WELCOME TO "THE QUIET ZONE."
The Osgood File. Sponsored in part by Auto Owners Insurance, the No Problem People. Visit AutoOwners.Com. This is Charles Osgood.
Did you know there's a big piece of land in the mountains of West Virginia where cell phones are always a no-no?
VO - Richard Schlesinger, CBS News Correspondent - on CBS News Sunday Morning with Charles Osgood
"Here, most gadgets that transmit aren't just unwelcome - they're banned, by the Federal Government - a 13,000 square mile swath of land that in 1958 was declared by the FCC the 'National Radio Quiet Zone.'" (:17)
Our CBS News colleague Richard Schlesinger says if you want to make a call away from home in that zone, you have to use an old-fashioned device called...
VO - Richard Schlesinger
"A pay phone. And it works - it has to." (:03)
( NAT of Coin into Pay Phone )
VO - Richard Schlesinger
"They're very serious about controlling radio transmissions in the Zone." (:04)
What that's all about after this...
((( BREAK )))
Richard Schlesinger, what is this National Radio Quiet Zone all about?
VO - Richard Schlesinger
"The Quiet Zone was set up to protect the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, a very large and very sensitive radio telescope listening for the faintest of signals from space. Ethan Schreier presides over the telescope." (:16)
SOT - Ethan Schreier, with Richard Schlesinger
"(Schreier:) We can see the effects of general relativity by watching pulsars in orbit around other stars or other pulsars. (Schlesinger:) But you can't do that if somebody's on their cell phone. (Schreier:) That's right. It would mess up the signals and make it much harder to study." (:11)
So far, they have managed to limit the radio waves - and that's good for the astronomers, and for a woman named Diane Schou.
VO - Richard Schlesinger
"She moved here from Iowa when she became convinced radio waves were making her sick." (:05)
SOT - Diane Schou, with Richard Schlesinger
"(Schou:) I had hair loss - I had a rash. My vision changed - I couldn't look at bright lights, and it hurt to read. (Schlesinger:) This is all from radio waves? (Schou:) This is all from radio waves." (:08)
VO - Richard Schlesinger
"It's a place where radiophobes and physicists have a common interest. For them, radio-free life is a good life. And it's only possible in the Quiet Zone. (:12)
( NAT / "Twilight Zone" theme - fade under and out )
The Osgood File. Charles Osgood on the CBS Radio Network. |
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