Two men sitting with their backs to the camera in the maintenance shop of Radio Free Europe. The room is packed with machines. The row of equipment in front of the men include power supplies, amplifier, sub-receiver, oscilloscope, transmission control, double power supply. In the front of the photo there is a tape recorder and a non-factory made equipment, probably built by RFE staff. ORIGINAL CAPTION:Radio Free Europe Engineering Maintenance Laboratory, Munich, Germany. RFE maintains a staff of technicians who constantly overhaul and check RFE's radio equipment. Machine in the foreground of picture is an Ampex tape recorder. RFE uses three Ampex machines in each of its 24 studios.

Two Men in Maintenance Engineering Laboratory

Man with headphone and pipe sitting in front of a radio broadcasting equipment in the monitoring room with his back to viewer. The man works on an oscilloscope and wears an old headset coming from the 1940s. On top of the oscilloscope there is a vacuum tube volt meter. On his left there is display board from the 1940s, on his right a frequency generator and an old multi meter on top of it. ORIGINAL CAPTION:n.a.

Man with Headphone and Pipe

Two men in white laboratory gowns stand bending over a row of tape recorders. On the shelves behind them and on the desk in front of them there are stacks of tapes in boxes.ORIGINAL CAPTION:Tape supply

Two Men with Tape Recorders

Man, standing with his back to the viewer, operates a transmission recorder to archive programs. The equipment is old, possibly late 1930s.ORIGINAL CAPTION:At each of RFE's three transmitter sites Holzkirchen (near Munich), Gloria (near Lisbon) and Biblis (near Mannheim) - these special tape recording machines are in constant operation. Part of RFE's licensing agreements with the German Federal Republic and with the Portuguese Government, these machines record every sound transmitted by Radio Free Europe. Official time signals from the two host governments are fed continuously into the tapes, thus making it impossible to alter them in any way. Shortly after the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 RFE sent 5 kilometers of these tapes to Bonn and to the Council of Europe at Strasbourg, where their contents were translated from Hungarian into German and French respectively. Following this, Chancellor Adenauer stated publicly that "the charges against RFE in connection with the Hungarian Revolution are not founded on fact." The Council of Europe came to a similar conclusion.

Man Operating aTransmission Recorder

A man in white shirt and tie operates the control equipment used to check the quality of the transmission received from the towers. He wears an old headset and makes marks on a big sheet of chart. In the photo there is also a a roll of tape, a desk lamp and a telephone. ORIGINAL CAPTIONn.a.

Man Operating a Transmission Control Equipment

A man in white lab gown is sitting in a swivel chair with his back to viewer in front of a wall of control panels of the power supply for the transmission tower. In the photo there is a wooden chair and a desk lamp too. ORIGINAL CAPTION:n.a.

Tower Power Supply Unit

One man is standing at a desk with his profile to the viewer, bending over and writing on a piece of paper. Another is sitting in a swivel chair at the same desk with his back to the viewer, operating a machine. The third is in the background, with his back to viewer, working on a row of transmission recorders.  The recorders in the row are marked Hungarian, Rumanian, Czechoslovak, Polish, Bulgarian. All three men are wearing office clothes. 
ORIGINAL CAPTION:
na

Three Men Working on Transmission Recorders

The control panels at the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty monitoring station at Schleissheim outside of Munich, where  radio and television transmissions from the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe were recorded. In the picture there is a huge wall of equipment operated by a man in casual clothes standing in the background of the tiled floor hall. There is also a clock on the wall and a desk with a swivel chair in the middle of the room.

ORIGINAL CAPTION:
Munich - The control panels at the RFE/RL monitoring station at Schleissheim outside of Munich, where antennas capture radio and television transmissions from the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, feeding the sound to the headquarters building in Munich. Trained monitors keep the Radio's news, research and programming staffs up-to-the-minute on what the opposition is - and is not - saying. A separate section screens this huge input for stories of possible cross-reporting value. Did Radio Bucharest mention Transylvania? Then the Hungarian Service would be interested.

