NBC TRANSMITTER
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2 NBC TRANSMITTER
DAVID SARNOFF TELEVISION
RCA Laboratories Noran E Kersta
David Sarnoff, President of RCAand Chairman of the Board of
NBC, was given a party by his
friends on February 27 th—the
occasion, his fiftieth birthday.
One week later, Mr. Sarnoff an-nounced that the world’s largest
radio research laboratories will bebuilt by the Radio Corporation of
America, at Princeton, N. J. It will
be known as “RCA Laboratories,”and will be the headquarters for all
research and original developmentwork of RCA, and for its patentand licensing activities. The neworganization is planned to promotethe growth of radio as an art andindustry, and to meet the expand-ing demands of national defense.
A further purpose, Mr. Sarnoffsaid, will be to facilitate the crea-
tion and development of new radio
products and services which will
provide new business and new em-ployment for the post-war period.
Under the impetus of emergenciesintensive research creates new in-
strumentalities, and further re-
search and development are neces-sary to adapt them to use by thepublic.
“To equip our research staff
with the best and most modernfacilities and conveniences, wehave purchased a large tract of
land at Princeton,” said Mr. Sarn-off, “upon which we will erect a
laboratory building which will in-
clude a lecture auditorium and thecombined technical and patentlibraries of the RCA organization.
We hope to have the build'ng com-pleted before the end of this year.
“We believe that this steprriarks a milestone in the progressof radio. Such important fields as
television, facsimile, electron op-tics, wave propagation and ultra-
high frequencies open to radio a
future even greater than its past.
The developments in these fields
will contribute to the creation of
new industries and to the improve-ment of existing services.
“More and more of our researchwork is being concentrated onproblems of national defense. Thenew RCA Laboratories will makeit possible to increase these efforts
and to insure the maximum use of
our research facilities for defense.“The achievements of modern
radio,” continued Mr. Sarnoff, “are
also capable of increasing and im-proving our industrial output in
many lines. By the application of
electronic devices to industrial
processes the Radio Age promisesto electronize modern industry,
just as the application of electrical
devices to industry at the begin-
ning of this century created the
Electrical Age.“By the establishment of the
new laboratories radio quickens its
pace alongside the older industries
—electrical, steel, automobile,wire communications, chemical,metallurgical and others—which,through research, have contributedto the industrial leadership andprogress of this country. It is
through invention and the oracti-
cal applications of research that
American ingenuity has raised the
standards of living in the UnitedStates above those of any othernation.
“No new industry in the history
of this country has made greater
strides than radio, or contributedmore extensive benefits to peoplein all walks of life,” said Mr. Sarn-
off. “Research, which has enabledAmerican industry to develop newproducts, new services and newemployment, has also been the
greatest factor in the continuingadvancement of radio.”
Since the first of the year, theNational Broadcasting Companyhas continued transmitting sport-
ing events from the MadisonSquare Carden and other arenas in
the area, two or three times a
week. Among these sporting
events were basketball, hockey,boxing, wrestling and track meets.Of most importance was a series
of six indoor track meets from theMadison Square Carden ending upwith the K. of C. track meet onSaturday, March 8th. Two otheroutstanding events televised werethe finals of the Golden GlovesBoxing Tournament, and the Tour-nament of Champions from theCarden.
On January 24th, a demonstra-tion was given to the FCC. For thefirst time, the RCA-NBC demon-strated home projection type re-
ceivers with viewing screens13V2x 18 inches. Also, it was theoccasion of the longest radio relay
pick-up of a television program onrecord. The mobile television pick-
up units were stationed at CampUpton, Long Island, where scenesof army life and induction of
selectees were picked up and re-
layed by three radio links to ourEmpire State transmitter. This wasa radio relay path of 62 miles. Theradio relays were developed as a
means of networking television
programs from city to city.
Part of the demonstration pro-
gram was witnessed in the NewYorker Theater on a movie size
screen 15x20 feet. All those whoattended the demonstration ex-
pressed complete satisfaction andsurprise with the results achievedin large-screen television projec-
tion. This demonstration was part
of a study of the television situa-
tion, conducted by the FCC at that
time, prior to hearings which wereheld on March 20th. One of the
issues discussed at these hearings
was the commercial possibilities of
television for the near future. Thetelevision industry is now looking
to the FCC for the new regulations
which will incorporate the Com-mission’s decisions on the prob-
lems of standardization and com-mercialization.
