At CBS News in New York, John Charles Daly was making final preparations for the regular 2:30 broadcast of The World Today when the United Press release came in from the White House. He broke immediately into The Spirit of ’41 to deliver a short bulletin, and then followed just minutes later with The World Today broadcast.

CBS had the only regularly scheduled news program on Sunday afternoons on any network, so they were in an enviable position. According to the broadcast standards of the day, interruptions of regular broadcasts had to be cleared with sponsors, but since CBS was broadcasting a news program anyway, they could devote almost a half-hour of coverage to the crisis.

Daly introduced The World Today with a two minute summary of the attack. The NBC Red Network, by contrast, would have H.V. Kaltenborn on the air at 3:15 pm, and the NBC Blue network and Mutual would work with bulletins until their regular news broadcasts in the evening.

During the half-hour broadcast, Daly would bring in Albert Warner in Washington to speculate on FDR’s next move.