Control Panels at the Monitoring Station of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

Overall view of Master Control at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Studio programs were tape recorded here and relayed to the short-wave transmitters in Spain and Portugal for broadcasting. In the photo there is a man in casual clothing operating a row of wall mounted tape recorders. At the bottom of the tape recorders there are drawers with boxed tapes and sheets of paper with program schedule. At the top, a sign says Hungarian. High up the wall, there is a television set. Cf. HU OSA 300-1-8:1/10, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/11, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/17, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/18, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/124. 
ORIGINAL CAPTION:
Munich - An overall view of Master Control, the technical heart of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Every word, every sound, whether it comes from a studio three meters across the hall, or from Washington, London, Paris or Rome, passes through Master Control, where it is master-taped and relayed to the short-wave transmitters in Spain and Portugal for automatic, instantaneous retransmission into the audience areas of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.

Master Control Room at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

Master Control at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Studio programs were tape recorded here and relayed to the short-wave transmitters in Spain and Portugal for broadcasting. In the photo there is a row of wall mounted tape decks. Above each of the decks there is a sign with the name of the language of the service broadcasts in, and some other technical signs. At the bottom there are sheets of paper with the program schedules. On the far left, a man seen from profile is reading one of the sheets held in his hand. Cf. HU OSA 300-1-8:1/9, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/11, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/17, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/18, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/124. ORIGINAL CAPTION:Munich - The technical heart of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty is Master Control, through which all programming is fed for transmission from West Germany to transmitters in Spain and Portugal for broadcast to the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. This segment shows the Radio Free Europe wing of tape decks with program schedules for each language service attached. (B-5-2).

Three men working at desks and wall mounted row of tape decks with microphones. Above the tape desks, there are signs with the names of the language of each of the services. At the bottom there are program schedules.The men wear office clothes. One of them is standing, bending over the lower part of one of the decks, sorting tapes. The second is standing with his back to the viewer bending over a desk, the third is sitting at a desk with his back to the viewer. There is a telephone, a chair, a clock reading 11 o'clock Greenwich time, and a painting. Cf. HU OSA 300-1-8:1/10, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/9, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/17, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/18, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/124. 
ORIGINAL CAPTION:
N.a.

The monitoring station where Czech broadcasts are monitored. Three men, seen from side and back, in office clothes sit at desks with tape recorders and typewriters on them. The men wear headphones and operate the machines. There are maps on the wall. Cf. HU OSA 300-1-8:1/32, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/33.
ORIGINAL CAPTION:
M-240. Czech Monitors. RFE listens daily to 40 communist radio stations broadcasting in seven languages.

The Station of Czech Monitoring at Radio Free Europe

A man in white laboratory gown and wearing a headset is standing with his side to viewer, operating a row of tape decks. In the room there is also a telephone and a window looking on to a garden.
ORIGINAL CAPTION:
n.a

Man Operating a Row of Tape Decks

The photo is taken from above. Three men in office clothes wearing headsets are sitting at a row of monitoring stations. They are working on large sheets of charts are using a bunch of pencils, probably of different colors. A fourth man in laboratory gown is sitting at a desk and works on a large sheet with a ruler. There are more charts on the wall, and desk lamps on top of the stations, and a typewriter on a side table. The photo is a zoom-out of photograph 300-1-8:1/5
ORIGINAL CAPTION:
Radio Free Europe's Special Technical Monitoring Section, Munich, West Germany. This monitor makes a complete sweep of three shortwave bands in thirty minutes out of every hour recording the frequency, language, time of day and station of every broadcaster. The subsequent chart is used to plot broadcast channels and to locate free channels.

Control Receiver Stations at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

​<span style="color: rgb(92, 104, 115); font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, BlinkMacSystemFont, &quot;Segoe UI&quot;, Roboto, &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; display: inline !important; float: none;">Busy Central News Room with people working, and fax machines, telephones, typewriters, papers, stationary. On the far wall there is calendar and a clipboard.&nbsp;The same shot, in a cropped version is at HU OSA 300-1-8:1/51.&nbsp; Related images: HU OSA 300-1-8/1:35, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/45, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/46,HU OSA 300-1-8:1/47, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/48, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/49, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/50, HU OSA 300-1-8: 1/51, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/52, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/55, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/65, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/66.&nbsp;&nbsp;ORIGINAL CAPTION: n.a.

