1937–1945

When It Went Wrong On Air

The bulletin that breaks the schedule

Radio learned to cover catastrophe by having catastrophe happen to it. Herbert Morrison was at Lakehurst to cut a soft feature about an airship landing; thirty-four seconds later he was describing something no one had ever described into a recording machine, and the disc kept turning while he broke down. Two years on, Chamberlain read a hundred and twenty words from the Cabinet Room and the BBC schedule ceased to exist. On a Sunday afternoon in December 1941 American announcers cut into the dance bands with a wire flash and then had to keep talking for hours with nothing confirmed. What you can hear across these recordings is the invention of a professional register: how to hold a voice steady in front of an open microphone when nobody knows anything yet.

10 recordings · 6 broadcasters