GUERA!

Radio Record, 7 August 1936, Page 7

GUERA!

Rebels Storm Radio Madrid’?

Radio’s Part In Bloody Warfare

With the bloody sword of civil war-most terrible warfare of all-laying waste the fields and cities of Spain, this article, specially written for the "Radio Record" by Cecil W. Lusty, is of particular interest. Radio Madrid, the chief broadcasting station of the capital, has been of particular value to the Government during the present trouble, and several assaults have been made on the building by the rebels.

HILE London was rubbing sleepy eyes we. had left by car in the chill December dawn in search of the sun. Folkestone, Boulogne, Paris, Bordeaux; monotonous ploughed fields gave way to sweet-’ smelling, warmer pine forests, the playground of Biarritz, the Pryenees rolled back-Spain!

Past picturesque San. Sebastian, with washing hanging from the windows overlooking its main streets, and through the twisting lanes of scores of outwardly dirty, but inwardly clean, little villages with chimneyless, mud-brick houses, squat as though crushed by a Gargantuan heel; and then across the granaries of Navarre, vast plateaux flanked by running hills, that now converged, now retreated, to the twin spires of Burgos Cathedral. Sunny Spain welcomes us, but the wind is too cold for

lingering, and, apart from pitching camp at nights, we stop at intervals.to chat with wizened peasants following bullock-drawn, priitive ploughs, camineros _(road-menders, who receive 1/6 a day), bearded shepherds, muleteers, burro (donkey) drivers, | and black-garbed women 4rying snow-white clothes -by streams, springs — and puddles. Thence throughthe Roman-fortified cities of ancient Castille and on ‘to Old Madrid, city of love and laughter. In the palatial Madrid . post office I noticed: prominent, red arrows; ‘They

lead to a special counter reserved for issuing radio licences. Yet, paradoxical and Gilbertian as it is, out of upward of a million listeners, only 150,000 Spanish people pay the annual fee of five pesetas, or about 2/6. Such is radio in topsy-turvy Spain, where the CadizMadrid fish train overtakes the "mail rapido."

BROADCASTING in Spain is carried on by the wellknown Union Radio chain, but a new State-controlled chain of transmitters is now in the course of construction. I learnt that the Castillian listener enjoys opera broadcasts more than anything else in the programmes. ‘The popularity of relays of bull-fights, which the stranger invariably associates with Spain, is being threatened by football, and throughout Spain I found football to be a

chief topic of discussion. . Madrid has a charming woman announcer, Senorita Lola Agullo. And now we journey to the other great city of Spain, Barcelona, pride of the Cattalans. Spain has no Broadcasting Houses, and the. Barcelona = studios are on the roof of a building near the Paseo de Gracia, one of those magnificent boulevards of fountains, palms and statues. that have to be seen to be believed. © The transmitting station is nestled among the greenery of Mount Tibidabo, (Contd. next page.)

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the traditional resfing place of the Holy Grail. it seemed hard to realise that both the studios and the transmitting stations were later to be bombarded by heavy artillery in one .of those revolutions that are so typically Spanish. The direetor introduced me to the announcers, Senors Toresky and Miret. "Buenos dias" (good: day) come in @ high-pitched phantom voice. The mystery had to be explained to me. Senor Toresky is the only ventriloquist announcer in Europe, and as "Senor Miliu," he told me, he receives presents from all over Spain, and even offers of marriage. Rather ironically, in Barcelona itself, where the spirit of the place seems to he incarnated tn the laughing faces of the flower girls behind their great masses of blooms: in the Ramblas, many listeners to the programmes complain: bitterly. Apparently the radio listener under the skin is the same the world over. Next-romantice Seville, most Spanish of Spain, where, as I entered the studio, I was just in time to hear the "Cante Jondo," the Andalusian folk song, sung With guitar accompaniment. This I learnt was typical of a programme in the city of oranges. HE broadcasting in Rabat, capital of French Morocco, has played some part in the successfu] colonisation by France of the Land of Islam. Broadcasting in Berber lands had its genesis in the North African Conference, held in Rabat in 1927, which led to the establishment of radio-telephony, and later to broadcasting stations In Rabat, Algiers and Tunis, Rabat, where the late General Lyautey. asked that his remains be interred, and Casablanca, the busy principal port of Morocco, are modern, rather miniature-Parisian cities. Ont finds the Radio-Rabat medium-wave station and the CNR shortwave trans. mifter on the fine tarred road from Rabat to Casablanea, beyond the crumbling walls of the capital. The buildings alse house the modern commercial transmitters. The studios are situated in the city. There is another shortwave station, privately owned, at ~ Tah. given in Arabic, French and Englis ate of a varied nature. hear native bands, such ag "The Sultan’s Orehestra" and "La Garde Noire," European orchestras, relays from Rabat and Casablanca theatres, and so on. The broadcast weather reports are of great value, as the varying atmospheric conditions give considerable concern to farmers and stock-breeders. Similarly, the talks on market prices, farming, cattle raising and kindred subjects are greatly appreciated, The educated Berber displays marked interest in the broadeasting service, which incorporates specific Arabian. sessions, and future years wil] doubt-. less see more ‘use made of broadcasting as a medium for child: and adult education. Considerable ¢cope exists for education by broadeast. lectures and courses, It may well be that Radio-Rahat’s activities will later der velop along these lines. Casablanca. _ The Rabat programmes, which Ys