MARCH. 1941 3
PRODUCTION^ CLARENCE L MENSER
Realignment National Production Director
A realignment of the NBC Pro-
gram Department was announcedby Sidney Strotz, vice president in
charge of programs, in which sep-
arate managers were appointed for
the Red and Blue Networks oper-
ated by the Company.Phillips Carlin, former sustain-
ing program manager, was ap-
pointed to head the Red Network,and William Hillpot, formerly of
the Artists Service, was appointedBlue Network program manager.This places both commercial andsustaining activities of each net-
work under one head.Strotz also announced the crea-
tion of a new Program and Talent
Sales Division of the Program De-partment which will include the
personnel transferred to this newdivision from the NBC Artists Ser-
vice. Miss Bertha Brainard, form-erly manager of the CommercialProgram Division of the ProgramDepartment, becomes manager of
this new division.
The New York Production Divi-
sion has been expanded. WilfredRoberts continues as manager andis responsible for the New Yorkcontinuity, announcing and soundeffects sections. Lewis Titterton,
manager continuity section; Pat-
rick Kelly, manager announcingsection; and N. Ray Kelly, managersound effects, report to Roberts.
New York Production additions
include William Wilgus who hasbeen associated with outstandingorchestras and is a new popularmusic director. Charles Schenck,with radio since 1928, comes to
us from Chicago, as does Bruce( Prof. Kaltenmeyer) Kamman. RayBuffem is from Oklahoma City.
Jack Meakin from Frisco handlesmusical shows. Anton Leader, dra-
matic director, was ProductionManager of WMCA. Eddie Dun-ham does the Tommy Dorsey andFirestone programs and spends therest of his time in the Music Divi-
sion.
Mary Kennedy, secretary to theProduction Manager, is leaving
NBC to devote full time to herhome. We wish her every happi-ness. Helen Sweeney, formerlysecretary to Mr. Titterton, takesover her duties.
Clarence L. Menser has becomeNBC’s first National ProductionDirector supervising and coordinat-ing the work of all network pro-
grams, including those at the di-
vision offices (New York, Chicago,Hollywood) and on M & O sta-
tions. Mr. Menser is not new to
NBC, but in view of the impor-tance of his work we think anotherlook at the record is in order.
Mr. Menser was Professor of
Speech at the University of Utahand was closely associated with thework of the theatre there. He later
went to Knox College and estab-lished one of the first Departmentsof Drama in an American College.
The year 1929 he spent in Europestudying the theatre.
PRODUCTION AT 711
When he returned to New York,John Royal brought him into RadioCity as a dramatic director. In this
position he launched a number of
highly successful shows. Amongthe most interesting of his pro-grams was the Miniature Theatre.One of the very first network half
hour dramatic shows, it featuredsuch prominent stage players as
Otis Skinner and Basil Rathbone.He also supervised and collaboratedin the original presentations of
The Goldbergs.
CHICAGO MANAGEMENT
As a reward for his success in
New York, Mr. Royal sent him to
Ghicago to take charge of produc-tion in that division. The resultswere impressive. During the periodthat he served as Production Man-ager of the Gentral Division someof the finest radio players were de-veloped, a considerable series of
successful coast to coast showswere built and Chicago becamemore and more a vital contributorto the networks.
Don Ameche, Raymond EdwardJohnson, Allan Joslyn, ChicagoScript Head Bill Cooper, writerArch Oboler, and among programsVic and Sade, Mary Marlin, IreneRich and Lights Out are but a fewof the names associated with Mr.Menser’s administration.
As an experiment, in May of
last year, Mr. Menser held a daily
class in radio for the period of a
month. It is ample testimony to his
rating with his associates thatmany of the busiest and best es-
tablished artists on the air made a
point of enrolling and attendingthe class despite their exactingschedules.
Before returning to Radio Cityin his present capacity, Mr. Menserwas Manager of the Chicago officeof the Gardner Advertising Gom-pany. He recently returned from atrip to Australia, New Zealand,Honolulu, Tahiti and the South SeaIslands. In the course of his travels
he had occasion to meet all theimportant figures in radio in thatpart of the world. While in Aus-tralia he was entertained by Sir
George Beebe, Chief Justice of theAustralian Court of Arbitration.
