The six new home based shortwave
stations were to be developed under six Project names: Baker 1 East, Baker 2
West, King, Tare, Uncle and Victor.
Electronic equipment was purchased and work was begun on the two
separate sites for Project Baker East and Project Baker West, though the four
remaining Projects were deleted completely when work on the two Baker Projects
was cancelled in March 1953.
This is the story of the two
projected Baker stations which we present in Wavescan today, under the title:
Two Voice of America Radio Stations in the United States; Gone and Forgotten.
The intention in the Ring Plan was
for the two stations under Project Baker to be established, one somewhere on
the east coast of the United States and the other somewhere on the west coast.
Each station would contain six shortwave transmitters at 500 kW and two at 100
kW, though subsequently the power rating of the 100 kW units was changed for
250 kW. Several of these high powered
shortwave transmitters, Continental
500 kW Model 420A and GE Model 4BT250A, were already procured and placed in
storage in Brooklyn, New York.
The twin purposes for establishing
these two new shortwave stations was to improve direct reception for listeners
across the Atlantic and across the Pacific, and also to provide a reliable off
air program relay to the VOA relay stations that were already providing
coverage in the desired target areas. In
addition, the two home based shortwave stations could be called upon to provide
auxiliary coverage to listeners in target areas if a relay station out there
was for some reason taken off the air.
Three major organizations were
commissioned to produce site studies for these two new home based international
radio stations: The National Bureau of Standards (WWV), RCA, and the American
Army Signal Corps. Several locations along
the eastern seaboard were given serious consideration as possible sites for the
shortwave station under Project Baker East, and an initial report suggested the
suitability of Puerto Rico, and either Maine or Florida.
A subsequent report in May 1951 settled
upon two suitable options, one in Puerto Rico and the other at Cape Hatteras in
the outer banks of North Carolina.
However at the end of that same year (1951) the Voice of America
announced that the new location for Baker East would be near East Arcadia, 25
miles north east of Wilmington, due mainly to the difficulties in local
logistics at Cape Hatteras in the Outer Banks.
The Wilmington Morning Star of
January 29 in the New Year (1952) announced proudly on its front page that this
new VOA radio station, one of the most powerful in the world, would be located
in Carver’s Creek
township, in Bladen County, on the south side of Highway 87. The federal government had taken out an
option on 4½ square miles, and all 2828 acres had already been procured. The whole project would cost a mighty $7
million.
Work began almost immediately
clearing the afforested area, draining and leveling the land, and carving a
good quality dirt road into the property.
Construction work for the antenna systems began with the pouring of
cement for the base pilings.
Then on January 18, 1953, work came to an abrupt halt on
preliminary site preparation for the big new radio station near East Arcadia at
a summary cost of $460,000.
Meanwhile, similar events were
taking place over on the Pacific coast for the big new station under the Baker
West Project. Initially three sites were
recommended for serious consideration, Seattle in Washington state, Alaska, and
southern California, and it was stated that Seattle would be better than
somewhere in the Los Angeles area.
In December 1951, VOA stated that
their attention had been narrowed down to two possible locations: Copalis on
the Washington coast, a few miles north of the inlet known as North Bay, and
Dungeness Point opposite Victoria on the Canadian Vancouver Island. Ultimately Dungeness was chosen and the
federal government State Department began immediate proceedings to acquire more
than 1,000 acres from a total of thirteen owners, a property a little larger
than the East Arcadia property for Baker East.
Work
began quite quickly in removing buildings and fences, and in clearing and
leveling the land for the big new radio station. Then, at the beginning of the New Year 1953, work on preliminary site preparation
for this big new radio station near Dungeness Point also came to an abrupt
halt, at a summary cost of $350,000.
These
two projected VOA shortwave stations fell victim to the machinations of the
infamous Senator Joseph McCarthy and his now berated Congressional hearings. The twin Projects, Baker East and Baker West
were officially cancelled in March 1953.
So what happened to all of the
procured equipment still in storage? And
what happened to the two transmitter sites that were under active preparation?
Six of the high powered 500 kW
Continental transmitters were later installed at the subsequent and even larger
shortwave station at Greenville South Carolina; two of the 100 kW transmitters
were shipped out to the Philippines and installed at the VOA relay base at Poro
Point; and the remaining units, 2 @ 500 kW and 2 at 100 kW were sold off.
The VOA Baker East property near
East Arcadia was sold off and it is now just open farm land. It is probable that this site can be viewed
on Google Earth at 34 22
04 29 N & 78 21 28 05 W.
The VOA Baker West property at
Dungeness Point was offered for buy back to its original owners, some of whom
accepted the opportunity. Today, part of
this property is in use as an open housing estate, and another part was taken
over as a tourist attraction, the Dungeness Wildlife Refuge. This site can also
be viewed on Google Earth at 48
08 18 19 N & 123 11 08 39 W.
Entrance to this site is
memorialized in the name for the access roadway. This road, running into the northern edge of
the property, is named Voice of America Road, a tribute to what might have
become one of America’s
largest shortwave broadcasting stations.
(AWR-Wavescan/NWS 363-Adrian Peterson)
