H. V. Kaltenborn 1977 Inductee

      H.V. was born on July 9, 1878 to German immigrant parents in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  At a young age, he left his father’s building material business to do odd jobs at a local newspaper.  At the age of 19, he joined the Fourth Wisconsin Volunteers Infantry to fight in the Spanish-American War.  While overseas, Kaltenborn began sending stories on the war back to his hometown newspaper, the Merrill Advocate.  This was the start of his press career.  He spent some time in Europe after the war and upon his return, joined the Brooklyn Daily Eagle in 1902.  Several years later, he entered Harvard’s journalism program.

     Kaltenborn’s radio career goes back to 1921 when he addressed the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce while speaking from an experimental station in Newark, New Jersey.  Two years later he was broadcasting at Radio Station WEAF in New York and was the first newscaster to comment on the current events of the day.  Kaltenborn’s comments on the news eventually got him into trouble.  Even though the comments were much the same as those in his column in the Eagle, the reaction was very different when heard on the air.  The comments were considered controversial and as a result, H.V. was terminated from WEAF.

     In 1927, Kaltenborn joined the new Columbia Broadcasting Station as a regular weekly news commentator.  CBS liked his knowledgeable and controversial commentaries on the news.  They also liked his distinctive style of speaking and his ability to work without a script.  He was a full time broadcaster at CBS from 1929-1940 and at NBC from 1940-1955.

     After 30 years with the press, he resigned from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle in 1930 and became a full-time broadcaster.  Kaltenborn’s vast knowledge of foreign affairs as well as his ability to speak fluent French and German amply equipped him for covering crises in Europe and the Far East in the ‘30s.   One of his most famous periods was during the Munich Crisis of 1938.  He slept on a cot at Columbia Studios during the 18-day crisis and broadcast the unfolding events almost non-stop.  Subsisting on coffee and onion soup, he would rush to the microphone whenever a news flash was received.  From the first bulletin to the conclusion of the crisis, Kaltenborn made more than 100 broadcasts.  This "crisis" established radio as the news source.  Americans crowded around their radios at all hours for updates on the news rather than waiting for morning or evening papers.

     In 1940, Kaltenborn’s commentaries again got him into trouble.  The U.S. at that time was officially neutral in the European war, while Kaltenborn was for intervention.   His broadcasts in favor of aiding Great Britian were bitterly reproved by the America First Committee.  As a result of the controvery, he relocated to NBC.  He remained an active broadcaster when America finally entered into the war.  He carried a microphone to all major battlefronts (from Guadalcanal to Rome) and interviewed soldiers as well as statesman.  He remained at NBC after the war and continued regular newscasting until 1953.

     He was awarded the 1945 DuPont Radio Award and nine other awards in 1946 for his wartime accomplishments.  Kaltenborn’s many broadcast achievements are detailed in his autobiography, Fifty Fabulous Years, and in a number of books containing his most well known radio commentaries.  He died in June, l965 and his funeral in New York City was attended by many of his former colleagues and much of the broadcast industry.

Page research and presentation by Doris Tucker, Infoage Virtual Volunteer
Hans von (H.V.) Kaltenborn image from http://http://www.coutant.org/kaltenborn.html  Photo credit: The Columbia Broadcasting System

Page updated January 24, 2004   page created January 24, 2004