Hear It Now

Hear It Now, an American radio program on CBS, began in December 1950, ending in June 1951. It was hosted by Edward R. Murrow and produced by Murrow and Fred W. Friendly. It ran for one hour on Fridays at 9 pm Eastern Time.

The show's beginnings

One of the most popular and best selling records of 1948 was the Columbia Records album I Can Hear It Now 1933-1945. The record was a collaboration between Murrow and Friendly. The record interwove historical events with speeches and Murrow's narration and marked the beginning of one of the most famous pairings in journalism history. The huge success of the record (and two follow-up albums released in 1949 and 1950) prompted the pair to parlay it into a weekly radio show for CBS, called Hear It Now. Originally, the series was to have been titled Report to the Nation, and was identified as such when it was announced as the following week's replacement for Broadway Is My Beat at the end of its December 8, 1950 episode. Before its premiere, though, CBS retitled it Hear It Now to capitalize on the popularity of Murrow's albums.