The Big Broadcast

The Big Broadcast

The Big Broadcast is WAMU’s longest-running program. The show features a collection of  radio from the golden age, the 30s, 40s, and 50s, hosted by Tony-Award winning playwright, lyricist and director Murray Horwitz.

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The Big Broadcast
The Big Broadcast: December 7, 2025

The Big Broadcast: December 7, 2025

03:59:03
Dec 5, 2025 2:45 PM
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More Episodes

The Big Broadcast
The Big Broadcast: November 30, 2025

The Big Broadcast: November 30, 2025

03:58:52
Nov 25, 2025 2:15 PM
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The Big Broadcast
The Big Broadcast: November 23, 2025

The Big Broadcast: November 23, 2025

03:58:51
Nov 21, 2025 2:30 PM
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The Big Broadcast
The Big Broadcast: November 16, 2025

The Big Broadcast: November 16, 2025

03:58:34
Nov 14, 2025 2:34 PM
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The Big Broadcast
The Big Broadcast: November 9, 2025

The Big Broadcast: November 9, 2025

03:58:59
Nov 7, 2025 2:54 PM
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The Big Broadcast
Big Broadcast Bites: Get Out The Vote!

A great many vintage radio shows presented “Get Out the Vote” messages ahead of Election Days in the 1930s and 40s, urging listeners to go to the polls. We've curated just a few of these messages here for you, and hope they inspire you to take to the polls! 

This segment originally aired on The Big Broadcast on November 2, 2025.

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Big Broadcast Bites presents curated clips from WAMU’s long-running radio program, The Big Broadcast. Hosted by Murray Horwitz and produced by Jill Ahrold Bailey, these shorter selections offer quick listens, featuring golden age of radio audio and historical recordings that connect the past to today’s listeners.

00:04:02
Nov 2, 2025 7:40 PM
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The Big Broadcast
The Big Broadcast: November 02, 2025

The Big Broadcast: November 02, 2025

03:58:39
Oct 31, 2025 12:33 PM
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The Big Broadcast
The Big Broadcast: October 26, 2025

The Big Broadcast: October 26, 2025

03:59:00
Oct 24, 2025 1:59 PM
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The Big Broadcast
The Big Broadcast: October 19, 2025

The Big Broadcast: October 19, 2025

03:58:44
Oct 17, 2025 4:52 PM
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The Big Broadcast
The Big Broadcast: October 19, 2025 OLD VERSION

The Big Broadcast: October 19, 2025

03:59:04
Oct 17, 2025 1:47 PM
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The Big Broadcast
The Big Broadcast: October 12, 2025

The Big Broadcast: October 12, 2025

03:58:43
Oct 10, 2025 2:1 PM
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The Big Broadcast
The Big Broadcast: October 5, 2025

The Big Broadcast: October 5, 2025

03:59:23
Oct 6, 2025 1:4 PM
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The Big Broadcast
The Big Broadcast: September 28, 2025

The Big Broadcast: September 28, 2025

03:58:53
Sep 26, 2025 1:10 PM
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The Big Broadcast
The Big Broadcast: September 21, 2025

The Big Broadcast: September 21, 2025

03:58:52
Sep 19, 2025 1:17 PM
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The Big Broadcast
Universe & Something For Nothing

The Big Broadcast presents: Summer of Sci-Fi
Episode 12: Universe & Something For Nothing

We close our Summer of Sci-Fi series with two tales of a distant future. In Universe, author Robert A. Heinlein explores the idea of a civilization adrift in the stars, humans for whom the only world they know is a gigantic spaceship. Author Robert Sheckley recasts the genie story into a sci-fi morality tale -- a mysterious machine appears and grants a man's every wish, in Something For Nothing. 

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About the Series: Summer of Sci-Fi

Hosted by Murray Horwitz, The Big Broadcast celebrates the best in vintage radio—and this summer, we’re exploring classic science fiction radio dramas from the golden age, with works by legendary authors such as Jules Verne, Isaac Asimov, and Robert Heinlein.

