FOREIGN BROADCAST INTELLIGENCE SERVICE BY OLIVER READ, W9ET1 MANAGING EDITOR, RADIO NEWS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP83-00566R000100040066-6
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 5
• Document Creation Date: November 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 2, 2000
• Sequence Number: 66
• Publication Date: January 1, 1945
• Content Type: REPORT

Approved For Release 2$00/05/22 : CIA-RDP83-00566S004400040066-6
FOREIGN BROADCAST INTELLIGENCE SERVICE
by
Oliver Read, W9ETI
Managing Editor, Radio News
Radio, as an instrument of propaganda, has proved its impor-
tance beyond any doubt. It reveals many psychological slips.
A little-known governmental agency, but one of extreme importance in war-
time, is the Foreign Broadcast Intelligence Service (FBIS) of the Federal Com-
munications Commission.
The FBIS came into being nine months before Pearl Harbor when this official
monitoring service was set up to keep our Government informed of what the enemy
radio was saying to its own people, to neutrals, and to its enemies. Due to
lack of normal peacetime sources of information, a continuous round-the-clock
monitoring of the short waves provided intelligence agencies of this and other
friendly governments with valuable clues as to enengr strategy and how best it
might be combated on military, economic, and propaganda fronts. Four listening
posts manned by skilled engineers, linguists, students of public affairs, and
editors sift through 2,500,000 words a day of foreign broadcast material and
send it minute-by-minute over teletypes to nineteen government war agencies.
It is interesting to go back and review the normal chain of events that led to
the development of the FBIS.
Radio broadcasting developed originally in the "medium-wave" part of the
radio spectrum -- the part where most ordinary domestic broadcasting is now
carried on. Dr. Frank Conrad of Westinghouse and Signor Marconi in Italy were
experimenting with broadcasting on much shorter wavelengths early in 1923,
using radio waves of 1.00 meters or less instead of the 360-meter waves used by
standard broadcasting at that time. It was noted that for long-distance broad-
casting these shorter waves possessed many advantages. Soon experimental short-
wave broadcasting stations in the U.S. and in England were exchanging programs.
Thus, international broadcasting was inaugurated about 1923.
These original international broadcasts were relayed. There existed in
each country but a handful of radio receivers capable of tuning in shortwave
programs. The only way to build up audiences for these broadcasts was to pick
them up and then rebroadcast them in the standard radioband used by ordinary
listeners. The cooperation of radio stations in both countries was required
for successful international broadcasting.
No one doubted in the early twenties that this international broadcasting
would be a prime force of international peace and good will among nations. They
anticipated no friction. Shortly thereafter, however, radio amateurs and others
began constructing radio receivers which were able to pick up foreign broadcasts
directly by short-wave instead of being limited to the standard band rebroad-
casts of these international programs. Soon, enterprising manufacturers were
marketing radio receivers that included short-wave bands and anyone could listen
to foreign broadcasts on short-wave.
.
Approved For Release 2000/05/22 : Clf -RDP83-00566R000100040066-6
 Approved For Release 2QQO/05/22 : CIA-RDP83-00566 09100040066-6
The result was that the international broadcast stations could build up
listening audiences from other countries even for those programs which the other
countries chose not to rebroadcast. About this time medium-wave broadcasts were
being used across national borders for political propaganda. The Russians took
the lead in this field. Adolph Hitler in 1933 rose to power with his doctrine
that "words are deeds" and quickly perceived the disrupted possibility of sowing
seeds of distrust and dissension by international radio. Short-wave trans-
mitters became a new kind of Nazi Weapon.
Transmitters were pouring forth words in scores of languages by 1938. Great
Britain used the short waves extensively as a means of welding the far flung
dominions to the Mother country. The League of Nations broadcast news of its
activities through a :powerful Swiss station. The Nazis were stirring up con-
flict within neighboring countries.
The Germans developed special directional antenna systems for their trans-
mitters and beamed their propaganda to every corner of the world. The British,
for example, would be told that the United States would soon dominate the world,
while the Americans were simultaneously being warned through another trans-
mitter that the British were the chief danger. When war came in 1939, this
radio warfare became intensified. Lord Haw-Haw, the Nazi radio star, built up
a tremendous listening audience in England and was featured on front pages of
American newspapers. In this way, direct German propaganda procured the fullest
access into both Britain and the United States. Simultaneously, the Nazi bar-
rage of anti-American broadcasts to Latin America was intensified.
