National Radio Day 2012

Today marks National Radio Day. We first call your attention to this quote from DeSoto Brown's book 'Hawaii Recalls-Selling Romance to America,' from the Radio Heritage Foundation's web site:

"Hawaii was well served by radio. Ordinary people of the 1920's and 30's were exposed for the first time to the sounds of the world's faraway places [like Hawaii] and they liked it. The programs they heard from paradise typically included lovely Hawaiian music, the haunting native language being spoken, and lots of evocative descriptions of the many beauties of the isles. Radio's strong point has always been that it demands the use of the listener's imagination to picture what it's talking about, and this worked very much in favor of Hawaii as the announcer told of being right on the beach at Waikiki with the warm waves lapping the sand almost at the base of the stage itself, the blue skies above, and the trade winds in the palm trees overhead. There's no question that the nights spent dreaming by the radio as it spoke of paradise and played soft tunes of the islands inspired many to make the trip to alohaland to see all this for themselves. The utilization of predominately live entertainment on both local and national radio shows also provided steady and secure employment for musicians, thus keeping that segment of the arts lively and healthy."

The Library of Congress has a special collection of recorded radio broadcasts. Go here for a description.

According to the Imagine Hawaii web site, "The first radio programming in Hawaii was in October of 1920. The audience was very small, in fact it was heard in only one home, alerted to the transmission in advance. The first commercial radio stations were KGU and KDYX. On May 11 of 1922, these two commercial stations came alive. Governor Farrington greeted the first audience. These enterprises grew. By 1929, radio stations were using newly a newly developed recording medium, much like a phonograph record, to prepare and present music and voice. That same year, President Hoover's inaugural address was received in Hawaii and retransmitted by Hawaii Radio station KGU."

Finally, go here for an example of 'Hawaii Calls' that was broadcast on December 29, 1949.