View movie

View thumbnails
Run time: 18:02

Stream (help)

64Kb Real Media (dialup)
256Kb Real Media (broadband)

Play / Download (help)

(57 MB)Cinepack
(73 MB)512Kb MPEG4
(74 MB)Ogg Video
(76 MB)64Kb Real Media
(180 MB)256Kb Real Media
(340 MB)HiRes MPEG4
(477 MB)MPEG2

Resources

Mitchell Film AssociatesIndependent Radio Station (1951)

Military training film on a New York radio station, WMCA, owned by the Nathan Straus family, showing its ownership, management and activities. Good view of radio in the era when most stations were locally owned and operated.


This movie is part of the collection: Prelinger Archives

Producer: Mitchell Film Associates
Sponsor: U.S. Army
Audio/Visual: Sd, B&W
Keywords: Communication: Radio; Media: Radio

Creative Commons license: Public Domain

Individual Files

Write a review
Downloaded 4,650 timesReviews
Average Rating:

Reviewer: pottersclay75 - - August 18, 2005
Subject: Very good film about radio
This is a great overview of radio in general. It is a nice counterpart to the other films that only speak to the networks. I do wonder, however, why the United States Army would produce such a film. It is about privately owned stations, so I am still scratching my head.

This is a great film. Not over-romanticized.

Reviewer: Spuzz - - August 19, 2003
Subject: They Have Everything for you men to enjoy, you can hang out with all the boys!
This portrait of WMCA New York (make your own joke up here, I have) a radio station in a democratic country (that would be the US - which explains why this short was made by the Army, no commie controls here!) and is quite a nice snapshot of how radio was programmed in the yesteryear. A special emphasis is placed on advertsing, after all, how could this station stay on the air? And the many types of programming presented until of course, the christian end of the broacast day at midnight. There's sports broadcasts, religious shows, and educational programs as well. The highlight comes in this short while the educational roundtable with an author and several students. When a student is asked why he likes biographies so much, the student just blabbers on and on and on til a salesman turns off the radio LOL

Reviewer: Wilford B. Wolf - - May 4, 2003
Subject: This is WMCA, New York
An excellent, yet curious, film showing how small, independant radio stations work in the transition from the Golden Age of Radio of the 1930s and 1940s into the more mechanized process that would arise starting in the 1960s. What makes the film so great is not only the excellent cinematography and scoring, but it also provides great information on how the business of radio operates, emphasizing that it is a business and requires advertisers. The film also has some great footage of scenes in and around the radio station and early 50s New York life.

However, the curious thing about this film is... why was it made by the US Army? Nothing in the film would suggest that the radio station would be used for military purposes.

However, there are some subtle cues in the film. The United Nations is mentioned throughout the film, almost in passing. The narrator's final line "This is an independant radio station in a democracy." also seems to hint at a larger purpose. My guess, especially given the time frame and the mentioning of a Japanese radio commentator, is this film was made by the Army for US occupation in Japan, with the goal of demonstrating how a commerical (as opposed to a state run) radio station operated. Japanese commerical radio started in 1951. With the Korean War going on, the film is open ended enough to be used also with South Korea and other parts of the globe for a similar purpose.

Shotlist