Some of us are old enough to remember the Cold War and the Cuban Missile Crisis. It has been posted here extensively about how it affected us as a nation, and how KAAY got involved only weeks after the station coming to being, with Jim Hankins/"Mike McCormick" almost losing his job over the decision to participate; here is a link of material, mostly by Dave Montgomery and Richard Robinson, regarding such:
http://mighty1090kaay.blogspot.com/search?q=Cuban
KAAY had almost been left out, with the U. S. government having thought KTHS was off the air, not realizing KAAY had the frequency and the coverage; Jim, who couldn't get in touch with anyone to make a decision (remember, cell phones hadn't been invented yet and there were very few car phones), made the decision himself, even though the staff was sharply divided...see the link, re: Dave M's comments from A.J. Thank you, Jim Hankins, you and KAAY made history....
Basically, at midnight every evening, the government came in, ran everyone out of the studio, locked the door and broadcast Voice of America programming to Cuba; the signal from KAAY absolutely blanketed the island nation.
My God, can you even imagine the tension, the agony, the possible retribution that could have taken place? Fortunately, the U.S. and Russia came to agreeable terms and things cooled down a bit. So, without further ado, here is a recording, regarding KAAY's involvement of the broadcasts to Cuba:
(or download here)
Thank you, Jim Hankins/"Mike McCormick", for having the guts!
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