For anyone interested: --- Media Release Radio Heritage Foundation www.radioheritage.net
Shanghai Radio Dial 1941 Radio listeners in Shanghai had forty local radio stations to choose from in 1941, the year that 'Citizen Kane' and 'The Maltese Falcon' were top movie box office hits in America, and nightclubs across Asia throbbed to the beat of Glenn Miller's 'Chattanooga Choo Choo'. The Radio Heritage Foundation [www.radioheritage.net] has released a snap shot of the embattled city's radio dial late that year, not only listing the long forgotten radio calls of the era, but including some art work from the well known 'Call of the Orient' station XMHA. International conflict was reflected over the Shanghai airwaves, as American broadcaster Carroll Duard Alcott asked listeners to his programs on XMHA to head out of the city to avoid Japanese jamming. The Japanese themselves broadcast in Chinese and English over the most powerful transmitter in Shanghai [XOJB 900 AM], German propaganda was aired from XGRS and Vichy France programs came from FFZ in the French concession. However, 90 per cent of radio sets sold in the city were owned by local Chinese, who had already enjoyed entertainment from many local stations since the early 1920's. Chinese music and story telling was very popular. Says the Radio Heritage Foundation, 'It's important to name the names, to remember the people and organizations that are now fading fast from living memory. In Shanghai, devastated by war, the loss of early broadcasting heritage is even more poignant. Every day, as Shanghai now modernizes, heritage sites such as 445 Race Course Road, home of the XMHA studios, simply disappear before they can be recorded.' The 'Shanghai Radio Dial 1941' is part of an ongoing series relating radio broadcasting to the culture of the times. They paint the broad picture, and often lead into more detailed stories about individual stations, programs and personalities as volunteer resources permit and those with memories and memorabilia come forward. Love Lane [XQHA], 43 Ningpo Road [XMHC], 374 Haiphong Road [XLHK] are a few examples of where Shanghai's radio heritage flourished in the decade before 1941, and the 'Call of the Orient' was carried on shortwave across the Pacific to listeners in America and as far away as New Zealand. For an entertaining and informative look back at early Shanghai radio, this article is well worth the time. It's with hundreds of others at www.radioheritage.net. Next time you listen to today's radio from Shanghai, spare a thought for those broadcasters who struggled to bring a measure of lightness into the gathering gloom that was Shanghai in 1941. [The Radio Heritage Foundation is a registered non-profit organization operated entirely by volunteers. It carries out research and publishing into connected aspects of radio heritage and popular culture across the entire Pacific region. Contact details are at www.radioheritage.net. Media contact: David Ricquish, Chairman. Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] --- Lynn. Lafayette, LA Check out the IRCA web site at http://www.ircaonline.org ____________________________________________________________________________________ Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now. http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ _______________________________________________ IRCA mailing list [email protected] http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: [email protected]
