President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave his first "fireside chat"
on this day in history, March 12, 1933, to reassure and inform
a nation reeling from the effects of the Great Depression.

This was the first in a series of broadcasts in which FDR
spoke plainly and directly to every American within the
sound of his voice.

According to Britannica, the term "fireside chat" was coined
by Harry Butcher of the CBS radio network.  

Bronze sculpture of a man listening to the 1930s valve radio. This sculpture by George Segal at the Franklin D Roosevelt Memorial, Washington, DC, commemorates the famous
fireside radio chats during the Great Depression.

With the words, “Hello! This is New York calling,” the U.S. Voice
of America (VOA) began its first radio broadcasts to the Soviet
Union. The VOA effort was an important part of America’s
propaganda campaign against the Soviet Union during the
Cold War.

The VOA began in 1942 as a radio program designed to
explain America’s policies during World War II and to
bolster the morale of its allies throughout Europe, Asia,
the Middle East, and Africa.

After the war, VOA continued as part of America’s Cold War
propaganda arsenal and was primarily directed toward the
western European audience.

America’s 40th President Ronald Wilson Reagan was born
in Tampico, Illinois, on this day in history, Feb. 6, 1911.

Prior to his presidency, he served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 to 1975 and was the president of the
Screen Actors Guild from 1947 to 1952 and from 1959 until
1960.

MIKE GRACIA

BRACE BEEMER (center) was original announcer then the second actor to portray The Lone Ranger on the radio
series.

The first of 2,956 episodes of The Lone Ranger premiered on
radio January 30, 1933 on WXYZ radio in Detroit, Michigan
and later on the Mutual Broadcasting System radio network
and then on NBC’s Blue Network (which became ABC, which
broadcast the show’s last new episode on September 3, 1954).

William W. (Bill) Schonely (June 1, 1929 – January 21, 2023) 

Bill Schonely was local sports broadcaster who was the play-
by-play announcer for the Portland Trail Blazers for almost
three decades, from the team’s launch in 1970 until 1998.

The Trail Blazers organization retired Schonely’s microphone
on November 3, 2003.

In 1999, Schonely was inducted into the Oregon Sports Hall of
Fame for Broadcasting.

In 2012, Schonely was awarded the Curt Gowdy Media Award
from the Basketball Hall of Fame.