Word: guam
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...Welcomed the governors of 47 states and of Alaska, Guam, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands to Washington (for a conference) at a full-dress White House dinner...
...inspection trip to Guam, largest of the Marianas, convinced him that it was "a Shangri-La in the ocean." Its population of nearly 70,000 (mostly Chamorro-speaking natives, but including 10,000 Filipinos and 20,000 U.S. residents who work in Guam for the U.S.) is prosperous. On the island are nine auto dealers, a bank. 21 bakeries. 28 department stores, 15 movie houses and, adds Engel: "Just think of it, 23 midwives...
...Guam's only radio station was owned and operated by the armed forces. Engel hurried to Washington, consulted with the Federal Communications Commission, found that it would grant him a commercial monopoly if he could furnish the $50,000 necessary for a private station and get clearances from the Army and Air Force and from the Department of the Interior, which governs the island. Engel triumphed over all the red tape in less than a year, raised the money from a West Coast friend, and has already signed a batch of contracts with Guam advertisers...
...Guam venture puts scarcely a strain on Engel's ingrained optimism, which met a far stiffer test in 1942 when, as an Army sergeant, he spent a weekend in Boston and was nearly burned to death in the Cocoanut Grove nightclub fire. He spent three years recovering in Army hospitals, underwent 45 operations, still wears a glove over a badly scarred hand. Engel typically found a silver lining: "You know, I must have been damn lucky. I had orders to ship out on the U.S.S. Dorchester, which got sunk with the loss of most of the men on board...
Engel's Guam station KUAM will carry nighttime NBC programs, but daytimes "we'll have local talent, local music, panels. We'll carry typhoon warnings and teach them how to farm. Believe me, there's a great need for public service." Guam also offers Engel a completely captive audience. He explains: "The humidity is so high there that they can't turn their radios off or it will ruin them. Just think of it: 70,000 people and all they can do is listen to me all the time...