The Waterbury Democrat., 1944-08-24

This remarkable salad of talents gets a workout six nights Q week over KSTP, Twin Cities radio ste. ton, in e program called Overseas Special" which, with a cast Of two vocalists in addition to Mefrinaan provides Northwest servlcemen al over the world with home-made entertainment and a remarkable variety of personal services.
 This wide arena for the show is made possible by KsTp's dlrectional beam, which sends the broadcast due westward all around the world Though it may sound ilnplausiblc that's the way it works. MerrimaEl has letters from a sailor on a bat tleship stationed of the British Isles. The only way the program could have reached the gob was across western United states, the Pacific. Siberia, northern Europe and England.
 Tn q fashion only a radio enc gineer could explain, the program Is heard everywhere and it's not shortwave. Letters come from Ale aska, the Central Pacific, Australia and other scattered points. Mer- riman uniquely projects his per- sonality across the hundreds ol miles and the servlceinen respond.
 Submarine Gets News
 4 submarine commander in the Pacific wrote that when the under seas craft surfaced the boys would pick up KSTPs news broadcasts which are part of the three-houE "Overseas Special show.
 The program is the only live contact for hundreds of service men and Randy does the best he can with . prodlgiously fertile in- telligence to make 1t lively. When some of the servicemen listeners visit the Twin Cities. Randy puts them on the air. To the RAF base near Winnipeg. Canada, come Brit ish servicemen from all parts of the Empire.
 After Randy had them on his show during furloughs he rec seived calls from local listeners. offering to show the boys a good time. These people. Merriman says, often provided a full week of en- tertainment for their guests.
 Families of such servicemen tune in from New Zealand and Australia and often hear the voice of a long absent son. Randy treasures their letters of appreciation.
 Merriman snatcheg all traveiing talent for his broadcast. He's had Cab Callaway and his orchestra who came up and put on a 40- minute show. Bonita Granville, IF. B. Warner. Margo. Vaughn Mon- roe and others have done their stuff for MeTrimans worldwide au- dience.
 Rehearsal Is Fun
 Watching the rehearsal" is as much fun as the show itself Randy and his two vocalists. Lynn Montgomery. a singer whose tal- ents have increased notably under Merrimans off-the-cun tutelage; and Ray 6taehli. . former Eeabee. will fiddle around with suggestions, do a "hum-te-dum-dum" solo. duo or trio. gesticulate rapidly and the show Is all set. What keeps 1t moving Is Merriman's versatility. covering everything from hillbilly dialogue to flip gags for Q studio audience and Randy wanders down with . portable microphone. asking any zany question that occurs to him. The program looks as # q lot of reheaFsals have gone into 1t. but all the reheaEsing takes place in Q brief five minutes before Randy steps up to the microphone. After that. as the KSTP engineers agree, anything goes.
 There have been many changes since the program started i've years ago. The regular broadcast now mixes MerTiInan, news, organ music and anything else Randy can find for the three hours. Dur ing football season. the show puts on Q Tebroadeast lasting till early dawn Sunday Of the previous Sat- uTday's University Of Minnesota Gopher football game.