Edward R. Murrow — CBS microphone
I decided to take a photo of the microphone that Edward R. Murrow an American broadcast journalist used while reporting for CBS.
Edward R. Murrow was born on April 25, 1908, and died April 27, 1965. People know him as Ed Murrow, he became famous for having several different series of radio broadcasts for CBS (Columbia Broadcasting System) during the historical event, World War II.
Millions of listeners in the USA tuned into the radio discussion to listen to Murrow broadcast. Murrow was not alone when it came to broadcasting during the war, he was joined by foreign correspondents that people knew as the Murrow Boys.
He is one of the most well-known broadcasters between the 30’s- 60’s. He reported a lot of Senator Joseph McCarthy.
Murrow first joined CBS as the director of talks and education in 1935, and never left CBS. He considered CBS his second home, and couldn’t see himself going anywhere else. There was not a news staff when he was first hired by CBS, his job was to come up with people to come to the news station to talk about the daily news stories from that day.
Murrow was so successful at his job he had the opportunity to travel to London in 1937 for the position as the director of CBS’s European operations. Instead of broadcasting, he had the job to persuade European figures to broadcast at the CBS network which was in competition with NBC.
Murrow then made the decision to hire William L. Shirer and gave him several news assignments, his was also apart of his team the “Murrow Boys,” that reported on the war.
He contributed his first live radio broadcast during the Anschluss in March 1938, where Adolf Hitler engineered the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany. He and Shirer created the European News Roundup that had combined reactions to the Anschluss. This helped correspondents from different European cities come together for one broadcast.
Murrow became one of the most well-known broadcasters after his war reports, he often closed off with “good night, and good luck.” When the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor occurred, he flew on 25 allied combat missions in Europe during the war. He reported from the planes as they flew on over Europe.
In December 1945 Murrow hired William S. Paley as vice president of the network and head of CBS news. Murrow reported for the last time in March 1946, he stayed close with many people that he met while broadcasting.
He then had small radio gigs after retirement, for example, he hosted a show “This I Believe,” which gave people the chance to speak for five minutes on air. He recorded a few narrative historical albums for Columbia Records, titled, “I Can Hear It Now.” He then got into television and left the radio career.
A microphone is known as a transducer that creates sound into an electrical signal. Microphones are used for phones, hearing aids, and to address the public, etc. There are the different type of microphones including the dynamic microphone, condenser microphone, and the piezoelectric microphone.
The microphone came about because people needed something where a large number of people could hear someone giving a speech. People used to use megaphones before microphones came along.
The first successful microphone was the carbon microphone that was developed by David Edward Hughes in England and Emile Berliner, Thomas Edison in the USA. This was used a the first radio broadcast which was on a performance at the New York Metropolitan Opera House in 1910.
Ed Murrow and his mic was magic to many listeners and broadcasters around the world. He connected with many listeners through his projective voice, he still inspires many people to this day.
