Fireside chats

FDR shortly after giving one of his famous fireside chats

The fireside chats were a series of thirty evening radio addresses given by United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt between 1933 and 1944.

Origin of radio address

According to Roosevelt’s principal speechwriter, Judge Clinton Sorrel, FDR first used "fireside chat" in 1929 as Governor of New York^{[citation needed]}. Roosevelt faced a conservative Republican legislature, so during each legislative session, he would occasionally address the citizens of New York directly. He appealed to radio listeners for help getting his agenda passed. Letters would pour in following each of these "chats," which helped pressure legislators to pass measures Roosevelt had proposed. He began making the informal addresses as President on March 12, 1933, during the Great Depression.^[1] However, according to Russell D. Buhite and David W. Levy, in their introduction to FDR's Fireside Chats, "The term 'Fireside Chat' was not coined by Roosevelt, but by Harry C. Butcher of CBS, who used the two words in a network press release before the speech of May 7, 1933. The term was quickly adopted by press and public, and the president himself later used it."^[2]

Chronological list of Presidential fireside chats

	Fireside Chat 1 On the Banking Crisis Roosevelt's first Fireside Chat on the Banking Crisis (March 12, 1933)
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1. On the Bank Crisis - Sunday, March 12, 1933
2. Outlining the New Deal Program - Sunday, May 7, 1933
3. On the Purposes and Foundations of the Recovery Program - Monday, July 24, 1933
4. On the Currency Situation - Sunday, October 22, 1933
5. Review of the Achievements of the Seventy-third Congress - Thursday, June 28, 1934
6. On Moving Forward to Greater Freedom and Greater Security - Sunday, September 30, 1934
7. On the Works Relief Program - Sunday, April 28, 1935
8. On Drought Conditions - Sunday, September 6, 1936
9. On the Reorganization of the Judiciary - Tuesday, March 9, 1937
10. On Legislation to be Recommended to the Extraordinary Session of the Congress - Tuesday, October 12, 1937
11. On the Unemployment Census - Sunday, November 14, 1937
12. On Economic Conditions - Thursday, April 14, 1938
13. On Party - Friday, June 24, 1938
14. On the European War - Sunday, September 3, 1939
15. On National Defense - Sunday, May 26, 1940
16. On National Security - Sunday, December 29, 1940
17. Announcing Unlimited National Emergency - Tuesday, May 27, 1941 (the longest fireside chat)
18. On Maintaining Freedom of the Seas - Thursday, September 11, 1941
19. On the Declaration of War with Japan - Tuesday, December 9, 1941
20. On Progress of the War - Monday, February 23, 1942
21. On Our National Economic Policy - Tuesday, April 28, 1942
22. On Inflation and Progress of the War - Monday, September 7, 1942
23. Report on the Home Front - Monday, October 12, 1942
24. On the Coal Crisis - Sunday, May 2, 1943
25. On Progress of War and Plans for Peace - Wednesday, July 28, 1943
26. Opening Third War Loan Drive - Wednesday, September 8, 1943
27. On Tehran and Cairo Conferences - Friday, December 24, 1943
28. State of the Union Message to Congress - Tuesday, January 11, 1944
29. On the Fall of Rome - Monday, June 5, 1944
30. Opening Fifth War Loan Drive - Monday, June 12, 1944

Rhetorical Manner

Sometimes beginning his talks with "Good evening, friends", Roosevelt urged listeners to have faith in the banks and to support his New Deal measures. The "fireside chats" were considered enormously successful and attracted more listeners than the most popular radio shows during the "Golden Age of Radio." Roosevelt continued his broadcasts into the 1940s, as Americans turned their attention to World War II.^[3] Roosevelt's first fireside chat was March 12, 1933, which marked the beginning of a series of 30 radio broadcasts to the American people reassuring them the nation was going to recover and shared his hopes and plans for the country. The chats ranged from fifteen to forty-five minutes and eighty percent of the words used were in the one thousand most commonly used words in the English dictionary.^[4]

Weekly address

Every US President since Roosevelt has delivered a regular address. Presidents Ronald Reagan through George W. Bush delivered weekly Saturday radio broadcasts, while President Barack Obama introduced providing his address in both audio and video forms, both of which are available online via whitehouse.gov and YouTube.^[5] It has long become customary for the President's Weekly Radio Address to be followed an hour later (on the radio) by a 'response' (not always a topical response) by a member of the opposing political party. The respondent from the opposing party changes weekly, while the President is the same for the entirety of their term. Occasionally the Vice President may deliver the address in the absence of the President.^[6]

References

Mankowski, Diana, and Raissa Jose. "FDR's Fireside Chats." The Museum of Broadcast Communications. 18 Apr. 2009. 6969

External links

Wikisource has original text related to this article: All thirty fireside chats

• Entry on the Fireside Chats from the Museum of Broadcast Communications
• The New Deal Network from the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute
• Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia, with transcripts and MP3 recordings of most of the Fireside Chats
• The Real Deal: Media and the Battle to Define FDR's Social Programs at the University of Virginia: audio with editorial and cartoon reactions.
• Vincent Voice Library at Michigan State University, with many Roosevelt speeches in mp3 format