Central News Room at Radio Free Europe, Munich

One man, wearing a dark suit, is standing, he has a telephone in one hand, and is reading from a bunch of stapled papers hanging from his other hand. The other man, wearing a white shirt, is sitting at a desk, reading a paper which looks like a telex. In the office there are a few broadcasting and/or monitoring equipment with rolls of tape, a telephone, a record player, a calendar on the wall, curtained window. 
ORIGINAL CAPTION:
n.a.

Editorial Office in Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

Two men are sitting with their backs to the viewer in the Master Control Room. They are wearing suits. One of them is on the phone, the other is writing on a piece of paper held on his lap. In the room there is a wall-size switchboard, an audio mixer as well as several other pieces of machinery, telephones, clocks with New York and Munich time, chairs, waste basket. 
Cf. HU OSA 300-1-8:1/10, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/11, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/9, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/18, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/124. 
ORIGINAL CAPTION:
The Master Control Room at Radio Free Europe's headquarters in Munich, West Germany. RFE sends undistorted news and information to the Iron Curtain countries of Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria.

The Master Control Room at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

A man is sitting with his side to the viewer in the Master Control Room. He is wearing casual clothes. He is on the phone and switching buttons on the dashboard in front of him. In the room there is a wall-size switchboard as well as several other pieces of machinery,  telephones, chairs, sheets of paper. 
Cf. HU OSA 300-1-8:1/10, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/11, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/17, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/9, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/124. 
ORIGINAL CAPTION:
na

Two high capacity computers, one of them serves the Central News Room the other handles financial and administrative data. The machines are housed in a special air-conditioned room and guarded around the clock. In the picture there are two men clad casually. One of them is sitting at a type writer, the other is standing by a machine. There is another large electric typewriter with perforated computer paper, and a security mirror high up at the door of the security post. A few sheets of paper are pinned on the wall. Industrial lights at ceiling level. Cf. HU OSA 300-1-8:1/21.

ORIGINAL CAPTION:
Munich - Increased efficiency at lower cost is the major aim of technological investment at RFE/RL headquarters at Munich. One striking example is the newly-installed data processing center. Last October RFE/RL procured two new computers replacing the older model used by the Radio for the previous six years. The new models are Digital Equipment Corp. Model PDP 11 series, with combined processing capacity of one million characters, a 4,200 per cent increase over the previous capacity of 24,000 characters. One computer is assigned to the Central Newsroom word processing system and the other handles financial and administrative data. They are housed together in a newly-furnished, air-conditioned room within view of a security post manned 24 hours daily. Expansion into full word processing for other departments and an international data communications network is planned as soon as funds are appropriated.

Data Processing Center at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

In the photo there is a huge desk-size power supply control panel as well as a wall-mounted meter station. Two men, wearing laboratory gowns, work in the room, one is sitting at the control panel, writing in a book and smoking, the other is standing at the meter station, reading the meters. There is a telephone and an ashtray on a telephone table, and half of a clock is seen high up on the wall.
ORIGINAL CAPTION:
n.a.

Desk-Size Power Supply Control Panel and Wall Mounted Meter Station

Two high capacity computers, one serves the Central News Room and the other handles financial and administrative data. The machines are housed in a special air-conditioned room and watched around the clock. In the picture a man wearing a suit is standing by one of the machines and opens its door. There is one large electric typewriter with perforated computer paper. The window overlooks the inner courtyard. There are industrial lights fixed on the ceiling. Cf HU OSA 300-1-8:1/19.

