About 15 years ago, the BBC did a stellar series of "Eyewitness" albums covering the Twentieth Century. Each volume covered a decade and consisted of 3 or 4 CDs. I recall that the 1940-149 volume includes at least one Murrow broadcast in good, non-shortwave sound. It's not one of his dramatic accounts of the London Blitz however, but a description of the debate in the House of Commons in early May, 1940. I don't see the later volumes being offered anywhere except on ebay, but the BBC Shop sells the first five volumes in a set covering 1900 to 1949. Most of the audio for the years before the founding of the BBC comes from interviews and accounts done for later documentaries that the Beeb produced.
Matthew Barton
Library of Congress
-----Original Message-----
From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Paul Stamler
Sent: Wednesday, September 30, 2015 11:13 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Radio sound
On 9/30/2015 7:49 PM, Tom Fine wrote:
> Along these lines, does anyone know if original-source recordings were
> made when Edward R. Murrow broadcast over shortwave from BBC studios?
> The WWII recordings from London that I've heard are almost all
> recorded on the other side of the short-wave transmission (ie at a CBS
> site on this side of the Atlantic). I'm wondering if the BBC had a
> recorder running when Murrow originated the broadcasts and if so,
> where is that audio today?
The recordings on the "I Can Hear It Now" discs give aural evidence of having passed through a short-wave link, but my recollection of the recordings on "A Reporter Remembers" is that those sounded like source transcriptions -- that is, not including the short-wave link. Presumably the original audio, if it wasn't handed off to CBS for "A Reporter Remembers", is in the hands of the BBC or the British Library. CBS presumably has tapes, from which the album was made.
Peace,
Paul
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