If you're interested in a trade, please email me at info@radiowasbetter.com.

Please note that there are also several "regular" airchecks of 1930s and 1940s New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago radio listed under the corresponding state listing.

Note that these are not in chronological order.  They're just in the order I acquired them.

The latest material on this list is everything under #1, World War II Broadcasts, below and was added on May 4, 2008.

1. World War II Broadcasts.

   1. December 6, 7, 8, & 11, 1941 CBS Broadcasts.  Begins with a newscast by CBS News from the day before covering the major issues around the world this day.  (188 minutes/HD)

   2. December 7 & 8, 1941 NBC Broadcasts.

      1. Non-network-specific or combined network NBC broadcasts.  (59 minutes/HD)

      2. NBC Red Network-specific broadcasts.  (568 minutes/HD)

      3. NBC Blue Network-specific broadcasts.  (324 minutes/HD)

   3. December 7, 1941.  Brief clip of a football game broadcast on WOR being interrupted to announce the Pearl Harbor attack.  (30 seconds/HD)

   4. December 7, 1941.  BBC newscaster Alvar Lidell announces the attack on Pearl Harbor.  (1 minute/HD)

   5. December 7, 1941.  Mayor Fiorello Laguardia addresses New York City over WNYC radio.  (9 minutes/HD)

   6. December 8, 1941.  Address by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill about the attack on Pearl Harbor.  (21 minutes/HD)

   7. June 6, 1944.  Collection of news clips on NBC and CBS reporting on the German broadcasts announcing the beginning of the Allied invasion of Europe.  Early on, these news reports from Germany are continually reported as unconfirmed by Allied headquarters in London or the War Department in Washington.  Heard are Morgan Beatty, Robert St. John, Richard Harkness, and Bob Trout.  (32 minutes/HD)

   8. June 6, 1944.  Lowell Thomas News reporting on the invasion.  (12 minutes/HD)

   9. June 6, 1944.  BBC newscast, including some coded "messages for our friends in occupied countries," reporting on the Allied capture of Rome, Eisenhower's D-Day announcement, Churchill's well-wishes to the Allied forces, a brief announcement in French, and reporting from the battlefield.   (12 minutes/HD)

   10. June 6, 1944 CBS Broadcast Day.  Covers Eisenhower's pre-D-Day announcement, President Roosevelt's Fireside Chat from the day before about the fall of Rome, and most of the coverage by CBS News (referred to mostly as "Columbia's" coverage) on June 6.  Runs roughly 3:00 a.m. to 12 midnight, but not continuously.  Pretty cool stuff, and really not that much different in form from what we get today.  Reading of raw news off the wire interspersed with commentary by both CBS correspondents at home and in Europe and former and current military officers serving as analysts.   (557 minutes/HD)

   11. June 6, 1944 NBC Broadcast Day.  Partial coverage of NBC's broadcasts of the D-Day invasion.  (248 minutes/HD)

   12. June 7, 1944, CBS Broadcasts.  A little less than two hours' worth of regular CBS programming beginning at 12 noon with Kate Smith's show on the day after D-Day.  The programs are interrupted and sometimes preempted for invasion coverage.  (117 minutes/HD)

   13. June 7, 1944.  Recorded report from George Hicks aboard the USS Ancon describing first-hand the action at Normandy.  (14 minutes/HD)

   14. June 8, 1944.  CBS News.  Recorded Charles Collingwood report from a Normandy beach from June 6.  (15 minutes/HD)

   15. June 9, 1944.  Mutual Broadcasting System news carrying BBC's Radio Newsreel.  Fair quality.  (13 minutes/HD)

   16. August 10, 1945, NBC/WEAF Broadcast Day.   Almost continuous recording from 11:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. this day.  Coverage of the first news of the surrender of Japan along with regular NBC programming.   (about 800 minutes/HD)

   17. "14 August" by Norman Corwin.  From CBS.  "A message for the day of victory by Norman Corwin.  Spoken by Orson Welles."  (16 minutes/HD)

