Library Of Congress Preserves First Broadcast Of 'All Things Considered'

The first broadcast of All Things Considered is being honored and preserved by the Library of Congress. NPR shares some excerpts from the May 3, 1971 program.

KELLY MCEVERS, HOST:

And now a program note - really, a note about this program. Today, the first broadcast of ALL THINGS CONSIDERED was included in the National Recording Registry.

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

That's the Library of Congress archives showcasing the range and diversity of American recorded sound heritage. It includes everything from Eisenhower's D-Day radio address to "The Message," Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five's 1982 single. And now, ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from May 3, 1971.

MCEVERS: The first one wasn't exactly like the show you're listening to now. For one thing, the first story was 28 minutes and 38 seconds long with this poetic introduction by host Robert Conley.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED BROADCAST)

ROBERT CONLEY, BYLINE: In the top of the day's news, the crush, cat calls, flux and flow of the demonstrations in Washington against the war in Southeast Asia.

SHAPIRO: They don't write intros like that anymore. And if they did, our editors would probably cut the life out of them anyway.

MCEVERS: But the attention paid to the protests against the U.S. role in Vietnam was a big story. More than 20,000 demonstrators gathered in D.C., Thousands were arrested. Reporter Jeff Kamen kept his portable analog recorder rolling as he walked the streets.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED BROADCAST)

JEFF KAMEN, BYLINE: One of the motorcycle police officers says someone threw a brick at him. I was here at the time. I didn't see anything thrown. Army helicopters coming in low.

SHAPIRO: That on-the-spot reporting established ALL THINGS CONSIDERED as a new and different kind of voice on the radio. And true to the name we gave ourselves, that wasn't the only thing aired on that first edition.

MCEVERS: We found room for stories about drug abuse, poems from the First World War and a piece that set the pattern for the offbeat, quirky features we came to be known and sometimes mocked for. Here's a bit of Wayne Olsen's report from Ames, Iowa.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED BROADCAST)

WAYNE OLSEN, BYLINE: This is a four-chair barbershop. There's a barber by the name of Al Thompson (ph). And Al is using perhaps some more lather than you would normally use in a barbershop. So what's going on here?

AL THOMPSON: I'm shaving a girl's leg.

OLSEN: Do you find any unusual problems in shaving a leg as opposed to shaving a gentleman's face?

THOMPSON: There's no problems at all (laughter).

SHAPIRO: A story about a barbershop specializing in shaving women's legs, of course, just one of the things considered on ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from May 3, 1971, now part of the National Recording Registry at the Library of Congress.

(SOUNDBITE OF LEROY AND THE DRIVERS SONG, "SAD CHICKEN")

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