Evening star., 1943-05-26

wave either by the British in Lon.
don or our own facilities in Africa
Some programs originate in Africa
Our word barrages directed tt
Asia. the Southwest Pacific ane
Australia are handled by the large
Owl Office in San Francisco.
A total of "a transmitters sent
5000 15-minute programs a weel
from the New York area. The pro.
grams are in % languages. A large
number are broadcast in English
The number of programs in French
have increased greatly since oul
North African invasion last fall
and these now total about a fourth
of the output. From to 10 per cent
OF the programs each are in German
or Italian. Since each broadcast
is carried by two transmitters there
are 5000 transmissions weekly.
The Owl was described as out.
numbered in the war of words
since it iss estimated the Germans
and Italians have about 100 trans.
mitters telling all who listen about
their better world" These include
equipment taken over in the occu.
pied lands. Those Axis transmit.
ters not used for broadcasting are
employed to Jam" our programs
set up interference in the air sc
that it will be difficult for oul
clandestine audience to hear dis.
tinctly what we have to say.
Partly Overcome.
"Jamming" can be overcome tc
some extent in a number of ways
The wave length of the transmitter
can be changed, or you can shoot
at an objective from several di-
rections. For example. we are now
broadcasting to France from three
ways, from this country. London
and Africa. Another method of
overcoming interference is to talk
slowly. This serves dual purpose
since it also makes it easier for
the underground to take down
what is said and pass it along to
others on our side. Owl knows
the Axis ruins a number of our
broadcasts. though they say the
enemy cannot Jam" all of them
Our men tell listeners when to
expect programs and how to set
their dials and aerials so as to OBJ
tain the best reception. OWL feels
it has vast audience in France,
estimated at about a quarter Of
the vast number of those who hear
programs of the British Broadcast
ing Co. Although they are not so
sure of the size of the German
audience, they know quite a few
people there hear our programs.
All of our programs to Europe
start with Yankee Doodle" a
tune which was selected with con-
siderable care. Other signatures
were tried, including one with some
bars from the Star Spangled Ban
ner," but it was found not to carry
well on short wave. Perhaps. one
of the better programs is the Voice
of America" which is short waved
here. picked up and re-broadcast
by the BIC to the continent.
News "Slanted" by Application.
A typical program will carry a
general roundup of American war
news. including something the other
United Nations are doing. some ex-
cerpts from statements or speeches
OF high officials. feature short"
or two. Sometimes all or a large
portion of the broadcast of an
American news commentator will
be picked up.
Cursory investigation brought out
no evidence was found of the owl
coloring its news stories. Some
types OF news are emphasized great
ly for certain audiences, while there
are omissions. Stories which make
the big headlines in American
papers are not necessarily front
page" in Europe, Owl says. The
opposite also occurs. for some stories
lightly treated here are given great
play" by OWL News is "slanted"
throughlv application of emphasis,
rather than by tampering with con-
The stories of the past week rid
den hard by OWL were the break
ing off German dams by the Raj
and Prime Minister Churchill's
speech before Congress. In the
Churchill speech. however, some
points stressed most by our press
were played down by Owl. Fol
example, that portion describing re-
ductlon of japanese cities to ashes
was not emphasized in the news
summaries on the theory that it is
bad policy to boast of plans to burn
cities. All transmitters. however
were used for the Churchill broad
cast and the full text was carried.
President Roosevelt and Mr.
Churchill still are the most frequent
ly quoted persons on our foreign
broadcasts. Members of Congress
and cabinet officers also are widely
used. A "natural' for owl occurs
when a person of some foreign birth
or blood wins honors in battle or in
the war plant. A Serb worker in a
Detroit plant is put on the air to tell
now nice it is to work there and
live in America. When soldiers OF
Italian blood win medals in battle
the Italian people always are told
about it, and the same applies to
German-American heroes. Wendell
Wlllkle is used widely because OF
his German blood and for other
reasons.
Italians Carefully Treated.
Owl currently is handling the
Italians with kid gloves" carefully
avoiding ridicule Of the Italian as q
fighting man. This is done on the
theory that ridicule tends only tc
crystalize feeling against us ano
stiffen resistance in Italy. Wher
several hundred Italians surrende,
without much fight, emphasis is
placed on the idea that their heart
was not in the war. Should an
Italian win a medal on our side
Owl says here is what happens
when an Italian has something for
which to fight"
Economic restrictions in America
made necessary by the war also
receive careful treatment. Last yea,
people here were restricted yer,
little and Owl did not emphasize il