SEATTLE NEWS ARCHIVES & FEATURES
Remembering D-Day on radio
Jun 5, 2013, 7:13 PM | Updated: 7:16 pm
Seattle historian Feliks Banel came by the Ron and Don Show Wednesday to share some of the dramatic recordings of the first moments when word got out American troops and others had stormed the beaches of Normandy. (AP image)
(AP image)
Thursday marks the anniversary of allied forces launching the D-Day invasion and the start of the turning point in World War II. Imagine if CNN and the Internet had been around then. But most Americans learned about it from a radio station like KIRO.
Seattle historian Feliks Banel came by the Ron and Don Show Wednesday to share some of the dramatic recordings of the first moments when word got out American troops and others had stormed the beaches of Normandy.
It was during the overnight hours on the east coast. But here in Seattle many were gathered around their radios for their favorite program when a brief announcement told of the invasion.
“Most of America slept through the early hours of this amazing D-Day radio coverage, radio’s finest moment I think,” Banel says.
For those who heard it, it was a revelation. Later that evening came the first reports from off the coast of France, relayed via shortwave radio to New York then on to Seattle.
