Looking Ahead: The Post-War World

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Broadcast and Commercial Recordings of Speeches and Interviews of World War II-era Personalities.

Winning the Home Front

War-related Entertainment, Propaganda, and Ads Targeting World War II-era Radio Listeners.

G.I. Jive

Popular and Topical Songs of World War II.

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USO Shows, Armed Forces Radio, V-Discs, and Other Morale Efforts Targeting the Military.

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War Reports, News Flashes, and Informational Programs Regarding World War II.

Now Hear This

World War II-era Broadcast and Recording Technology.

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Now Hear This

During World War II, the art of reporting changed from announcing what had happened to describing what was happening, changing listeners' expectations along with it. From Hitler's early invasion threats to the final surrender ceremonies, news became sudden, current, and concise. Although the pace of news slowed at war's end, America's appetite for information intensified. In addition to expecting more news more often, there were (for many Americans anyway) more leisure-time options, more gadgets with which to enjoy it all, and the post-war prosperity to make it possible.

The five radio broadcasts presented here come from original studio transcription disc recordings in the Arthur B. Church - KMBC Radio Collection in the Marr Sound Archives.

Broadcast #1
Even as the war dragged on, home-front listeners looked to the future and a return to normalcy. And just what would the future hold? A lasting peace? United nations? An atomic age? What were America's concerns as the war crept slowly to its conclusion? This General Electric ad from the June 26, 1944 edition of "The World Today," suggests that one concern was "what post-war radio and television sets will be like."

Broadcast #2
Throughout the course of the war, broadcasters mobilized, technology developed, and journalism matured. While covering the war was taxing, reporting the peace proved just as hectic. In a few short years, broadcast journalism had moved away from the dramatizations and after-the-fact commentaries of the 1930s to the eyewitness reports, global transmissions, and orchestrated media spectacles of the war years. This August 14, 1945 broadcast, just minutes after the official word of the Japanese surrender was released by President Truman, finds the CBS newsroom abuzz with clattering teletypes, harried staffers, and Bob Trout directing traffic. Also featured is Washington correspondent Bill Henry reporting on Truman's response, and the national anthem offered as a fitting conclusion.

Broadcast #3
Now in the midst of a welcome but anxious peace, radio began its slow return to normalcy, with war news giving way to singing and dancing, comedy routines, and baseball games. In this Armed Forces Radio broadcast of September 2, 1945, carried by networks worldwide, Bing Crosby sums up the nation's post-war hopes and dreams in what he aptly describes a "Marconi handshake."

Broadcast #4
Following the Allied victory, with both optimism and ingenuity at full bloom, educational programming flourished. One show, "America's Town Meeting of the Air," offered information as well as controversy for more than two decades. The program combined audience participation, a panel of intelligent commentators, and a full spectrum of opinion in a true test of airwave democracy. In this undated post-war broadcast, circa-1946, the topic is "What Does the Returning GI Expect at Home?" The commentator is possibly the most famous and beloved GI of World War II, Bill Mauldin.

Mauldin joined the Army at 18 and began drawing cartoons for his division newsletter; by 22 he was a combat veteran, having participated in the invasions of Sicily and Italy. The next year, Mauldin was drawing full-time for Stars and Stripes, where his one-panel takes on military life, often featuring two regular-guy GIs named Willie and Joe, were enjoyed in every theater of the war. The cartoons' unvarnished truths were as popular with enlisted men as they were unpopular with military brass, who considered Mauldin's work a little too accurate, not to mention anti-officer. One outspoken critic, General George S. Patton, actively tried to censor Mauldin's work. However, after another frontline favorite, Ernie Pyle, sang Mauldin's praises, United Features Syndicate began running his cartoons back home, making him just as popular with home front readers, who had previously seen his work in dog-eared clippings sent back from the front. At war's end and still in his early 20s, Mauldin won a Pulitzer Prize, was on the cover of Time, and had the nation's best-selling book. Mauldin went on to earn fame, and another Pulitzer, as a widely syndicated political cartoonist. But he'll forever be known for Willie and Joe, and for reflecting, as he said, "the humorous situations which come up even when you don't think life could be any more miserable."

Broadcast #5
In 1946, American industry was shifting back to domestic production, and radio was booming. More sets were in more homes than ever before, most Americans relied on radio for news, and radio was now available in six million cars. However, competition was also booming, with the LP, 45, and transistor all introduced within the next year; FM radio on the rise; television slowly creeping into more American homes; and many networks losing their local affiliates. Radio's days were numbered, and within a decade its dominance would all but disappear.

Along with this brave, new media world, 1946 also officially ushered in the atomic age. "Operation Crossroads," the first post-war nuclear tests, were conducted in July 1946, at the Bikini Atoll in the Pacific. This was also the first full-fledged media circus of the post-war era. As much a public relations stunt as scientific endeavor, 242 ships; 156 planes; 25,000 monitoring devices; and 42,000 men (not to mention 5,400 rats, pigs, and goats) took part in the joint military exercise that was heard around the world in one of the most demanding radio broadcasts in the history of the medium. But radio was only part of the story, and Operation Crossroads was also reported through newsreels, print journalism, essays, documentaries, and the new kid on the media block, television. Despite drama and excitement every bit as thrilling as anything from the glory days of radio, the sounds of Operation Crossroads were far overshadowed by its imagery, and this July 1, 1946, broadcast would prove to be one of radio's finales.

Text by Scott O'Kelley, Marr Sound Archives
Digital Audio by Scott Middleton, Marr Sound Archives

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