Seventy five years ago, this date’s issue of Radio Guide magazine concluded a two-part feature on GE’s short wave station KGEI.  Part 1 appeared in the August 31, 1940 issue, and part two appeared on September 7.

The station was owned and operated by General Electric and went on the air in San Francisco in March 1939. Short wave broadcasting was not new to GE. It first put a short wave signal on the air with station W2XAF in Schenectady, New York. That station later became WGEO. The next year, another transmitter was installed at the same site with call letters W2XAD, later WGEA. By 1940, WGEO was transmitting with 100,000 watts and was the world’s most powerful station. The two stations were popular with listeners in Europe and Latin America.

By 1940, KGEI was running 20,000 watts, but there were plans to increase it to 50,000. The Schenectady stations operated on 9.53, 15.33, and 21.5 MHz. KGEI broadcast on 9.67 and 15.33 MHz, and provided an additional signal to Latin America as well as Asia and Oceania. The station, both studio and transmitter, was part of GE’s exhibit at the Golden Gate International Exposition, and was located on Treasure Island, between San Francisco and Oakland. The Island was also to serve as a terminus for Pan American‘s Clipper ships, and the station was used to promote Pan American as well as GE. According to the article, “one of the most interesting and colorful programs is ‘Clipper Departure.’ This program is a dockside complementary describing the actual departure of the China Clipper for Hawaii, Guam and points westward. The captain and various members of the crew of the Clipper are interviewed, each contributing some bit about the interesting aerial journeys to and fro across the Pacific. Passengers ready to embark give their reactions as they prepare to set forth on their fascinating trip. The program concludes with the roar of the Clipper’s motors as it moves down the ramp and into the bay off to Hawaii on the first leg of its voyage to Manila and Hong Kong.”

THe station had a studio on the Exposition grounds, and it also carried network programming, such as Burns and Allen, Bing Crosby, and the Don Ameche Show.

The picture at the top of the page was taken in late 1939, and bears the KGEI call letters.  The picture of the transmitter and enclosed studio at the left was taken earlier in the year and shows the W6XBE call sign.  The public was allowed to be in the same room as the 50 kW transmitter, separated only by a flimsy guardrail.

After the Exposition, the station continued operation.  During the War, it remained under GE’s control, but at the request of the Government, did carry programming that was recommended.

The station was widely listened to, especially in the Phillipines. Many resistance fighters listened to the station,, which included broadcast in Tagalog. In 1954-55, the station carried broadcasts from Stanford University, billed as “The International University of the Air.” During that period, the University received 12,000 letters from listeners in Latin America.

In 1960, the station was acquired by the Far East Broadcasting Company, a religious broadcaster. Even though FEBC operated other stations in Asia and the Pacific, KGEI was directed mostly to Latin America, billing itself as La Voz de la Amistad (The Voice of Friendship). During the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, the station once again put under Government control. In fact, a Cuban listener wrote to the station in 1962, and his letter included the exact positions and descriptions of Russian missile sites. This hadn’t been publicized in the world press yet, but KGEI decided to reproduce this interesting letter in one of its fundraising letters. Unbenknownst to KGEI, that mailing list included the CIA, which hastily arranged a meeting and asked that such letters be made available to them prior to making them public.

A few months later, presidential Press Secretary Pierre Salinger called and informed the station that the President was requesting use of the station to rebroadcast the VOA. The station was reluctant, since it valued its voice as being independent of the U.S. Government. But FEBC was eventually convinced of the need to “volunteer” the station, and it carried VOA programming during the crisis.

KGEI remained on the air until 1994. The original 50 kW GE transmitter was donated to another Christian organization organization for use in Liberia. However, it was destroyed by rebels prior to going on the air. The station’s then main transmitter, capable of 250 kW, was donated to another organization for use in broadcasting to Russia from Alaska.

Acknowledgment

I would like to thank John Schneider and the Bay Area Radio Museum for allowing me to use the photos shown on this page, and for providing much of the information for this post.  More information about KGEI can be found on the Museum’s website.

References 

• History of KGEI at Bay Area Radio Museum
• West Coast Shortwave Broadcasting
• KGEI History

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Sixty years ago, the British magazine Pracitcal Wireless, August 1955, carried the plans for this “sensitive two-valver” receiver suitable for local broadcast reception. It featured a regenerative detector and one stage of audio amplification sufficient to drive a speaker. It ran off the 230 volt AC mains, but employed a transformer to isolate the chassis. The article noted, however, that it could be used without the isolation transformer, but warned that if constructed without one, “the operator must stand on a dry board when touching metal parts of the live chassis.” The set was designed to be sensitive enough to be used with a short one-foot antenna. The article noted that neither of the alternatives, either “a few feet of wire hanging from the back” or a frame aerial, add to the decorative effects of a room.

