1939 in radio

none July 2020 1939 radio television music film The year 1939 saw a number of significant events in radio broadcasting. __TOC__ Events 1 April – The rumor that Hitler is dead sweeps the United States, as millions of CBS radio listeners hear the Führer cut off in mid-speech during a shortwave relay of his address at the dedication of the German battleship Tirpitz in Wilhelmshaven.Shirer William L. William L. Shirer 2011 The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich New York Simon & Schuster 9781451651683 22 April – Premiere of Gian Carlo Menotti's radio opera The Old Maid and the Thief on NBC Radio in New York.https://www.nytimes.com/1939/04/23/archives/new-radio-opera-of-menotti-given-the-old-maid-and-thief-in-one-act.html New Radio Opera of Menotti Given: The Old Maid and Thief in One Act of 14 Scenes, Heard from Radio City Studio Olin Downes Olin Downes The New York Times 1939-04-23 17 June – A trans-Atlantic radio broadcast features coloratura soprano Ewa Bandrowska-Turska singing four songs by Karol Szymanowski from Wawel Castle in Kraków, Poland, for a United States audience on WENR.From Poland https://www.newspapers.com/clip/4012019/from_poland_the_capital_times/ 2016-02-10 The Capital Times 1939-06-16 Madison, Wisconsin 15 Newspapers.com 15 July – Inauguration of DZRH, one of the oldest radio stations in the Philippines. 29 July – In France, with war on the horizon, a package of decrees tightens the state's control of public radio and obliges all private stations to broadcast, unedited, the government's Radio-Journal in place of their own news programmes.Nord Philip France's New Deal: From the Thirties to the Postwar Era Princeton University Press 2012 0691156115 250 7 August – Official test transmissions begin from Radio Andorra. The station is ceremonially inaugurated two days later by the French Minister of Public Works, Anatole de Monzie. September – The French government's radio for schools initiative ends until 1946.Rebecca Scales Radio and the Politics of Sound in Interwar France, 1921–1939 https://books.google.com/books?id=Wxl-CwAAQBAJ&pg=PA159 24 February 2016 Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-10867-7 159 31 August – The Gleiwitz incident, a false flag attack on the German Gliwice Radio Tower by Nazi German troops posing as Poles, is one of several border operations forming Operation Himmler to give a pretext for the invasion of Poland the following day. 1 September – At 18.55 local time BBC engineers receive the order to begin closing down all UK transmitters in preparation for wartime broadcasting: this marks the end of the National and Regional Programmes of the BBC. At 20.15 local time the BBC's Home Service begins transmission: this will be the corporation's only domestic radio channel for the first four months of World War II. 3 September Neville Chamberlain, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, speaking from 10 Downing Street, announces on the BBC at 11.15 local time (10.15 GMT) that "this country is at war with Germany".Frank McDonough Neville Chamberlain, Appeasement, and the British Road to War https://books.google.com/books?id=3tQoAEo9Y6oC&pg=PA89 1998 Manchester University Press 978-0-7190-4832-6 89 Fireside chat by the President of the United States, Franklin D. Roosevelt, On the European War, advocating U.S. neutrality. Prime Minister of Canada Mackenzie King, in English, and Justice Minister Ernest Lapointe, in French, give an international radio address stating the Dominion's intention to declare war.http://www.junobeach.org/e/2/can-eve-eve-war-e.htm%7ctitle=War!%7cpublisher=junobeach.org%7caccessdate=2011-09-15 Canada in the Second World War Juno Beach Centre 2014-02-21 2015-12-10 2021-09-16 https://web.archive.org/web/20210916232657/https://i2.wp.com/www.junobeach.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/cwwii_img_people.jpg?resize=720%2C480&ssl=1 live 6 September – William Joyce makes his first broadcast for German radio, reading the news in English.Mary Kenny Mary Kenny Germany Calling Dublin New Island 2003 18 September – English-language propaganda radio programme Germany Calling is first broadcast to the United Kingdom on medium wave nominally from Reichssender Hamburg station Bremen (via the coastal Norddeich radio station) and by shortwave to the United States. In today's London Daily Express, pseudonymous radio critic Jonah Barrington nicknames the station's English-speaking broadcaster "Lord Haw-Haw". He is probably referring to German playboy journalist Wolf Mittler, who makes a few such broadcasts, but the name transfers to cashiered British Army officer Norman Baillie-Stewart (dismissed in December) and then to American-born Irish-raised William Joyce, with whom it is most associated. Baillie-Stewart and Joyce hold U.K. passports at this time, rendering themselves liable to prosecution for treason. The station also plays jazz music, prohibited on German domestic stations. 