Moving Image & Sound Archive: Radio History

Specializing in unique moving image and sound collections from Utah and the West

Radio History Collections

Radio communication technology was developed in the late 1800s and has been used for commercial broadcast since the early 1900s.  While many radio transmissions were - and still are - live, others were either pre-recorded or recorded during broadcast so they could be archived, syndicated, or re-broadcast.  Radio history collections in the Moving Image & Sound Archive include historic transcription discs and analog and digital audiotapes of local and national radio programs, off-air recordings of radio broadcasts collected by media researchers, documentary content about the history of the medium, and interviews with professionals involved in Utah's radio broadcast industry.

Some radio history collections have been digitized and are streaming online or available upon request.  Others have not yet been digitized but can still be requested; undigitized items you request will be added to our digitization queue.

Digitized Radio Collections

Copyright limits the content we can stream online, but these collections have been digitized for access and are available upon request.  To access this content, send a copy of the Special Collections Reproduction Request Form to a moving image & sound archivist.

A1005 - Lois Milner collection of broadcast radio audio recordings

The Lois Milner collection contains transcription discs of radio programs broadcast in Utah from 1940-1952.  Most material was produced locally.  Included are news broadcasts, political speeches, programming for children and parents, music, and dramatic adaptations of content from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' magazine, The Children's Friend, and the Daughters of Utah Pioneers' anthology of Western stories, Heart Throbs of the West. 

A0060 Everett Cooley Oral History Project

The Everett Cooley Oral History Project is is an ongoing program designed to document the history of Utah, which includes numerous interviews with Utah radio professionals and broadcast pioneers.  Transcripts of most interviews are available in the J. Willard Marriott Digital Library and are linked from the collection finding aid.  Most audio recordings of the interviews have also been digitized.  In many cases, that audio is streaming online: in the Digital Library, scroll past the image of the transcript and look for the embedded audio player.  If no audio player has been embedded yet, contact an archivist to request access the corresponding audio file.

Oral history interviews featuring radio history content include but may not be limited to:

Radio History Introduction by Keith B. Farr

This video comes from the Keith B. Farr radio history collection (A0917).  Throughout his career, Farr worked in radio in Utah, Idaho, and California.  Since retiring from broadcasting, he has researched and documented early radio history.

Radio Collections Not Yet Digitized

The bulk of the radio history collections in the Moving Image & Sound Archive have not yet been digitized for access.  Items from these collections can still be requested, but there will be a wait while a digital copy is made.  For more information about these collections or to recommend materials for digitization, please contact an archivist!

Radio history collections in the Moving Image & Sound Archive still stored on their original media include:

A0051 Milton Roswell Trenam & Milton Edwin Trenam

The collection includes a transcription disc radio broadcast of the Grand Valley Holing Through Ceremony April 27, 1950

A0124 William R. Palmer

KSUB Cedar City's Forgotten Chapters of History with William Palmer 1951-1955

A0146 Frank E. Moss

Radio recording of Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall and Senator Frank Moss at Lake Powell

A0147 Theater Radio

Radio plays and promos featuring Utah born actress Leora Thatcher (1894-1984)

A0189 Jack Paige

ABC radio broadcaster Paul Harvey's radio birthday to Paige in 1983

A0195 KRSP Free Speech Series

Radion interviews on local issues 1984-1986.

A0253 KSUB Radio

257 phonodiscs of commercial syndicated programs and music aired on KSUB Cedar City in the Mid 20th Century.  Dramatic series include "The Adventures of Frank Race," "Frontier Town," "Riders of the Purple Sage" and "The Lives of Harry Lime" with Orson Wells

A0254 Alvin G. and Lena M. Pack

101 Utah and LDS related phonodiscs including the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints' radio drama "The Fullness of Time," "Famous Furniture Stories" and broadcast recordings by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir

A0252 Tim Larson

Off-air radio recordings, oral histories, and other items relating to the history of broadcast communications in the Salt Lake City area, which were recorded, collected and utilized by Dr. Larson as part of his work as a professor of Communication at the University of Utah.  Many of the interviews in this collection are copies of materials in the Everett Cooley Oral History Project (A0060), for which Larson conducted numerous interviews regarding radio history

A0255 Roscoe A. Grover

Discs and reel to reel tapes from early Utah radio and television personality Roscoe Grover including music and sound recordings from different countries, Sunday night LDS radio shows and a recording of President Lyndon Johnson addressing the United Nations

A0282 First Unitarian Church

Radio addresses sponsored by the First Unitarian Church

A0322 Ballet West

"State of the Arts" radio programs and Ballet West promos.

A0331 Steve Lacey

We, the Abbots and addressess by Royal Garff and Governor Herbert Maw

A0336 Cold Fusion

Radio and television coverage of cold fusion research at the University of Utah 1989-1991

A0350 ACLU of Utah

Radio spot announcing the ACLU's celebration of the bicentennial of the Constitution, KSL radio interview with John K. Morris

A0374 Dan Bammes

 Recording of Bammes' news program, The Wasatch Gazzette, which aired on Salt Lake City's K-Bull Radio.

A0418 Jan H. Brunvand

Calls recieved in the hour following Jan Brunvand's interview on Urban Legends on KTRH Houston April 13, 1980

A0482 Dresser Dahlstead

Utah native Dresser Dahlstead talks about his career in radio and television from KLO Ogden to San Francisco, NBC and Armed Forces Radio

A0565 Eugene Whitaker

Audio recording of the story of the Deseret News and and KZN (now KSL) radio, Utah's first radio station

A0885 David O. McKay

LDS Church President David O. McKay's funeral broadcast on KALL-KQMU Radio

A0917 Keith B. Farr

Historic radio programs (1940s-2000s) and radio history retrospectives from Utah, California and the United States at large.

A1042 Bill Allred

Various recordings from Allred's career as a Utah DJ, including X-96 Radio from Hell

A1044 Greg Carlisle (Utah Radio)

AM to FM:Three Decades of Radio in Utah (DVD)

A1136 Ray Briem

Audiocassettes and reel-to-reel tapes of Briem's all-night conservative radio show for KABC-AM in Los Angeles. Refer to the corresponding Manuscripts collection (Accn 2728) for a log of some of these shows

A1248 Don and Edythe Quinn

Transcription disc copies of the prominent radio shows, Fibber McGee and Molly and Halls of Ivy (ca. 1949-1952), donated by the family of Quinn, who wrote those programs.  Digital recordings of these broadcasts may be available from other sources

A1266 Senator James Dabakis

Audio recordings, primarily of Salt Lake City talk-radio programs hosted or recorded by former Utah Sate Senator Jim Dabakis in the 1980s and 1990s, before he was elected to state office

Contact Us

For more information about the Moving Image & Sound Archive or access to our collections, please don't hesitate to contact us directly or fill out the Special Collections Feedback Form.

Molly Rose Steed, Asst. Head, Moving Image & Sound Archivist: molly.steed@utah.edu

Rebecca Roper, Moving Image & Sound Digital Archivist: rebecca.roper@utah.edu

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