Mini 011 The Eleventh of
November
It’s Veteran’s day, AKA
Armistice Day. Today, we’re supposed to pay tribute to the men and women who
serve or served in the armed forces, and that’s fine.
But for many years, we
called this “Armistice Day.” It marked 11/11/1918, the official “end” of
WWI. So, thank you, veterans, for being veterans. But let’s not forget the Armistice of World
War One.
At one time, those of us
in broadcasting observed the signing of the armistice by observing one minute
of silence at 11 am local time. Eleven/Eleven/Eleven. We in broadcasting
did this with the “suggested” minute of silence on the eleventh hour of the
eleventh month of the eleventh day of the year.
Doing this on the radio
was supposed to be a no-no. Silence on the air was the greatest sin in
broadcasting. It also was illegal. Silence with an un-modulated carrier on the
air was a violation of federal broadcasting law.
To this day, 54 years
after the fact, I remain grateful to my handlers at New York Herald Tribune
Radio for flouting the law and allowing me to shut down the mic and all else
over which I had control for 60 seconds at on 11/11/65, a Thursday morning at
eleven o’clock.
--WR
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