Word: owis
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...OWI was in hot water again. To tell the Russians more about the U.S., it had been getting out a handsome, slick-paper magazine, America Illustrated, which is printed in Russian and sold in Russia for 15 rubles (90 cents). Of the first issue. 20,000 copies were distributed; OWI got glowing reports from Vladivostok, Murmansk and Tiflis. Last week it got reports, not so glowing, from Omaha, Nebraska, and Wichita, Kansas...
From Omaha's Chamber of Commerce came a yowl of rage. "The OWI description implies that the Midwest is a drought-stricken, poverty-ridden territory. It gives no thought to the important contribution Nebraska has made to the winning of the war. Nor does it take into consideration the rapid industrial expansion of the Midwest in recent years...
Five weeks before Dday, ABSIE (the American Broadcasting Station in Europe) made its debut to the opening bars of Yankee Doodle. Last week, to the tune of The Star-Spangled Banner, it took its leave. ABSIE, operated by OWI and SHAEF's Psychological Warfare Division, had earned an honorable discharge for valiant service, but few Americans had paid it more than passing notice...
Before the project got under way, OWI spent two years planning, hiring a multilingual staff of 250 (about half British), experimenting and entangling itself in red tape. Colonel William Paley, peacetime head of CBS, was called in to set things straight. He negotiated with the BBC for equipment, promised that ABSIE would clear out 90 days after V-E day. Robert Sherwood, then OWI's overseas director, arranged the programs; he said that ABSIE would "join with the BBC in telling the truth of this war to our friends in Europe - and to our enemies...
...peak (last winter), an estimated 80% of Occupied Europe's listeners tuned in on ABSIE. Last week, when the job was finally finished, many rated ABSIE's 14-month career as perhaps the brightest feather in OWI...