The FBIS was set up at the suggestion of the State Department with the
approval of the Board of War Communications to operate as a central agency
serving all Government agencies requiring foreign broadcast material.
There are nine simultaneous or successive steps in FBIS operations. These
are (1) Scheduling; (2) Interce tion; (3) and (4) Monitoring and recording
(that go on simultaneously); (5) Translating; (6) Wire services, including
editing and teletyping; (7) reports (including editing and mimeographing); (8)
analysis (including periodic and special reports) and (9) individual services
of various kinds.
Special services are provided by the FBIS to Government officials requesting
them. For example; at, the time of the Hitler speech following the Italian
surrender, the White House had a special telephone installation with Hitler's
voice on one end and Churchill, General Marshall and others on the receiving
end.
Principal speeches by German and Japanese leaders, by standing order, are
recorded as received on permanent high fidelity discs and are furnished the CWI
and the equivalent British Overseas Broadcast agency for use in their Library
of Direct Quotations.
We visited the FBIS receiving station at Silver Hill, Md., to get first-
hand information on the important functions of this nonmilitary unit. There are
four such stations operating for the express purpose of checking all foreign
short-wave broadcast transmissions, recording their contents and interpreting
them into English. The receiving stations are chosen for excellence of reception.
Approved For Release 2000/05/22 : elik-RDP83-00566R000100040066-6
 Approved For Releawe 2460/05/22: CIA-RDP83-00566.R009"100040066-6
They include a maze of communications receivers (Hallicrafters SX-281s),
Memovox and Presto recorders, and various and sundry units assembled and
developed by FBIS personnel. The receivers are mounted in bays. They are
easily accessible from the rear for quick servicing. All of the sets are in
continuous operation. There are twenty-nine of these in operation at Silver
Hill alone.
In charge of each receiving station is a Monitoring Officer. Under him
are a number of monitoring officers and radio operators working in shifts,
whose job it is to maintain an accurate worldwide program "log" and to pre-
tune receivers to prescheduled programs over a twenty-four hour period.
Connecting to these receivers is a highly complex antenna system including
five Rhombic antennas, each covering a maximum angle of twenty degrees. The
operators select the antenna which provides the strongest signals to be heard.
The outputs of the receivers go through a control console provided with com-
plete "patching" facilities. There are special telephone circuits which go
to the central office located many miles distant and which terminate to wax
cylinder recorders. The audio level is maintained by the console operator at
a predetermined level? one which will afford correct modulation for the wax-
cylinder recorders.
Other equipment, as mentioned previously, includes Memovox recorders
employing paper-based discs capable of holding over an hour's recording per
side. These are used when a complete transcription is required for counter-
propaganda purposes. In addition, two Presto tables are in readiness to
record any type of intelligence requiring high fidelity.
The FBIS interpreters are not located at the receiving stations. They
work from the downtown headquarters of the FBIS in Washington (seven miles
away). The experts of the FBIS are equipped to monitor thirty-four different
languages plus thirty other dialects. Most of the interception carried out
by the personnel involves voice broadcasts. A small part, particularly enemy
news, is transmitted by International Morse code. The Germans use it fre-
quently. The Jap Domei Morse in the Japanese language presents some peculiar
difficulties however. It is directed from Tokyo to its satellite newspapers
in the Asiatic area. The Jap announcement of the resignation of the two
Japanese Chiefs of Staff, for example, was first received in the United States
via these Jap press broadcasts. The Japanese language itself is written in
ideographs which cannot be transferred directly into dots and dashes. They
must first be changed into a Roman alphabet reading of the Jap language on a
purely phonetic basis. This Romaji is then transmitted by International Morse
code. At Portland, Oregon, where Jap broadcasts are monitored, engineers
receive and type it out as so many meaningless letters. It is teletyped in
this form and is translated to English at the Washington headquarters. Such
translations take about four times as long as for any other language. These
experts, specializing in various languages, listen to the programs as they
come over the telephone circuits. They wear a pair of headphones and type
the intelligence as they listen. They do not make a complete transcription,
however, unless it is of extreme importance. A second cylinder may be cut in
instantaneously so that an uninterrupted recording may be had. These are kept
in special racks for a period of forty-eight hours in case an entire program
is requested by one of the various agencies using the service.
