WOLF HOWL-L-L RADIO
  Welcome to the newest feature of your website called WOLF HOWL-L-L Radio. Every few months I will try and update this section with music, news and radio shows from WWII.

The majority of these recordings will come from transcriptions made by the AFRS, Armed Forces Radio Service, of original radio shows and news

 
programs aired during WWII in the US. AFRS would send these recordings on 16-inch vinyl discs overseas to the AFN, American Forces Network. The AFN would then broadcast the recordings from both fixed transmitters at headquarter bases and mobile rigs in combat areas in all theaters of the war bringing a little bit of home to the GI’s

In order to give you a better feel for the technology of WWII, you will hear these recordings the same way the GI’s heard them with all the crackle, pops, and gaps in transmission. This is a far cry from today’s digital clarity.

Our first selections come from the news front. Sixty years ago, WWII came to an end with the surrender of Japan. The radio clips below are a cross section of news broadcasts from August 1945. They illustrate the anxiety in this country as it awaited the surrender of Japan and the high-spirited happiness when it was finally announced that the war had ended.

 
Gabriel Heatter – VJ Day Broadcast

Yes there really was a broadcaster called Gabriel Heatter. He was a syndicated WWII broadcaster with the same stature as Edward R. Murrow, Eric Sevareid, or Lowell Thomas. Every evening he kept our ears glued to the radio set for the latest news of the war. In this radio clip he tells of the uncertainty in Japan as they try to come to grips with loosing the war and accept the surrender offer from the US.

Click on the radio to Play (3:35 min – 1.23mb)

   
The Mutual News Network – VJ Day Reports

This broadcast starts during a music program and then from the Mutual news room an announcement is made that Japan surrenders. Follow up on the scene reports come from on top the United Artists Theatre in downtown Chicago, London, the rooftop of the Times Star building in Cincinnati, and the CBS newsroom in New York.

Click on the radio to Play (17:31 min – 6.01mb)

NBC News Announces the End of the War

From the NBC newsroom in New York, President Truman announces the acceptance of the Potsdam surrender terms.

Click on the radio to Play (5:50 min – 1.89 mb)

 
CBS World News Today
with Robert Trout
Sunday August 19, 1945

The US Fleet is in Sagami Bay setting up arrangements for the surrender and occupation of Japan. The 3rd Fleet is waiting to enter Tokyo harbor while its aircraft fly an air umbrella over Japan looking for POW camps.

Also reports on the new Atomic Energy and who will control it, Conditions in the Far East and Japan, the termination of Lend Lease with England and it affects, General De Gaul’s visit to the US and the capture of Gen Yamashita.

Click on the radio to Play (51:04 min – 17.5mb)

WWII in Review

A sound synopsis of WWII told in both news clips and music from the dark days of Pearl Harbor to the final victory over Japan.

Click on Radio to Play (1:18:30 min – 71.9mb)