BlankFYI




"the airship is going to make an attempt at landing in the rain..."

Some of radio's greatest moments are when the actual event occurs live on 
the air or while a reporter is recording and the unexpected happens. 
Hindenberg DisasterOne such event happened to reporter Herb Morrison on May 
6th, 1937 in Lakehurst, New Jersey. The mighty German passenger Zeppelin, 
Hindenburg, was attempting a mooring. The Hindenburg was one of Nazi 
Germany's finest airships. It was supposed to reflect the greatness of the 
German Reich and its leader, Adolf Hitler.

The airship had made this voyage before and friends and family were at 
Lakehurst waiting for the arrival of the great zeppelin. Reporter Herbert 
Morrison was there too thanks to his radio station, WLS, Chicago. The day 
was rainy and there had been strong thunderstorms earlier. Morrison was 
recording the event for later rebroadcast. The early part of his recording 
reflects information about the airship and the day and what is necessary to 
bring it into mooring under such conditions.

Engineer Charles Nehlsen was manning the Presto Direct Disc recorder. The 
recorder includes a large turntable with a 16-inch platter, a heavy-duty 
lathe, which would actually cut into the lacquer disc, and an amplifier. It 
was important that these recorders be perfectly level and that vibration be 
avoided. Ultimately, the complete broadcast would be recorded on four 16" 
Green label lacquer discs.

Herb MorrisonAs the zeppelin arrives, Morrison is describing the mooring 
when suddenly it bursts into flames. Morrison is shocked, but keeps talking 
though breaking occasionally overcome by the tragedy unfolding in front of 
him. Later the broadcast continues after the tragedy as the victims are 
being brought in and survivors are interviewed.

An interesting side note is at the moment of explosion, when Morrison is 
heard yelling "It burst into flames!" the vibrations from the explosion 
caused the recorder to bounce on the disc creating deep grooves until 
Engineer Nehlson is able to momentarily lift the lathe from the disc and 
place it back down. The discs, which are contained at the National Archives 
reflect the grooves and the force of the explosion.

It was radio news at its finest; news events reported as they happened. The 
description is brought home to radio's listeners and we in turn grieve for 
the dead and injured. This event reflected the potential and power of radio 
broadcasting immediately before and, later, during World War II as the 
Murrow Boys and others would bring the war home to America via the airwaves.

While the event was not aired live, it did air later. In those days radio 
reporting of events was always broadcast live only since the networks had 
policies forbidding the use of recorded material except for sound effects. 
But Herbert Morrison, the reporter, was not there to report disaster and had 
no facility for broadcasting live. Instead, he was there at the behest of 
his radio station, WLS, Chicago, to record a report on the grand airship. 
Later that day, Morrison and his sound engineer, Charlie Nehlsen left New 
Jersey with the transcription discs and headed back to Chicago. The morning 
after the disaster is when parts of the recording first aired over WLS. Logs 
of when it first appeared over NBC are not known to exist. It is known that 
at least five minutes of the recording did broadcast on May 7th at 11:38 AM 
in the New York area and over the Red Network. It was later in the day that 
the longer sections were played to a national audience. This was one of the 
few times that the networks allowed a recording of an event to be broadcast.

http://www.otr.com/hindenburg.shtml


Steve, K8SP
Lansing, MI