Mr. Menser’s work marks an in-
teresting advance in the broadcast-ing industry. The overall planningand coordination of every produc-tion point is designed to producesmoother programming and greaterbenefits to the listening public.The problems of broadcasting in
times of national emergency are
and will continue to be demandingones. The National Broadcasting
Company is proving its fitness andability to function under the mostexacting conditions by lining upits divisions and departments into
an efficient and responsive unit.
4 NBC TRANSMITTER
NAMES I N T H E NEWSRadio City
Juan de jara Almonte has beennamed Night Program Manager of
NBC. Mr. Almonte has long beena gracious host to the distinguished
guests who have visited RadioCity.
Gilbert Martyn has been ap-
pointed to head the announcingschool conducted by NBC accord-ing to Pat Kelly, Supervisor of An-nouncers. Martyn succeeds DanRussell who resigned to becomeassoc i a ted w i th Pan-AmericanGrace Company. Martyn, memberof the New York announcing staff,
has as his assignment the training
of NBC’s future announcers, andtakes over his new duties with a
formidable background 'n the edu-
cational field supplementing his
A.B. and M.A. degrees with a
course at Columbia University
leading to the degree of Doctor of
Philosophy.He is also director of the newly
organized Inter-College Facultyand Student discussion groupwhich embraces colleges of sevenstates, the purpose of which will
be to afford opportunities to mem-bers of the groups to exchangevisits with the respective colleges
and to air their views on modernday education in relation to its ef-
fect on economic developments in
the future.
Hudson Hawley, news editor of
the International Division, andFernand Auberjonois, chief of its
French section were due to appearbefore the members of the HonorsCollege of Wesleyan University,
Middletown, Connecticut, onWednesday, March 26, to tell of
the Division’s work in shortwavebroadcasting of news and opinion.
In late January. Mr. Hawley spokebefore the Faculty DiscussionCroup of Connecticut College,
New London, Connecticut, on free-
dom of radio and the press, andlater before two classes of stu-
dents at that institution on Inter-
national’s personnel and problems.On April 8, he is due to addressthe Bronxville, N. Y. Post, Ameri-can Legion, again on NBC’s “Towerof Babel.’’
Mr. Franklin Butler, graduate of
Dartmouth, AB, and the University
of Michigan Law School, LLB, has
GILBERT MARTYN
recently been added to the legal
staff, replacing Henry Howard, Jr.
resigned. Mr. Butler studied in theSorbonne in France and has beenadmitted to practice in the State
of New York.
Mr. E. Gardner Prime resumedwork as a member of the NewYork Legal Department on Mon-day, January 6th.
Marks Levine, NBC ConcertService, returned Monday, March3rd following a long and serious
illness.
Married: Janet Fitch (Con-tinuity Acceptance) to Edwin C.
Beal, Jr., October 5. Mr. Beal is
struggling for a Ph.D. in Far East-
ern studies at Columbia University,
after several years of teaching in
Japan and China. Graduate of OhioWesleyan University, member of
Phi Kappa Psi.
Miss Ann Morgan has been en-
gaged as Secretary-Stenographer to
Mr. A. L. Ashby, Vice President
and General Counsel. Miss Olive
E. Binz, who was temporarily
assisting in that capacity, is pres-
ently acting as Secretary to Mr. E.
Gardner Prime.Mr. Everett K. Deane, Columbia
College, ’39, has been engaged as
law clerk. Mr. Deane is a secondyear student at the New York LawSchool.
