NBC Transmitter (Jan-Dec 1940)

2 SHORTWAVE CARRIES FIRST COMMERCIAL PROGRAM Europe often gets its own news more quickly by NBC shortwave than by any other means. From the fifth floor studio, French soldiers have even heard the first report of leave about to be given them. The fan letters received by the International Division are aweing both in quantity and praise. And such is the quality of these broadcasts to foreign countries that many colleges have become interested in using them in the study of languages. They have also proved successful enough to be granted a commercial license by the FCC. Experimental programs in Spanish were started back in July, 1936. They covered only a few hours a week at the beginning, but increased in number as time went by. Exactly a year later, July 26, 1937, program services were inaugurated in six languages, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German and Italian besides English. And from that time on they have been developed to the unprecedented stage attested by the large volume of foreign mail received daily. Until a few months ago, however, the FCC granted only experimental licenses for international shortwave broadcasting. Now the service has a commercial license and will operate on it sixteen hours daily. It will cover twenty Latin-American countries with programs in Spanish, Portuguese and English, beginning at 4:00 p.m. and running to 1 :00 a.m., EST. In addition a service to Europe from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., EST, in English, French. Italian and German will be available to sponsors. Negotiations already instituted with a number of leading concerns have demonstrated the definite desire of leaders in American business and finance to develop foreign markets, which, in connection with the huge popular following that International built up in its experimental days, augurs well for future activity. As tbe NBC guides tell the never-tiring public a hundred times a day, NBC International programs have a world wide mail response from 83 nations, dominions, colonies and protectorates. The first organization to take advantage of the new commercial service is the United Fruit Company. Their opening program was broadcast from 9:00 to 9:15 p.m., EST, on December 1. The contract runs for fifty-two weeks and provides for a similar program seven days a week. The material broadcast is news in Spanish, and, as E. S. Whitman, advertising manager of the United Fruit Company, has said, “is being sponsored strictly in the interests of good will.” There will be no product selling on the program, according to Whitman, and all commercial announcements will be directed solely toward creating better understanding and good will between the United States and the countries of LatinAmerica where the United Fruit Company does business. The programs are broadcast over the international stations WNBI and WRCA. The news is translated by Addison Durland and Eli “Buck” Canel of International, and announced by John Barrett and A. L. De Olivares, crack NBC International Division Spanish announcers. John Barrett is the son of missionary parents and spent his early years in Puerto Rico. He graduated from the University of North Carolina, where he was particularly active in dramatics, in l935, and a few years later received an M.A. He has traveled throughout the United States and the West Indies, and taught Spanish for several years. In 1938 he made a tour for NBC to points of interest in this country in order to write and record in Spanish, material for LatinAmerican audiences. A. L. De Olivares was born in Spain and studied at the University of Barcelona and the Conservatory of Music there. He has had extensive experience as an actor and singer in both Barcelona and New York. During the past two years he has been a commentator in Spanish for M-G-M newsreels, travelogues and shorts. He has also written radio scripts for Latin-American broadcasts. His association with NBC began in 1936. “News in Spanish.” A. L. De Olivares and John Barrett NBC TRANSMITTER TRANSMITTER AT RCAM Six much impressed young men spent Thursday, November 30, visiting tbe RCA Manufacturing Company at Camden, N. J. The six men were the staff of the NBC Transmitter, and this was the second in a series of visits to various RCA subsidiaries. Mr. Gilbert, of the RCAM Press Department, met the group at the Philadelphia station and conducted them to the offices in Camden. Welcome NBC banners greeted the staff as they entered the Administration Building. There they were introduced to Mr. Julius Haber, director of RCAM Press, who outlined the day’s activities. The tour began in the display room where Mr. L. L. Titus, head of display, pointed out the latest RCA products and gave demonstrations of some of the equipment. A record of the individual voices of the group was made on a portable recording unit. Thus the gratitude of the men for the hospitality they received and their impression of the Camden plants was preserved for future generations of Transmitter staffs. Next, Mr. Throckmorton, president of RCA Manufacturing, was kind enough to greet the group personally, following which Mr. Gilbert took them for a short walk to the Research and Engineering Laboratories. Here they met Mr. L. M. Clement, vice president in charge of Engineering and Research, and Mr. E. T. Dickey, who is in charge of Engineering Publications and Engineering Societies Contacts Mr. Dickey guided the men on an inspection tour of the Laboratories where they saw work in progress on microphones, photo-electric cells and infrared wave devices. They also heard music produced from a strip of magnetized steel tape. Before starting the afternoon’s tour, the staff had lunch in the Company dining room with Mr. Dickey, Mr. Haber and Mr. McKeag. It was Mr. McKeag who showed the group the die and cutting machines and led them through the stock and assembly rooms, and in general made the afternoon as hospitable and interesting as the morning had been. Before they left. Mr. Haber cleared up a few final points for the men and topjjed the day off with a typical RCAM farewell and a promise to send up a Glenn Miller recording from RCA Victor. Finallv, the staff, loaded with souvenirs and booklets, caught the train for Manhattan.