--- title: Superman Radio Serial: On 75th Anniversary, Listen to the 1st Episode description: Superman's first radio serial premiered on Feb. 12, 1940 canonical: https://time.com/3697833/superman-radio-anniversary/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-02-12T12:00:14.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T04:11:39.911Z article:section: History og:title: Superman Radio Serial: On 75th Anniversary, Listen to the 1st Episode og:description: Superman's first radio serial premiered on Feb. 12, 1940 og:url: https://time.com/3697833/superman-radio-anniversary/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcfc98f199480300f/69877dd6cd1bba7fdb6f511a/superman.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Action Comics No. 1 Introducing Superman og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Superman Radio Serial: On 75th Anniversary, Listen to the 1st Episode twitter:description: Superman's first radio serial premiered on Feb. 12, 1940 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcfc98f199480300f/69877dd6cd1bba7fdb6f511a/superman.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Listen to Superman's First-Ever Radio Episode  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Feb 12, 2015 12:00 PM UTC  Cover illustration of the comic book Action Comics No. 1 featuring the first appearance of the character Superman, June 1938 Cover illustration of the comic book Action Comics No. 1 featuring the first appearance of the character Superman, June 1938Hulton Archive / Getty Images  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Feb 12, 2015 12:00 PM UTC It’s a bird, it’s a — well, you know. By now, Superman’s legendary introduction needs no introduction. But, on this day in 1940, when the Man of Steel made his first foray into the audio serial format, listeners heard them emerge from the radio for the first time. Though Superman (introduced in print form in 1938) would have several on-air incarnations, he started his radio days in a thrice-weekly show, _The Adventures of Superman_. At the time, he also appeared in comic form in dozens of U.S. newspaper, in addition to dedicated issues of Action Comics and Superman Quarterly. There were 100,000 members of his fan club, but not everyone loved him equally, as TIME reported in the Feb. 26, 1940, issue: --- > “” --- Neither Superman nor Clark Kent appeared in the first episode, however. Instead, it tells of the destruction of Krypton — as you can hear for yourself below, via the Internet Archive: \[archiveorg id=superman\_otr width=500 height=30\] **_Read original coverage of the debut of Superman’s radio serial, here in the TIME Vault:_** [H-O Superman](http://time.com/vault/issue/1940-02-26/page/44) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3697833/superman-radio-anniversary/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3697833/superman-radio-anniversary/"},"headline":"Listen to Superman's First-Ever Radio Episode","datePublished":"2015-02-12T12:00:14.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T04:11:39.911Z","description":"Superman's first radio serial premiered 75 years ago today","url":"https://time.com/3697833/superman-radio-anniversary/","keywords":["radio","Comics","Superman","Superheroes"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcfc98f199480300f/69877dd6cd1bba7fdb6f511a/superman.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcfc98f199480300f/69877dd6cd1bba7fdb6f511a/superman.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Action Comics No. 1 Introducing Superman","caption":"Action Comics No. 1 Introducing Superman","creditText":"Hulton Archive / Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/radio/","name":"radio"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3697833/superman-radio-anniversary/","name":"Listen to Superman's First-Ever Radio Episode"}}]}] ```