RADIO RADCLIFFE BEAMS BROADCASTS TO DORMS

Radcliffe girls have cooed over the Crimson Network for over a year, but the existence of a radio at the 'Cliffe is not generally known. Yet broadcasts have been coming out of Radio Radcliffe's studios in Radcliffe's field house since last July 6, and the organization now has a staff of 17.

Eileen Ellis '44, and Ronnie Phoenix '44, who had had some experience at the Crimson Network, began R-squared, as they call it, with some equipment bought from the Network, with some new equipment, and with financial aid from Radcliffe's dormitory organization. Marnie Montgomery '44, Jane Hurley '44, and Gloria Rockwood '46 joined them soon after the project was initiated, and this group aired record and variety programs all summer.

Receiving Difficulties Still Exist

Radio Radcliffe operates, like the Crimson Network, over the wires in the electric lighting system; they profited by the Network's experience and avoided the radiators. But they still have a problem: the girls in Bertram Hall can't seem to hear Radio Radcliffe, and reception is spotty in Eliot and Whitman. Other 'Cliffe-dwellers hear the broadcasts at 560 on their dials, except in Cabot, where a relay transmitter changes the frequency to 830.

Besides the regular record sustainers, Radio Radcliffe broadcasts interviews, drama, and special features. Conductor Arthur Fielder, pianist Boris Godolvsky, Professor Robert Hillyer, Associate Professor Theodore Spencer, and poet Delmore Schwartz are among the celebrities who have been interviewed. Harvard-Radcliffe Radio Workshop plays, presented occasionally at Harvard, are heard via a two-way private telephone wire between the field house studios and the Crimson Network. The telephone wire is used for exchange broadcasts going in the other direction, too.

Gossip Not for Harvard Eears

Notable among Radio Radcliffe's special features is Emilie Jacobson's '46, "Just Between Us Girls." Harvard men can't hear this; it's just a lot of gossip about men and dates anyway. Eileen Ellis' program, "Americans in Music," is a history of music in the Americas, with recorded examples of folk music from all over the western hemisphere; Harvard can hear it on Tuesday nights at 10 o'clock.

For three weeks this summer, the 'Cliffe girls got up early to send its WAVES and Harvard's Navy men "Sunrise Serenade." The 6:30 to 7:30 o'clock hours were too great a strain, however, so they had to content themselves with the regular 7:30 to 11 o'clock evening hours. Another novel feature was Rennie Phoenix's playlet, "The Boy Behind the Gun," a nostalgic, feminine view-point of the boy friend in the army.

But Radio Radcliffe's function is not purely one of entertainment. During the summer it broadcast an appeal for blood donors to save the life of a boy in Cambridge City Hospital, announcing the blood type required. Since Radcliffe has no daily paper, notices must be broadcast, and Marge Erganbright '45, broadcasts "Campus News" once a week.

There is no contention with the Radcliffe News here, because the college newspaper didn't finance the college radio station, as was the case at Harvard. For further coverage of the news, Diana Mowrer '44 obtained an agreement with the Boston Globe early this fall, to provide Radio Radcliffe with nightly reports on world and local happenings.

Ads Help Underwrite Expenses

Advertising is the biggest problem for any college radio station. Radio Radcliffe is helped out here by its membership in the Intercollegiate Broadcasting System. The I.B.S. is a clearing house for ideas on college broadcasts, and acts as an advertising agency to secure accounts for its members. The 'Cliffe radio has carried ads for Arrow Shirts, for the Coop, and will now advertise for the Curtis Publishing Company (Saturday Evening Post, etc.). Business manager Eleanor Reed '47 still has a lot of worries.

Neither Prexy Phoenix nor anyone else seems much concerned over the prospect of television. But in the crystal ball Harvard men '58, can be seen calling up for a date with that pretty blonde who's turning the records.