The White House confirms the weekly presidential radio address – a fixture for decades – is on indefinite hiatus.
“We received quite a few comments and a lot of feedback that the weekly address wasn't being used to its full potential,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in response to a VOA question during Monday's daily briefing. “We're looking at different ways that we can revamp that and make it where it's more beneficial and gets more information out.”
The last time the White House released a weekly radio recording made by President Donald Trump was on October 13. During the first nine months of his administration he had regularly taped the messages.
Regular presidential radio addresses began with the “fireside chats” of President Franklin Roosevelt during the depth of economic depression in 1933.
Roosevelt had begun using radio to reach the public as governor of New York State at a time when radio broadcasting was a technological revolution.
The tradition was revived by President Ronald Reagan in 1982, a veteran radio announcer and actor, who started the Saturday audio-only addresses from the White House.