Listening to the radio was a daily activity for most households in America. Families listened to news, and entertainment shows. During the time period of WWII, most people hadn't graduated high school, so their reading levels were low. The radio allowed news to spread to people that had a harder time reading because all they had to do was listen. The radio made spreading news extremely fast and easy. The U.S. government tried to use the radio to promote war propaganda early in the war, but it was not very effective until after Pearl Harbor and the Munich Crisis. This was because Americans did not feel it necessary to be part of the war and have people die and possibly go into another Depression until it directly affected them with Pearl Harbor. Then, they were willing to listen to what the government had to say about becoming involved.
Jim Carstensen is the son of a war veteran, who ran a mobile radio station called the Fifth Army Mobile Radio Station during World War II. The radio station had two trailers that could be moved as the battle moved. Transmitters only had a broadcast radius of about 50 miles, so to inform everyone and stay clear of the war a new type of radio station had to be thought of. The idea for rolling stations came from Maj Francos McAloon in 1943. German bombers sometimes followed the radio station's signals to knock them off of air but never succeeded in knocking off the Fifth Army Mobile Radio Station. The goal of the station was to keep soldiers informed, educated, and to build and/or maintain their morale. They gave the soldiers a voice.