Radio: Short Wave Into High

Two years ago, eager to stymie Nazi infiltration in Latin America, the U. S.

toyed with the notion of setting up a Federal short-wave station, abandoned the idea when private broadcasters, led by NBC, clamored for a chance to take Latin America by the ears. Since then the radio industry has sunk a fortune into shortwave operations, is now engaged in spending over $2,000,000 in improving its facilities. Many operators whose transmitters are below FCC’s 50,000-watt minimum requirement are now busily engaged in boosting their short-wave power. By next year twelve of them will be blasting away.

Last week both NBC and CBS got ready for more action on the Latin-American front. Back from Latin America with a report on radio conditions was NBC Short-Wave Program Director Guy Hickok; preparing to leave on an inspection tour this week was a trio of CBS bigwigs—President William S. Paley, News Chief Paul White, and the recently appointed Director of Latin-American Relations, Edmund Chester, former head of A. P.’s Latin-American Division.

Most successful U. S. short-wave broadcast to date was the airing last February of the bout between Joe Louis and Arturo Godoy, the Chilean heavyweight champion of South America. Sponsored by Standard Oil Co. of N. J. over NBC, the program was picked up by 130 local stations scattered through the Caribbean, Mexico, Central and South America. NBC is the only short-wave operator that has as yet devoted much time to commercial programs.

Still heard seven times a week is the 15-minute news broadcast of United Fruit Co.

known as El Mundo al Dia (“The World to Date”), which was put on by NBC last December as the first U. S. short-wave show ever broadcast commercially.

In order to distinguish between Americans of the North and of the South, CBS uses the Spanish coagulation “Estadouni-dense” (United Staters) for the Latin-American trade. Star broadcast of CBS to Latin America is their School of the Air program, which now reaches fifteen million children in the Western Hemisphere.

From Latin America, NBC averages fan mail of 2,000 letters a month, CBS attracts about 1,000. Other letters come from all over the world. Broadcasting in French, Italian and German as well as Portuguese and Spanish, NBC informed Englishmen that their rations of bacon or butter were to be cut before it was known in London, tipped off listeners in Italy that Mussolini was leaving for Brenner Pass 13 hours before the trip was mentioned in Rome.