Category: Radio & Audio

Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy: Episode 12

Hitchhiker's Guide To The GalaxyThe 12th episode of Douglas Adams’ breakthrough radio science fiction comedy series The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy is first broadcast on BBC Radio, ending the second series of the now-hit cult science fiction phenomenon. The conclusion of this episode effectively ends the series, though this ending is ignored by all later Hitchhiker’s Guide media, including the 21st century revival of the radio series, which will take its cues from Adams’ post-radio-series novels. Jonathan Pryce, Rula Lenska, and Ken Campbell guest star.

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Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy: Episode 11

Hitchhiker's Guide To The GalaxyThe 11th episode of Douglas Adams’ breakthrough radio science fiction comedy series The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy is first broadcast on BBC Radio, continuing the second series of the now-hit cult science fiction phenomenon. At this point, the story has diverged into material that will not be repeated in later iterations of Hitchhiker’s Guide; Rula Lenska guest stars.

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Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy: Episode 10

Hitchhiker's Guide To The GalaxyThe tenth episode of Douglas Adams’ breakthrough radio science fiction comedy series The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy is first broadcast on BBC Radio, continuing the second series of the now-hit cult science fiction phenomenon. At this point, the story diverges into material that will not be repeated in later iterations of Hitchhiker’s Guide; Rula Lenska and John Le Mesurier guest star.

More about The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy in the LogBook

Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy: Episode 9

Hitchhiker's Guide To The GalaxyThe ninth episode of Douglas Adams’ breakthrough radio science fiction comedy series The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy is first broadcast on BBC Radio, continuing the second series of the now-hit cult science fiction phenomenon. (Some elements of the second radio series will go on to form the basis of Adams’ novel The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe.)

More about The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy in the LogBook

Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy: Episode 8

Hitchhiker's Guide To The GalaxyThe eighth episode of Douglas Adams’ breakthrough radio science fiction comedy series The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy is first broadcast on BBC Radio, continuing the second series of the now-hit cult science fiction phenomenon. (Some elements of the second radio series will go on to form the basis of Adams’ novel The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe.) Valentine Dyall (Doctor Who’s Black Guardian) guest stars.

More about The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy in the LogBook

Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy: Episode 7

Hitchhiker's Guide To The GalaxyThe seventh episode of Douglas Adams’ breakthrough radio science fiction comedy series The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy is first broadcast on BBC Radio, initiating the second series of the now-hit cult science fiction phenomenon, the rest of which won’t be broadcast until the following month. This episode serves as a kind of Hitchhiker’s holiday special as a result. (Some elements of the second radio series will go on to form the basis of Adams’ novel The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe.)

More about The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy in the LogBook

Alien Worlds: The Keeper Of Eight, Part 2

Alien WorldsThe tenth episode of Lee Hansen’s syndicated science fiction/space opera radio series Alien Worlds airs on American radio stations. Janet Waldo (The Jetsons, Battle Of The Planets) and Pete Renaday (Transformers, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) guest star.

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Alien Worlds: The Keeper Of Eight, Part 1

Alien WorldsThe ninth episode of Lee Hansen’s syndicated science fiction/space opera radio series Alien Worlds airs on American radio stations. Janet Waldo (The Jetsons, Battle Of The Planets) and Pete Renaday (Transformers, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) guest star.

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Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy: Episode 6

Hitchhiker's Guide To The GalaxyThe sixth episode of Douglas Adams’ breakthrough radio science fiction comedy series The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy is first broadcast on BBC Radio. This is the second episode co-written by John Lloyd, though his contributions are frequently downplayed by Adams in later years. Due to the unexpected popularity of the six-episode series, the BBC asks Adams for more Hitchhiker’s Guide, but in the interim he has also taken on a new full-time job as script editor of Doctor Who, making it harder to simultaneously write another six-episode radio series.

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Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy: Episode 5

Hitchhiker's Guide To The GalaxyThe fifth episode of Douglas Adams’ breakthrough radio science fiction comedy series The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy is first broadcast on BBC Radio. Roy Hudd guest stars. This is the first of two episodes co-written by John Lloyd, though his contributions are frequently downplayed by Adams in later years.

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Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy: Episode 2

Hitchhiker's Guide To The GalaxyThe second episode of Douglas Adams’ breakthrough radio science fiction comedy series The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy is first broadcast on BBC Radio 2. Mark Wing-Davey plays the role of Zaphod Beeblebrox for the first time, a character he will also go on to play in the series’ television incarnation.