Robert “Bob” Baldwin, assistant
to Harold E. Bisson, Manager of
(CONTINUED ON SEVEN)
th tranzmiter, atenshun editer.
deer ed,
you probly think that i am stukbak heer in th infermashun divi-
shun wachin over my milyuns anall an sort uv out uv tuch withgoinz-on aroun guess relashuns anth male rum. well, such iz not th
case, so, bizzy as i am, ill relate
sum uv the stuf ive herd brootedabowt.
for th benifit uv thoze uv yoo-hoo seldum get into th offis sek-shun, its reely not so bad, wattwith beootiful blons wawkin arounan coca-cola masheens an all. uvcorse we dont hav ar-condishunmg,but i ges yoo cant hav evrythin.
well, as i started to say befor i
inerupted myself, an awful lot hashappend lately, flash! a comuni-kay frum th hi coman sez that doto th increest yoos uv metal by th
guverment, all bras buttins on uni-
forms will be replayst by lether
ones, unflash.
heer we go. amung thoze hoohav discarded there uniforms anwill hav to ware out there owncloze frum now on ar TOM (great-
stuff) DE HUFF, hoo haz gawn upinto saylz promoshun. th utherday he calld down to see if wenew watt size elephant cud be puton th rapper uv a candy bar. it
makz yoo wunder watt they spenthere time doin up stares. EDNELSON will now x-cept continuity
frum eny one hoo haz eny. HARRYBLACK iz in script, so if yoo haveny complaynts, see him. GEORGEWALLACE, hoo yoost to beet pee-
pil off with a club on the g.r. con-
trol desk, is now up in saylz selling
spotz an locals, wattevr that
meens. taking his place on th deskis JACK NEHER, hoo haz discarded
th club idea, he will now shoot onsite enyone hoo asks for a tikit.
JOHN KENNEDY, manestay on th
mez desk for nye on sixteen yeers,
left it for teknikul servis, wich iz a
fancy name for enjineering, i ges.
frum the male rum ELDRIDCEPACKHAM jumpt aroun like oneuv thoze mexican beens, firs to th
muszik divishun then up to muziklibry. heerz a hot one: BILLORANGE replacez JOE JENKINSin genrul servis, hoo replacez JACKLEONHARDT, hoo resined,az asis-
tent pos-master genrul with GENEKENNEDY in th male rum. phew!JIM GUIDER haz taken up rezi-
dense in the awditing dept, he al-
(KONTINYOOD ON SICKS)
MARCH. 1941 5
SKI_PARTY
in the Poconos
LET'S GETACQUAINTED
A total of 58 skiers left NewYork early Saturday morning in 15
private cars, arriving at the Lodgefor lunch. At lunch, arrangementswere made for 21 beginners
to take professional instruction.
About 25 others were taken onnovice trails by Mr. Coodale in
Television and Mr. Jack Melville
—
a personal friend of Mr. GlennPayne’s who volunteered his ser-
vices. The rest went off by them-selves or to Buck Hill Falls wherethere were steeper slopes and a
tow.
There were added attractions of
tobogganing and ice skating to
keep the group outdoors. Thetoboggan slide caused quite a bit
of excitement since it consisted
of solidly packed ice—500 feet
long. A few took advantage of the
opportunity to go dog-sledding.
After dinner on Saturday there
were horse races followed by danc-ing to recordings. Some preferred
to go outside to a village squaredance which was quite a treat.
However, for a Saturday night, it
was pretty much like the night be-
fore Xmas—most everybody wasso tired that long before midnight“not a creature was stirring, noteven a mouse.’’
The stock joke told was thestory about the clerical work as thecarloads were being revised andplanned from day to day. At thetop of the list was the first car-
load, ever unchanging—
“Sniffin-
Sniffin-Stewart and Martin.’’ It
sounded and looked like a lawfirm.
jimmy James and Murry Harris
seemed to be the unofficial
photographers and it was nothingunusual to hear someone yell
“Heh!” and find yourself lookinginto either of their cameras.
All 58 skiers agreed it was oneof the nicest NBC parties yet and,despite aches and pains andbruises, have been clamoring for
the next trip.
As we go to press the membersof the second NBC Ski Club safari
have just returned from two daysat North Creek, N. Y. with tannedhides, Alpine muscles and sometall stories. Reports have it thatlast trip’s beginners were doing
SWEETHEARTof Sigma Tour
Betty Randall, who sings themso warmly on the Blue Network,was inducted as an honorary mem-ber of the NBC Guide Staff. W. C.
Martin, Manager of Guest Rela-
tions, set an example of restraint
and decorum for his men.
five mile treks this time and that
progress in general was so great
that an Army talent scout wantedto sign them on the spot as ski
troops.
There was a genuine “native”barn dance which was liberally in-
termixed with NBCites.
