D-Day radio broadcasts from KFWB found and restored

A disc containing some of the news that went out over the air on KFWB on June 6, 1944 about the invasion of Nazi-held France have been found at USC — broken in half — and restored. The radio station, now known by many as News Talk 980, and the CBS TV stations here aired stories over the D-Day anniversary weekend. Here's KFWB's story, and Dave Bryan on KCAL.

From KFWB's website:

These recordings have not been heard since their original broadcast and they sat untouched for decades in a little-known room at USC’s Hancock Foundation building until a cadre of volunteer audio preservationists restored them using modern technology.

USC had its original radio studio and broadcast production facility in the late 1930s and early 1940s in that building. Captain Allan Hancock donated the funds to create the building, which opened in 1940. It is unknown who made the original transcription disk. It could have been a student engineer, a professor, a representative of Hancock Foundation, or even Alan[sic] Hancock himself.

This file begins with a portion of an audio drama that was on the air at the time that we believe was called, “There They Go.” You’ll hear the KFWB anchor cut in with an announcement that President Franklin D. Roosevelt would be addressing the nation. This is followed by FDR’s famous prayer on the occasion in which he prays for the troops.