The First Radio Broadcasts From Ships

Parts 23, 24 and 25

[Taken from: Adventist World Radio's "Wavescan" - (DX Programs 438,  440 and 442). Many thanks to Dr. Adrian Peterson]

23. Historic Radio Broadcast from the Statue of Liberty

The August issue of the American magazine, "Short Wave Craft", in the year 1935 tells a very interesting story about a unique radio broadcast from the Statue of Liberty. It happened this way.

The French passenger liner Normandie began its maiden voyage from Le Havre in France just 68 years ago, on May 29, 1935. This luxury liner was the largest and most luxurious passenger ship afloat at the time, at more than 1,000 ft long. The "Normandie" crossed the Atlantic on this its maiden voyage arriving in New York just five days later. 

At the time of its launching two and a half years earlier, on October 29, 1932, Radio Paris made a shortwave broadcast to the world of the ceremony. While out in the Atlantic on its maiden voyage, the "Normandie" made several music broadcasts en route as was the custom of the day. And on its arrival in New York on June 3, 1935, there was another spectacular and historic radio broadcast. 

A welcoming program for the arrival of this new ship was compiled in Washinton DC and this special broadcast was fed by telephone line to the Statue of Liberty on Bedloe's Island in New York harbor. On the torch in the upheld hand of the Statue of Liberty was a special radio transmitter that modulated a beam of light. 

This pulsating modulated light beam from the Statue of Liberty was picked up on a special receiver on the "Normandie" some five miles distant. The signal from this unique location was de-modulated on the moving [assenger liner and fed into the public address system as well as into a 50 watt shortwave transmitter. This small and specially installed shortwave transmitter relayed this broadcast back to New York where it was received by mediumwave station WEAF and fed into the NBC Red Network for a nationwide relay. 

In addition, the General Electric shortwave station at Schenectady, station W2XAD, also carried the same programming which was picked up in France and re-broadcast throughout their country on their mediumwave and longwave networks. The French shortwave service also broadcast this unique program as a relay to the world.

That spectacular radio broadcast was part of the elaborate welcome to the United States for the magnificent passenger liner "Normanadie" at the time of its arrival at the end of its maiden voyage across the Atlantic. Interestingly, a radio broadcast was made at the birth of this ship, another at the time of its travels, and again at the time of its demise; and we will tell you more about that in our program in a couple of week's time.

24. The Story of a Burning Passenger Liner

On two previous occasions, we have presented stories about the luxuriant French passenger liner, the Normandie. On this occasion, we return to the story of the "Normandie", and this time, the story of its demise. 

Construction work on the "Normandie" began at St Nazairre on coastal France in the year 1929. It was intended that this huge ship, more than 1,000 feet long, would be the world's biggest and the world's best. In fact, the electric lighting throughout the entire ship was so prolific that it was called the "Ship of Lights".

On October 29, 1932, the "Normandie" was launched amidst a fanfare of glamour and celebrity. The entire ceremony was broadcast to the world on international shortwave radio by Radio Paris, as it was known in those days. 

Two and a half years later, the ship commenced its maiden voyage across the Atlantic to New York. On its arrival in New York, the event was heralded by another unique and magnificent radio broadcast that again spanned the world. 

Programming from a radio studio in Washington DC was transmitted on light waves from the upraised hand of the Statue of Liberty and relayed on shortwave from American stations and re-relayed from Paris in France. After all, was it not the French who donated this majestic symbol of liberty and friendship to the Americans back in the year 1884? 

Four years later again, after many voyages across the Atlantic, the "Normandie" was caught by the vicissitudes of war. In September 1939, the luxurious "Normandie" was detained in New York harbour by port authorities.

Two years later again, in May 1941, the Coast Guard seized the "Normandie" and at the end of the same year, the ship was seized again, this time by the American navy. They laid plans to convert this fabulous and now outdated passenger liner into a utilitarian troop carrier with a new name, the USS "Lafayette". 

During the hurried work of conversion on the ship, a fire broke out. So much water was poured onto the burning ship that it capsized and sank right at its berth in New York Harbor. In fact, it was so cold on this February day in 1942 that the entire body of water in the ship just simply froze into one great ice block. 