For those of you who put a fine
point on such matters— In theupper right corner coming down at
you are Elaine Martin (Exec.) andGrace Sniffin (Treas.); sliding
down the first stripe we see thefinish of the toboggan, AshtonDunn and Helen M. Korday (Per-
sonnel) with Elsa Rudiger (Rad.
Rec.) in the background; Lucille
Lizotte (Gen. Ser.) taking timeout; and Elaine Martin learning
about dog sledding. ... At theleft end of stripe two, FlorenceMarin (Blue Sales), a guest, andAlice Cook (Television) display
the latest in smiles; Dorothy Lewis(Gen. Ser.) manipulates the skis;
Virginia Kelly (Red Sales) andEvelyn Sniffin (Spot Sales) greeteach other in passing; WalterGiebelhaus and Dorothy Lewis
(CONTINUED ON PACE SEVEN)
The tennis court in back of theHotel du Parc in Vichy is a long
way from Room 302, and the Em-peror of Annam plays a better
game than John Q. Public. Besides,
he doesn’t ask so many questions.
Ask Anita Barnard. She knows.The lady who
sits surroundedby cacklingtypewriters andscreaming tele-
phones, calmlysoothing that in-
satiable bird,curiosity,knows all theanswers. At least
she did, until her phone rang andsomeone asked her point-blankwhy the devil he was seeing tele-
vision in color when nobody else
was.Miss Barnard of the Information
Division of the Information De-partment, as they are wont to call
it, has, in spite of herself, becomea malleable combine of BeatriceFairfax, the Encyclopedia Britan-
nica. Dale Garnegie, and the GallupPoll. Sounds foolish? How else
would you describe somebody whois practically mother confessor to
an average of 38,000 souls a
month? And that’s a conservativeestimate of the number of monthlyinquiries, mail, telephone, and per-
sonal, that pour into the Informa-tion Division.
A haven for the uninformed,room 302, has grown, in its threeyears of life, to the point of
indispensability.
For your mastication and diges-
tion, the Information Division is
comprised of ten individuals, nineof whom are slightly mad. Theirheads bursting with consequentialfacts, they grope their way homeat night babbling, ‘Yagottawritein-twoweeksaheadfortickets !’ Thetenth? Miss B. Four years of rub-
bing elbows with the royal familyof Sweden, sipping tea with Edith
Wharton and Anna Case, musicalsoireeing with Stravinsky, Chali-
apin, Rachmaninoff, and Paderew-ski, and, oh, yes, playing tennis
with the Emperor of Annam, havem,ade her feel quite at home withJohn Public or John Public, Esq.
6
WASHINGTONNBC TRANSMITTER
NBC TRANSMITTERPublished for and by the NBCpersonnel from coast to coast.
VOL. 7 MARCH, 1941 No. 1
EDITOR Charles L. TurnerASSISTANT EDITOR
Herbert Warren WindCIRCULATION MANAGER
Tom De HuffASSOCIATES Steve de Baun
Jim ManillaCharles Norwood
Raine ThomasMargaret Wyvill
Address all correspondence to; NBC Trans-mitter, National Broadcasting Company,Room 465, RCA Building, New York, N. Y.Telephone; Circle 7-83U0. Extension 220.
DEER ED KONTINYOOD
wayz wuz gud at figgers. an muzik-ly speekin, AL BENGTSEN, grad-uut uv th artis servis clas, now haza desk uv hiz very own up in con-sort servis, wile ADDY AMOR iz
a feeld representativ for th servis.
JAGK CRUTGHER haz becum a
tulfleged parlay-vooer in inter-
nashnul. PAUL HUTGHINSON is
informing th publik like mad frumrum 302 insted uv th nynth flore.
a buck (thatz one $ to thozeuv yoo-hoo liv in noo jersy) to eny-one hoo can ges th number uvfellows hoo hav left us for th army,eether by invitashun or vol. notakes.^ 22. amung ar fettered frensar; JOE BURGER, RALPH KEN-DALL, PHIL HARTNETT, JIM(very-few-hares-left) NIX, JAGKREYNOLDS, BILL O’MEARA, KEN(you-no-me-al) FEES, STU BILL-HART, PETE KUGHMY, TOM(did’nt-get-to-bed-last-nite) CAN-NING, JACK MC FALL, BILLWILEY, BOB PARKE, ED (theres-
no-l-in-my-name) ROFF, BILLMIDDLETON, (the) BARONCHANDLER, well, hoo iznt theezdays.^
well, ed, ol kid, i ges ive bentyoor eer long enuf. i hope i showdyoo i hav bin keepin up withthings, evin tho i spen so much uvmy time cownting my milyuns (it
sez heer),that i barely hav time
for a kwik cup uv java durin th
day. hopin yoo ar th same, i amyoor fren,
scoop(x) my sinichur.
