President's Televised Address

[cc333]

@Miss Tuned I couldn't agree with you more!

I sometimes wonder if I would be better off leaving the US and becoming a citizen of some other place, such as the UK, say, but I fear there's more than a bit of "grass is greener" syndrome going on, so I'm probably better off staying put, even though I've grown increasingly resentful of my government, particularly the demented and incompetent lier in chief.

Personally, I'm tired of buying canned food. The Brexit cupboard became the Covid cupboard and is now the Trump cupboard. Can't we just get on with our lives?

Agreed once again!

How do I make this relevant to broadcasting?

I've tried to DX the BBC on 198kHz? It's probably quite impossible from the US west coast, but I'll keep trying until it goes dark.

Has 198 gone dark yet?

c

 

[Deus Ex Machiato]

Personally, I'm tired of buying canned food. The Brexit cupboard became the Covid cupboard and is now the Trump cupboard. Can't we just get on with our lives?

I'm reminded of the old adage that history doesn't repeat itself, but it often rhymes.

I was a toddler when we first landed on the Moon, so I don't remember the Apollo 11 coverage, but I do remember watching some of the later missions. A couple other highlights from the early 70s were the evacuation of Saigon and the resignation of what was - until then - the most corrupt President in American history. Moon missions, a failing war, and a crooked President. Toss in the Kent State shootings (armed government troops gunning down protestors in the streets) and the echoes of an old tune are reverberating in my head.

As far as how it is relevant to broadcasting/media? It's a stretch (again, repeat vs rhyme) but that was also the era of The Pentagon Papers and Woodward & Bernstein. And there's the rub...back then we had an independent media that was able to expose corruption like Watergate or the shenanigans that led us into that hopeless war.

Can we just get on with our lives? Well how did that decade go again? Seems to me I remember an oil crisis, a hostage situation in a country where we'd previously enacted "regime change," and Russia diving into an ill-conceived invasion of one of their neighbors.

But hey...at least we got disco, right?

 

[ted chittenden]

Do you want to make a bet that he won't?

Looks like I lost my bet...Well (per @TheBigA's timing), maybe not, though not by much.

 

[AbrahamJSimpson]

Except for the possibility of (more) war crimes against civilian infrastructure.

And have the major broadcast outlets even once broached the subject of the war crimes? Nope. They also just completely dropped the fact that we bombed a school full of children. But pointing out atrocities like blowing children to kingdom come isn’t great for the ol’ portfolio good chap, so we’ll dutifully pretend that half hour of verbal vomit was somehow an actual, substantive speech and not a dementia-riddled old man getting off talking about the violence and bloodshed of war. Much better for the portfolio.

 

[Mediafrog+]

I've tried to DX the BBC on 198kHz? It's probably quite impossible from the US west coast, but I'll keep trying until it goes dark.

Has 198 gone dark yet?

BBC Radio 4 (and World Service overnights) is still going on 198 kHz, as regularly heard on SDRs in Europe.

There were reports in August 2025 that the BBC had set September 26, 2026 as a closing date for 198, but no public announcement yet.

 

[kevtronics]

I sometimes wonder if I would be better off leaving the US and becoming a citizen of some other place, such as the UK

If any of your ancestors were Canadian citizens, you can now claim Canadian citizenship by descent:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/bill-c-3-canadian-citizenship-by-descent-american-interest-9.7112724

 

[AMRadioGuy]

Man, I'm really struggling to find much television or even radio related over the last bunch of pages on this thread. Mostly just politics.......

I always find it interesting to listen to televised addresses like this on the radio. I don't have a TV, so that's what I typically do. I had it tuned in on a station carrying the CBS Radio News coverage of it. Crazy to think that this is likely the last time CBS Radio will do special coverage of a presidential address.

 

[TheBigA]

I always find it interesting to listen to televised addresses like this on the radio.

These things are better suited for radio. It was simply a lecture with one camera focused on one face for 24 minutes in the middle of prime time. Imagine any network purposely doing that. Complete ratings failure. This coming from a guy who was once a reality TV star.

 

[kevtronics]

Didn't most radio stations give up on carrying the president's "Fireside Chats" during the Carter administration because they were boring and nobody cared anymore?

 

[TheBigA]

Didn't most radio stations give up on carrying the president's "Fireside Chats" during the Carter administration because they were boring and nobody cared anymore?

Reagan revived them during the 80s, and they took place every Saturday morning at 10:05AM ET. He did them live from the Oval Office. They were scripted and always lasted exactly 5 minutes. They continued under Bush and Clinton. Obama added video.

 

[gr8oldies]

And have the major broadcast outlets even once broached the subject of the war crimes? Nope. They also just completely dropped the fact that we bombed a school full of children. But pointing out atrocities like blowing children to kingdom come isn’t great for the ol’ portfolio good chap, so we’ll dutifully pretend that half hour of verbal vomit was somehow an actual, substantive speech and not a dementia-riddled old man getting off talking about the violence and bloodshed of war. Much better for the portfolio.

Trump/Kegsbreath wanted a "patriotic" media that would worship Trump, and they've pretty much got.