2. "Christmas on the Blue." From December 25, 1944. At one time NBC had two networks, known as the "Red Network" and the "Blue Network." The Blue eventually became ABC when NBC was forced to divest itself of the Blue for antitrust reasons. This recording contains "Two full hours of the greatest Entertainment has to offer, brought to you by the Blue Network from Hollywood, New York, San Francisco, Paris, Pearl Harbor, and the European Battlefront. To make your Christmas a merrier one, you'll hear Paul Whiteman and his orchestra, Wendell Niles and Don Krendle, Lawrence Tibbets and Reese Stevens, Walter Winchell, the Andrews Sisters, Alan Young, The 'Life of Riley,' starring William Bendix, Andy Russell, Charlotte Greenwood, the Fred Waring Chorus, Ed Wynn and his son Keenan, Joe E. Brown, the Paul Taylor Chorus, Herbert Marshall, Westbrook van Voorhis, the famous voice of the March of Time, who will introduce our fighting men and women who are spending Christmas on far-flung battlefronts all around the world, and last, but not least, the woman who heads our cast of over 200 actors, singers, and musicians, our mistress of ceremonies, known to servicemen everywhere as "Our Gracie," Gracie Fields!" (112 minutes, tapes 334-335/CD128/HD)

3. Bill Stern's Colgate Shaving Cream Sports News. On NBC, from 1946. These were short sports shows that also featured the appearance of a name entertainer. The four here feature (about 14 minutes each) Lucille Ball, Tommy Dorsey, Elsa Maxwell, and Dinah Shore. (56 minutes, tape 380/HD)

4. Airplane Crashes into the Empire State Building.  A compilation of coverage by ABC (about 3 minutes) and NBC (24 minutes over WEAF) of the event that occurred on July 28, 1945 where a B-25 Mitchell bomber crashed into the 78th and 79th floors of the Empire State Building.  On NBC, there is Don Goddard interviewing by phone a man named Bill Kirby of the Grant Advertising Agency whose office was on the 76th floor, NBC's Herb Sheldon interviewing two eyewitnesses to the event, NBC's Charlie Vail reporting from the site, and general reporting by NBC's Ray Barrett. (27 minutes, tape 546/CD139/HD)

5. Breakfast Club with Don McNeill. From WLS in Chicago, from June 21, 22, 23, and 24, 1945.  Each show is 14 minutes.  (54 minutes total, tape 1521/HD)

6. 7th War Bond Drive.  A tribute to Glen Miller with many big band stars heard at 8:00 p.m. on June 5, 1945 over WNEW in New York.  (219 minutes, tapes 1522-1525/HD)

7. Breakfast Club with Don McNeill.  From NBC in Chicago on December 8, 1941.  Features numerous interruptions for war bulletins.  (59 minutes, unscoped, tape 1520/HD)

8. Sammy Kaye Sunday Serenade.  For the first 30 minutes, anyway.  On NBC.  From December 7, 1941.  After 30 minutes, initial reports about the bombing of Pearl Harbor that morning begin to come in.  Then there is a roundtable discussion from the University of Chicago entitled "Canada:  Neighbor at War."  (87 minutes, unscoped, tape 1526/HD)

9. Selective Service Lottery.  From October 29, 1940 on the Mutual Broadcasting System.  Implementation of the Selective Service Act of 1940 establishing the first peacetime draft.  FDR gives a speech and then draws the first number.  Announcers include Walter Compton and Stephen McCormick.  One of the announcers' numbers is actually called, but he doesn't realize it until later (toward the end of the recording).  Very dramatic!  (44 minutes, tape 1542/CD139/HD)

10. In Town Tonight.  From January 24, 1940.  On NBC.  Variety show with Cliff Engle and Helen Morgan and featuring interviews with Jack Benny's secretary and writers.  From the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco. (15 minutes, tape 1542/HD)

11. Raleigh's Radio Rally.  From the late 1930s on NBC.  A variety show hosted by Ken Griffin and featuring the First Nighter, Dale Evans, Rex Moffen and his band, and others, and brought to you by Raleigh Cigarettes.  (29 minutes, unscoped, tape 1535/HD)

12. The War is Over!  From August 11 and August 15, 1945.  A dial scan of the major networks on the end of World War II.  (55 minutes, tape 1527/CD139-mp3/CD 153-audio/HD)

