What really happened on the other side of the microphone?
In the autumn of 1940, NBC Blue did something wonderfully unusual. Behind the Mike, hosted by broadcasting pioneer Graham McNamee, invited listeners backstage to discover how radio actually worked.
In this Listen with Gilbert deep dive, we explore five early broadcasts from the series: First Episode, Warming Up a Studio Audience, Baby Cries, Versatile Acting, and Sundown on the Veldt. Along the way we meet the actors, announcers, musicians and technicians who could turn a microphone and a few ordinary sounds into an entire invisible world.
We hear how an adult performer could become a crying baby, how a character actor created different people using only his voice, how a studio audience became part of the performance, and how radio carried listeners halfway around the world without showing them a single picture.
And there is something surprisingly modern about it. Long before podcasts, digital audio and artificial voices, radio was already asking what happens when the voice becomes separated from the person we can see.
Listen with Gilbert is Chesterton Radio’s continuing exploration of remarkable recordings from radio, literature, drama, poetry and the spoken-word tradition—listening again to things worth hearing and discovering the stories, people and ideas behind them.
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The microphone may be small.
The world behind it is enormous.
Sundown on the Veldt - Behind the Mike - Behind the Scenes Radio Stories
Versatile Acting - Behind the Mike - Behind the Scenes Radio Stories
Baby Cries - Behind the Scenes Radio Stories - Behind the Mike
Warming Up a Studio Audience - Behind the Mike
Behind the Mike - Behind the Scenes Radio Stories - First Episode
