Radio age research, manufacturing, communications, broadcasting, television (1941)

nollFHT ST. JOHN nwiD M. ANDERSON GIIANT PASS JOHN \AM)i;»COOK NBC Reporters Cover the War (Coiitiniicd front pa^e 10) iiig that he was going to Denmark to look lor a story. No dulhirds, the New York news staff at once interpreted Jordan's cable as the tip-off of the forthcoming invasion. NBC reporters were (juicklv dispatched to tlie danger spots. The in\asion came within a few days, just as Jordan had predicted. And our reporters were on the job in Nor- way and Sweden. \\'lu'n Hitler smashed into Holl.ind. Belgium and France, NBC's reportiTs covered the invasion from all fronts. Thev brought American listeners one- of the last broadcasts out ot Holland. They continued broadcasting from Paris vnitil the Nazi troops took over. Helen Hiett left the French capitol lit- erally only a few vards ahead of the advancing Nazis. With the fall of France, NBC ex- panded its news staff throughout the B.ilkans. Mai tin .Vgronskv, the iloughtv Rutgers University graduate, who did his first broadca.st for NBC in 1939 from Geneva, was sent to Belgrade and then to Ankara. Reporters were sta- tioned in Bucharest, Budapest and .Athens to cover the Balkan war. .\t .\nkara, Agronsky made radio i)i{)a(kasting history. There, in virtu- ally the last remaining neutral capital in eastern Europe, Agron.skv found liimsell in a strangely advantageous position to gather news of all the bel- ligerents. He could attend functions where Axis and Allied diplomats still rubbed shoulders. Agronskv's broad- casts were packed with so many dailv scoops that they became "must" listen- ing for American newspapermen and diplomats. .\s exciting a reportorial life as Agronsky had at Ankara, it was dull compared to what he was later to en- covmter in Hong Kong, Singapore. Java and Manila. Agronsky was nev er a man t(i pull a punch. He mav have angered some but he was later proved correct in his assertions that easy-going life in Singapore was not enough to stop the Japs. One of his broadcasts reporting that .\merican warships in the Far East were using ammunition that had de- teriorated through age aroused Con- gressional repercussions but resulted in an official acknowledgment of the ac- curacy of his statements. When Hitler struck at Russia, NBC already was on the job. Robert Magi- doff was in Moscow to bring American listeners the official Soviet reports of the progress of the war. When Moscow was threatened in the winter of 1911. Magidoff went to Kuibyshev with the official Russian government entourage. NBC in New York had meanwhile per- fected arrangements through RCA C^ommunications to bring Magidoff's voice to the United States either across the Atlantic or Pacific, bv whichever route atmospheric conditions were better. Magidoff is in the NBC li.ulilion- he's no arm chair reporter, lie has vis- ited the Russian fighting fronts and seen for himself what goes on. He has brought .American listeners the first re- ports of the prowess of American arms in the hands of Russian fighters. He is Iretjuentlv quoted by Red Star and other official Soviet publications, a trib- ute to his accurate reporting. Incidentally, it was Magidoff who initiated the negotiations by which NBC obtained the Western Hemi- sphere rights for the first performance of Dmitri Shostakovich's Seventh Sym- phony by Maestro -Arturo Toscanim' and the NBC SvniplioTiy Orchestra. .As Hitler drove deeper into Russia and negotiations between the United States and Japan neared the breaking point, NBC eyes were turned to the Pacific. Late last fall, reporters were hurriedly dispatched to outposts in Java and Batavia to supplement the staffs in Chungking, Tokv'o, Manila. Honolulu and Hong Kong. Reporters Mohilhed Then came December 7. Within seconds, NBC reporters at home and abroad, wherever stationed, were mobilized to report the latest de- velopments, to analyze world reaction, and to report from the battlefronts. \\'ithin an hour of the Jap attack on Pearl Harbor, we were receiv ing direct reports from Bert Silen and Don Bell in Manila and Jim Wahl and others at Honolulu. NBC men were rushed from Chicago. Denver and Hollywood to San FrancLsco to establish a fuUv- manned operating point for Pacific Seas operations. In the early morning of December 8, Armv and Navv head- (juarters at Washington were manned by NBC reporters. A special 24-hour telephone circuit was establi.shed at Washington so that .Army and Navv infornuUion could be got to the micro- phones within a matter of seconds after release. On December S. Silen made eight broadcasts from Manila, setting a pace which v\as followed until that hapless city fell to the Japs. On December 9. Silen and Bell vvrote auotlu'r glorious chapter in the history of NBC broadcasting with their eyewitness description of the bombing of Manila. American listeners heard the crack of bombs and the rattle of anti- aircraft fire as Silen and Bell, assisted by Wallace, stayed on the sjiot to de- scribe what their eves saw. 24 RADIO AGE