NBC Transmitter (Jan-Nov 1942)

2 NBC TRANSMITTER Inter-American University of Air Launched 22 Nations in NBC plan for hemisphere curriculum NBC TRANSMITTER VOL. 8 MAY 1942 NO. 2 Published Monthly by the National Broadcasting Company RCA Building, Radio City, New York A MESSAGE FROM MR. TRAMMELL • From Florida, where Niles Trammell, president of the National Broadcasting Company, is rapidly recuperating from an illness, comes the following message: “Above all, don’t forget to send the NBC Transmitter to every member of the NBC family who is serving with our Armed Forces. We haven’t forgotten them and we don’t want them to forget us. “And say for me, please, that we’re proud of them. Those of us who remain behind will try to do our share, as good Americans, to hasten the day of their return. My very best wishes and kindest regards to each of them.” THE NEW FORMAT • The NBC Transmitter in a new format makes its appearance with this issue. Heretofore the magazine has been circulated among NBC employees. Now it will go to the personnel of all NBC-RED affiliates as well. With this in mind, an effort has been made to make the contents of general interest. In a large measure, the reader interest of the Transmitter will depend on the cooperation of the stations. We are anxious to have items and pictures from our affiliates. The NBC Transmitter has become the organ of the NBC family, embracing l.S4 stations from coast to coast. Our problems and interests are common. New York wants our stations to know what we are doing, hut, more inij)ortant, New York wants to know what you are doing. (lontrihutions should he sent to NBC Press Department, New York. # St. Paul, Minnesota, may be many thousands of miles from Sao Paulo, Brazil, but the two cities— like the two Americas —have more than a nomenclative bond through the recent establishment of the Inter-American University of the Air, an NBC public service feature presented with the cooperation and ultimate participation of all 22 nations in this hemisphere. The kilocycle university — acknowledged as one of the greatest single steps to promote hemispheric solidarity — was launched at the Pan American Union, Washington, on March 28, by an organizing commission of 39 outstanding personalities in the fields of education, diplomacy and radio. Functions of the Air University are supervised by Dr. James Rowland Angell, NBC public service counselor, and directed by his new assistant. Sterling Fisher, noted authority on radio education and LatinAmerican affairs. Cultural and scientific advances of the Western Hemisphere are the themes of the five topical divisions of the InterAmerican University. Curriculum includes History, Government. Music, Literature and Science. Fisher has carefully scanned the curricula of American universities and colleges and has shaped the broadcast schedule to supplement rather than supplant classroom instruction. All broadcasts are intended for home rather than class reception and are timed so that the greatest possible number of students in all the Americas can benefit by them. The original organizing commission which launched the Air Lbiiversity in Washington continues its affiliation with the project as a permanent advisory committee. The group includes names which, iii a single list, read like a digest magazine’s reprint of “W ho’s W ho.” running from Dr. Pedro de Alba, assistant director of the Pan American Lbiion. to George F. Zook, of the American Council on Education. It contains such names as Dean \ irginia Gildersleeve, of Barnard College, and Nelson Rockefeller, Co-ordinator of Inter-American Affairs. First phase of the Air University’s operations is the network presentation of its programs to listeners in the United States and Canada with some foreignlanguage “classes” conveyed by short-wave for rebroadcasting in other nations. Second phase is the individual local broadcasting of the series by 124 transmitters in Central and South America; these stations are supplied with Spanish and Portuguese scripts and instructions for presenting the series along lines similar to the original network presentations. Dr. Angell intends to have transcriptions available for either rebroadcasting purposes or classroom playbacks. STERLING FISHER The Inter-American University of the Air has the endorsement of Secretary of State Cordell Hull and many other eminent authorities on inter-continental relations. W hat some of these persons think is exemplified l)y the two following brief quotes: Dr. Luis Quintanilla, Mexican Minister to the Lbiited States: “We should rejoice at the creation of this worthy enterprise. It will help education. It will help Inter-Americanism. It will help democracy. And because of that, it will belp to bring nearer to us the glorious day of final victory.” Dr. Leo S. Rowe, director general of the Pan American Lnion: “I believe that this Inter-American L’niversity of the Air can contribute much, not only to a better appreciation on the part of the nations of Latin America of what the United States stands for, but also to a much better appreciation on the part of our own people of the culture and civilization of our twenty sister republics.”