Oct 12, 2017
In a change of pace with this first podcast episode of the second season, we feature an episode from old time radio, the CBS News Radio Series, You Are There. The docudrama is “Columbus Sailing to the Americas on October 12, 1492”.
Created by CBS Radio, it blended history with modern technology, taking an entire network newsroom on a time warp each week reporting the great events of the past. The news reporters were the top national journalists from CBS. The series started in1947 and featured various key events in American and world history, portrayed in dramatic recreations. Additionally, CBS News reporters report on the action and interview the key people from each historical episode. An announcer would give the date and the event, followed by a loud and boldly spoken "You are there!" This radio show was an example of serious attempts during the early days of radio to be educational rather than only entertaining. The beauty of their show was they provided the voices and news commentary while your imagination created the visuals of the historic event and people.
Since the voyages of Columbus 500 years ago, the historical investigation has led to much different interpretation of those events. This radio show presents only one viewpoint. I provide more PDF documents than usual for this episode. Two of them involve background on multiple voyages of Columbus and more information about the man. Three PDF documents represent different ways that Columbus is celebrated or reviled around the world. One is about Columbus Day and two others – Indigenous People Day and Native American Day – provide an alternative perspective by focusing on the people living in the Americas. I leave it to you to draw your own conclusions about the impact of the voyages.
The Historic Voices podcast is part of the LifePodcast Network which is a group of family-friendly podcasts bringing a positive message of hope and inspiration. Check out the LifePodcast Network at http://LifePodcast.net
The audio recording comes from the Internet Archive online database. It is a non-profit library of millions of free books, movies, audio recordings, software, music, and more. Its purpose is offering permanent access to historical digital collections. Checkout the website at http://archive.org
This podcast is available through the following podcast directories and apps: iTunes, Libsyn, Google Play Music, TuneIn, Stitcher, PlayerFM, Overcast, Pocket Casts, iCatcher, iHeartRadio, RSSRadio, and Castamatic. It is available through the following websites: http://Arendale.org, http://historicvoices.org and Historic Voices Facebook page.
Please post comments to the individual episodes at http://historicvoices.org, podcast review and rating section within iTunes and other apps, or email to me. Thanks for listening, David Arendale, arendale@umn.edu