Earnest Will: Americans in the Gulf

It is becoming increasingly rare when the immediate and dramatic impact of radio is fully realized. The sheer power of the spoken word and the sound of the environment from which it springs can command the audience in a manner unmatched by the visual media. Such is the case with Earnest Will: Americans in the Gulf. Correspondent Jon Bascom takes the listener into the dramatic and dangerous tanker escort mission in the Persian Gulf. The listener experiences firsthand the minutes of the mundanity of life aboard ship interrupted by moments of peril and excitement. When the tanker Bridgeton strikes a mine, the event and its aftermath explode in a flurry of vivid sound-pictures which recall the heyday of war reporting in the 1940s. For a compelling narrative account of a news event of great significance, and for capturing it by using the techniques of radio reporting to the fullest, a Peabody Award to ABC Radio News for Earnest Will: Americans in the Gulf.