Vol. No. 94 April, 1957 BROADCAST NEWS published by RADIO CORPORATION OF AMERICA BROADCAST & TELEVISION EQUIPMENT DEPARTMENT CAMDEN. NEW JERSEY In U.S.A. - - - - $4.00 fur 12 issues PRICE In Canada - - - $5.00 for 12 issues C O N T E N T S Page RADIO FREE EUROPE'S BROADCAST OPERATION 8 WHER - MEMPHIS' NEWEST RADIO STATION 20 KSTP INSTALLS RCA 50 -KW AM AMPLIPHASE TRANSMITTER . 26 UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA TO INSTALL EDUCATIONAL TV . 29 WISH AND WISH -TV, INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA 30 TRAVELING WAVE ANTENNA 44 NARTB'S ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT 52 NARTB CONVENTION PREVIEW 54 RCA REPRESENTATIVES AND TERRITORIES 56 AGC AUDIO PROGRAM AMPLIFIER 60 A NEW 2 x 2 SLIDE PROJECTOR FOR TELEVISION 64 HOW TO GET TOP PERFORMANCE FROM THE TK -21 ViDICON FILM CHAIN 74 Copyright 1957. Radio Corporation of America. Broadcast & Telerision Equipment Department, Camden, N. J. s *Ty Y. r. Rpt010REE EUROPE'S l'his article, we believe, will be of interest to broadcasters not only because Radio Free IO Europe has been in the headlines recently but also because American personnel super- the operation of this king -size radio system. Broadcasters who have toured the RFE installations in EuropeEur p have found Broadcast them just as interesting as we did on our trip some months ago. At that time we met Part One quite a few broadcast engineers from the U. S. A. who are in key supervisory posi- by PAUL A. GREENMEYER, RFE Installations in Portugal and Germany. in Germany tions for the RFE Managing Editor. BROADCAST NEIVS These engineers and their families were quite enthusiastic about their experiences outside the States. i r Radio Free Europe was organized in December 1949, to broadcast to the Com- munist- dominated satellites in Central and Eastern Europe. From transmitters in Ger- many and Portugal, RFE beams news, in- formation, commentary and a variety of other programs to Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria and Rumania. For twenty hours a day, programs are trans- mitted to all major groups within these countries. Political, economic and spiritual issues are stressed, with the primary pur- pose of giving the true facts about events in the listeners' own country and the free world. Twenty -two powerful transmitters and an extensive radio relay system are employed to accomplish this goal. Sources of information for the news programs in- clude a huge monitoring system for listen- ing in on Iron Curtain stations, a staff of correspondents and a group of evaluators. A staff of devoted, locally well -known exiles write the programs and act as talent and announcers to give vitality and valid- ity to the Voice of Freedom broadcasts. The management of RFE, and supervision of technical operations, is American. Appropriately enough, on July 4, 1950, in the woods of Lampertheim, near Frank- furt, Germany, the Voice of Freedom was born. At that time the National Committee for a Free Europe, organized by a group of public- spirited American citizens, first started beaming local language programs to peoples in the satellite countries. With the support of contributions from inter- ested Americans to the Crusade for Free- dom, a mobile RCA 7500-watt transmitter, studio and supporting facilities housed in several trailer vans had been procured. In 1951 five additional high -power radio transmitters were added at fixed locations Schubertova and Sasek, Czecho- in Germany. Then the mobile transmitter slovak broadcasters for RFE, pro.* duce "In the Mood ", a cultural program of music and poetry. tion of "captive nations." Reports reach behind the Iron Curtain -that is, the Program Schedules RFE to the tune of something like 1200 broadcasts which the Communist regimes Sufficient programs are prepared for 21 a month. beam to their own people -RFE gleans a hours of daily broadcasting to Poland. The Evaluators work patiently through great deal of information about the internal Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and a lesser the reports, checking them line -by -line situation of the satellite countries, the amount to Bulgaria and Rumania. A typ- against their accumulated knowledge. propaganda tactics of the Communists and, ical program day runs from 4:55 a.m. to Apart from factual checks, every Eval- by reading between the lines, the reaction 12:20 a.m. the following day, a total of uator has to lead a double life -a physical of the people. 