The Whole World Is Listening: WHAS Radio Coverage of the 1937 Ohio River Flood

Conventional wisdom holds that Edward R. Murrow and his network colleagues invented broadcast journalism with their work in the days just preceding World War II; in fact, Murrow and his “boys” were building upon the foundation laid by men and women in Louisville, Cincinnati, Nashville and elsewhere, covering such stories as the Ohio River flood. Most notably (and most grievously ignored by contemporary historians), stations including WHAS and WREC arguably invented the concept of marathon continuous coverage, abandonment of scheduled programs and commercials for days on end during a major crisis. It was a costly and intimidating undertaking that the national networks were either too frugal or too unimaginative to emulate until the death of President Franklin D. Roosevelt almost a decade later, in 1945. Blanket multiday news coverage of John F. Kennedy’s assassination in 1963 and the September 11, 2001, terror attacks followed the blueprint drafted in January 1937. So did cable news’ sustained vigil in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

While it took years to sort out these historic implications, the visceral impact of the flood coverage was instantly clear. Awards and accolades seemed to fall from the sky once the crisis eased. The CBS network presented dramatic reenactments of its stations’ behind-the-scenes efforts. Individual announcers saw their careers blossom: Cincinnati’s Peter Grant was now a household name; Louisville’s Foster Brooks later became a nationally known entertainer. Even poetry honored the broadcasters’ achievements: “Their messages brought prompt relief/To thousands in distress/So let us not forget the boys/Of W.H.A.S.” The stanza likely won no trophies at the poetry contest, but it made its point. Said Bell, “I don’t think radio has ever meant that crucial a difference to that large a number of people—certainly not before, and maybe since.” Those who heard the flood broadcasts remembered them to their graves; even 70 years on, the solemn intonation “Send a boat!” is instantly recognizable Kentucky slang for an emergency.

For almost seven decades, the original flood broadcasts were believed lost, though recent years have produced some happy discoveries. In 2003 an actual WHAS flood recording was discovered in a private collection in Connecticut, via a station in Maryland. Of the eight-day continuous Louisville broadcast, only this single 15-minute segment is known to survive.

In 2005 an invaluable oral history recorded by WHAS employees in 1957 turned up in a box at the station, moments before it was tossed into the trash. And Cincinnati’s nonprofit Media Heritage rescued and preserved the NBC network material quoted above. Together, these audio documents provide a long-impossible glimpse into one of the seminal moments in the history of the Ohio Valley—and America’s broadcasting industry.

While innovation may have devolved into cliché over the generations, the lineage remains unmistakable: The local TV reporter who’ll clutch a tree trunk in howling winds this hurricane season—perhaps as interested in getting the network recruiter’s attention as in imparting useful information—descends in spirit directly from Foster Brooks of WHAS, grasping a phone pole with one hand and a microphone with the other, during those dark days of 1937. These radio pioneers invented journalistic standards and techniques still in practice during Katrina, in 2007 and onward. Their work should not be forgotten.

This article was written by Chris Chandler and originally published in the August 2007 issue of American History Magazine. For more great articles, subscribe to American History magazine today!

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