Good Aftermorevening

"Good morning . . . good afternoon . . . good evening--depending on where we find you at this moment. Over here in London, it's just after tea time, for many of you in the States it's time for lunch--and in California you will just have finished your breakfast."

This refreshing change from the usual radio salutation prefaced a joint NBC-BBC venture called Atlantic Spotlight, a foretaste of postwar radio entertainment. The half-hour variety show (NBC, Sat., 12:30-1 p.m., E.W.T.), which opened a fortnight ago for an indefinite run, was performed and broadcast simultaneously from London and Manhattan.

The opening show set the pattern for the series: two masters-of-ceremonies (Cinemactress Anna Neagle in London, Actor Philip Merivale in Manhattan); two orchestras (Glenn Miller's A.A.F.T.C. band and the London Fire Service Orchestra) ; British comedians Flanagan & Allen v. U.S. comic Red Skelton; Irving Berlin from Bristol, etc.

With the two M.C.s bantering back & forth, the show sounded as if it came from somewhere in mid-Atlantic. The result was pleasantly calculated to pursue the program's purpose: "to make us all come to know one another better."

If Atlantic Spotlight can get and hold its audience, it has only one enemy to fear: sunspots. The show has to cross the Atlantic by short wave, which needs clear electronic weather.

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