Planet Podcasts
Radio

Hear It Now

CBS

CBS · 1950–1951

41 EpisodesTwice weeklyPGSince 1950

The run

Network
CBS
Years active
1950–1951
Surviving broadcasts
41
Genre
talk

Hear It Now was broadcast by CBS from December 1950 to June 1951, hosted by Edward R. Murrow and produced with Fred W. Friendly. Built from actuality recordings gathered during the week — from Korea, from Washington, from ordinary streets — it carried the documentary method of the pair's I Can Hear It Now records onto live network radio, and became the direct template for their television series See It Now. These recordings are public domain.

1951 · 91950 · 3

Restoration quality — measured from the surviving files

Clean transfer · 8 of 8

Source collection

Internet Archive audio collections

Rights

Public domain — no renewed US copyright

Cataloguing

Air dates and notes from the Archive item record

Every broadcast below carries its own provenance sheet — transfer quality, file source and rights.Archive record: hearitnow

The shape of the run

What survives, year by year

6 dated broadcasts across 2 years on the air. Brightness is transfer quality; empty cells are months lost to time.

JFMAMJJASOND
1950
1951
Clean transferListenableRough but complete No surviving recording

Episodes

Start here

Listen to the run in order

Restored broadcasts from 1950, in original transmission order.

  1. 1. HearItNow501215ep01 64kb · 15 Dec 1950
  2. 2. HearItNow501222ep02 64kb · 22 Dec 1950
  3. 3. More News From the Korean War front · 29 Dec 1950
  • 01

    HearItNow501215ep01 64kb

    15 Dec 1950 · 59 min

    Transferred from the Internet Archive item “hearitnow”, part of the Old Time Radio Researchers public-domain collections.

  • 02

    HearItNow501222ep02 64kb

    22 Dec 1950 · 59 min

    Transferred from the Internet Archive item “hearitnow”, part of the Old Time Radio Researchers public-domain collections.

  • 03

    More News From the Korean War front

    29 Dec 1950 · 45 min

    Broadcast on CBS. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).

  • 04

    Retreat in Korea

    12 Jan 1951 · 59 min

    Broadcast on CBS. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).

  • 05

    The Cost of a pound of Steak

    26 Jan 1951 · 59 min

    Broadcast on CBS. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).

  • 06

    Isolationist Debate in Washington

    16 Feb 1951 · 59 min

    Broadcast on CBS. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).

  • 07

    A Biography of a Labor Union

    9 Mar 1951 · 59 min

    Broadcast on CBS. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).

  • 08

    The Human Tick

    30 Mar 1951 · 59 min

    Broadcast on CBS. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).

Same night on the air

22 Dec 1950

Everything else the archive still holds from the night of 22 Dec 1950.

The New Adventures of Nero Wolfe
The New Adventures of Nero Wolfe cover art
The New Adventures of Nero Wolfe

The Slaughtered Santas

22 Dec 1950 · 29 min

Originally broadcast on NBC, 22 December 1950. Restored from the Old Time Radio archives.

This Is Your FBI
This Is Your FBI cover art
This Is Your FBI

The Return of St. Nick

22 Dec 1950 · 29 min

Broadcast 22 December 1950. Public-domain transfer from the Old Time Radio Researchers certified set at the Internet Archive.

The Magnificent Montague
The Magnificent Montague cover art
The Magnificent Montague

Magnificent Montague 1950-12-22 (7) A Child Visits

22 Dec 1950 · 29 min

Originally broadcast on Syndicated, 22 December 1950. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).

Also on CBS

CBS in 1950–1951

Other series the network carried while Hear It Now was on the air.

Same seasons

talk on the air then

Series in the same genre whose runs overlapped this one.

What it became

The correspondent under fire

A reporter with a microphone standing where the story is happening, describing it while it happens. Murrow's London roofs and the UP wire dispatches made on-scene reporting a sound, not a summary.

Lineage is written by our editors, not inferred from listening data.

Descendants

Working in the tradition of Hear It Now

Modern series carrying this form forward.

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