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

Turkey Expands Radio System Powerful Station Be'mg Built at Istanbul Expected to Be on the Air This Year. THE monuments of Turkey's past, her towers and minarets, her domes and galleried walls, sym- bols of a long and proud history, stand today in sharp contrast to her monuments to the future—the bus- tling modern cities, the clean-lined architecture, the vigorous, ambi- tious youth of the country. By the end of 1947 yet another monument to the future—the an- tenna towers of Radio Istanbul— will rise steeply above the antique spires, soaring to a height of 72.5 feet. The new, 1.50 kw broadcasting station, recently ordered in its en- tirety from RCA International Di- vision by the Turkish Government, will represent more than a mere broadcasting installation. It will represent the spirit of the new Tur- key and the realization of a dream of Turkey's leader, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. Under Ataturk the nation aban- doned the Arabic alphabet and adopted the Roman. It was a revo- lutionary step, involving the re- education of the entire population. But it gave the people wider access to information, education and cul- ture than had ever been possible with the difficult Arabic script. Now, radio supplements books and papers in carrying out the edu- cational program. The 150,000-watt station will be one of the most powerful transmit- ters in Europe, exceeding by three times the largest transmitter in the United States. It will be the last word in radio design, from micro- phones to antennas. RCA International has been at work on this project since early 1946, when in co-operation with the Turkish Press and Information Service, a government agency under the direction of Nedim Veysel Ilkin, THESE MINARETS, WHICH FRAME A TURKISH SQUARE, SOON WILL BE DWARFED BY THE 725- FOOT TOWERS OF RADIO ISTANBUL. internationally known for his work on UNRRA, RCA engineers and technicians spent several weeks studying the topography of Turkey. Before a suitable site could be se- lected for the station, hundreds of miles of difficult mountain terrain had to be traversed by jeep, and areas impassable even to a jeep had to be surveyed by observation plane. Paul C. Brown of the Field Or- ganization, Engineering Products Department, who has supervised a number of important RCA installa- tions around the world, including Radio Beige, the "Voice of Free Bel- gium" in Leopoldville, Belgian Con- go, is supervising the Turkish proj- ect. RCA Supplies All Equipment The entire job of engineering and installing the station has been put in the hands of RCA International, according to the Engineering Prod- ucts Department of the RCA Inter- national Division. This includes not only microphones, transmitter and antenna but musical instruments, a complete library of recordings, and theatre seats. In addition, the Divi- sion is responsible for the design and acoustics of the studios, air conditioning for the building, and, in collaboration with the National Broadcasting Company and RCA Institutes, Inc., the training of per- sonnel in station management, pro- gramming, and radio engineering. The station will be housed in a building chosen as the winning de- sign in a competition for Turkish architectural students. The interior architecture will be designed and radio-engineered by RCA Interna- tional. In addition to the Turkish proj- ect, RCA International has other notable contracts around the world. Complete RCA studio equipment will be installed in the streamlined CMQ Radiocentro. a $1,000,000 project now in prospect for Havana, Cuba. The studios themselves will be the most outstanding and modern in the Caribbean area, according to Goar Mestre, Director of the CMQ network. The Center will be known [28 RADIO AGE]