ORIGINAL CAPTION:
Munich - Increased efficiency at lower cost is the major aim of technological investment at RFE/RL headquarters at Munich. One striking example is the newly-installed data processing center. Last October RFE/RL procured two new computers replacing the older model used by the Radio for the previous six years. The new models are Digital Equipment Corp. Model PDP 11 series, with combined processing capacity of one million characters, a 4,200 per cent increase over the previous capacity of 24,000 characters. One computer is assigned to the Central Newsroom word processing system and the other handles financial and administrative data. They are housed together in a newly-furnished, air-conditioned room within view of a security post manned 24 hours daily. Expansion into full word processing for other departments and an international data communications network is planned as soon as funds are appropriated.

Four men in laboratory gowns work in the repair shop. Three of them are sitting at the central work bench, the fourth is in the back of the room. In the photo there are tape recorders, a big Ampax recorder, a power supply, and other monitoring or broadcasting equipment. The photo was taken from above. 

ORIGINAL CAPTION:
n.a.

Repair Shop at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

Two men work on Ampex tape recorders in the Control Studio. One of them is sitting at an audio mixer, his hands are on buttons, the other is standing by the tape recorder. Both wear suits and are shot with their backs to the viewer. There is a telephone and and ashtray on a side table.
ORIGINAL CAPTION:
Control Studio work includes correct level adjustment and speedy "cutting" and splicing of tapes on the Ampex recorders.

Ampex Taper Recorder in the Control Studio at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

Desk-top and wall mounted control panels. A man in office cloth is sitting in front of the desk and reading papers clipped on a board. The clock in the panel reads one minute to five. Above two of the wall-mounted control panels there are signs reading 5 and 6. There is an all-call microphone and an ashtray on the desk.

ORIGINAL CAPTION:
n.a.

Control Panels at the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

Rolf Spaeth, German engineer in charge of RFE's Schleissheim receiving station outside of Munich is standing in front of a row of ceiling high receivers, and is working on one of them. The station served to monitor radio stations and programs of Communist countries as well to maintain radio contact between the Munich headquarters and its New York office. The photo and the original caption was produced by the Public Affairs Department.  Cf. HU OSA 300-1-8:1/26.

ORIGINAL CAPTION:
Radio Free Europe, 1 English Garden, Munich, West Germany, Phone 22-99-21. Rolf Spaeth, German engineer in charge of RFE's Schleissheim receiving station outside of Munich. Two of these stations with extensive antenna fields are engaged in continuous monitoring of major communist outgoing news service and 40 communist home radio stations. They also maintain voice and radio contact between RFE's Munich headquarters and its New York office. Public Affairs Department.

Engineer Rolf Spaeth in the Schleissheim Receiving Station of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

Rolf Spaeth, German engineer in charge of RFE's Schleissheim receiving station outside of Munich is bending over a desk-top control panel. Another man is standing in front of a row of ceiling high  equipment. Both men are wearing office cloths. On a shelf there is a typewriter connected to control switches. Cables are hanging on a hook. A metal container filled with strips of paper is on the floor. The station served to monitor radio stations and programs of Communist countries as well to maintain radio contact between the Munich headquarters and its New York office. Cf. HU OSA 300-1-8:1/25.
ORIGINAL CAPTION:
na

Engineer Rolf Spaeth in Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Receiving Station in Schleissheim

In the shop of the Engineering Maintenance Section, Bernhard Peter repairs the monitor of a computer used in the Central News Room. Peter, wearing a laboratory gown, is sitting at a bench. On the left side of the photo there is a soldering rod and a stabilized power supply on top of the white office drawers, and a small oscilloscope on the shelf in the background. There is a telephone, overhead lamps, tall cupboards with small drawers for electronic spare parts and some other equipment to be repaired. Cf. HU OSA 300-1-8:1/28, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/29.
ORIGINAL CAPTION:
Munich - The Engineering Maintenance Section of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty repairs and re-installs all electronic equipment, including that in the ever-expanding area of computers. Here Bernhard Peter works on one of the computer visual display terminals from the Central News Room.

