Commercial Broadcasting Im The Argentime

Radio Record, Volume XII, Issue 37, 24 February 1939, Page 4

Commercial Broadcasting Im The Argentime

| Lond Of Promise For Immigrants

{N her book, ‘‘Silver Seas and Golden Cities,’’ Frances Parkinson Keyes remarks that Argentina, a melting-pot greater than Canada and the United States is to-day the immigrant’s fand of promise. At the Immigrants’ Hotel in Buenos Aires, food and lodging are furnished free for five days, sometimes to as many as 4000 people at once. There is a white-tiled diningroom and laundry, immaculate dormitories, rows of spotless bathrooms, a model hospital and pharmacy and a great sunny plaza in which to rest. Settlers bring in their belongings free of duty; they change their money without cost. At the end of their five-day visit they are furnished free transportation to any part of the republic they wish, their choice having been facilitated by movies showing the respective advantages of the different States, with captions in their own languages. The thoroughly modern city of Buenos Aires has in store for the newcomer many a surprise. For example, it has twenty radio stations for general broadcast, and between them they fill

the air with jazz and tangos and announcements about various commercial products. The new Government station, in competition with the private interests, is doing a fine job of new and propaganda broadcasts. ‘% One of the cleverest deals made in radio was one which gave one of the stations ‘a monopoly of the right to place loudspeakers along the Costeneda, the parkway which parallels the River Piate for several miles, and which is used by most of the populace for strolling on hot summer evenings. The station hitched up its loudspeakers to almost every streetlamp along this promenade an keeps these loudspeakers tuned to its programme right through the night. This means that everybody has to listen, whether they want to or not, if they want to keep cool by the water’s edge. ; This great country, with an area of over a million square miles and twelve million inhabitants, faces great expansion ‘in the twentieth century. . In the interesting recorded series, "Ports of Call," 4YA lis teners will, on Wednesday, March 1, be taken on "A Visit to Argentina."