Rat Patrol Radio » D Day

2011 24 Hours of D-Day Special

admin — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 18:26:25 +0000

It’s almost June 6, again, and as we’ve done for many years, we will preempt regular programming to present the complete CBS national broadcast day of June 6, 1944. In the pre-dawn hours of D-Day, as the rumors became more and more insistent, a broadcast engineer at CBS headquarters in New York began recording every word that went out over the air, beginning at 2:30 am. Hear the initial rumors, the confirmation from SHAEF in London, the military analysis in the radio studio from experts (which sound spookily like the ones we heard for Desert Storm.)

Later, hear the official announcements, the eyewitness reports of embedded reporters (!) as they return from the beachhead to London, the news alerts breaking into normal programming throughout the day, and King George VI addressing the people of the UK, and President Roosevelt leading the nation in prayer. I have goosebumps right now, just remembering this.

We will have a special encore performance on June 7, starting at 9am, so that more people can hear the earliest reports (because not many people will be getting up at 2:30am on a work night!) Please join us in remembrance of one of the most important events of the last 100 years, the liberation of Europe from the hand of fascist Germany by the free peoples of the world.

24 Hours of D-Day Special Broadcast

admin — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 02:44:06 +0000

Starting at 3am EDT, we are proud and honored to present the annual Complete Broadcast Day of D-Day. This is 24 hours of everything that went out over the air on CBS on June 6, 1944, rebroadcast by Rat Patrol Radio at the same time of day as originally aired!

This is probably as famous among our listeners as our Christmas playlist is, and Rat Patrol Radio was one of the first webcast stations ever to present these historic broadcasts in this format. This year marks our ninth year saluting the men who stormed Fortress Europe to put an end to Nazism. Join me as we relive the electrifying events of one of the most momentous events of the 20th Century. (I still choke up and get goosebumps at 10pm when FDR leads the nation in prayer.)

Important D-Day Update!

admin — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 23:03:21 +0000

I was going back through the D-Day files to tag them so that they were compliant with Live 365 rules, and realized that the third hour of the broadcast was identical to the 5th hour! I’ve scoured the Net for the correct file, but every source has the wrong file as the third hour. After overcoming my supreme mortification that I’ve been playing a bad file for the third hour for the last several years, I deleted all the files and am now uploading the NBC D-Day coverage that I recently found. I apologize in advance if the quality isn’t up to snuff, as I haven’t had time to listen to all 24 hours of programming. I only hope there isn’t any mistakes in this one!

On the bright side, those of you that have been tuning in over the years get a new perspective on D-Day!

D Day Special Broadcast

admin — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 17:44:58 +0000

Please tune in this June 6th for our traditional D Day commemorative broadcast. We will be broadcasting everything that went out over the air from CBS New York, at the same time of day it was originally heard on June 6, 1944.

When the broadcast engineer at the New York studios realized shortly after 2AM on June 6, 1944, that the rumors that were being picked up from German radio were not another false alarm, he began recording everything that was broadcast, and continued for 24 hours. That remarkable record has been preserved, and Rat Patrol Radio is proud for the last eight years to bring our listeners the chance to relive one of the most momentous days in history.

As is tradition, we will also have an encore performance on June 7th, starting at 9AM Eastern time, so that more people can hear the early reports.