Live from Hitler’s Reich
Live from Hitler’s Reich
Transmitting the Games and the Listener’s Experience
This chapter details the radio broadcasting of the Berlin Olympic Games. The opening ceremony broadcasts primed global audiences for two weeks of Olympic experience. For U.S. network radio broadcasters, the opening of the games inaugurated a grueling work schedule. For two weeks, radio commentators covered live events daily while summarizing results nightly in résumé programs. The Olympic summaries served two functions: they provided results, and they promoted upcoming broadcasts. Radio manufacturers, retailers, CBS and NBC executives, and others in the industry hoped additional sports and global news programming in 1936 might enlarge the cumulative U.S. broadcast audience. NBC ultimately increased sports programming airtime by 34 percent in 1936 over 1935, with the Olympics and Olympic-themed programming the largest contribution to the increase. In turn, these programs created indelible memories in the minds of millions of U.S. listeners and listeners around the world.
Keywords: radio broadcasting, Berlin Olympic Games, global audiences, Olympic experience, U.S. network radio, radio commentators, Olympic summaries, U.S. broadcast audience, sports programming
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