19 September – Popular British radio comedy show It's That Man Again with Tommy Handley is first broadcast on the BBC Home service, following trial broadcasts from 12 July.Palmer Alan Palmer Veronica 1992 The Chronology of British History Century Ltd London 385–386 0-7126-5616-2https://www.bbc.co.uk/historyofthebbc/resources/factsheets/1930s.pdf The BBC Story – 1930s 2010-05-31 Known as "ITMA", and also featuring Jack Train and many others, it runs until Handley's death in 1949;Wilmut Roger Roger Wilmut Kindly Leave the Stage!: Story of Variety, 1919–1960 132 https://books.google.com/books?id=niNaAAAAMAAJ 1985 Methuen 978-0-413-48960-9 the performers have initially been evacuated to Bristol. 21 September – WJSV broadcast day: Radio station WJSV in Washington, D.C. records an entire broadcast day for preservation in the United States National Archives. 23 September – Invasion of Poland: The Polskie Radio network comes off the air when German forces fire on its Warsaw studio, terminating a live broadcast of Chopin's Nocturne in Csharp minor, Op. posth. performed by Jewish pianist Władysław Szpilman. Szpilman will survive the Warsaw Ghetto and reinaugurate the station in 1945 by playing the same piece.Applebaum Anne Applebaum Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe 1944-56 2012 Doubleday 978-0-7139-9868-9 New York 181–187 The Raszyn transmitter is destroyed in the invasion. 6 November – Hedda Hopper's Hollywood debuts on radio in the United States with gossip columnist Hedda Hopper as host; the show runs until 1951, making Hopper a powerful figure among the Hollywood elite. 17 November – Radio station ZQI begins broadcasting in Jamaica, initially for an hour a week.Harold Oxley The Jamaican Government's Use of Radio Broadcasting in Economic Development, 1939–1970 https://books.google.com/books?id=SxnQAAAAMAAJ 1975 University of Wisconsin—Madison 118 11 December – Havana, Cuba's CMQ (from 1959, state-owned Radio Rebelde) becomes the first affiliate for the NBC Red Network based outside of the United States and Canada.http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,772121,00.html https://web.archive.org/web/20050115124621/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,772121,00.html dead 15 January 2005 Radio: Cuba Joins 19 December 1939 Time 12 December – James M. Cox gains control of WSB and a 40 percent interest in WAGA, both in Atlanta, Georgia.Cox Purchase WSB, Slated for CBS https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1939/1939-12-15-BC.pdf 25 September 2014 Broadcasting 15 December 1939 22 December – KORN begins broadcasting in Fremont, Nebraska, on 1370 kHz.New KORN, Fremont, Neb. https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1940/1940-01-01-BC.pdf 25 September 2014 Broadcasting 1 January 1940 25 December In his Christmas broadcast on BBC radio, King George VI of the United Kingdom quotes Minnie Louise Haskins' poem "The Gate of the Year".The Eternal Vision: The Ultimate Collection of Spiritual Quotations https://books.google.com/books?id=x3u6Qx2rH0kC&pg=PA516 2002 Hymns Ancient and Modern Ltd 978-1-85311-495-3 516 Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol is read for the first time on American radio (CBS). Debuts Programs 14 January – Honolulu Bound debuts on CBS.Dunning, John. (1976). Tune in Yesterday: The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio, 1925–1976. Prentice-Hall, Inc. 0-13-932616-2. 16 January – I Love a Mystery debuts on west coast NBC stations. 21 January – Brenthouse debuts on the Blue Network in the United States. 23 January – Doc Barclay's Daughters debuts on CBS. 13 February – The Carters of Elm Street debuts on NBC. 19 February – Norman Corwin's radio series Words Without Music is premiered on the CBS Radio Network. 25 March – Arch Oboler's Plays debuts on NBC. 3 April – Mr. District Attorney (1939–1952) debuts on NBC. 7 April – Author, Author debuts on Mutual. 29 May – The Affairs of Anthony debuts on the Blue Network. 29 May – When a Girl Marries debuts on CBS. 5 June – Caroline's Golden Store debuts on NBC. 18 June – The Adventures of Ellery Queen (1939–1948) debuts on CBS.Dunning, John. (1998). On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio. Oxford University Press. 978-0-19-507678-3. P. 8. 