As an adjunct to the news of this day from Prague and the Czech crisis, there was also significant news regarding the very first Air Raid drill to take place in the U.S. on the night of May 16, 1938.

The site was a small rural community in New York State, which also housed an aircraft plant. The Air Raid, part of a new concept in War, was designed to better acquaint the public with the distinct possibilities that war could come just as easily from the air as anywhere else.

And since Radio was pretty new at this sort of on-the-spot reporting, it was an exciting evening for all parties concerned, and rather festive to the inhabitants of Farmingdale, New York.

So here is that broadcast, complete as it happened over WOR, New York on that night of May 16, 1938 - seventy-four years ago.

A lot has changed since then, to be sure.

Ever since AM Talkradio became the domain of screamers, malcontents, alarmists and trolls, something got lost in the translation as to what constituted entertainment via Radio.

Jean Shepherd is mostly known today as the guy who wrote "A Christmas Story" and not much else. But he was a successful author with several books to his credit, a frequent contributor to Playboy Magazine, made periodic appearances on PBS and was generally acknowledged as one of the great wits and humorists of the 1950's and 60's who had a daily radio show on WOR in New York and had a massive following. He was a story teller and something of an iconoclast with a somewhat surreal sense of humor.

Here is one of his daily shows over WOR, which was syndicated around the country. This one is from December 4, 1967 and gives you an idea of what he was like on a daily basis.

If you remember him, you know. If you have no idea, check him out and remember there was a time radio wasn't there to scare you to death or turn you into a psychopath. You could actually hear something interesting. And Jean Shepherd was certainly interesting.

(August 10, 1945 - where even a rumor got the presses rolling)

(still pitching)
With the second Atomic Bomb dropped on Nagasaki the day before, all ears were turned in the direction of Japan for any word regarding a surrender.

On August 10th, listening posts picked up broadcasts from the NHK (the Japanese Broadcasting service) reporting that the Emperor (Hirohito) had agreed to a surrender proposal first made in Potsdam on the 26th of July.

The stipulation was the Emperor had to stay in place.

Well . . no, that wasn't the deal and there was no official confirmation of either the report or the Allies agreement to those terms.

But that didn't stop people from assuming the war was over as of August 10th, as this breathless set of bulletins from the Mutual Network (via WOR in New York) attested to. Needless to say, the White House quickly issued a statement that no such agreement was made and by the end of the day, the war was still on.

So August 10th 1945 was a bit manic.