LETTERS LEAD TO NEW PROGRAMMES

Radio Record, Volume XII, Issue 33, 27 January 1939, Page 39

LETTERS LEAD TO NEW PROGRAMMES

AS a result of letters received from listeners all over the world, NBC’s shortwave stations W3XAL and W3XL have inaugurated such programmes as the Philatelic Hour in Spanish and the Mail Bag programme in Spanish and Portuguese, Stamps of practically every nation are shown on envelopes decorating the wall of the NBC International Division in Radio City, New York.

N the National Breadcasting " Company began operating suortwave stations for the benefit of listeners in other countries, it planned only to broadcast programmes. To-day, as a result of Jetters that come in from every eontinent in the world, it also has become a far-reaching philatelic exchange. In the first few weeks after the shortwave stations began operations, letters came in slowly. A few minutes a day was all that was required to read and reply to the writers. To-day the NBC’s International Division has what regembles a more than small post office, with piles of letters being sorted, classified, numbered, answered by mail and by the microphone, and Sled away for any future use that may develop. The task of reading the mail and gathering information requested by listeners requires almost full-time gervice by several members of the staff, This careful attention is shown to the letters not only beeause NBC desires to retain the goodwill .of its listeners, but be€ause in many instances their letters include information or comment that is of great value to NBC in planning its programme materia and transmission. The hundreds of letters which eome from all parts of the world are directly responsible for the Philatelic Hour in Spanish which

is broadcast by NBC over station W3XAL and W8XL on Sundays from 9.30 to 9.45 p.m., E.S.T., and in Portuguese on Mcndays from 7.30 to 7.45 p.m. Another programme they caused is the Mail Bag hour, in Spanish on Tuesdays from 5.15 to 5.30 and Thursdays from 8.45 to 9.0 p.m., and in Portuguese on Mondays from 4.30 to 4.45 p.m. Mail reaches NBC from every country of South and Central America, and even from Magallanes, southernmost city in the world, on the farthest tip of Chile. Some of these letters, with the many different stamps they carry, are exhibited on a large-framed panel in the NBC International Division offices in Radio City, a panel that any stamp collector in the world could study for days with undiminished pleasure. The latest stamps from the vanished country of Austria are there beside others from French Indo-China, and the Straits Settlements, and other far-away places of the world. In replying to these letters, the National Broadcasting Company, through the courtesy of the United States Post Office, has been able to use on its letters from time to time certain stamps which are out of circulation, thus giving the philatelists among its listeners in other countries 2 new source of seldomseen issues. Six such stamps have been used by NBC in the past year.