Never could find the link for the recordings, just the technical report by 
Dr Biel which was quite interesting.  I had always felt that morrison's 
voice was higher than it should have been but never put any time or energy 
in to investigating it.  Jim WA6EKS


-----Original Message----- 
From: Steve
Sent: Monday, August 11, 2014 12:22 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Complete Hindenberg Broadcast with Herb Morrison

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