2 July – The Aldrich Family debuts on NBC. 3 July – Blondie debuts on CBS. 4 July – Alec Templeton Time debuts on NBC. 12 July – It's That Man Again debuts on the BBC Home Service. 6 August – The Dinah Shore Show debuts on the Blue Network. 3 September – Let the People Sing by J. B. Priestley, written for radio and read by the author.H. Chignell Public Issue Radio: Talks, News and Current Affairs in the Twentieth Century https://books.google.com/books?id=QVjwmj2evkIC&pg=PT50 2 September 2011 Springer 978-0-230-34645-1 50 11 September – Brenda Curtis debuts on CBS. 25 September – Singing Together debuts on BBC Radio schools service (1939–2001). 2 October – The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes debuts on the Blue Network (1939–1950).Dickerson Ian Ian Dickerson Sherlock Holmes and His Adventures on American Radio BearManor Media 2019 978-1629335087 7 October – Art for Your Sake debuts on NBC. 9 October – By Kathleen Norris debuts on CBS. 16 October – Against the Storm debuts on NBC. 17 October – Captain Midnight debuts on WGN. 19 October – Don Winslow of the Navy debuts on the Blue Network. 25 December – The Bartons debuts on the Blue Network. Stations 28 July – KVAK, Atchison, Kansas, begins broadcasting on 1420 kHz with 100 W power (daytime only).New KVAK on the Air https://www.worldradiohistory.com/hd2/IDX-Business/Magazines/Archive-BC-IDX/39-OCR/1939-09-01-BC-OCR-Page-0089.pdf 20 September 2016 Broadcasting 1 September 1939 89 25 December – The Bartons debuts on the Blue Network. October - KOVO 960 (then at 1210) signs on the air from Provo, Utah.https://cdbs.recnet.com/corres/?doc=37261 April 18, 2024 Federal Communications Commission KOVO History Cards December – WCAR, Pontiac, Michigan, begins broadcasting on 1100 kHz with 1 KW power (daytime only).WCAR, Pontiac, Mich. Takes Air on 1100 kc. https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1940/1940-01-01-BC.pdf 20 May 2016 Broadcasting 1 January 1940 22 Endings 27 February – Alias Jimmy Valentine ends its run on network radio (Blue Network in the US). 7 May – Americans All, Immigrants All ends its run on network radio (CBS). 30 June Central City ends its run on network radio (NBC Red). Howie Wing ends its run on network radio (CBS). 28 July – Her Honor, Nancy James ends its run on network radio (CBS). 7 September – Radio Normandy signs off for the last time. 8 September – Calling All Cars ends its run on network radio (CBS West Coast network). Births 23 January – Vincent Duggleby, English personal finance radio presenter. 3 March – Larry Burkett (died 2003), American evangelical Christian author and radio personality. 4 March – Keith Skues, English radio presenter. 19 March – Bob Kingsley (died 2019), American country music personality. 7 May – David Hatch (died 2007), English radio executive and performer. 30 August – John Peel, born John Ravenscroft (died 2004), English DJ. 19 September – Louise Botting, English radio presenter and businesswoman. 18 December – Alex Bennett, born Bennett Schwarzmann, American talk show host. Deaths 9 March – Ernie Hare, American singer, known for The Happiness Boys, 55John Dunning On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio https://archive.org/details/onairencyclop00dunn registration 7 May 1998 Oxford University Press 978-0-19-977078-6 309 16 June – Chick Webb, American jazz drummer, 34Scenes as 7500 Attend Chick Webb Benefit https://books.google.com/books?id=8E9AAAAAIBAJ&pg=3755%2C6412611 news.google.com The Afro American 16 January 2019 8 17 February 1940Gerald Nachman Raised on Radio https://books.google.com/books?id=hpywoSI2au4C&pg=PA177 23 August 2000 University of California Press 978-0-520-22303-5 177 20 July – Sir Dan Godfrey, English conductor, 71Christopher H. Sterling Encyclopedia of Radio 3-Volume Set https://books.google.com/books?id=-UeveLMilioC&pg=PA344 2 December 2003 Routledge 978-1-135-45649-8 344 6 December – Charles Dalmorès, French tenor, 68Charles Dalmores, Former Opera Tenor. French Singer First Appeared in New York in 1906 https://www.nytimes.com/1939/12/07/archives/charles-dalmores-former-opera-tenor-french-singer-first-appeared-in.html Charles Dalmores, formerly famous as an operatic tenor in the United States and Europe, died today in the Hollywood Hospital after a stroke. ... The New York Times 7 December 1939 2013-12-14 Richard W. Barber King Arthur in Music https://books.google.com/books?id=l6YC6XAvmL4C&pg=PA64 2002 DS Brewer 978-0-85991-767-4 64 19 December – Eric Fogg, English composer and conductor, 36 (killed by Underground train)The Listener https://books.google.com/books?id=m15BAQAAIAAJ July 1939 British Broadcasting Corporation 1270 References Category:Radio by year