invented until the early 1950's).
December 7th, 1941 dawned like any typical Sunday two and a half weeks before Christmas in that era. Millions of people read their local Sunday newspapers, retail stores in those days not being open on Sundays. Many millions tuned into various programs on radio. At 2:25 P.M. (Eastern Standard Time), a stunning flash would come across the wire services which would change the United States, and the lives of everyone living in it.Most Americans learned about Pearl Harbor from either radio news bulletins that interrupted regular programming, or from people who had heard those bulletins. But what programs were interrupted for those bulletins?
In 1995, the author of this article hosted and narrated "Victory: August, 1945," an hour-long documentary program about the end of World War II on a public-access cable channel in his hometown of Norwood, Massachusetts (near Boston). One of my objectives in research for the program was to find out what radio programs were interrupted or pre-empted when the U.S. got into the war, and when the war ended. I also got my hands on some tapes of actual programming from both December 7, 1941 and August 14, 1945.
Here in Boston, there were at the time of Pearl Harbor, 8 AM radio stations. Using the radio page of the December 7, 1941 Boston Post, these were the programs interrupted for what in many ways remains one of the three most stunning and shocking news bulletins (the assassination of President John Kennedy and the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger being the others) ever to interrupt regular programs.
WEEI was at 590 on the dial back then, owned by and affiliated with CBS. At 2:25 P.M., John Charles Daly broke into a CBS program titled "Spirit of '41" to announce the Japanese attack. Even those, like this author, too young to have been around in 1941 have heard recordings of this bulletin, either in history class (because the teacher played the "I Can Hear It Now" albums narrated by Edward R. Murrow) or in numerous 1991 retrospectives on Pearl Harbor.
WNAC, then located at 1260, was the NBC Red affiliate. Sammy Kaye's "Sunday Serenade" program ("Swing 'n Sway with Sammy Kaye") was just about to end when the Pearl Harbor bulletin broke into the program.
WBZ at 1030 was then the affiliate of NBC Blue. The news from Hawaii broke into a "Great Plays" radio drama, "The Inspector General". "Great Plays" was an hour-long program, starting at 2 P.M. (EST), so the bulletin came about halfway through the broadcast.
WAAB at 1440 (moved to Worcester a year later to comply with FCC duopoly rules then in effect--it and WNAC were under the same ownership) was a Mutual affiliate. The bulletin came just as George Fisher's show was about to conclude.
There were four other stations in Boston at the time, without network affiliation. WORL (a daytimer at 950) was running "The Chopin Hour," from 2 to 2:45, and was to follow it at 2:45 with live broadcast of a reception in honor of Boston-area VFW commander-in-chief Max Singer.
At 2:25, WHDH (850) was wrapping-up "Cavalcade of Song" and was about to begin "Uncle Ned's Radio Varieties"; WCOP (1150) which had just (within the previous week) graduated from daytimer to fulltimer, was in the midst of foreign-language programming; and WMEX (1510) was running "Scandinavian Melodies," which at 2:30 was to give way to a Christian Science program.
Contrary to what young people today might think, the radio networks didn't pre-empt everything the rest of the day to cover the war news. In research for my 1995 V-J documentary, I played some tapes from December 7, 1941 from CBS. "The World Today," a current-events and news program, aired as scheduled at 2:30 (with lots of details on the Pearl Harbor attack), but a little after 3, joined the scheduled New York Philharmonic broadcast, although it was interrupted for news bulletins.
In later times, such a news bulletin would pre-empt everything "until further notice"--as an example, look to the first two days of Desert Storm in 1991, when the major TV networks wiped out regular programming for the first two days of that war.
Although radio news was rapidly maturing in 1941, by the end of the war, it had matured into a dependable and reliable source of the latest developments in what was going on in the world.
As August 14th, 1945 dawned, America and the world awaited Japan's word of surrender. A false flash came across the wires in the wee hours of August 14th, but was premature. As the day grew on, it became obvious that final word of a Japanese surrender would come before the day ended.The radio page of the Boston Post for August 14, 1945 listed what was scheduled to air that day on the seven AM stations in Boston at the time (the eighth, WAAB, had been moved to Worcester since its owner, the Yankee Network, already had WNAC).
Programs originally scheduled to air at 7 P.M.--the hour that President Truman announced Japan's surrender--were as follows (of course, programs on network stations never aired):
WEEI (590) (CBS): "On Your Mark," a sports show with Ted Husing.
WHDH (850) (independent): "Meet The Bands," a program of recorded big-band music.
WORL (950) (independent): "The 920 Club," a program of recorded popular music with disc-jockey chatter.
WBZ (1030) (NBC; it became NBC [formerly NBC-Red] after WAAB moved to Worcester): "The Chesterfield Supper Club," a program of music emceed by a young Perry Como and also featuring the Wesson Brothers.
WCOP (1150) (ABC; it picked-up ABC affiliation after WAAB moved to Worcester): Local news.
WNAC (1260) (Mutual; became Mutual afffiliate after it lost NBC-red to WBZ in the wake of WAAB's move to Worcester): Mutual network news, anchored by Fulton Lewis, Jr.
WMEX (1150) (independent): "Corny Bust Funny," a program of hill-billy music and humor.
The major radio networks pre-empted their evening schedules that night to report on reaction not just from numerous cities in the United States, but other Allied capitals, especially London. Affiliated stations in many large markets contributed reports on celebrations in their cities to whatever network they were affiliated with.
One footnote about the surrender of Japan: According to contemporary press accounts, the major radio networks had reporters in the White House to hear President Truman's announcement (live broadcasting of this statement being prohibited), then ran to open phone lines to let their New York newsrooms learn the official word.
In addition, the networks had planned to carry live the radio speech to the British people from newly-elected Prime Minister Clement Atlee, but were willing to interrupt or pre-empt Mr. Atlee's speech if they got news from their open phone lines to the White House that the surrender had become official.
At 7 P.M. (Eastern War Time), the networks were set to switch to London for Atlee's address, but the American people never got to hear his speech live. According to one press account, CBS' Bob Trout was first to announce the word of Japan's surrender, but a few seconds later, NBC, ABC and Mutual also flashed the word of surrender, all of whom interrupting the bells of Big Ben in London which were to precede Mr. Atlee's speech. A few minutes later, the networks aired recordings of his address.
December 7th, 1941 and August 14th, 1945 were bookends of an era that, besides being the largest and bloodiest military conflict before or since, also saw broadcast journalism come of age.
( Source for Boston radio programs of December 7th, 1941: Radio Page of the Boston Sunday Post, December 7th, 1941 )
( Source for Boston radio programs of August 14th, 1945: Radio Page of the Boston Post, August 14th, 1945 )
Source: The Early Days of Radio Broadcasting, by George H. Douglas
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