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

THE AMERICAN FLAG, FLANKED BY PENNANTS SYMBOLIC OF RCA S OUl- STANDING WAR EFFORT. MADE A COLORFUL BACKDROP FOR THE STOCK- HOLDERS MEETING. with proper governmental regula- tion, is the surest guarantee of the greatest possible service to the people. From such free enterprise has come America's cultivation of science which is proving to be its salvation in the war. America's men of science have thrown up ramparts around Victory, and have provided armor for the preserva- tion of liberty. They have made this country the most powerful indus- trial nation in the world, competent to be the arsenal of Democracy. "When the full story of wartime radio is told, RCA, I believe, will be the symbol of 'first in war' in all phases of radio—research and in- vention, engineering and develop- ment, manufacturing and commu- nication," said Mr. Sarnoff. "Our job ahead is to maintain RCA and radio 'first in peace.' With this our aim, we have a Post-War Planning Committee preparing for all phases of radio development. From scien- tific research to industrial results, we shall do our utmost to help win the war, to serve the peace, and to help in shaping a better world." STATIONS BUILT FOR ALLIES RCA Victor Designs and Installs Tiuo 50.000-Watt Broadcast Units for Belgians and Fighting French on the West Coast of Africa FROM bases on the West Coast of Africa, American-made radio is helping to launch a new offensive against the A.xis, with two new stations spearheading the proji- aganda attack, according to in- formation just received by the International Department of the RCA Victor Division of Radio Cor- poration of America, which sup- plied and is installing the stations. The Radio Station of the Belgian Government, speaking through its powerful new 50,000-watt RCA transmitter, is now on the air daily from Leopoldville in the heart of Belgium's African empire. Its broadcasts are beamed primarily at Eelgium, and it has set as its first task the bringing of the true pic- ture of the progress of the war to Belgians under the Axis heel and. in other important ways, aiding the cause of the United Nations. Across the Congo River from Leopoldville, in Brazzaville, French Equatorial Africa, the antennas of another RCA transmitter are ris- ing. "The Voice of Free France," a 50,000-watt radio station that will carry Fighting French news to France and all parts of French colonial possessions from French Equatorial Africa, is now nearing completion and will soon join the United Nations network in its prop- aganda war against the Axis, it was revealed b.v RCA Victor. Tlie "Radiodiffusion Nationale lieige" and "La Voix de la France Libre" will speak to their own peo- ples in their own tongues and pene- trate all corners of their homelands and their overseas domains with news, music, drama, and inspira- tion. Its mission was expressed by the Belgian station on its inaugural program when it declared: "Our broadcasts are bombing missions. Our radio bombs carry the truth and this is explosive, too." At a recent dinner, representa- tives of the Fighting French Gov- ernment and the Belgian Govern- ment expressed to executives of the RCA International Department, service staffs and engineers, their appreciation of the manner in which the African assignments were handled. Close collaboration between Belgian and Fighting French representatives and the Radio Corporation of America was sustained on these assignments from the beginning. Although details of the project and the problems and difficulties encountered in assembling, trans- porting and erecting the RCA transmitter cannot be revealed, the accomplishments are significant of this collaboration. The equipment of the Leopoldville transmitter was first to arrive. One month after it had reached the Congo port, the staff of the Leopoldville station, as- sisted by an RCA installation en- gineer, had the transmitter in oper- ation—in just half the time normal- ly reciuired. The new west African stations represent a new stage in the war of radio. They are ultra modern in every detail of their equipment. Tropical temperature and humidity, two of radio's natural enemies, are counter-attacked by a suitable choice of insulating and impregna- tion materials and air-conditioning, RCA revealed. Both stations are equipped for RCA Radiophoto serv- ice. These two additions to what might be called the United Nations network will strongly support the stations in England, the United States and South America already reaching the seething underground forces in Axis occupied countries. They have further assignments in the war of communications. [RADIO AGE 29]