ANNOUNCER-IN-CHIEF
The first radio announcer ever to become president of the United States, Ronald (Dutch) Reagan was the sports voice of WHO in Des Moines, Iowa, for five years during the 1930s.
1981 RADIO INDUCTEE
His accounts of major league baseball games, which were live play-by-play broadcasts from wire reports, and his colorful accounts of college football won him national attention.
During a trip to Southern California to cover spring training, he sat in on a film screen test that landed him his first role in a movie — as a radio announcer. We all know what happens after that, an acting career morphs into a political career. As president, Reagan returned to his radio roots. Inspired by FDR’s “Fireside Chats,” Reagan took to the airwaves every Saturday speaking to Americans about current events and his policies.
Ronald Reagan, Voice of America.
Radio Address on the US Space Program
President Ronald Reagan's radio Address to the nation on the space program from Camp David, Maryland. (Source: National Archives)
Ronald Reagan, CBS Televison, 1958.