(3 of 3)
Last week in Manhattan a WRUL microphone was set up on the stage of Lillian Hellman's anti-Nazi play Watch on the Rhine, and a half-hour condensation of the play in German was short-waved to Europe, with Vienna-born Mady Christians and German-born Smylla Brind reading their parts in their native tongue.
On the Air. Programs for Europe and Latin America have taken a terrific spurt during the last few months, are now going out twelve to 20 hours a day from the eleven U.S. short-wave stations. Fortnight ago NBC put a new directional antenna into operation at Bound Brook, N.J. centering its beam on Paris. CBS is rushing work on its new 50-kilowatt transmitters at Brentwood, L.I. For the Orient, hitherto served by only one transmitter, FCC last fortnight authorized a new 100-kilo-watt station at San Francisco.
Broadcasters know that the only programs Europeans care to take risks for are news and factual programs. These are now staggered, by common agreement with the Donovan office, so that from Europe's early afternoon to early morning there is not a quarter hour when news is not being sent, in French, German, Dutch, Norwegian, Italian, Spanish, Greek, Portuguese, Czech, Serbo-Croatian and other tongues up to and including Arabic.
Things the broadcasters hope for from the Donovan office: 1) frequent and up-to-date reports through the State Department on technical reception in the various beam areas abroad; 2) BBC transcripts of German Continental broadcasts; 3) complete reports from FCC monitors on German short-wave programs.
Proof that U.S. short-wave activity has begun to tell on the continent of Europe is seen by broadcasters in recent repeated attempts by the German radio to vilify U.S. stations. A perhaps grimmer proof could be found last week in the Pinkerton detectives who, at FCC's suggestion, now guard NBC's main control room; and in the guards with machine guns at NBC's transmitters.