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WVTR Memories
By Shelby Z Newhouse
PRIVATE Newhouse of WVTR
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S Newhouse and J Faulkner outside Radio Tokyo
© Shelby Newhouse Collection, Radio Heritage Foundation
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Let me tell you how I got to Radio Tokyo. I'm really a very lucky guy... have been all my life. This is just one of many stories that attest to that.
All troops entering the Pacific Theater or going home seemed to move through
the 4th Replacement Depot at Zama, Japan. This had been the country's West
Point. Now... my army records showed that during the last two years of high
school I'd worked the night shift as an announcer at WJLB in Detroit, Michigan.
4,999 infantrymen left Zama for Hokkaido. That rumor turned out to be true.
But, I was pulled out, assigned to I and E, the Information and Education
detachment. They needed someone to read the news each day over the camp's
loudspeaker system. How's that for duty?
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WVTR receiver rack and patch panel
© Ken Harriman Collection, Radio Heritage Foundation
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Let me try to recreate what it was like at Zama. The winter of '45 was bitter... really cold ... with a wind that cut right through you. About eight of us slept in a large room with windows that almost reached the ceiling and that was
about ten feet high. The only heat came from a small coal stove provided by the
U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps. Hard to believe, I know, but there had been a
foul-up. A shipload of these stoves had arrived in Japan. Each one with a
connection to a section of stovepipe to carry smoke out of the building. The
stoves had arrived... the stove pipes were back in the States. With typical
Yankee ingenuity GI's roamed the countryside scrounging for whatever they could
find to get that smoke out.
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WVTR Record Librarian, Patrick J O'Hara
© Ken Harriman Collection, Radio Heritage Foundation
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Our army cots were placed in a circle... feet as close to the coal stove as
possible. A measure of the cold can be found in how we prepared our cots for the night.
First... a layer of newspapers, then an army blanket, followed by your
sleeping bag, covered by another blanket if you had it, and topped off by tying
the arms of your overcoat to the foot of your cot. Crawl into the sleeping bag... zip up... and dream of home.
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WVTR Announcer Wallace Brunworth
© Ken Harriman Collection, Radio Heritage Foundation
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It didn't take long to discover WVTR and Radio Tokyo. I made the right contact... an interview and audition were arranged... and the 4th Replacement
Depot couldn't argue with a request from GHQ... MacArthur's headquarters in
Tokyo.
What was it like? Well, it certainly was too early for any American influence.
This was Japan... the real Japan. Our fire bombing of their capitol had been
very successful. The city was 60 to 65% destroyed. There was rubble everywhere.
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WVTR Controlman, Ray Donavan
© Ken Harriman Collection, Radio Heritage Foundation
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I've got a picture of Jack Faulkner, another member of the WVTR staff and
myself standing on the steps of the building that housed the station. That
building was a survivor... it stood in downtown Tokyo... in good shape. If
memory serves me correctly it was within walking distance of the Emperor's
palace. I don't mean the Dai Ichi building and GHQ... I mean the other
Emperor.
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WVTR Announcer, Joe Mularkey
© Ken Harriman Collection, Radio Heritage Foundation
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So I joined the WVTR staff... low man on the totem pole. The fact that I was
able to move up in seniority quickly had nothing to do with ability, but
everything to do with the mad dash to get home... back to the States. People
were scrambling to get out. Secretary of War Patterson had decreed the point
system would be used to determine when you'd get to return and be discharged.
Points were earned for time served overseas.
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WVTR Basic librarian, Jim Key
© Ken Harriman Collection, Radio Heritage Foundation
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Our Program Director, Sgt. Hans Conried, was my immediate superior. Hans was a
great guy to work for and with. He was a well known eccentric Hollywood
personality. In the forties, prior to the advent of television, seats in the
audience of radio shows were in demand. As a teenager visiting family in
California I had been in a radio audience and seen Hans at work. The year was
probably 1942. So, working with him in Tokyo was a real treat.
I can relate a great story about Hans' arrival at the station when it was on the
island of Leyte, in the Philippines.
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WVTR Program director, Miss Richards
© Ken Harriman Collection, Radio Heritage Foundation
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When Hans arrived at the station on Leyte the staff was baffled,
unsure of how to handle him. What could they do with this strange Hollywood
actor? The decision was made to let him try the morning show . . the wake-up
call . . . spinning records. That didn't last long! His show generated a
tremendous uproar! Hans loved classical music and was a devoted fan of Gilbert
and Sullivan. He fed the GI's a morning disc jockey show of Beethoven, Brahms,
Mozart and the Pirates of Penzance!
