Takes professor's (& Jimmy's) advice
This started out as a test of a Google "Gadget" MP3 player, to see whether its code would work within this blog page... So far so good. For an audio file in keeping with the "other journalism" theme, I went to http://archive.org for an account of a famous reporter's decision to go into journalism. (Click the pink button, not the "mp3 player" text, which still goes to the "gadget" author's favorite singer. I'm looking for a way to change that to a pointer to archive.org, the actual host for the audio file.)
By now you should be listening to the Feb. 14, 1940, radio episode that introduced a character named Clark Kent. The series started the previous day.
If the Google MP3 player doesn't work, you can go to Archive.org to use
its online player to hear episode #2. You also can download 20 more shows: The Adventures of Superman, Episodes 0001-0021. Browse around archive.org and you'll find a full decade of Clark's adventures with the very competitive reporter Lois Lane, grumpy editor Perry White, and even scarier characters than those two.
Unlike most versions of the Superman origin, this one skipped childhood on the Kent farm in Smallville. Instead, in this episode the man in blue and red arrives on Earth fully grown, just in time to rescue an unnamed "professor" and his son Jimmy from a runaway trolley...
Superman has the mild-mannered professor to thank for his choice of journalism as a day-job, and Jimmy adds an important bit of dress-for-success career advice. When the big guy in the cape says his main goal is to "know whom to help and when help is needed," here's what they tell him:
Professor: "To mingle with people; to see men at the highest and lowest... how about a newspaper? A great metropolitan daily. Join their staff. Be a reporter."
Jimmy: "... but you can't do it in those clothes, not that blue costume with the cloak and shield on your breast."
Along with the new outfit, Jimmy also suggests the name "Clark Kent," which the professor agrees is common enough to "not attract attention." To learn how Clark manages to land the Daily Planet job without a four-year journalism school degree or a bit of experience, you'll just have to listen to the program... At least his language skills weren't a problem. His question about knowing "whom to help" suggests that he had a pretty good English grammar course on his way from Krypton.
Did Lois Lane go to journalism school? Her major isn't mentioned, but if you want to hear her root for State College against Metropolis U, try the Sept. 1, 1941 football game episode.
Like many newspaper reporters, Clark worked a five day week for most of his career.... That is, the radio Superman series was broadcast in five 15-minute segments... after the series picked up steam gradually, starting with three editions a week in this collection, according to the notes on Archive.org and this fan site about the Superman radio show. (There's also a Wikipedia page.)
Disclaimer: I'm not getting a dime from Google, or from Kellogg's Pep Whole Wheat Flakes. Also, I have no control over the Google MP3 links or the audio file, all drawn from their own sites. Let me know if they don't work -- or if evildoers ever hack them into linking to something offensive.
1:42:16 PM 
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