For the remainder of the war, the ship lay on its side, a slowly rusting hulk that betrayed no evidence of its former glory. In 1945, work began to break up the ship and sell it off for scrap. Demolition was completed on October 6, 1967.

At the time of the fire back on February 9, 1942, the ship again made the headlines, not only in the newspapers, but also on radio. It was the centre of attention for a dramatic nationwide broadcast on network radio. The noted commentator, Graham McNamee, made a live dockside broadcast about the progress of the fire and the gradual capsizing of the ship and this was heard nationwide over the NBC radio network.

Thus it was, that a dockside broadcast was made from the "Normandie" at its launching in 1932. A spectacular broadcast was made as the ship entered New York Harbor three years later. Under the callsign FNSK, the "Normandie" made many broadcasts while traversing the Atlantic, and at the time of its demise as the USS "Lafayette", another dockside broadcast was heard far and wide.

25. Shortwave Broadcast from a Ship in Florida

Some months back, the Herald Tribune in southwest Florida reported on an important radio event that occured more than seventy years ago. This is the story.

The well known radio promoter, Powell Crosley, had a palatial home built for himself at Venice in Florida. He loved fishing and he was the president of the Sarasota Angler’s Club.

In order to promote their annual fishing tournament, Powell planned an elaborate publicity event. Hwe had a 30 foot fishing boat constructed to serve as a floating radio station and he named his new boat, “Little WLW”,in honor of his huge mediumwave station, WLW in Cincinnati, Ohio.
 
The electronic equipment on this boat included a shortwave transmitter with a 30 foot high antenna. The date for this remote broadcast was set for June 10, 1930, at 8:30 pm. This was the time of the full moon and the change of the tide. 

More than thirty fishing boats were entered into the fishing contest to see who could land the largest tarpon fish. Just five minutes before the beginning of the live broadcast, a fisherman in a nearby boat caught a very large tarpon, weighing 85 pounds. This fortunate fisherman was taken on board the radio boat, Little WLW, and he was interviewed in the live broadcast that was heard throughout the nation. 
 
The radio relay was broadcast live over the shortwave transmitter on board the “Little WLW” and it was picked up by a receiver at the bathing pavilion in Venice. The antenna was attached to the flag pole. 
 
From Venice, the live program was carried by telephone lines for more than 1,300 miles to Cincinnati where it was re-broadcast by the big station, WLW. Other stations thoughout the nation also broadcast this program on relay from WLW. At the time, this was by far the longest landline usage ever used for a remote broadcast.

Extra Topic - Collecting Radio Postcards - The World

On a previous occasion here in Wavescan, we presented a special feature on collecting postcards that depict American wireless and radio stations. On this occasion, let's broaden our view and look at the radio postcards that are available in other countries. 

There is another large album in the AWR Collection that contains postcards that depict radio stations in many countries around the world. Though smaller than the two American albums, this world view album contains four hundred radio postcards from seventy different countries.
Some of these cards were procured from postcard dealers in the United States, and some were procured from postcard dealers in other countries, such as England, Canada and New Zealand. In addition, many of the cards, particularly those from Germany, were sent to us by AWR listeners.

Some of these radio cards contain very interesting stories. For example, one card was bought from a dealer in London and it shows the wireless station VWP at Peshawar in what was the old British India. There was a British explorer in Central Asia who soon after the turn of the century tuned in to this station in order to get time signals so that he could determine his exact location.

Some of the modern cards were obtained during travels to different countries and some of the older ones were procured from postcard dealers. Among these older ones are cards that show the old wireless stations in Cuba and the Azores Islands. The old Marconi stations in England are presented, as also is the original station located on the Eiffel Tower in Paris. The older Japanese radio cards are quie ornate as also are some of those from Latin America.

A section at the end of this album presents nearly one hundred postcards of ships that took part in radio broadcasting in earlier years. Included in this section is the Kanimbla in Australia, the Great White Fleet in the United States, and several majestic tourist ships from England, France, Germany and Italy.

All of these cards likewise portray interesting snippets of radio history in picture form from the earliest years up to the present time in a way that can not be presented by words alone.

Click here for Parts 26 - 30