The two tubes employed by the set were the EF50, which were probably available in large supply from surplus equipment. The tube, which has been called “the Tube that helped to Win the War,” was a major concern during the early days of the war. It was very versatile with uses in VHF and radar equipment. And it was manufactured by Philips in Holland, which was about to be overrun by the Nazis. Just before the invasion, the British managed to import a truckload of 25,000 of the tubes, along with more of the bases. Philips hurriedly dismantled its Dutch assembly line for transport to England. Members of the Philips family, along with members of the Government, escaped the day before Rotterdam was flattened aboard a British destroyer. They carried with them a wooden box containing the diamond dies that were required to make the tungsten wires inside the tubes.

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70 years ago today, August 1, 1945, five days before the bombing of Hiroshima, the United States dropped millions of copies of this leaflet on 35 Japanese cities, including Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The Japanese text on the reverse read as follows:

Read this carefully as it may save your life or the life of a relative or friend. In the next few days, some or all of the cities named on the reverse side will be destroyed by American bombs. These cities contain military installations and workshops or factories which produce military goods. We are determined to destroy all of the tools of the military clique which they are using to prolong this useless war. But, unfortunately, bombs have no eyes. So, in accordance with America’s humanitarian policies, the American Air Force, which does not wish to injure innocent people, now gives you warning to evacuate the cities named and save your lives. America is not fighting the Japanese people but is fighting the military clique which has enslaved the Japanese people. The peace which America will bring will free the people from the oppression of the military clique and mean the emergence of a new and better Japan. You can restore peace by demanding new and good leaders who will end the war. We cannot promise that only these cities will be among those attacked but some or all of them will be, so heed this warning and evacuate these cities immediately.

This warning had been preceded, starting on July 26, of transmission by by 50,000 watt KSAI Radio in Saipan the contents of the Potsdam declaration, warning the Japanese people of the “prompt and utter destruction” of Japan if the Japanese government failed to surrender.   KSAI’s medium wave signal (1010 on the standard broadcast dial) was as strong as any Japanese domestic station, and could be heard by millions of Japanese.

After the bombing of Hiroshima, an updated leaflet was prepared, stressing the special nature of the Hiroshima bomb, and warning of the same fate to other cities.  Similar warnings were transmitted by KSAI and repeated every fifteen minutes.

For more information on leafleting and other allied propaganda operations, see my earlier post.

References

• Hellegers, We, the Japanese People: World War II and the Origins of the Japanese Constitution.
• The Information War in the Pacific, 1945 at CIA website.

 

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Today marks the 70th anniversary of the greatest loss of life in American Naval history, the sinking of the U.S.S. Indianapolis on July 30, 1945. On July 16, the Indianapolis left San Francisco with the enriched uranium which would be used in the Hiroshima atomic bomb. She reached Pearl Harbor on July 19 and raced on to Tinian with the cargo, where she arrived on July 26. After delivering this top secret cargo, the ship continued to Guam and then Leyte, where the crew was to receive training.

Shortly after midnight on July 30, she was struck by two Japanese torpedoes, sinking in minutes. About 300 of the 1196 crewmen went down with the ship. The remainder were set adrift with few lifeboats and many without lifejackets.

Due to radio silence and general miscommunication, the ship was not missed when its scheduled arrival time passed. The 880 men drifted forgotten. Most perished from exposure and dehydration, although the attack is most famous for the sharks the men had to contend with. Undoubtedly, some of the men were killed by sharks, but it is more likely that most of the victims succomed to exposure and dehydation, with the dead being driven off by sharks.

The men were discovered by accident three and a half days later when Lt. Wilbur “Chuck” Gwinn and Lt. Warren Colwell spotted the men adrift during a routine patrol fight.

Only 317 men ultimately survived. Over 800 men lost their lives.

Ironically, the disaster was not reported by the newspapers until August 15.  The greatest naval disaster in American history was decidedly a less important news story that day, since the papers also reported Japan’s surrender and the end of the war.

Of interest to radio amateurs is the recreation of the ship’s radio installation (whose call letters were NABD) at the USS Indianapolis Memorial.

References

History at USSIndianapolis.org

 

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