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Don’t Panic

Hitchhiker's Guide To The GalaxyWith the BBC giving his creation a late-night time slot indicating that they don’t really know what to do with it, Douglas Adams bursts onto the scene with the premiere of his radio series The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy. Another attempt at mixing comedy and science fiction, Adams’ densely-worded style of wit catches on with an audience that’s never heard anything like it before. Hitchhiker’s Guide goes on to conquer nearly every medium exposed to it in the years to come.

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Hear about it on the Sci-Fi 5 podcast

From Weather Radio to Disaster Radio

Weather RadioAfter years of studies into the feasibility of constructing a nationwide disaster alert system, NOAA Weather Radio is officially designated the “sole government operated radio system” for both weather-related disasters and other major emergency announcements (nuclear attacks are specifically mentioned in the declaration from President Ford). This shift in policy toward using the National Weather Service’s radio infrastructure for all potential disaster situations is at least partially inspired by the April 1974 tornado “Super Outbreak” in the midwest. For the first time, Congress approves a budget earmarked specifically for weather radio, topping $3,000,000 for expansion in 1976.

The voice of the National Weather Service

Weather RadioThe National Weather Service’s NOAA Weather Radio system finally finds its purpose with the introduction of a piercing “warning tone” preceding emergency weather announcements such as severe weather warnings. Manufacturers of weather radio receivers (an item which hit the market in 1970) use the five-second burst of 1050Hz warning tone to trigger attention-grabbing alert sounds and then activate the radio so the relevant information can be heard. NOAA Weather Radio broadcasts on 29 stations around the country, and the agency continues to bring new transmitters online throughout the year.

The national emergency that wasn’t

Emergency Broadcast SystemsA simple accidental tape swap at the Emergency Broadcast System‘s point of origination at NORAD replaces a routine Saturday morning EBS test with an actual emergency message involving a national emergency and an imminent message from the White House. In accordance with FCC rules, numerous radio and television stations across the country interrupt their programming in anticipation of news of a national emergency that isn’t actually happening. The situation is corrected within an hour, though questions about the effectiveness of the EBS linger at the local and national levels.

Weather Radio expands

Weather RadioThe U.S. Weather Bureau announces plans to expand its Weather Radio service across the country, with forecasts now prepared and worded for public consumption (as opposed to the service’s original 1950s mission of providing weather information for airline pilots). Concentrated primarily in coastal areas and a handful of inland population centers, the Weather Radio network has yet to become the Bureau’s primary means of disseminating emergency weather information, a mission it won’t take on until the 1970s.

The Emergency Broadcast System

Emergency Broadcast SystemsRadio and television stations across the United States begin mandatory participation in the national Emergency Broadcast System, a nationwide civil defense alert network replacing the CONELRAD system of the 1950s. Much like CONELRAD, EBS tests and activations initially require the rapid shutdown and reactivation of transmitters, at least until that practice is abolished in favor of a two-tone warning sound in the 1970s. Though the switch from CONELRAD to EBS is sparked by the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, the EBS will later become more closely associated with severe weather warnings.

CONELRAD

CONELRADAs a response to early Soviet atomic weapon tests, President Truman orders the initiation of the nationwide CONELRAD (Control of Electromagnetic Radiation) system, designed to limit the number of actively broadcasting radio stations whose signals could be used by enemy bombers to home in on and attack population centers. Designated AM radio stations would pass along emergency signals to smaller stations downstream, which would then begin a complex cycle of broadcasting emergency information to the public and then shutting down to allow another station to broadcast the same information; it is hoped that the rapidly shifting radio signals will prevent an invading enemy from finding viable targets. With its operating strategy assuming nuclear-armed Soviet bombers, CONELRAD will be rendered obsolete by the rise of the intercontinental ballistic missile by the end of the decade, and will be replaced by the Emergency Broadcast system in 1963.

Weather Radio: all weather, all the time

Weather RadioThe U.S. Weather bureau signs on radio station KWO35, located at New York’s La Guardia Airport, broadcasting weather forecasts primarily for the benefit of pilots. Not targeted for public consumption, the experimental station broadcasts for several hours a day at a frequency of 162.55Mhz, outside of the spectrum reserved for FM radio. A similar station on the same frequency will later sign on at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport in 1953, again mainly for the consumption of airline pilots. Marine forecasts are added later, and the system helps the Weather Bureau prevent its local forecasters from being overwhelmed by requests for “personalized” weather reports for pilots. These two stations are the precursor for the nationwide weather radio network operated by the Weather Bureau’s successor agency, the National Weather Service.