So a miraculous transformation of any spot at all dull was soon a fact.
Oak, birch and poplar saplings stood along curbs and around railway
stations; girls brought in willow twigs, ivy roots, bulbs of canna,
dahlia, calladium, tulip, jonquil, gladiola and hyacinth. Boys also dug
many woodland shrubs which, standing along railway tracks, out of town,
took away that gloomy vista so commonly found upon approaching a big
city; and a long grassplot, with a rim of boxwood shrubs, was laid out,
half way from curb to curb on Broadway, in Branton Hills' financial
district. As Gadsby was looking at all this with happy satisfaction, a
bright lad from our Night School's radio class, told him that Branton
Hills should install a broadcasting station, as no city, today, would
think of trying to win additional population without that most
important adjunct for obtaining publicity. So any man or boy who had
any knack at radio was all agog; and about a thousand had ambitions for
a job in it, at which only about six can work. And City Hall had almost
a riot, as groups of politicians, pastors and clubs told just what such
a station should, and should not broadcast; for a broadcasting station,
with its vast opportunity for causing both satisfaction and antagonism,
must hold rigidly aloof from any racial favoritism, church, financial
or nationality criticisms; and such a policy is, as any broadcasting
station will admit, most difficult of adoption. First of all stood
that important position of what you might call "studio boss." Although
a man in control of a station is not known as "boss," I think it will
pass in this oddly built-up story. Now I am going to boost our famous
Organization again, by stating that a boy from its ranks, Frank Morgan,
was put in; for it was a hobby of Gadsby to put Branton Hills boys in
Branton Hills Municipal jobs. So Frank, right away, got all sorts of
calls for hours or half hours to broadcast "most astounding bargains"
in clothing, salad oils, motor oils, motor "gas", soaps, cars, and
tooth brush lubricants. With a big Fall campaign for Washington
officials about to start, such a position as Frank's was chuck full of
pitfalls; a stiff proposition for a young chap, not long out of High
School. But Gadsby took him in hand.
"Now, boy, hold your chin up, and you will find that most folks, though
cranky or stubborn at first, will follow your rulings if you insist,
in a civil way, that you know all our National Radio Commission's
laws binding your station. _Millions_, of all kinds, will dial in
your station; and what would highly satisfy a group in Colorado might
actually insult a man down in Florida; for radio's wings carry far. You
know I'll back you up, boy. But now, what would you call this station?"
"Oh," said our tyro-boss; "a radio station should work with initials
showing its location. So a Branton Hills station could stand as KBH."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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