History
Franklin D. Roosevelt first began radio addresses as Governor of New York. As president he continued the tradition, which he called his fireside chats. The success of these presidential addresses encouraged their continuation by future presidents.
During a sound check prior to the radio address in August 1984, the then-President Ronald Reagan made the following joke as a way to test the microphone: "My fellow Americans, I'm pleased to tell you today that I've signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes." The Far East Army of the Soviet Union went on alert for 30 minutes following the test.
Barack Obama used YouTube for regular video addresses as President-elect and since his inauguration the weekly addresses have continued on the White House website, YouTube, and several major television networks.
It has long become customary for the President's Weekly Radio Address to be followed by a "response" (not always a topical response) by a member of the opposing political party. A common complaint about the President's Weekly Radio Address is that only a few radio stations cover the very short broadcasts, they are not advertised publicly, and very few Americans know how to locate the President's Weekly Radio Address on the radio dial.
Read more about this topic: Weekly Radio Address Of The President Of The United States
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The history of men’s opposition to women’s emancipation is more interesting perhaps than the story of that emancipation itself.”
—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941)
“My good friends, this is the second time in our history that there has come back from Germany to Downing Street peace with honour. I believe it is peace for our time. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts. And now I recommend you to go home and sleep quietly in your beds.”
—Neville Chamberlain (1869–1940)
“Postmodernism is, almost by definition, a transitional cusp of social, cultural, economic and ideological history when modernism’s high-minded principles and preoccupations have ceased to function, but before they have been replaced with a totally new system of values. It represents a moment of suspension before the batteries are recharged for the new millennium, an acknowledgment that preceding the future is a strange and hybrid interregnum that might be called the last gasp of the past.”
—Gilbert Adair, British author, critic. Sunday Times: Books (London, April 21, 1991)