13. This Is WCBS.  From November 2, 1946.  A documentary about the radio station at 880 on the a.m. dial in New York City on the occasion of its change of call letters, which had been WABC since 1926.  (The WABC calls went to the station we know now as WABC, at 770 on the dial, with the formation of the ABC network from the former NBC Blue Network.)  Hosted by Arthur Godfrey, who notes that this is the first time a radio station changed its call letters to reflect the network that owns it.  Mr. Godfrey assures his listeners that this will continue to be the same radio station they know and love.  (31 minutes, unscoped, tape 1535/CD139/HD)

14. Harrington & Wood.  From WCBS in New York from October 4, 1948.  Program featuring live music with Norm Brokenshier.  There are some tape speed problems (warble) near the beginning of the tape.  (15 minutes, tape 1542/HD)

15. Steve Allen on KNX, Los Angeles.  From October 26, 1949.  Humorist Steve Allen interviews Al Jolson.  (31 minutes, unscoped, tape 1528/HD)

16. WJSV Complete Broadcast Day.  From Thursday, September 21, 1939.  President Franklin Roosevelt gave a speech to Congress this day, and station WJSV, 1460 AM in Washington, DC decided to preserve the entire day's broadcast, from sign-on at 6 a.m. to sign-off at 1:00 a.m. the following morning, to commemorate it.  To see a complete, hour-by-hour program schedule, click here.  Note that this recording is contained entirely on one CD in .mp3 format, so you need either an .mp3 player or a computer with the capability to play .mp3 files.  If you would like a copy of this, you will get an exact copy on one CD.  (19 hours, approximately 262 megabytes, CD129/HD).

17. NBC News Broadcast, 3:32 a.m., June 6, 1944.  D-Day!  Robert St. John of NBC reports on the first bulletins to reach the U.S. about the Normandy invasion that had just begun.  Mr. St. John, who was born in 1902 and was thus 42 years old at the time of this broadcast, lived to be 100 years old and died in early 2003 just a month or so before his 101st birthday.  (23 minutes, CD278/HD)

18. Dr. John Romulus Brinkley. The famous medical quack and flim-flam artist from the 1920s and 30s who broadcast first on KFKB ("Kansas Folks Know Best" or "Kansas First, Kansas Best," depending upon whom you ask) in Milford, Kansas and then on several early Texas border blasters.  Read about him here.

    I have several items:

    1. Recording tests from 1939. Saturday night talk excerpt. Pickard family music excerpts. (27 minutes, CD 415/HD)

    2. XERA transcriptions from 1939. Dr. Brinkley talking, Pickard family music, commercials. (30 minutes, CD 415/HD)

    3. Two broadcasts with filler music from 1939. Among other things, Dr. Brinkley asks you to send him $2.00 for a "medicated container" kit on how to extract a sample excretion from your kidneys and send it to the Country Club Hospital in Little Rock, Arkansas for tests. (31 minutes, CD418/HD)

    4. Saturday Night Talk from October 1, 1939 (about 13 minutes). A message to Johnny Boy from August 23, 1933 (not complete — about 5 minutes' worth). (18 minutes, CD 418/HD)

    5. From XERA, 1939-1941. Also includes some XERA spots. These were originally recorded from transcription discs, and there are some skips and crackles, but these are quite listenable. (29 minutes, CD419/HD)

    6. Dr. Brinkley greeting you for 1939. (15 minutes, HD)

    7. Dr. Brinkley pitches the new Dilley Aircraft plant opening up in Kansas as a source of new jobs. (10 minutes/HD)

19. The Carter Family.  From XET, Monterrey, Mexcio.  1939.  Recorded from transcription disks.  All are nice quality considering the age.  All feature the Carter Family theme, "Keep on the Sunny Side," and all feature at least one XET station identification ("XET from down Monterrey way!").  June Carter (later June Carter Cash, the portrayal of whom by Reese Witherspoon in the 2005 movie "Walk the Line" won her the Oscar for best actress) is among the family members.  She was 10 years old at the time.

    I have three disks:

    1. Disk 1:  27 songs totaling 1:03:35.  (CD429/HD)

    2. Disk 2:  26 songs totaling 1:03:01.  (CD430/HD)

    3. Disk 3:  25 songs totaling 1:06:11.  (CD431/HD)