00:55:50
Sep 15, 2025 5:3 PM
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The Big Broadcast
The Big Broadcast: September 14, 2025

The Big Broadcast: September 14, 2025

03:58:38
Sep 12, 2025 2:3 PM
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The Big Broadcast
The Big Broadcast: September 7, 2025

The Big Broadcast: September 7, 2025

03:59:03
Sep 4, 2025 4:16 PM
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The Big Broadcast
The Big Broadcast: August 31, 2025

The Big Broadcast: August 31, 2025

03:58:44
Aug 29, 2025 2:2 PM
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The Big Broadcast
There Will Come Soft Rains & Zero Hour

The Big Broadcast presents: Summer of Sci-Fi
Episode 11: There Will Come Soft Rains, Zero Hour

Two classic Ray Bradbury short stories adapted by George Lefferts in a single 1950 broadcast of Dimension X; in “There Will Come Soft Rains,” we meet a house that keeps running after its family is gone, and in “Zero Hour,” children whose game of “Invasion” isn’t just pretend.

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About the Series: Summer of Sci-Fi

Hosted by Murray Horwitz, The Big Broadcast celebrates the best in vintage radio—and this summer, we’re exploring classic science fiction radio dramas from the golden age, with works by legendary authors such as Jules Verne, Isaac Asimov, and Robert Heinlein.

00:31:36
Aug 24, 2025 2:5 AM
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The Big Broadcast
The Big Broadcast: August 24, 2025

The Big Broadcast: August 24, 2025

03:58:54
Aug 22, 2025 2:0 PM
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The Big Broadcast
End As A World

The Big Broadcast presents: Summer of Sci-Fi
Episode 10: End As A World

“This is the day the world ends!” declares a church sign in F.L. Wallace’s End As a World—but the truth isn’t what anyone expects. First aired on X Minus One in 1957, this Cold War–era broadcast looks at endings, beginnings, and the questions that haunt an anxious age.

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About the Series: Summer of Sci-Fi

Hosted by Murray Horwitz, The Big Broadcast celebrates the best in vintage radio—and this summer, we’re exploring classic science fiction radio dramas from the golden age, with works by legendary authors such as Jules Verne, Isaac Asimov, and Robert Heinlein.

00:18:46
Aug 22, 2025 3:33 AM
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The Big Broadcast
The Big Broadcast: August 17, 2025

The Big Broadcast: August 17, 2025

03:58:55
Aug 15, 2025 1:25 PM
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The Big Broadcast
Rocket From Manhattan

The Big Broadcast presents: Summer of Sci-Fi
Episode 9: Rocket From Manhattan

In the year 2000, a rocket returns to Earth, and witnesses man’s use of the “Bomb.” Written by Arch Oboler, this radio play was originally broadcast on September 20, 1945, just weeks after the first atomic bombs in history were deployed on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  

About the Series: Summer of Sci-Fi

Hosted by Murray Horwitz, The Big Broadcast celebrates the best in vintage radio—and this summer, we’re exploring classic science fiction radio dramas from the golden age, with works by legendary authors such as Jules Verne, Isaac Asimov, and Robert Heinlein.

Visit the series

00:27:45
Aug 13, 2025 1:33 AM
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The Big Broadcast
The Big Broadcast: August 10, 2025

The Big Broadcast: August 10, 2025

03:58:47
Aug 8, 2025 2:58 PM
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The Big Broadcast
Project Mastodon and Kim Stanley Robinson Interview 2

Contemporary science fiction author Kim Stanley Robinson helps us understand time travel, and we present a temporal tale from X Minus One, "Project Mastodon", written by Clifford D. Simak, adapted by Ernest Kinoy, and originally broadcast on June fifth, 1956.

About the Series: Summer of Sci-Fi

Hosted by Murray Horwitz, The Big Broadcast celebrates the best in vintage radio—and this summer, we’re exploring classic science fiction radio dramas from the golden age, with works by legendary authors such as Jules Verne, Isaac Asimov, and Robert Heinlein.

Visit the series

00:35:09
Aug 6, 2025 4:13 PM
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