Meeting Information

The Murrow Boys – News Broadcasting During WWII

April 19, 2022
Virtual

Date: Tuesday, April 19
Speaker: Brian Belanger, curator, National Capital Radio & Television Museum
Title: The Murrow Boys – News Broadcasting During WWII
Time: 1:00 p.m. Talk goes from 1:00 - 3:00 p.m. Attendees can sign in any time after 12:30 p.m.

Abstract: Radio news prior to WWII had not been featured prominently. Few newscasts were offered and the ones heard tended to be leisurely commentary on current events rather than “hard” news. That changed dramatically during the War. CBS hired Edward R. Murrow to arrange broadcasts from Europe. He hired young journalists such as Eric Sevareid, Charles Collingwood, and Larry LeSueur. The CBS evening news roundup would take listeners via shortwave radio from city to city to hear the latest developments. (“And, now we take you to London.”) This brought the war viscerally right into American living rooms. Listening to Ed Murrow’s live report standing on the roof of a building in London as bombs are falling around him is difficult to forget, likewise, his description of going along on a British Lancaster bomber on a night bombing run on Berlin. Murrow and three other journalists went with the planes that night and two of them did not return. This talk will describe Murrow and his colleagues and the way they reported the news. Audio clips such as the examples above will be played.

Biography: Brian Belanger is the curator (as a volunteer) at the National Capital Radio & Television Museum in Bowie, Maryland, and was its executive director (also as a volunteer) for approximately a decade. He is a co-editor of Dials and Channels, the museum’s quarterly journal. Prior to his retirement in 2000 from the National Institute of Standards and Technology, he held several senior management positions there, including Deputy Director of the Advanced Technology Program, Liaison to the Department of Defense, and Associate Director of the Center for Electronics and Electrical Engineering. He was a Commerce Department Science and Technology Fellow in 1983 and a recipient of Bronze and Silver medals from the Commerce Department. An electrical engineer, with a bachelor’s degree from Caltech and a Ph.D. from the University of Southern California, Brian is an amateur extra-class ham operator. He serves on the board of directors of the Mid-Atlantic Antique Radio Club and is a co-editor of Radio Age, the club’s journal. He is the recipient of the Antique Wireless Association’s Houck Award for Documentation and the Broadcast History Legend Award of the National Capital Radio & Television Museum.

Questions regarding the meeting? Please email units@aps.org for assistance.

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