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May 30, 1935: The Premiere of America's Town Meeting

 

May 30, 1935: NBC aired "America's Town Meeting" for the first time on this day. Changing its name to "America's Town Meeting of the Air," it acted as a discussion forum for public affairs.

NBC never imagined that the program would be such a success and originally only eighteen of Nbc's affiliates carried the premiere show broadcasting from New York City's Town Hall.

 As one of radio's earliest talk shows, America Town Meeting began as a six-week experiment but continued to broadcast for 21 years.  America’s Town Meeting of the Air broadcast on the NBC Blue Network and continued on ABC Radio.
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  1. Charles Reinsch ([email protected])September 10, 2015 at 3:46 PM

    I am searching for the May 30, 1935 program in the series "America's Town Meeting of the Air". That episode was titled "Which Way America: Fascism, Communism, Socialism or Democracy?" A recording of this broadcast existed as late as 1971, as I have an excerpt on an aircheck of a rebroadcast on KRAB-FM, Seattle (now defunct) Oct of 1971. I would like to find a the complete program.

    Any suggestions as to where a copy could be found or obtained? Thank you.

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    1. charles reinschJanuary 22, 2016 at 11:13 AM

      Found it in the National Archives, and you can now hear it at http://www.krab.fm/KRAB-Programs-other.html#ATMA

      Delete

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