Background on The Munich Crisis and American Radio, 1938

In the late 1930s, German aggression grew more audacious, diplomatic responses grew more desperate, and American listeners grew more interested. By September of 1938, having conquered Austria six months earlier, Hitler set his sights on Czechoslovakia. Hoping to broker a solution and prevent war, leaders from Britain, France, and Italy (no Czech representative was invited) met Hitler in Munich on September 29, 1938. The resulting treaty gave Germany the Sudetenland (a largely German region ceded to Czechoslovakia following World War I) in exchange for Hitler's promise of no further aggression. British prime minister Neville Chamberlain, upon his return from the conference, said the pact secured "peace for our time," and he urged Britons to "go home and get a nice quiet sleep." Less than a year later, the world was at war.

The so-called "Munich Crisis" that unfolded from September 12-30, 1938, established radio as the news source: More radios were sold during this time than during any previous three-week period as Americans crowded around sets at all hours for updates instead of waiting for morning or evening papers. The event also established the reputation of H.V. Kaltenborn, one of Columbia's top journalists. Possessing a distinctive style and the ability to work without a script, Kaltenborn practically lived in the newsroom during the crisis, interrupting regular programming with impromptu updates, reading news bulletins, and providing ongoing commentary. From the first bulletin to the conclusion 18 days later, Kaltenborn made more than 100 broadcasts, often rising in the middle of the night to deliver the latest dispatches. In this commentary early in the crisis from September 12, 1938, following Hitler's uncharacteristically conciliatory speech at Nuremberg, Kaltenborn strikes a tone of cautious optimism on the eve of war in Europe.