Sputnik 1 as heard on shortwave via WTCN-AM

Nov 09, 2021, 09:53 AM

""Twin Cities at Night" interviews by Bill Diehl on Sputnik 1 with calls from listeners including one listener playing audio from Sputnik 1 as heard on his shortwave on 20005 kHz. Sputnik 1 audio can be heard about 4:20 into the recording. FYI ... Bill Diehl was very well known for being a columnist for the St. Paul Pioneer Press newspaper, a rock-and-roll disc jockey on WDGY-AM in the 1960s, and a popular announcer on WCCO-AM afterwards. Bill passed away in 2017. WTCN-AM is known today as WWTC-AM. Sputnik 1 was the first artificial Earth satellite. The Soviet Union launched it into an elliptical low Earth orbit on 4 October 1957, orbiting for three weeks before its batteries died, then silently for two more months before falling back into the atmosphere."

Recorded by Tom Gavaras, courtesy of the Shortwave Radio Archive.

Part of the Shortwave Transmissions project, documenting and reimagining the sounds of shortwave radio - find out more and see the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/shortwave