 

[cc333]

If any of your ancestors were Canadian citizens, you can now claim Canadian citizenship by descent:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/bill-c-3-canadian-citizenship-by-descent-american-interest-9.7112724

I have a great, great, great (great? Not sure how many generations back) grandfather who was from a town in upstate NY near the border. My family has no Canadian ties as far as I know, and I sort of doubt there are any. However, there's actually quite a bit about my family that I don't know, and it would be interesting to find out.

Man, I'm really struggling to find much television or even radio related over the last bunch of pages on this thread. Mostly just politics.......

That seems to simply be the way these topics go. Broadcasting (especially journalistic/news broadcasting) is inherently political simply by the nature of what is being broadcasted, making it rather difficult to avoid completely.

c

 

[TheBigA]

For those who wanted the media to "speak truth to power," here's one example:

Trump, 79, Spews Lies in Rambling Empty Address on His War

The president’s address quickly devolved into a rambling stream of inaccuracies.

www.thedailybeast.com

Here's another:

Trump's Iran speech offered zero answers

Maybe mentioning unpopular wars that dragged on is not a good way to ease anxieties?

www.motherjones.com

 

[AbrahamJSimpson]

Some “print” outlets do the work but when it comes to the larger broadcast and cable media? No.

 

[TheBigA]

Here's some broadcast news coverage

Opinion | Trump’s oddly low-energy prime-time Iran war address failed at its main objective

Paul Waldman: Trump tried to slap some gold paint on this catastrophe, but he still hasn’t made a case for why his Iran war is anything but a terrible idea.

www.ms.now

4 takeaways from Trump's address on the Iran war

President Donald Trump sought Wednesday to explain his rationale for the war against Iran at a pivotal moment at home and abroad, but he offered few new details as he amasses extraordinary executive authority to prosecute the military operation.

www.pbs.org

 

[The New Chico]

Can't get slammed for not meeting your war objectives if you don't have any war objectives! The whole thing is just baffling. The world has stopped believing a word he says - the oil price now goes up every time he says the end is "two or three weeks away". Nobody can figure out why on earth he decided to bomb a country and ruin everyone's summer by setting off a huge wave of inflation. Politically, it's a baffling decision - start an unnecessary war, set off an inflation spike, and not be able to really tell anyone why. The least these people owe us is a clear, frank, and full explanation of the decisions they have taken, and we can't even have that.

Then he turns around and says "countries that want the strait reopened, reopen it yourself, get your own oil". Whose actions caused the strait to get closed down in the first place? Iran is much closer to those of us in Europe (to make this relevant to radio, it's close enough that we hear it on AM skywave at night in the UK!) and posed no threat, let alone a threat to American soil. The only silver lining is that this shitshow will probably be the last time we let the price of oil from god awful countries dictate much at all, the green transition is well underway and will accelerate.

On TV yesterday, two Americas were on display - the mean, nasty ramblings of violent, unhinged politicians; and a stunning display of what happens when America and the world work together to make something as spectacular as the moon mission happen. I would rather see more of the America represented by pleasant, calm, curious NASA astronauts and the international efforts in space than the senile, geriatric old men in power trying to blow up the world before they go.

The Epstein files are so bad that he would rather wage a war rhan have attention paid to them? Not baffling at all, unfortunately.

 

[vchimpanzee]

Tonight's situation is very similar to his speech in December. CBS will be in the middle of a 2-hour Survivor. They have scheduled it now as a two-parter that will have a 20 minute break at 9PM. Fox is also doing a 2-hour Masked Singer. My channel guide doesn't have the president's speech scheduled at all on Fox, NBC, or PBS. But that may change. I also checked NBC.com, and they don't show a speech at 9PM.

Because this is happening in prime time, I really don't expect any of the networks to spend much time in post speech wrap-up. Of course 9PM ET is 6PM PT, so the speech will air during the local news on the west coast.

I don't know what happened because it didn't record (I do have another recording on another machine I haven't checked), but "Shark Tank" began on time. So either the "Greatest Average American" game show aired in its entirety and was not pre-empted by the speech, or it was joined in progress. My DVR identified the "Shark Tank" episode as the pilot of the game show, which would have made it a rerun, so no big deal if it was joined in progress.

I record whatever is on at 10 Wednesdays on ABC as a precaution.

 

[Larry]

So either the "Greatest Average American" game show aired in its entirety and was not pre-empted by the speech, or it was joined in progress.

I read that the network substituted a repeat episode of “GAM” instead of running the new episode that had been scheduled. As it was a repeat episode they preempted the beginning of the show so the 10 pm “Shark Tank” started on time. They probably did this so 11 pm local news and late night programming wouldn’t be delayed.

 

[Larry]

had it tuned in on a station carrying the CBS Radio News coverage of it.

I similarly listened on the radio also carrying CBS Radio News. Without seeing the speech (and not commenting on the content of the speech) he almost sounded sedated or medicated, he sounded monotone except when criticizing the previous administration

 

[TheBigA]

Without seeing the speech (and not commenting on the content of the speech) he almost sounded sedated or medicated,

He had a long day, at the supreme court early in the morning. Perhaps that's why the speech ran longer than the one in December.

The speech interrupted Survivor on CBS, and fans were angry about that:

‘Survivor’ Viewers Complain Over President Donald Trump’s Iran War Speech Interrupting Episode

‘Survivor’ fans complained over President Donald Trump’s speech on the Iran War interrupting the latest season 50 episode on Wednesday, April 1

www.usmagazine.com