Learn how and why President Franklin D. Roosevelt spoke directly to the nation. In 1933, the U.S. was in the midst of the Great Depression. Five thousand banks had failed and nine million savings accounts had evaporated. Just a week after his inauguration, Franklin D. Roosevelt turned to radio to speak to the American public. This was the first of FDR’s fireside chats. Throughought the twelve years of his presidency, FDR used radio strategically to avoid becoming frequent enough to be written-off or ignored. Sixty million Americans tuned in to this first address, and listened to their president explain how banks worked, why they had failed, and what he planned to do to lead the U.S. back to prosperity.