Bob Trout Ends World War II
In one of Trout's NPR reminiscences, airing July 9, 1999, he admitted that an oft-played recording of his announcing the end of World War II ("my greatest hit, as it were") on August 14, 1945 was actually a fake. In 1948, he had to re-create his broadcast of his announcement of Japan's surrender so a "cleaned-up" version of that announcement could be included in the first of Ed Murrow and Fred Friendly's I Can Hear It Now historical albums. It was thought the recording of the original broadcast had too many scratches and pops, and was too messy to use.
Trout told, and played for the NPR listeners, what actually happened on CBS Radio at that moment...his live introduction of a surrender announcement by British Prime Minister Clement Attlee...followed, not by Attlee, but by the Big Ben chimes. Then the network switched back to New York, where Trout was standing near the teletypes outside CBS Radio's Studio 9, and listeners heard CBS news director Paul White (listening on a phone line to the White House) cue Trout that the Administration itself announced the surrender. This allowed Trout to announce the news a few seconds before Attlee made the announcement in his radio speech. Trout's broadcast is also believed to be the first broadcast news report confirming that the surrender was official; beating ABC Radio, the Mutual Broadcasting System, and NBC Radio by a few seconds.
Trout then intoned:
- "The Japanese have accepted our terms fully! That is the word we have just received (newsroom cheers) from the White House in Washington and (Trout chuckles) I didn't expect to hear a celebration here in our newsroom in New York, but you can hear one going on behind me. We switched to London, I don't know what happened, I'm not even sure whether you heard the first words of Prime Minister Attlee or not. I couldn't hear anything in our speaker here, with the confusion. Suddenly we got the word from our private telephone wire from the White House in Washington. The Japanese have accepted FULLY the surrender terms of the United Nations. THIS, ladies and gentlemen, is the end of the Second World War! The United Nations, On Land, On Sea, On Air are United......And Are Victorious!".
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