Approved For Release 2000/05/22 : CI 1RDP83-00566R000100040066-6
 Approved For Release 2000/05/22 : CIA-RDP83-00566R000100040066-6
Other important functions of the FBIS include editorial and teletype
rooms.
A special service has been rendered on occasions to the Department of
Justice. This is in connection with trials involved in sedition, violation
of alien registration laws, and the treason clause of the Constitution of the
United States. One of these was in August, 1942, of William Dudley Pelley
and two other defendants on charges of having violated the federal sedition
Act. Dr. Pelley, leader of the American Silver shirt organization, was pub-
lisher at the time of the trial of a periodical called "The Galilean." This
periodical contained material reflecting and corresponding to the main lines
of Axis propaganda and contained no material which contradicted these main
lines of Axis propaganda.
Two government witnesses, one of them Ensign Harold N. Graves, Jr.,
then Assistant to the Director of FBIS, who testified to the main lines of
Axis propaganda, identified fourteen themes constantly "harped on" by the
radios of Germany and Italy. The second witness, Dr. Harold Lasswell of the
Library of Congress, testified that an analysis of !The Galilean" showed it
to reflect Axis propaganda to a considerable degree. It was shown at the trial
that members of "The Galilean" organization actually had taken notes of foreign
short-wave broadcasts and that on at least one occasion, notes from an Italian
radio broadcast had appeared with some modification in following issues of "The
Galilean." Pelley was convicted and sentenced to five years in the peniten-
tiary. The case was appealed but the verdict was upheld by a higher court.
Historical news, too, has come from the facilities of the FBIS. For
example, the scoop story on Doolittle's raid on Tokyo back in April, 1942, was
made possible by the alertness of one of the monitors at the Portland, Oregon,
receiving station. Picking up the Japanese word "Kushu" and thinking simul-
taneously in ideographs (picture characters which give the meaning of Jap
words) this monitor knew that here wasthe news all America awaited. Upon com-
pletion of the item it now was known that our fliers had successfully raided
and bombed Kobe and Nagoya. This information was later confirmed by the
Doolittle fliers themselves.
It is interesting to note that most of the operating personnel at the
receiving stations are, or were, radio amateurs. Their skill and technical
knowmhow gave them a valuable background for this type of work. In charge of
the station at Silver Hill is Frank X. Green, former engineer of KFXJ, KFEL,
KOA, KMA, and KIVL. While there we met an interesting chap by the name of
James G. Wedewer, Assistant Monitoring Officer, who is an official of several
short-wave listening clubs and an authority on short-wave broadcast stations
of the world. He told 'us the location of all the call letters we mentioned.
A group of four Hallicrafters SX-28 receivers is used for scanning the
ether for new stations, changes in schedules and other information in order
to keep the "log" accurate. Each receiver is supplied with a small booklet
placed in a metal clip adjacent to the set. Complete calibrations are included
which show the exact tuning setting for any frequency throughout the spectrum.
These must be kept currently accurate, particularly if a sudden change in
weather is encountered. A constant check on frequency is had by means of
Approved For Release 2000/05/22 : CIA-RDP83-00566R000100040066-6
 Approved For Release 29Q0/05/22 : CIA-RDP83-00566R00e"100040066-6
of several crystal controlled secondary standards that put out signals at
either 100 or 1000 kc. The personnel at, Silver Hill rigged up a special
changeover switch (seen at the bottom of the receiver bays) so that this
signal is accessible for checking the receivers simply by pressing the switch
with the toe.
We have visited many military and nonmilitary installations all over the
country throughout the present war. Never have we seen so many receivers
going at one time in one place. If ever there was an ideal all-wave receiver
this was it. In fact, it might well be called "Uncle Samts radio set" -- at
least one of them.
This article in the January 1945 issue of RADIO NEWS.
Approved For Release 2000/05/22 : CIA-RDP83-00566R000100040066-6