Eighty-five years ago, all of the countries that would soon be at war were gearing up for the inevitable propaganda battles, and the May 15, 1939, issue of Life magazine explained some of the technical issues involved. The Germans had an advantage when it came to broadcasting to South America, since their beam could be only half the width required by the Americans to cover the major population centers.

But as far as broadcasting to the respective homelands, the Americans had the advantage. They could blanket Europe with a narrow beam, whereas the signal from Berlin would need to be extremely wide to cover all of the United States.