Radio Radcliffe Staff Keeps' Nightly Broadcasting Vigil

Female disc jockeys, handling everything in the radio business from advertising to repairing "fouled up" broadcasting equipment, keep the turntables revolving every week night from 7:30 to 11 p.m. at radio Radcliffe's broadcasting studio in the field house.

The station operates through a transmitter located in the Barnard Hall basement which carries broadcasts over the 800 dial-mark to points within the dormitery quadrangle area. One Briggs Hall resident claims, however, that she once picked up a broadcast of a Choral Society concert through a third-floor radiator.

The group has functioned independently since their organization in the 1943 summer term. At that time Kyra Kalinowski '45 and Ronnie Phoenix '45, who had been doing. WHRV "Swing Out" programs, decided to start, a station of their own at Radcliffe. With a $25 grant from the Board of Hall presidents and a donation of rejuvenated equipment from the Network, the girls set up studies in the second floor corner of the field house and began sending programs to dorm residents. To date the station has managed to turn out every scheduled broadcast except for one night in January, 48, when the transmitter line was cut by Moors Hall work trucks.

Programs are exchanged with WHRV through an open "telephone-line." At present Radio Radcliffe sends three music listening hours to the Network in return for special broadcasts, half-hour shows, and Charles O'Brien's "Ballad Corner." As the most recent angle the two stations are even exchanging announcers: Nancy Buhrer '49 does the Network's Monday night "Comin' On" program, and William Clark '49 takes over Radio Radcliffe's Thursday night "Swing Out" (popular music) show.

Station members also point out that Network men are handy to have around "when one of those infernal machines blows out." The standard procedure in broadcasting crises is to throw on the record "Pomp and Circumstance" and call the Network post-haste. Last term WHRV men installed a mike light for the girls, and David Barton '50 is planning to rebuild the Radio Radcliffe transmitter during spring vacation.

A file of 300 popular and about 1000 classical records serves most of the station's broadcasting needs. The majority of the programs are record shows as a student poll taken last fall showed that listeners favored classical and popular music to "live" shows or drama workshop features.

Impromptu shows manage to crop up every now and then in spite of the fact that the station is run on a strict broadcasting schedule. Radio Radcliffe announcers like to ad lib Spike Jones records.