Audio Antiques

Audio Antiques

By Classic radio shows from the K-Rob CollectionArtsPerforming Arts
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Audio Antiques episodes

  • Audio Antiques - Malcolm X vs Bayard Rustin

    In 1960, WBAI Radio in New York City hosted a historic debate between two prominent civil rights leaders, Malcolm X and Bayard Rustin. The discussion centered around the best approach to achieving racial equality and justice in America. Malcolm X, a fiery advocate for black nationalism and self-defense, argued for a more radical and militant approach to combating systemic racism. On the other hand, Bayard Rustin, and follower of Martin Luther King Jr and a key organizer of the March on Washington, advocated for nonviolent resistance and integration as the most effective means of achieving civil rights. The debate highlighted the ideological divisions within the civil rights movement and sparked important conversations about the most effective strategies for achieving racial equality in America. The debate is moderated by John Donald of the Pacifica Network.

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    1 hr 5 min
  • Audio Antiques - The Fights of Muhammad Ali

    Muhammad Ali, was an African-American boxer, activist, entertainer, and philanthropist. Many experts regard Ali has the best heavyweight boxer of all time, and the greatest sportsman of the 20th Century. Born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. he became the heavyweight champ in 1964, and retired in 1981. Ali was an early performer of spoken word poetry and rap music. In 1963 his album "I Am The Greatest" was nominated for a Grammy Award. In 2001, Muhammad Ali was presented with the Presidential Citizens Medal by U.S. President Bill Clinton. You're going to hear ABC Radio's ringside descriptions of Ali's 1964 fight against heavyweight champ Sonny Liston which put him on the path to greatness.  From 1971 we'll hear Mutual Broadcasting System coverage of Ali's first bout with Joe Frazier which was called the "Fight of the Century". Unfortunately, during the late 1960s boxing promoters banned live ringside reporting by broadcasters, to force fans to buy tickets for closed circuit telecasts in theaters, thus ending radio's long tradition of carrying fights live from the scene. It also sparked a long decline in the popularity of boxing. Finally, there's a 1979 Muhammad Ali press conference on United Nations radio in New York, held just two years before he retired. 

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    2 hr 5 min
  • Audio Antiques - The Issac Woodard Case

    This edition explores one of the worst incidents of racial hatred in U.S. history. It happened to Army Sgt. Isaac Woodard in 1946, as the African-American veteran was returning home from World War Two, where he earned a battle star, Good Conduct Medal, and the Service medal. When traveling through Batesburg, South Carolina, Woodard was removed from the Greyhound bus he was riding on, by the police chief and beaten by the chief and several officers with nightsticks, who ruptured his eyes, leaving him blind for life. At first, the incident received very little press coverage, but the news did reach President Harry Truman, who was well aware of the savage nature of the Jim Crow South. Truman demanded an investigation.

    The story also reached media icon Orson Wells, the famous, actor, journalist, stage and film director, who created and starred in Citizen Kane, which critics called one of the greatest movies of all time. Wells used one of his network radio shows to join with the NAACP in demanding justice for Sgt. Woodard. However, no officers were ever punished for the crime, and Wells was later blacklisted and banished from American media. He later left the country. You will hear his valiant campaign. It's estimated that thousands of black veterans were accosted, attacked, or lynched between the end of the Civil War, and the end of World War Two.

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    1 hr 18 min
  • Audio Antiques - Radio Comedy Teams

    Comedy Teams have a long history in the world of entertainment, beginning in British music halls, and then in vaudeville in America. They were also popular during the golden age of radio. Among the many comedy teams on the air at the start of commercial broadcasting were George Burns and his wife Gracie Allen. They got married in Cleveland, Ohio in 1926 and never looked back, performing in early talking movies, and getting a network radio show in 1930s, which would last until 1950 when the couple took their act to  television. We have a Burns & Allen radio show from 1938. Another one of the biggest double acts on radio were Abbott & Costello. Best known for their "Who's On First" baseball routine. Bud Abbott and Lou Costello were popular burlesque theater comedians, and got their own radio show in 1940. They also made it big in movies. You will hear one of their radio shows from 1943. Abbott and Costello's popularity began to decline when nite club performers Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis were given a radio show in 1949. It wasn't exactly a hit, but the pair became superstars in movies, and on television. you will hear a Martin & Lewis radio show from 1949.

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    1 hr 31 min
  • Audio Antiques - The Great Helen Keller

    In this edition, we learn about the woman who was named one of the most important people of the 20th Century. Helen Keller was an American author, disability rights advocate, feminist, political activist and humanitarian. The Alabama native, lost her sight and her hearing due to illness when she was just 19 months old. However, Keller later learned to speak and write with the help of her first teacher and life-long companion Anne Sullivan. Keller was the first deaf-blind person in the United States to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree. She became a global superstar, and a long time supporter of the NAACP and the ACLU. We will hear Helen Keller in her own words on the CBS Radio Show, This I Believe with Edward R. Murrow in the early 1950s. And on the Rudy Vallee variety show on NBC Radio in 1936.

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    1 hr 8 min

About Audio Antiques

From the publisher's feed

Welcome to amazing podcasts from Hall of Fame broadcaster and journalist Ken Robinson in this series of classic programs from the 1920s through the 1990s.