Big Bertha

The Monroe Doctrine has kept European armies out of South America but it cannot keep out European voices. Lately the U. S. Government has been so worried about short-wave propaganda broadcasts to South America by Germany and Italy that it has considered establishing a Federal radio station to compete with them. Not to be caught napping, U. S. private broadcasters, who fear a Government yardstick station as the devil fears holy water, two years ago began to bid with renewed wattage and State Department tutoring for the ears of the South American audience.

Favorite programs of Latin-Americans, it appeared, were news broadcasts, but they were also eager to hear such entertainers as Rudy Vallee, talks on U. S. cinema, Broadway gossip, other U. S. small talk. Because U. S. programs, unlike the German and Italian, were always on time, were delivered by fluent linguists (usually Latin-Americans), they became highly popular. But obstructive mountains, and interference from European stations make it hard for South Americans to hear the U. S.

Recently a German Government station stepped up its power, came in louder and chummier than General Electric's broadcasts from Schenectady. Last week General Electric announced a crushing countermove. Ready to go into action within a month is a new 100-kilowatt shortwave transmitter, most powerful in the U. S., known as "Big Bertha." It has directional antennae that will enable it to focus its beam on particular areas. Through G. E.'s two Schenectady stations, W2XAF and W2XAD, Big Bertha will broadcast in Portuguese to South America's eastern half, in Spanish to the western half.

G. E.'s engineers hope Big Bertha will be powerful enough to come in clearer than its German rivals. Its news will certainly be more credible. Hundreds of South American listeners have lately written to U. S. stations that they regard European newscasts as blatantly biased, those from the U. S. as objective. Said one: "Station W2XAF is considered a semi-official news bureau here. . . . When "we do not hear it, we ignore the news, particularly the foreign news."

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