The Big Story

The Joe Hehn Memorial Collection

The Big Story radio series chronicled the heroic quests that newspaper reporters made for truth and justice in their communities. The very successful series was on radio from 1947 to 1954, and also on television from 1950 to 1957. Many of the radio scripts were adapted for the TV version. The program "fictionalized" original news stories, changing the names of the participants, except for that of the reporter, to fit into the 22-23 minutes of drama time for the program, and to prevent potential legal issues. The program awarded $500 to the reporter for their selection to the program. The amount was equal to the honorarium a reporter would receive for winning the Pulitzer Prize for journalism. * * * These recordings are part of the Joe Hehn Memorial Collection. Mr. Hehn (1931-2020) was a pioneering collector of radio recordings when the hobby emerged in the 1960s. Digitizing his collection of reel tapes and discs is the effort of a wide range of North American volunteers, and with the assistance of some international collectors. The groups supporting this effort with their funds, time, technology and skills are the Old Time Radio Researchers and a small group of transcription disc preservationists who refer to themselves as the "The Knights of the Turning Table."

This recording is part of the Old Time Radio collection.

Chapters