19 hours and 25 minutes. When develop- one in Munich, an imaginative one in his It is one of the wonders of modern en- ments make it necessary or desirable, RFE own captive country, so that he can in- gineering skill that so many of the self- extends this broadcast schedule and has stinctively spot anything which is at vari- revealing local broadcasts are heard, be- even run for 24 hours round- the -clock for ance with the picture he has -and keeps cause in most cases the Iron Curtain days at a time. Newscasts are made on -the- fresh through his work -of the country stations are not concerned with reaching hour for ten minutes. Most programs other from which the refugee, or visitor, has beyond their own borders- whereas Amer- than news are put on tape prior to broad- come. The factual information at his dis- ican equipment and techniques have en- casting. At midnight each day a "satura- posal is enormous. Hungarian Evaluation, abled RFE to "pull in" stations from great tion" effect is achieved by beaming all for example, with a staff today of two distances. This is of great importance be- transmitters on one target. evaluators and three researchers, has built cause the local flavor of these broadcasts From Germany and Portugal programs up a registry of 56,000 individual or bio- spell something to the exiles who are are beamed behind the Iron Curtain by graphic cards, and 20,000 "collective working in Munich formulating the Free 22 transmitters. During the entire broad- cards," which give a detailed breakdown World's answer to them. cast day all programs are on several fre- of individual factories, kolkhozes, Party At present 35 Curtain stations are mon- quencies. For example, in Poland a listener units and so forth, from the top down to itored regularly, 4 to 6 others on a spot can get RFE on eight different channels, the smallest cell. basis. In the course of a week 12 languages seven in Hungary and seven in Czecho- will be used. The daily intake by aural slovakia. This makes the task of jamming RFE Monitoring monitoring reaches 50,000 words and on by the Communists difficult, very expen- The Monitoring Section constitutes the some heavy days the total monitoring in- sive and quite impossible to achieve. The ears of RFE's Program Desks. By listening take (including news services, monitored opposition uses 1200 jammers in attempt- to the home transmissions of radio stations mechanically) is more than 200,000 words. ing to counteract the RFE broadcasts. Broadcast over 22 transmitters in Germany and Portugal FIG. 6. Information received is carefully processed FIG. 7. The program fare consists of newscasts, by staff of evaluation experts, translators, etc. Writer - political commentaries, group programs, and feature producer- talent teams transform this source material programs. Illustrated here in a Munich studio is a into 184 hours of original programs weekly. Hungarian newscaster. Radio Free Europe's physical facilities gain of the short -wave antennas varies are scattered over the European map in from 10 times for those relative wide -angle order to take best possible advantage of systems located near the target areas to differences in propagation paths and con- 56 times for those narrow -angle systems ditions. In order to conform to the known located more than 1200 miles from the tar- short -wave listening habits of the satellite get areas. Both horizontal broadside cur- audience, it is considered necessary to tains and high -gain rhombic antennas are broadcast on the 49, 41, 31, 25, 19, 16 used. and 13 meter bands. With locations in Ger- Most of the high -gain curtain antennas many and Portugal, it is possible to present are designed for use on two adjacent RFE a good signal to most of the target areas broadcast bands and many are slewed on nearly all of the above bands at one electrically through twenty degrees azi- Technical time. The listener is thereby assured of a muthal range so that any target area can good signal level on each of the short -wave be effectively covered with a radiation Facilities bands capable of propagating a signal. system tailored to the requirement. In order to achieve maximum flexibility, ex- Antenna Systems tensive antenna switching systems have With five specific well- defined target been installed so that transmitters can be areas to cover, RFE has designed and directed to any target area. constructed antenna systems which radiate maximum power at the required horizontal Frequency Allocations and vertical angles and with optimum Propagation experts in New York and conical beam width, thereby insuring the Munich study and determine the choice of delivery of high- intensity signal levels frequencies for best accomplishing objec- throughout the target areas. The power tives. A schedule of proposed frequency TECHNICAL FLOW CHART FOR A TYPICAL FIG. 8. RF£ American producer listens as staff talent FIG. 9. Newscasters give latest news live every hour a The Voice of the brings play, Turtle," to life at Munich on the hour to countries behind the Iron Curtain. .. studios. Program is tape- recorded in Production Studio and Newscasts, and other topical programs, are done on day of scheduled broadcast. tape is delivered to Air. live from speakers' rooms (announce booths) adjoin- shift Studio for the specific language to be used.