One Year: 1955 - The Weather Girls

Slow Burn

Slate Podcasts

News, Society & Culture, History, Documentary, Politics

4.6 • 25.1K Ratings

🗓️ 14 September 2023

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In the early days of television, women struggled to find their place. In 1955, they got it: forecasting the weather, on stations all across the country. But as these “weather girls” transformed the airwaves, a group of powerful men hatched a plan—one that had the potential to push women weathercasters off the air forever. Josh Levin is One Year’s editorial director. One Year’s senior producer is Evan Chung. This episode was produced by Kelly Jones and Evan Chung, with additional production by Sophie Summergrad. It was edited by Joel Meyer and Derek John, Slate’s executive producer of narrative podcasts. Merritt Jacob is our senior technical director. Join Slate Plus to get the first three episodes of One Year: 1955 right away—and a bonus 1955 story at the end of the season. Slate Plus members also get to listen to all Slate podcasts without any ads. Sign up now to support One Year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hey there one-year listeners, before we start the show, I want to let you know about
0:05.4	a story coming up a little later.
0:08.0	It's from one of our partners, SAP.
0:11.0	Is your business reaching an exciting turning point?
0:13.9	Are you ready to seize the moment for growth?
0:16.5	Well, when you're facing tough decisions, SAP can help you be ready for anything that happens
0:22.2	next.
0:23.4	To learn more, head to SAP.com slash be ready.
0:27.8	And stick around to hear how the president of an eSports league seized the moment.
0:37.4	June 12, 1955, was a big day for NBC.
0:41.8	The debut of a massive block of programming, when the network hoped might save a dying
0:47.5	media.
0:59.5	Monitor was an ultra long format radio show, 40 hours every weekend, broadcast nationwide,
1:07.5	and it sounded different than everything else in the audio universe.
1:12.0	The first episode featured a series of dispatches from behind prison walls.
1:24.0	There was also breaking news about an auto racing disaster in France, comedy from Jerry
1:29.3	Lewis, and live jazz from Howard Rumsy and his lighthouse All Stars.
1:36.8	The New York Times called Monitor an electronic grab bag designed to keep a listener guessing,
1:43.4	but it was one thing in particular that got America's attention.
1:47.9	Her voice is so soft and easy.
1:49.9	I can't imagine her ever getting excited about anything, and I could even take a tie soon
1:56.2	very calmly when she tells me about it.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Slate Podcasts, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Slate Podcasts and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.