October 20, 1932: CBS welcomed radio news journalist Robert Trout on this day in 1932. CBS listeners became Trout's avid followers until he made the jump to CBS-TV. Robert Albert Blondheim, also known as Robert Trout, was born in Wake County, North Carolina. He adopted the name Trout when he started his radio career. His debut in broadcasting was in 1931 as an announcer at WJSV in Alexandria, Virginia. In the summer of 1932 CBS bought WJSV and asked Trout as part of the team. Trout "fireside chat" on-air nickname to regular radio broadcasts of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt during the Great Depression and World War II. (Trout actually credited the genesis of phrase to Harry Butcher, a CBS vice president in Washington.)
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