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Radio News: Trump ends another tradition, the weekly radio address
Nov 24, 2017 10:10 pm
Steve Herman reports for the Voice of America, that President Donald Trump has given up recording a weekly presidential radio address, the first time a U.S. leader has not done so since 1982. Trump stopped recording the radio addresses Oct. 13, and Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the presidential spokesperson, didn't take a question about it until Nov. 20. "We're looking at different ways that we can revamp that and make it where it’s more beneficial and gets more information out," said Sanders, who wouldn't rule out the end of the tradition. The media was not the only group who did not notice the end of the radio address. "We haven't received any reaction about the missing addresses. Not by phone or email. That is in some contrast to feedback from listeners in prior years who feared we might not choose to carry the new president's remarks, especially when there was a change in parties," said Steve Butler, the program director at KYW in Philadelphia. Franklin D. Roosevelt famously addressed the nation through radio during the depression. Since 1982, every president recorded a weekly radio announcement, except George H.W. Bush who only occasionally recorded the messages. While Trump won't be heard on the radio on Saturdays anymore, he is known to make his most outlandish Twitter messages on weekend mornings.