Podcast Summary: Harold's Old Time Radio

Episode: Farewell To Studio 9

Date: August 17, 2025
Host: Harold's Old Time Radio

Overview

This episode is a moving retrospective and tribute to the legendary CBS Radio News Studio 9, as CBS moves out of its iconic Manhattan location. The episode brings together the voices and memories of the correspondents who made broadcasting history in the 20th century, spanning the rise of radio news, World War II, the Cold War, and landmark events through to the 1960s. Through recollections and original broadcast excerpts, the episode celebrates radio’s critical role in reporting momentous events to a nation, and honors the personalities who made Studio 9 the birthplace of modern broadcast journalism.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Significance of Studio 9

• Physical Description & Sentimentality
  Robert Trout describes Studio 9 as "not remarkable at all ... not the handsomest radio studio, not the most modern, not lovely at all. But for those who have worked here, it has a charm all its own. We shall miss it."
  (03:00)

• CBS News Moving to New Headquarters
  The transition from 52nd Street & Madison Avenue in New York to new facilities is a symbolic end of an era. Studio 9 is being retired, but its legacy endures in the countless historic broadcasts it hosted.

2. The Pioneers and Their Iconic Moments

Edward R. Murrow

• Reporting the London Blitz (Excerpt: 06:40)

  “This is London. I'm standing again tonight on a rooftop looking out over London, feeling rather large and lonesome... There's an ominous silence hanging over London. But at the same time a silence that has a great deal of dignity... There are a great many ghosts around these buildings in London.” (06:40)

• Recollections of Wartime Broadcasting
  Murrow recounts the difficulties of getting broadcast approval from British censors and the less-than-glamorous BBC studio, which "had once been the ladies lavatory." (10:00)

• First News Broadcast Experience Murrow humorously recalls an impromptu situation after a CBS party in which a colleague covered for him on-air.

  “If this is being recorded, I don't remember anything about it … And you gave me the watch a minute early and we left 45 seconds of dead air at the end.” (14:00)

• The Berlin Bombing Run: "Orchestrated Hell" (Excerpt: 17:30)

  “The small incendiaries were going down like a fistful of white rice thrown on a piece of black velvet... Berlin was a kind of orchestrated hell. A terrible symphony of light and flame.” (17:30)

• On Live Reporting and News Association Challenges
  Early radio reporters like Murrow faced institutional hurdles, such as press associations refusing radio access, and admonished listeners: “For further details, read your daily newspaper.” (15:30)

• Visiting Buchenwald Concentration Camp (Excerpt: 21:25)

  “As I walked down to the end of the barracks, there was applause from the men too weak to get out of bed. It sounded like the hand clapping of babies... If I have offended you by this rather mild account of Buchenwald, I am not in the least sorry.” (21:25)

  Robert Trout notes: “Listening to that, Ed, makes me realize again how radio came to be the magnificent medium that it is.” (25:00)

Elmer Davis

• Analytical Reporting on Nazi Ideology (Excerpt: 28:00)

  “What they call mental confusion is what the rest of us call freedom of thought. The liberty of the mind to work over everything and come to its own conclusions.” (28:00)

• Murrow lauds Davis’s “ability to compress and condense without distorting... great brevity and great clarity. His was a genius.” (29:00)

H.V. Kaltenborn

• Personal Memories and Societal Impact of the Sudeten Crisis (Excerpt: 31:00)

  “People carried radios all over with them ... because they were listening to the crisis and didn't want to lose a minute of it.” (31:00)

• On the Shift to International Awareness

  “For the first time, the entire country was aware of the fact that the actions of one of these dictators over there in Europe could plunge this country into... a world war.” (32:15)

• Challenges During Isolationist America Kaltenborn recalls the difficulties of getting an overseas prayer for peace on-air, squeezed out by the Kentucky Derby. (34:30)

• FDR’s Third Term Deliberations (Excerpt: 37:45)

  “There has been a contest of wits between the President of the United States and the Washington reporters ... He has sought by banter, persiflage, clever answer, smiles and occasional silence not to tell them.” (37:45)

Eric Sevareid

• Reporting from Paris as the Nazis Approached (Excerpt: 41:30)

  “The life just simply ran out of the city. It was like a beautiful woman lying in a coma, with her lifeblood just draining out through every vein, every street.” (44:30)

• On Panic and Escape from Paris Sevareid’s firsthand descriptions illustrate the chaos and symbolism of the French government’s retreat and the streets emptying as the Germans advanced. (44:00–46:30)

William L. Shirer

• Eyewitness to French Surrender at Compiegne (Excerpt: 48:00)

  “We watch them entering the drawing room ... The atmosphere is what Europeans call correct. But you get the picture when I say that we see no handshakes, not on occasions like this.” (48:00)

• Scoop by Chance
  Shirer details how his intuition and decision to stay at Compiegne gave CBS the world scoop on the French armistice, even before Hitler allowed the Germans to release the news. (50:00)

John Daly

• Breaking Pearl Harbor News (Excerpt: 53:00)

  “We interrupt this program to bring you a special news bulletin. The Japanese have attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii by air.” (53:00)

• Reporting FDR’s Death (Excerpt: 55:30)

  “We interrupt this program to bring you a special news bulletin from CBS World News. A press association has just announced that President Roosevelt is dead.” (55:30)

• Personal Connection to Roosevelt Daly recounts the closeness White House reporters felt for FDR, amplifying the shock of his passing. (56:30)

