Reagan's own voice, from summit reports to Bible stories.
Ronald Reagan On The Air is built on Reagan's own delivery: speeches from the Oval Office, before audiences in Washington and Massachusetts, and to assembled service members. The subjects run from Gorbachev and arms reductions to free trade, a farewell looking back on eight years and stories of Abraham and Solomon.
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Ronald Reagan On The Air is primary-source listening. The voice on these recordings is Reagan's own, heard in addresses to the nation, speeches before audiences, a military ceremony and a reading of Bible stories. Some recordings keep the broadcast around them. His report on the summit with Mikhail Gorbachev is framed by a newscaster describing the Soviet leader's Aeroflot jet departing Andrews Air Force Base for East Berlin, and the coverage picks up again once he finishes. That framing is worth having; it puts a listener back in the evening the speech aired. U.S.-Soviet relations come up again and again. Speaking to the World Affairs Council in Springfield, Massachusetts, Reagan describes an agenda that put human rights and the Helsinki Accords on the table, and he insists on arms reductions, not just arms control. He asks why the Soviet government does not issue passports to its citizens, and mentions a meeting with Soviet media and publishing figures that the USIA brought about. The summit address credits public support for rebuilding the military, for Grenada and Libya, and for his refusal at Reykjavik to trade away SDI. His phrase for it: the American people prefer no deal to a bad deal. Domestic policy is here too. In an address to the American Enterprise Institute he hails the U.S.-Canada Free Trade Agreement and a new GATT round, then turns to the budget and borrows the term 'iron triangle' for parts of Congress, the media and special interest groups whose power, he argues, comes from permanence. He finishes on Kipling and 'the opening verse of the opening page of the chapter of endless possibilities.' The medal ceremony reverses the direction of praise. A citation credits him with rebuilding the nation's defenses, and a speaker recalls the care he and Mrs. Reagan showed families after the 101st Air Disaster and the Stark Tragedy. His thanks to the service members rests on a plain line: 'You come from America. And you are America's pride.' The Oval Office farewell is where the recordings turn inward. He calls it the 34th time he has spoken from that office and the last, recalls seeing people through tinted glass from a car someone else is driving, and sums up eight years with 'We meant to change a nation. And instead, we changed a world.' Near the end he settles on 'All in all, not bad. Not bad at all.' Humor surfaces elsewhere, including a joke about two motorcycle policemen who decline to ticket a speeding car because its driver was Gorbachev. The outlier is 'Tales from the Great Book', in which Reagan reads of Abram wandering at God's command, Abraham asking the Hittites for a cave to bury Sarah, and Solomon ruling forty years in peace. Here the oratory gives way to plain storytelling. Start with the farewell for Reagan summing himself up, or with Springfield for the diplomacy in detail.
Made for: Suits a listener who wants the Gorbachev summit, arms talks and trade arguments of the 1980s in Reagan's own delivery rather than secondhand, and who would also be curious to hear him read Bible stories.
What sets it apart: Rather than analysis of Reagan, it offers the recordings themselves, and the mix is unusual: arms-control speeches and a military medal ceremony share space with a reading of stories running from Abraham to Solomon.
Ronald Reagan began his broadcasting career as a radio announcer for the Chicago Cubs, WHO Radio, Des Moines, Iowa. The Great Communicator had a wonderful voice that people trusted and made ever radio show an experience. Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was the fortieth President of the United States (1981–1989) and the thirty-third Governor of California (1967–1975). Born in Illinois, Reagan moved to Los Angeles, California in the 1930s, where he was an actor, president of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), and a spokesman for General Electric (GE). His start in politics occurred during his work for GE. Originally a member of the Democratic Party, he switched to the Republ…
Gorbachev as the mystery VIP in a speeding joke: Reagan gives you more than solemn podium voice.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A measured biblical journey from pasture disputes to Solomon's abundance, shaped by family strain, burial, promise, and providence.
Ronald Reagan and Tales from the Great Book presents biblical narrative as a measured spoken journey, moving from Abram's black tents of camel hair, wandering herds, and life near Lot's family into the practical strain that divides them.
A formal medal ceremony frames Reagan's military legacy through national pride, personal care, and diplomatic claims.
An award ceremony turns into a formal summing-up of Ronald Reagan's time as commander in chief. Frank C. Carlucci presents the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service and other service honors, with the citation framing Reagan as a president who rebuilt…
A presidential farewell moves from tinted glass and White House memories to Reagan's broad defense of his first principles.
Ronald Reagan's farewell address begins with the simple business of leaving office, then opens into a reflection on distance, duty, and the ideas he believed had shaped his presidency.
Reagan links free trade, welfare reform, and the "iron triangle" to a farewell vision of national possibility.
Ronald Reagan's Constitution Hall address ranges from the coming U.S.-Canada Free Trade Agreement and a new GATT round to a wider defense of his domestic record.
A U.S.-Soviet address that ties arms reduction to human contact, with a pointed Gorbachev story at the close.
The address frames U.S.-Soviet tension less as a weapons standoff than as a struggle over ordinary contact. It links Soviet compliance with the Helsinki Accords, freer travel, people-to-people exchange, and arms reduction to a broader case for openness, then reads American…
Ronald Reagan reads a long biblical passage that moves from Abram and Lot in Canaan to Solomon in Jerusalem, with "Sodom and Gomorrah," "Moriah," and the "house of the Lord" as major landmarks.
Ronald Reagan receives the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service at Andrews Air Force Base, alongside service-specific awards from Frank C.
Reagan warns of "an eradication of the American memory" and says "all great change in America begins at the dinner table."
Reagan calls the Budget Act of 1974 a rewrite of the Constitution that helped create deficits and evade responsibility.
Reagan says the Soviets will be pressed on Afghanistan, human rights, and "arms reductions, not just arms control."
Reagan calls the INF Treaty an arms-reduction agreement that abolishes a class of U.S.
At the Venice economic summit, Ronald Reagan says the seven leaders backed coordination, open trade, and reducing farm subsidies.
Ronald Reagan opens his address to the 100th Congress by congratulating Speaker Jim Wright and citing a 21.5% to 7.5% fall in the prime rate and nearly 13 million new jobs.
President Reagan told a Chicago news conference that he was optimistic about a November summit with Mikhail Gorbachev but would not reveal the contents of his letter to the General Secretary.
A sales pitch for discounted vintage media collections including movies, TV shows, and radio programs.
A Memorial Day tribute honoring fallen soldiers and urging support for current troops, with patriotic and religious overtones.
President Reagan delivers a televised address urging Congress to pass his tax cut bill, briefly addressing Social Security concerns.