Alcoholics
on the Air
Radio
Column
One
of Detroit’s citizens stepped up to the microphone one night last
week and told how he had “hit bottom” as an alcoholic. To
underline his confession, some of the more melodramatic and sordid aspects
of his past were dramatized. Then he told of his regeneration. Summed
up the announcer: “Alcoholism is a disease . . . an obsession.
. . an allergy
. . . ."
The
man who “hit bottom” was the first in a parade of anonymous
Detroiters who will describe their alcoholic pasts over WWJ every other
Saturday (11:15-11:30 p.m., E.W.T.). The series is the first sustained
air flight of the famed organization called “Alcoholics Anonymous”
(Time, Oct. 23).
Detroit
A.A.s give credit for the broadcast project to 62-year-old William Edmund
Scripps, big boss of the Detroit News and WWJ. He was so impressed by
A.A.'s reformation of a drunkard friend that he decided to do what he
could to boost the organization’s Detroit membership (now nearly
400).
(Source:
Time, March 5, 1945)