Station WMAL has dedicatedand put into operation its newtransmitter located in nearbyMontgomery County, Maryland.The $200,000 plant went on theair the first part of February withan increase in power to 5,000watts day and night. EngineersWadsworth, Fischer, Burg, Sim-mons and Rogers accomplished thetransition from the old downtowntransmitter to the new without a
hitch. Their biggest reward was a
home-cooked meal from thekitchen of the four-room apart-
ment in the transmitter building.
The building is of colonial de-sign and, in addition to the modernapartment, contains a large trans-
mission room, a high voltage room,and a workshop. The new trans-
mitter was appropriately dedicatedwith a special program from the
WMAL studios. Participating wereWilliam S. Hedges, Vice Presidentin Charge of Stations; KennethBerkeley, station manager; Flem-ing Newbold, Vice President of
the Evening Star which ownsWMAL; and representatives of
various community interests.
THE START OF THE MILE
The NBC Washington-EveningStar Mile O’ Dimes campaign wasconcluded on February 1 when co-
directors Announcer Bryson Rashand Star Radio Editor Bill Coyleturned over to Major-GeneralWatson, presidential secretary,
more than $27,000 in dimes in a
special ceremony at the WhiteHouse. This represented an in-
crease of $10,000 over the amountcollected last year. Gredit for the
success of this year’s effort goesto Rash and Coyle, to AnnouncerDorian St. George who contactedthe government departments whichwere the greatest source of con-tributions, to Kibitzers Larry
Marino and Toby David who enter-
tained at the street stand, and to
Auditor Rudy Goldenstroth whohandled the money bags.
WRG-WMAL first launchedtheir Mile O’ Dimes plan in 1939.The Gommittee to Celebrate the
President’s Birthday was so pleasedwith the returns that it borrowed
Tom Knode
Station WMAL’s new transmit-ter, showing the transmissionbuilding correct in Colonial, andthree of the four 400-foot towers.
Night Supervisor Charles Barry,
the director of our first two cam-paigns, to organize similar drives
at other stations throughout thecountry.
BAGATELLES
New faces: Bill Neel, trans-
ferred from N. Y. Press . . . Engi-
neers Nick Close and L. A. McClel-land also N. Y. transferees . . .
Semi-new faces: Engineer JohnStetson, from summer relief to
permanent status . . . MargeBrown, retired front-office secre-
tary, back in re-emphasized musicdepartment . . . Seen at ATE Danceat the Carlton: Announcer DonFischer Washington’s foremostclass lA man, and his financee . . .
Virginia Hawk swinging withoutbenefit of music . . . Around-the-office circuit: Musicman Jim Seiler
with hair bleached a new shade bya Florida vacation sun . . . Sales-
man Stanley Bell with his hand in
that GHA envelope . . . Sales Pro-
motioner John Marshall Dinwiddle(he insists on it all) back from a
“meeting” trip to New York . . .
Hostess Rose Ewell answering fan
letter from Manila. Rose can ex-
pect mail from Tibet now that the
power’s been increased.
MARCH. 1941 7
NAMES IN THE NEWS CONTINUED
Promotion Production was favoredlast month with a surprise send-off party. Bob is a member of theold Seventh Regiment and was re-
cently called into service at CampStewart, Georgia.
Ethel C. Sham of the BudgetOffice is convinced that Charles B.
Bardong is the one and only.
Howard Selger of the NBC Re-search Division was married to
Miss Claire Asplint of Metropoli-tan Life Insurance Company onFebruary 8 at Bergenfield, NewJersey.