The Engineering Maintenance Section of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

In the Engineering Maintenance Section shop Michael Geppert checks a repaired tape recorder before returning it to duty. Geppert is wearing casual clothes and is sitting in front of a bench with a tape recorder, either Ampex or Studer, and control instruments on it, cables hanging out of them. In the bottom right corner of the photo there is a frequency generator and oscillator. In the background more equipment, rolls of tape, books and brochures are seen. There is an overhead lamp and a clock reading 3:45. Cf.HU OSA 300-1-8:1/27, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/29

ORIGINAL CAPTION:

Munich - The Engineering Maintenance Section of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty repairs and reinstalls all electric and electronic equipment, including that in the ever-expanding area of computers. Here Michael Geppert checks a repaired tape recorder before returning it to duty.

In the shop of the Engineering Maintenance Section, Bernhard Peter repairs the monitor of a computer used in the Central News Room. Peter, wearing a laboratory gown, is sitting at a bench. We see the inside of the monitor, a circuit panel on the bench and an oscilloscope on a shelf. Cf. HU OSA 300-1-8:1/27, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/28.
ORIGINAL CAPTION:
Munich - The Engineering Maintenance Section of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty repairs and re-installs all electronic equipment, including that in the ever-expanding area of computers. Here Bernhard Peter works on one of the computer visual display terminals from the Central News Room.

A man in laboratory gown is standing in front of a huge power supply repairing it with a screwdriver.  

ORIGINAL CAPTION:
na

Repairing a Power Supply

Jutta Hillmayer, wearing casual clothes, is working at a row of tape recorders in the Audio Section at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, where news from other broadcasters are taped and edited for use of RFE programs. There are stacks of Scotch 3M tapes on top of the machines, and pieces of tapes on the floor which were discarded after editing. In the corner high up on the wall there is a speaker, and a picture of a soldier . 

ORIGINAL CAPTION:
Munich - The Audio Section at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty collects, edits and distributes taped actualities that the 21 different language desks can use in panorama and news programs. Here Jutta Hillmayer takes an incoming circuit from Washington and New York, providing sound cuts from breaking stories throughout the United States.

The Audio Section at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

The monitoring of Czech radio broadcasts. Three men in office clothes are sitting at tape recorders listening and typing the transcripts of Czech radio broadcasts. They are wearing headsets and using electric typewriters. The office window overlooks another wing of the building. In the upper left corner of the photo there is a fragment of a map. Cf. HU OSA 300-1-8:1/12, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/3-.
ORIGINAL CAPTION:
M-241 Czech Monitors. RFE listens daily to 40 communist radio stations broadcasting in seven languages.

Czech Monitoring at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

The monitoring of Czech radio broadcasting. Two men in office clothes are sitting at tape recorders listening the Czech radio broadcasts and typing the transcripts. They are wearing headsets and using electric typewriters. On the desk of one of them there is a newspaper and a notepad. C.f.HU OSA 300-1-8:1/12, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/32.
ORIGINAL CAPTION:
M-219 Monitoring the East: Monitors at Radio Free Europe in Munich keep a constant check on what the communist radios of Eastern Europe are saying.

An elderly man at work in the corner of an office. He wears office clothes and is writing on a typewriter. He is looking into the camera smiling. There are newspapers, hand and type written as well as blank pages scattered on a desk. 
ORIGINAL CAPTION: n.a.

RESEARCH BASED DESCRIPTION:
The odd one in the collection. This is one of the rare, if not only, photos in which we see a smile. All the other men – and the few women – in the rest of the photos documenting – or rather propagating – work at Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty are earnest, tense, focused on their work, be it reading documents, listening to broadcasts or repairing some equipment. In contrast to this man, they never even look into the camera, do not interrupt for the sake of the photo whatever very important job they are doing. While the setting is the same – this man is at work on a typewriter, newspapers and other documents scattered all over his desk – no other picture has this kind of easygoing, almost intimate atmosphere, this moment of break from work, of looking up and turning a friendly face. One wonders if this photo is  included only by mistake in the collection.

