American Broadcasting Station in Europe

Last updated October 16, 2019

The American Broadcasting Station in Europe (ABSIE) was a radio broadcasting station set up by the U.S. Office of War Information (OWI) in collaboration with the British BBC to counter Nazi propaganda.

The United States Office of War Information (OWI) was a United States government agency created during World War II. OWI operated from June 1942 until September 1945. Through radio broadcasts, newspapers, posters, photographs, films and other forms of media, the OWI was the connection between the battlefront and civilian communities. The office also established several overseas branches, which launched a large-scale information and propaganda campaign abroad.

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters are at Broadcasting House in Westminster, London, and it is the world's oldest national broadcasting organisation and the largest broadcaster in the world by number of employees. It employs over 20,950 staff in total, 16,672 of whom are in public sector broadcasting. The total number of staff is 35,402 when part-time, flexible, and fixed-contract staff are included.

It started broadcasting on 30 April 1944, two months before D Day with the words "This is the American Broadcasting Station in Europe... In this historic year, 1944, the allied radio will bring you tremendous news...".^[1] The radio station informed the people of occupied Europe about their intended liberation and gave hints about the D Day and the Russian invasion from the north.^[2] The radio station was located in a converted film building under the Gaumont-British offices^[3] in London's Wardour Street and continued broadcasting till 4 July 1945.^[4] It used to broadcast in the 9520, 9550, 9625 and 9640 kHz range and identified itself every 15 mins to its listeners.^[5] Along with broadcasts intended for European listeners, it also aired musical and other programs mixed with what were hoped to be demoralizing messages for the German Forces. Bing Crosby and Dinah Shore were among the leading performers in ABSIE programs.^[6]

The Gaumont-British Picture Corporation was a company which produced and distributed films and operated a cinema chain in the United Kingdom.

Wardour Street is a street in Soho, London. It is a one-way street that runs north from Leicester Square, through Chinatown, across Shaftesbury Avenue to Oxford Street.

The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the derived unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI) and is defined as one cycle per second. It is named after Heinrich Rudolf Hertz, the first person to provide conclusive proof of the existence of electromagnetic waves. Hertz are commonly expressed in multiples: kilohertz (10³ Hz, kHz), megahertz (10⁶ Hz, MHz), gigahertz (10⁹ Hz, GHz), terahertz (10¹² Hz, THz), petahertz (10¹⁵ Hz, PHz), exahertz (10¹⁸ Hz, EHz), and zettahertz (10²¹ Hz, ZHz).

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References

↑ James Wood (1994). History of International Broadcasting. IET. p. 82. ISBN 978-0-86341-302-5 . Retrieved 6 October 2012.
↑ Harriet Hyman Alonso (1 December 2007). Robert E. Sherwood: The Playwright in Peace and War. Univ of Massachusetts Press. p. 256. ISBN 978-1-55849-619-4 . Retrieved 6 October 2012.
↑ "The 1930s BH extension plans and the Stronghold". www.orbem.co.uk.
↑ Burton Paulu (1956). British Broadcasting; Radio and Television in the United Kingdom. U of Minnesota Press. p. 394. ISBN 978-0-8166-0127-1 . Retrieved 6 October 2012.
↑ Jerome S. Berg (30 September 2008). Broadcasting On The Short Waves, 1945 To Today. McFarland. p. 70. ISBN 978-0-7864-3674-3 . Retrieved 6 October 2012.
↑ Patrick Morley (2001). "This is the American Forces Network": The Anglo-American Battle of the Air Waves in World War II. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 81. ISBN 978-0-275-96901-1 . Retrieved 6 October 2012.

Coordinates: 51°30′52.93″N0°8′4.61″W / 51.5147028°N 0.1346139°W / 51.5147028; -0.1346139

Geographic coordinate system Coordinate system

A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are often chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position and two or three of the numbers represent a horizontal position; alternatively, a geographic position may be expressed in a combined three-dimensional Cartesian vector. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation. To specify a location on a plane requires a map projection.

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[Wood1994-1] James Wood (1994). History of International Broadcasting. IET. p. 82. ISBN 978-0-86341-302-5 . Retrieved 6 October 2012.

[Alonso2007-2] Harriet Hyman Alonso (1 December 2007). Robert E. Sherwood: The Playwright in Peace and War. Univ of Massachusetts Press. p. 256. ISBN 978-1-55849-619-4 . Retrieved 6 October 2012.

[3] "The 1930s BH extension plans and the Stronghold". www.orbem.co.uk.

[Paulu1956-4] Burton Paulu (1956). British Broadcasting; Radio and Television in the United Kingdom. U of Minnesota Press. p. 394. ISBN 978-0-8166-0127-1 . Retrieved 6 October 2012.

[Berg2008-5] Jerome S. Berg (30 September 2008). Broadcasting On The Short Waves, 1945 To Today. McFarland. p. 70. ISBN 978-0-7864-3674-3 . Retrieved 6 October 2012.

[Morley2001-6] Patrick Morley (2001). "This is the American Forces Network": The Anglo-American Battle of the Air Waves in World War II. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 81. ISBN 978-0-275-96901-1 . Retrieved 6 October 2012.