Broadcasting (July - Dec 1943)

Buy LISTENERS Buy WFMJ covering greater Youngslown More listeners, more hours of the day than any other radio station heard in the Youngslown, O., area.* * C. E. HOOPER, Inc. It I ue fretwork Ileadley-lieed, Rep. ill fflriARK OF ACCURACY, SPEED AND INDEPENDENCE IN WORLD WIDE NEWS COVERAGE UNITED PRESS CHNS Halifax Nova Scotia The Busiest Commercial Radio Station of the Maritimes JOS. WEED & CO. 350 Madison Avenue, New York MP CBS-50 Tbe Selling PoW;r in ine Buying Marked ^rt Time* SWJW» ComP»n> Broadcasting a U.S. Bomber's Mission Feldman Says Records Will Be Made Over Enemy Targets By ARTHUR FELDMAN NOT SO long ago Michael Standing, director of outside broadcasts for BBC, and I went to the 8th Air Force Public Relations Headquarters in London. Our problem was simply this: Could BBC send mobile recording unit and crew to a U. S. Bomber Base to record phases of a bomber mission and also transmit it Mr. Feldman to the United States? We also intended to provide BBC as well as Empire listeners with the program. The idea was approved in princ:ple, but there were many difficulties to be worked out. Time was one of the most important elements. There was a difference of five hours between New York and London time. This was to our advantage. It meant that a beam frcm London at 4:15 a.m. could be rebroadcast at 11:15 p.m. (EWT) over American networks. We wanted to get the show on the air as quickly as possible after the return of the mission. There was also the matter of the censor. This tvpe of show could not be scripted. The censor would have to come to the BBC studio and hear the recordings. This both eased and speeded censorship. Thus, it was on a cold rainy morning last winter that I left London with Dick Dimble^y, BRC reporter from the Middle East, who was to prepare the show for the BBC listeners. We were met by Lt. Donald Sheldon of Newark, N. J., and drove to the base in an army "jeep". We were greeted cordially bv the CO., Col. Stanlev Wrav of Muncie, Ind., and the Intelligence Officer Maj. John McNaboe (former N. Y. State Senator). Later our engineers arrived in a huge five-ton recording van. Waiting for Alert Our alert came through early in the evening. The engineers ran their mike leads in the briefing room. We sat in the Intelligence Office "sweating it out" . . . waiting for confirmation. Around 2 a.m., Maj. McNaboe pointed to a pin stuck in the map of Germany. He turned to me and said quietly, "Briefing will be at . I'll have you awakened at — " We walked back to our mess. Down in the hangars, and at dispersal locations, Armament Crews were "bombing up". We turned in but couldn't sleep. Then the call came. We dressed THE SAME quality of tingling suspense which marks those on-the-spot broadcasts from Britain's airdromes is in this behind-the-scenes account of making one of those broadcasts. This is the story of covering an actual raid by American bomber crews, with interviews before and after . . . the missions "scrubbed" . . . the briefing . . . the pilot's pep talk . . . takeoff . . . waiting . . . It's all here, as lived by the special events man who did the job. He's Arthur Feldman, formerly assistant director of special events for NBC under A. A. Schecter, and at present a special events correspondent for the BBC. hurriedly, roused the engineers and dashed to H.Q. It was a cold, drizzly morning, but no telling about the weather across the Channel. Then the lads started to file in — pilots, co-pilots, navigators and bombardiers. As they did this, I described the scene to the portable recording set. The BBC announcer did the same. Briefing had just begun when Major McNabce entered the room. Col. Wray turned to him questioningly. The Major said just one word — "scrubbed". That word became anathema to us. During the next 10 days, we heard it mornings and nights, with some missions "scrubbed" as late as five minutes before takeoff time. In each case we went through our routine. Commentaries from the briefing room . . . p'lots checking last minute detailed interviews . . . everything, right up to the takeoff. All of much wasted effort. At one time we were alerted three nights in a row and "scrubbed" as many times. But let me say right here, that our feelings on these "scrubs" were nothing compared to those of the combat crews. These lads had come over here to fight; enough said. But it just couldn't go on, and it didn't. We were alerted on the night of Friday, Jan. 22. For the first time in weeks, our weather officer was optimistic. At 1:30 a.m. on the morning of Jan. 23rd, Maj. McNaboe turned to me and said (as he had said so often in the past two weeks), "Briefing will be at I'll call you at " But then he added quietly, "I think they'll go." The 'Pep Talk' I covered the briefing, and then headed for a dispersal area to get what is called the "pep talk" spot when the pilot checks last minute details with his crew. The ship was called "Jack the Ripper". Capt. Bill Crumm of Scarsdale, N. Y., had gathered his crew about him, saying "Well, fellows, we're on that old milk run again. Today we're going to Lorient ..." A few hundred yards away, alongside "Memphis Belle," Capt. Robert Morgan of Asheville, N. C, spoke similarly to his crew, and into our BBC microphone. This talk of a pilot to his crew before a mission is a mighty serious business. But both Crumm and Morgan were more than willing to have us make a record. We recorded two "pep talks" for obvious reasons. Then we drove over to the control tower, and checked to find out which runway would be used for the takeoff. I took a position just off the runway itself about at the po'nt where the shitis would leave the ground. The ships were taxiing in from their dispersal locations. They gathered at the head of the runway almost a mile from us. We had a radio-equipped jeep America's No.l LOCAL STATION WEMP Brings 3 More "Firsts" to Milwaukee 1 1 of in the 6th annual survey of 01 radio editors, WEMP was awarde I first place in BILLBOARD'S 6th Annual Radio International Survey. WEMP won because of its service to the war effort, sports, civic charities, entertainment, and Milwaukee promotions. I of 24 hour a day station serving I Milwaukee's war effort. of to bring a Basic Blue Network Service to Milwaukee. DI AL — 1 340 WEMP 24 Hours a Day! Page 60 • July 26, 1943 BROADCASTING • Broadcast Advertising