On D-Day, West Coast radio listeners ‘sat up all night by the radio’

June 6 will mark the anniversary of the Allied landings at Normandy to begin the liberation of France and eventual defeat of Nazi Germany, and bring an end to World War II in Europe.

In addition to what it meant as a great turning point in world history, D-Day is also unique in how it was broadcast by American radio networks, as CBS, NBC and what would become ABC pooled their reporters, engineers and other resources, and cooperated closely with military officials to present, for the first time, what would now be called “wall-to-wall” coverage of a developing major international news event for American audiences.

The Resident Historian is a twice-weekly podcast from KIRO Newsradio's Feliks Banel. Each episode includes either Feliks's Wednesday history feature from Seattle's Morning News, or the weekly Friday morning installment of the history and geography series All Over The Map.