Old Man with Typewriter

Two men in office clothes are sitting at desks in an editorial office. One of them is typing, the other is reading a newspaper. In the photo there are telephones, newspapers and type written pages scattered around, pens, pencils, and a mug on the desks. Cf. HU OSA 300-1-8:1/36, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/45, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/46,HU OSA 300-1-8:1/47, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/48, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/49, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/50, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/51, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/52, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/55, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/65, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/66.

ORIGINAL CAPTION:
n.a.

Central News Room

Three men in the news room. All of them wear office clothes. The one in the front of the photo is standing and reading bending over a row of telex stands. The other two are in the background, one sitting, one standing, discussing. In the background there are pigeon holes, and notes pinned on the wall. One of the telex stands has a chart taped on its wall. Cf. HU OSA 300-1-8/1:35, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/45, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/46,HU OSA 300-1-8:1/47, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/48, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/49, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/50, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/51, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/52, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/55, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/65, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/66.

ORIGINAL CAPTION:
n.a.

News Room at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

A man wearing office clothes is reading at a desk. In front of him there is a telephone, to his right a row of machines with long sheets of computer paper coming out of them. 
ORIGINAL CAPTION:
n.a.

Man Reading at Desk

A man sitting at a desk is listening to recorded broadcasts and transcribes them. He is wearing a suit, headphones. He is using a typewriter. In front of him there is a tall tape deck with oscilloscope, a radio and a control device.  
ORIGINAL CAPTION:
n.a.

Monitoring at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

A man sitting at a desk is listening to recorded broadcasts and transcribes them. He is wearing casual clothes, headphones. He is using a typewriter. In front of him there is a tall tape deck with oscilloscope and a control device. On the desk there is stack of papers, a pen, on the other side a reading lamp. 
ORIGINAL CAPTION:
n.a.

The shoulders and the back of the head of a man wearing an office shirt and headphones is seen. There is a typewriter in front of him and a portable tape recorder next to the typewriter. The room is quite dark, only one reading lamp is on, another one is off.

ORIGINAL CAPTION:
n.a.

Transcribing Recordings at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

Shoulders and back of the head of a man wearing a headset and office clothes, and typing. On the desk in front of him there is a portable tape recorder and another typewriter. On the wall there is a map of Czechoslovakia, an Orifon intercom box and a row of clipboards with papers clipped on, as well as loose papers.
ORIGINAL CAPTION:
n.a.

Close up of a man wearing office clothes and a headset, looking to his left. There is a typewriter in front of him, and the blurred figure of a woman behind him.
ORIGINAL CAPTION:
n.a.

Bespectacled Man Watching Attentively

A man, facing the viewer, is typing at a desk. He has a headset on, wears office clothes. Two portable tape recorders, partially visible, are in front of the typewriter. Behind the man the window overlooks greenery. 
ORIGINAL CAPTION:
n.a.

A man, wearing a headset and office clothes, is sitting at a tall tape recorder and is typing the recorded program. He is photographed from below.  
ORIGINAL CAPTION:
Monitoring Communist Broadcasts.

Broadcast Monitoring

Busy news room with seven men and one woman working in office clothes. There are work stations along the walls, with typewriters. In the middle of the room there are two aisles of telex machines with long papers hanging out of them, a cart, a wooden box stacked with pages, and a basket underneath it with rolls of paper. Lots of pages pinned up on the walls. On the far wall there is a world map and a clock reading 5 minutes to 4. Cf. HU OSA 300-1-8/1:35, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/36, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/46,HU OSA 300-1-8:1/47, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/48, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/49, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/50, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/51, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/52, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/55, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/65, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/66.
ORIGINAL CAPTION: n.a.