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WVTR Announcer, Mat Meyers
© Ken Harriman Collection, Radio Heritage Foundation
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After some headscratching they did come up with an assignment that fit Hans to
a T... reading the comics to the troops!
I don't remember his ever going on the air in Tokyo. I guess as Program
Director he didn't have to. I do remember him sitting on his bed doing yoga
exercises. Hans was also an art collector... a genuine connoisseur. Tokyo in
1945 presented a great opportunity to pick-up unique pieces.
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WVTR Writer, Don Meadows
© Ken Harriman Collection, Radio Heritage Foundation
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From time to time we received rations of beer and cigarettes. Since I used
neither I could give my beer to my buddies and use the cigarettes as barter.
I'm reminded of this almost every day. Our studio boasts a beautiful five foot
painting on silk. It captures the image of a tiger moving down a jungle path. I
first saw this work of art on the Ginza or what had been the Ginza, the Rodeo
Drive of downtown Tokyo. There was no sidewalk... no street... just
rubble. This artist had cleared a small area and laid his painting down with
pieces of concrete holding each corner. I bought that work of art for two
cartons of cigarettes.
Just about everyone on the WVTR staff held a lower rank than their job should
have called for. So we all had this personal beef with our Commander-in-Chief,
General Douglas MacArthur. We served as part of GHQ. And since we had no Table
of Organization, whenever an opening in grade occurred which meant an
opportunity to advance in rank... that translates to more pay... we were
by-passed and the opening given to other units. When I was Chief Announcer I
made an effort to get GHQ's attention. I scheduled myself on the sign-off
shift for a full week and read the standard closing copy of the broadcast day
placing extraordinary emphasis on GENERAL Douglas MacArthur. This is PRIVATE
Shelby Newhouse signing off.
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Shelby Newhouse at the microphone, WVTR Tokyo
© Shelby Newhouse Collection, Radio Heritage Foundation
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That reading never generated a response from GHQ, but it did produce evidence
of how popular WVTR was with the troops. They listened right up to the moment
we went off the air. This became abundantly clear to me sometime later... on
my flight back to the States. Each leg of the journey ended on an island...
like Guam and Johnson. Before getting back on board there was the inevitable
roll call. When they reached my name the assembled GI's would sing out, "That's
PRIVATE Newhouse" !!!
Many of our shows originated from the same studio used by Tokyo Rose. I recall
a truly memorable broadcast that seemed particularly appropriate for that
studio. One of our daily chores was to read the news to stations down the line.
We'd read very slowly, repeating every line so the news could be typed or
written down by hand and later read by someone at that station. There had no
recording capability at the receiving end.
On this particular day the assignment fell to an announcer who was suffering
from the GI's! In some quarters its called dysentery. At one point in the
broadcast he made an executive decision. Moved a waste basket over... sat on
it... and, whenever nature called, he just turned off the mike.
We probably could make acetate recordings in 1945, though I'm not certain about
that. But, '45-'46 must have predated wire recorders and magnetic tape was
further down the road.
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AFRS Shoulder badge
© Ken Harriman Collection, Radio Heritage Foundation
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You know, we had a marvelous shoulder patch worn just above the Eighth Army
insignia. Mine disappeared over the years. I wish I had it now. It was curved
to fit the top of your shoulder... sewed with gold thread against a black
background. I believe it said Armed Forces Radio Service... but it was so
far back... I'm not sure.
My Honorable Discharge showed I'd earned four decorations: the Asiatic Pacific
Campaign Medal, Army of Occupation Medal, World War II Victory Medal and the
Good Conduct Medal.
At that rate if I'd only served another six months I'd have
looked like Audie Murphy.
These have been some of my recollections... memories of WVTR... of Radio
Tokyo... 1945-46.
This is Shelby Newhouse... Private... signing off.
^Top
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 "WVTR receiver rack and patch panel")
 "Patrick J O'Hara")
 "Wallace Brunworth")
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 "Joe Mularkey")
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 "Miss Richards")
 "Mat Meyers")
 "Don Meadows")
 "Shelby Newhouse")
 "AFRS Shoulder badge"){kind=icon}