Charles Collingwood

• Paris Liberation (Excerpt: 59:00)

  “The entry into Paris was one of the most moving things that I have ever experienced. The sense of liberation, the great welcome for General de Gaulle ... was fantastic.” (59:00)

• German Surrender (Excerpt: 01:03:22)

  “General Yodel said in a voice that choked and almost broke: With this signature, the German people and the German armed forces are, for better or worse, delivered into the victor’s hands ...” (01:03:22)

• Reflections on History and Memory Collingwood wonders:

  “I wonder if younger people listening to these records, and knowing what they are, that they’re history not written in a book but as it was being lived—I wonder if they get an emotion as I do. Or I wonder if they would just consider it a kind of curiosity...” (01:05:00)

3. Studio 9 and the March of History

• Postwar Events and the Cold War
  Studio 9 was not only home to war coverage, but also to news of the Berlin Airlift, the Korean War (Robert Pierpoint’s battlefield reporting, 01:11:00), the atomic bomb test (Dallas Townsend, 01:12:30), the launch of Sputnik, and Alan Shepard’s flight into space (01:13:30).

• Global and Ecclesiastical Events Coverage included conclaves from Rome and the election of a new Pope (Winston Burdett, 01:14:40), and other historic moments from around the world.

• Assassination of John F. Kennedy (Excerpt: 01:16:25)

  “We interrupt this program for a CBS radio Net alert bulletin. President Kennedy and Governor John Connolly of Texas were both hit by a would-be assassin’s bullets as they toured downtown Dallas in an open automobile a short while ago.” (01:16:25)

  The emotional challenge of reporting such tragic, world-shaking news is palpable, with the hesitance and depth described by the correspondents as they recall the dreadful responsibility of breaking the confirmation of JFK’s death. (01:20:00)

4. Studio 9’s Legacy and Farewell

• Political Reporting Studio 9’s tenure ran through countless political upheavals, such as the 1964 Republican Convention, broadcast in real time. (01:22:55)

• Personal Reflections from Veteran Correspondents

  • John Daly: “I was brung up in this room … I learned much of my trade here. I sit around this table, I think of the careers that started here.” (01:24:00)
  • H.V. Kaltenborn: “I feel that it was a great opportunity for radio. And I'm only happy that I was one of the minor instruments in voicing it for the American people.”
    (01:25:00)
  • Edward R. Murrow: “Very difficult to put it into words, Bob. ... I know exactly where the leather couch was, how you used to swing that microphone around … I'm wondering about your new quarters ... if they will make it any easier to know what to say and how to say it. I rather doubt it.” (01:26:00)

• Final Reflections Studio 9, as Trout notes, witnessed "three decades" of history and broadcast journalism. As the “electric current dies and the microphones grow cold,” Studio 9 itself becomes a part of American historical memory. (01:28:00)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments (with Timestamps)

• Edward R. Murrow on the London Blitz:
  “There are a great many ghosts around these buildings in London. In some of them, companies of ghosts.”
  (06:40)

• Murrow on Experiencing Buchenwald:
  “If I have offended you by this rather mild account of Buchenwald, I am not in the least sorry.”
  (21:25)

• Elmer Davis on Freedom of Thought:
  “What they call mental confusion is what the rest of us call freedom of thought.”
  (28:15)

• Eric Sevareid on Paris’ Fall:
  “It was like a beautiful woman lying in a coma, with her life blood just draining out through every street.”
  (44:30)

• William Shirer on the French Surrender:
  “We see Hitler stand up, salute stiffly with hand up raised, then slides out of the drawing room ... The French sit there with marble like faces.”
  (48:00)

• John Daly, breaking Pearl Harbor:
  “We interrupt this program to bring you a special news bulletin. The Japanese have attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii by air.”
  (53:00)

• John Daly, announcing FDR’s death:
  “We interrupt this program to bring you a special news bulletin from CBS World News. A press association has just announced that President Roosevelt is dead.”
  (55:30)

• Breaking News: JFK Assassination:
  “The President of the United States is dead. John F. Kennedy has died of the wounds received in an assassination in Dallas less than an hour ago.”
  (01:20:00)

Structure and Flow

1. Opening and Purpose – Farewell and commemoration of Studio 9, the birthplace of CBS News.
2. Recollections by CBS Veterans – Re-living the core moments and groundbreaking broadcasts of Edward R. Murrow, Elmer Davis, H.V. Kaltenborn, Eric Sevareid, William Shirer, John Daly, Charles Collingwood, and others.
3. Historic Excerpts – Integrated excerpts from major broadcasts: the Blitz, D-Day, Buchenwald, surrender of France and Germany, Pearl Harbor, FDR and JFK deaths, and milestones of the Cold War.
4. The Evolution of News and Society – Reflections on radio’s rise, social change, and the enduring importance of on-the-spot reporting.
5. Final Farewells and Reflections – Emotional reminiscence from newsmen shaped by Studio 9, and recognition of its place in American history.

Concluding Tone

The episode is characterized by deep nostalgia, pride in radio’s journalistic achievements, and a recognition of the fleeting but powerful nature of both history and the institutions that report it. The voices of Studio 9 are memorialized not just as chroniclers of events, but as shapers of public understanding and national sentiment.

Farewell to Studio 9 stands as an affectionate, profound, and historically rich tribute—blending storytelling, primary-source audio, and thoughtful dialogue for fans of radio’s “golden age” and for anyone interested in how modern news was born and broadcast to the world.