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Posted by: Matthew Barton
Every year, for nearly two months, radio stations fill the air with great Christmas music from what seems to be a bottomless well of recordings. It’s an eclectic mix that draws on songs from the 1930s to the present, but the sounds of Christmas on the radio once went far beyond this. In the 1930s …
Posted in: Christmas, NBC Television Collection, Radio, Recorded Sound Research Center, World War II
Posted by: Karen Fishman
This post was written by Matt Barton, curator, Recorded Sound Section. Born in the early 1920s, Bob Elliot (1923-2016) and Ray Goulding (1922 – 1990), better known as “Bob and Ray,” never knew a world without radio, and reveled in the medium from early childhood. They became professional announcers while still in their teens, eventually …
Posted in: Comedy, NBC Radio Collection, Radio, Recorded Sound
Posted by: Karen Fishman
This blog post was written by Matt Barton, curator of the Recorded Sound Section. On September 18, 2009, The Guiding Light ended a television run that began June 30, 1952, and a broadcast history that began on radio on January 25, 1937. The show’s run covered 72 Thanksgivings in all, but as we’ll see, the …
Posted in: Daytime Serials, NBC Radio Collection, NBC Television Collection, Radio, Recorded Sound Research Center, Television
Posted by: Karen Fishman
This blog post was written by Matt Barton, curator of the Recorded Sound Section. Rex Stout (1886-1975) remains well known as the creator of Nero Wolfe, the blunt, erudite and mostly housebound detective with a passion for orchids and fine food. Stout wrote thirty-three novels and forty-one novellas from 1934 to 1975 detailing the exploits …
Posted in: NBC Radio Collection, Radio, Recorded Sound
Posted by: Matthew Barton
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech has been seen and heard countless times since he gave it on August 28, 1963 at the climax of the March on Washington, and a review of the radio coverage of it, including the prelude and aftermath can bring us closer to the whole experience of that day in its many parts, and maybe even to grasp the feelings of the marchers themselves.
Posted in: Civil Rights, National Audio-Visual Conservation Center, Radio, Recorded Sound, Recorded Sound Research Center
Posted by: Karen Fishman
This blog post was written by Matt Barton, curator of the Recorded Sound Section. When The Mystery Chef and his eponymous radio program first appeared on NBC’s Boston affiliate WBZ in May of 1930, they were an almost immediate hit, and were soon being heard nationally over the network. The Great Depression was hitting hard …
Posted in: NBC Radio Collection, Radio, Recorded Sound
Posted by: Matthew Barton
As detailed in the previous blog post, VE Day – Take One, Monday, May 7, 1945, was a day of confusion and restrained celebration for CBS Radio and the news media in general. Tuesday, May 8, however, brought clarity and all out jubilation. Speaking simultaneously from Washington, DC and London, England, President Harry S. Truman …
Posted in: CBS Radio, Radio, Recorded Sound, Recorded Sound Research Center
Posted by: Matthew Barton
The Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) and other radio networks all covered the last hours of World War II in Europe in depth, and these recordings are preserved in the Library of Congress, where they are available for listening in the Recorded Sound Research Center in Washington, DC, when the Library reopens it’s doors. CBS’s coverage of …
Posted in: CBS Radio, Radio, Recorded Sound Research Center
Posted by: Karen Fishman
This blog post was written by Matt Barton, curator of the Recorded Sound Section. Margaret Rupli (also known as Margaret Rupli Woodward, 1910 – 2012), a native of Washington, DC, had a long and distinguished career in public service. Her career as a war correspondent for NBC radio was much shorter, lasting only from January …
Posted in: NBC Radio Collection, Radio, Recorded Sound