Thelma Lovelace said she heard: “We have taken in water, my navigator is badly hurt; (repeat) we are in need of medical care and must have help; we can’t hold on much longer.”
The text of the March of Time broadcast includes the line “SOS…SOS…position 281 north Howland…can’t hold out much longer…motor sinking in water….very wet…”
The March of Time broadcast was on July 8. Lovelace said that she heard what she heard on July 7. In my correspondence with Thelma in 1991 I asked:
"It is easy to see how you can place the time of day (before 8 a.m.) you heard the broadcast by reference to the time your husband had to be at work. But how do you know it was July 7th?"
She replied:
"As I remember, my husband - and the people I repeated the story to - all answered that she had been missing five days. My husband even said, 'Maybe it was a "show"; a take-off of the event.' I remember I was annoyed at him for saying that."
Of course, she may have had the date wrong but we can't assume she did without evidence that she did. Thelma claimed that she rejected, at the time, the idea that she had heard a radio show. Anyone who has heard the March of Time broadcast (TIGHAResearchers have received audio recordings of the show) knows that the narration, music and commercials would make it pretty hard to mistake it for a genuine distress call.
Notice a similarity? What Lovelace reported hearing sounds to me a lot like the March of Time broadcast, and therefore I don’t find her reported reception to be credible. I think she conflated a March of Time broadcast she heard with her own expectations of an injury to Fred, quite in line with my earlier suggestion on this thread.
I think you have it backward. The radio show contained phrases gleaned from various published accounts of alleged post-loss receptions. Some variation on "can't hold on much longer" occurs in almost every reported message, credible or not. It's appearance in clearly bogus reports is a classic example of what we might call "expectation bias." You suggested that the same phenomenon may have accounted for reports of injuries - except, as I have shown, that didn't happen. Only Larremore, Klenck and Lovelace (and, yes, two psychics) mentioned injuries.
I think Ric should agree with me on this because in the post loss catalog, he concludes that Mrs. Joe Arnold (post-loss catalog entry # 177) and Mr. and Mrs. Roland (entry #178) had mistaken a March of Time broadcast for messages from Earhart because they reported hearing this same ‘Can’t hold out much longer’ line from the March of Time script.
We ascribed Arnold and Roland to the March of Time broadcast because they both heard what they heard on the date and at the time when the March of Time show was aired.
Also, there is Charles Miguel, clearly a hoaxer, who reported on July 6 (entry #162) “NRUI NRUI KHAQQ TWO EIGHT ONE NORTH HOWLAND CANNOT HOLD MUCH LONGER DRIFTING NORTHWEST WE ABOVE WATER MOTORS SINKING IN WATER.” In dismissing Mr. Miguel Ric once again points out that “Parts of this alleged signal are identical to the phrasing in the signal “281 NORTH HOWLAND CALL KHAQQ BEYOND NORTH DONT HOLD WITH US MUCH LONGER ABOVE WATER SHUT OFF,” heard at Wailupe the previous day and widely reported in the press.”
Classic example of what I was referring to above. The radio show contained phrases gleaned from various published accounts of alleged post-loss receptions.