AMERICANS   ALL
about finished, but WOV is just down the way on 43rd
Street. It's the big Italian-American station—in fact, the
only station in the United States that broadcasts all
its programmes in one foreign language. You ought to
go down to see it. Let's 'phone Nardella." He 'phoned
Nardella, and I went there next morning at 11.30.
It's in the WOV Building at 142 West 43rd Street, and
is a modern, completely up-to-date "Radio City" in
miniature.  Mr John Iraci, who built it and owns it,
has retired from importing, and gives all his time to
the advancement of broadcasting in the Italian field*
He has made this one of the outstanding independent
stations in the United States, and Ralph Nardella, its
manager, is a cultivated young gentleman without a
trace of accent, whom you'd never imagine to be of
recent foreign-language origin.  He took me through
sound-proof doors into the  studio  where  a  small
symphonic orchestra was broadcasting.   An Italian
comedian, who was coming on after the music, went
over and kidded the maestro in pantomime. There was
a grand finale, somebody said something, and somebody
else whispered, "Shut-upa!   Shut-upa! "   An Italian
Jimmy Wallington told listeners about the biggest
spaghetti factory in the world over on Long Island,
and they were putting on a serial play, San Giovanni
Decollate, a stage classic with a lot of horseplay in it.
At one point in the act people were in a house which
caught fire, and the director hissed, " Grido! Grido!"
(which means " Shout!  Shout!"), and then, when the
actors stared at him, he whispered," Grido in Inglese! "
Then they shouted, " Fire!  Fire!" and a gentleman
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