RESEARCH BASED DESCRIPTION:
In her PhD dissertation, Susan Haas writes that similarly to other Western news organizations, RFE was almost entirely male, even as late as in the 1980s. Moreover, women were typically typists, and very few made to editor. The general atmosphere is remembered by a one-time employee of RFE: “[Another] New Zealander we had was a lovely, lovely gal, good and competent. But the thing was, she wore miniskirts, and when I was in my office next to the newsroom, I would always know when she reached over to get a piece of copy. All the typewriters stopped. That’s how I knew that she was active in the newsroom. She stayed six to eight months. She was moving her way through Europe. When the typewriters went silent, I used to say to myself, ‘Christ, she’s in there!’
Going through the first 50 or so Rolodex cards carrying the photo of and some basic information on RFE employees (names A to C), such as date of hiring and job/position, one finds that out of 54 persons a mere 12 were women, though with quite varying ranks. 
However, the way RFE is (re)presented in this photo and the rest of the series, the radio seems to have been a pure macho world where only men do important things worth photographing: in the first 50 images of Box 1 (housing 125 photos), there are as few as 9 women in contrast to 107 men. These women, but for one, are unimportant tiny figures in the background. All 116 are white. It is the 70th photo (HU OSA 300-1-8:1/70) where the first (and only) black man appears – incidentally, the other person in the picture is a woman.

Overall View of the Central News Room

A busy news room crammed with computers, desks, typewriters, sheets of paper. On the left hand side, there is a tall filing cabinet, and in the far end of the room a bookshelf and a clock on the wall reading 10 minutes to 4. The room is lit with ceiling mounted lights. Six men and a woman are at work. Cf. HU OSA 300-1-8/1:35, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/36, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/45,HU OSA 300-1-8:1/47, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/48, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/49, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/50, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/51, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/52, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/55, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/65, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/66.
ORIGINAL CAPTION:
An overall view of the Central News Room at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Central News is an internal news agency serving as clients the news desks of the 21 different language services within the radio. The news room takes in more than a million-and-a-half words every 24 hours from Western and Eastern news agencies, its own bureaus in major capitals of the world, Eastern radio and television. Editors boil this huge flow down into a running file of just over 100,000 words daily that move out to the 21 news desks on two in-house internal wires around the clock.

Busy news room with lots of equipment and machinery including typewriters, telephones, faxes, desks, stationary, mug, ashtray. Four men read papers at the big central desk, two more are in the background. The men wear office clothes. There are two women working in the room. On the wall there is a clock reading 25 minutes past 2, and bunches of papers hanging from hooks. Cf. HU OSA 300-1-8/1:35, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/45, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/46,HU OSA 300-1-8:1/36, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/48, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/49, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/50, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/51, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/52, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/55, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/65, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/66.

ORIGINAL CAPTION:
Central News Room

Close-up of the center part of the Central News Room. Four men work around the desks, three more are conversing in the background. One person is working by the window. There are telephones, a wire filing tray, ashtray, and lots of paper on the desk. The clock on the wall reads 25 minutes to 3. Cf. HU OSA 300-1-8/1:35, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/45, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/46,HU OSA 300-1-8:1/47, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/36, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/49, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/50, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/51, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/52, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/55, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/65, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/66.
ORIGINAL CAPTION:
Central News Room

Busy news room with typewriters, telephones, faxes, sheets of papers all over. Four men in the center are reading and marking various kinds of papers. One man in the background is looking over at them, another looks inside a machine, one is walking towards the center, and one is passing by the window. One woman is checking a shelf, another is reading a paper. There are bunches of paper pinned on the wall, the clock reads 25 minutes to 3. Cf. HU OSA 300-1-8/1:35, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/45, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/46,HU OSA 300-1-8:1/47, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/48, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/36, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/50, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/51, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/52, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/55, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/65, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/66.
ORIGINAL CAPTION:
Central News Room

Busy news room with five men reading and discussing over sheets of papers and one woman arranging files. They all wear office clothes. In the middle of the photograph there are two aisles of telex machines with long papers hanging out of them, and two carts. On the wall there are bunches of papers hanging from hooks, in front of them a tall filing cabinet. Three clocks on the wall show the Moscow, Munich and New York times. On the desk in the front of the picture there are telephones, sheets of paper, a stack of books, a headset, stationary.  Cf. HU OSA 300-1-8/1:35, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/45, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/46,HU OSA 300-1-8:1/47, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/48, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/49, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/36, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/51, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/52, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/55, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/65, HU OSA 300-1-8:1/66. 
ORIGINAL CAPTION:
n.a.