Journalist Tom Brokaw was Allen Secher’s guest on the 100th edition of Montana Public Radio’s monthly musical program, “You Must Remember This." Brokaw’s best-seller, “The Greatest Generation,” serves as a frame for this hour-long exploration of the hardships and sentiments of a generation, all of it reflected in the big-band, jazz and popular music of the 1930s and 1940s.
This special episode of “You Must Remember This” coincided with the 72nd anniversary of D-Day, the massive and daring allied invasion of Europe that marked the beginning of the end of Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich.
Brokaw was inspired to preserve the voices of “The Greatest Generation” while visiting the beaches of Normandy, France, in 1984 on the 40th anniversary of the Normandy landing. In “The Greatest Generation” he wrote, “It is, I believe, the greatest generation any society has ever produced.” Brokaw says that these men and women fought not for fame and recognition, but because it was the “right thing to do.”
Tom Brokaw joined KNBC in Los Angeles in 1966 and has reported for NBC ever since. He served as White House correspondent during Watergate, co-hosted NBC’s “Today” show for six years, and in 1982 became anchor and managing editor of “NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw,” remaining in that position until 2004.
In 1998 Brokaw published his first book, “The Greatest Generation,” which went on to become one of the most popular nonfiction books of the 20th century. He followed with six other titles, including “Boom! Voices of the Sixties,” “The Time of Our Lives” and “A Lucky Life Interrupted: A Memoir.”
Allen Secher, who has broadcast “You Must Remember This” on MTPR since 2007, also hosted a radio broadcast on Armed Forces Radio for thirty years. As a television producer, Secher won seven Emmy awards. His monthly MTPR program features classic and contemporary interpretations of the music of the great American songbook - George and Ira Gershwin, Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart.
Listen to an encore broadcast of this special D-Day program on Monday, June 5, 2017 at 8:00 p.m. on your radio or online.