Edward Broadhurst of theGraphic Section of the ResearchDivision became engaged to MissGrace O’Neill of Nevins ChurchPress on Saturday, January 1 1. Thewedding date has been set for June14 at the Little Church Aroundthe Corner and the couple planto honeymoon at Cape Cod.
William S. Sampson, formerlyof Lever Brothers, Cambridge,Massachusetts, has joined theranks of the Research Division.
What’s the attraction that drawshim back there weekends?.?.?
Norman Cloutier is in Radio Re-cording as Music Advisor. . . .
Leighton Blood has joined thePress Department as trade publica-tions contact. . . . Harry B. Sum-mers is educational contact in
Public Service. . . . Irene Kuhnjoins Press as a writer. . . . BeatriceEiges is in the office of Directorof Talks William Burke Miller. . . .
Arthur Force may be found in
Special Events. . . . Edward J. Hor-nick and John L. Bauer are nowwith Concert Service. . . . JohnKennedy has entered TechnicalServices. . . . John Tracy draws his
check from Radio Recording. . . .
Maynard Stitt swells the ranks ofPress. . . . Arthur Anderson leavesMail for Reference Recording. . . .
Burt Adams is relating stations. . . .
Otto Brandt likewise (say this
thing is catching on) .... DorothySchute can now tell you all aboutthe Treasurer’s office. . . . Bill Han-na bypasses Duplicating for AirConditioning. . . . Ann Kent SpotsLocals. . . . Bill Neel went fromNew York Press to WashingtonPress. . . . Leslie Vaughan is in
Auditing. . . . make it HowardCann to Blue Sales. . . . Don Camp-bell to Jr. Sales—Blue. . . . An-nouncer Leon Leak is called to thecolors. . . . Phil Falconi (Engineer-
ing) is in the Army where he mayrun into Jack Anderson (SoundEffects)
.
SKI PARTY CONTINUED(Gen. Ser.) are seen near thetoboggan; Dorothy Michel (Traf-fic) takes to the ice; Miss Kordayand Dudley Goodale (Eng.), whoorganized the ski trek, survey theresults of their work. The third
swath finds Dan Schmidt (Rad.Rec.), Helen Gooper (Tele.) andMargaret Wyvill (Red Sales)
exuding joie de vivre; Don Castle(Eng.), Miss Korday and Mr.
Goodale in return engagement;Harry Wightman (Mus. Lib.), a
guest, Mrs. Wightman, anotherguest, and Matt Boylan (Purchas-ing) try seated transportation,Murry Harris is caught in the act.
And if you are still with us, thenext and last band reveals Elaine
Martin again, with Jessie Stewart(Treas.); Charles Wall (Prog.)
doing a little infigurating exercise;one of the day’s visual treats; anddown right it’s Onawa Lodge, in
the Poconos. Down left Alice Brad-ford (Press) and guest MartinRypins embark.
8 NBC TRANSMITTER
CHICAGO
THERE’LL BE SOME CHANCES MADE
Three new studios and eight
new offices are being built at theNBC Chicago studios. Howard C.
Luttgens, Central Division engi-
neer, drew up the plans for thenew facilities, made necessary bythe constant growth of Chicago as
a broadcasting center. J. C. Strang,NBC New York construction engi-
neer, is supervising the building.
In approving the construction,Harry C. Kopf, General Manager of
the division, pointed out that in
1928 the NBC Central Division
headquarters consisted of one stu-
dio and two offices putting on oneprogram a day. “Now, when thenew studios are completed aboutApril 1,” Mr. Kopf commented,“we shall have 13 studios in whichwill originate more than 1,800programs a month.”
The new offices will providequarters for the Radio RecordingDivision, Program Traffic, Com-munications, Night Manager, andMusical Director. All the new stu-
dios and offices will be completelyair-conditioned. Plans also call for
expansion of the present Radio-Recording facilities and for thecomplete renovation of Studio A.
WE ARE SEVEN
Seven WENR veterans whocame to NBC with that station onMarch 1, 1931, celebrated their
tenth anniversary with the com-pany at a special luncheon. Amongthose present were Paul McCluer,Red Sales manager; Ed Boroff, BlueSales manager; Engineer HaroldJackson; B. C. Swift of the Pro-
gram department; and OrganistsLarry Larsen and Irma Glen. All
seven— last of the band which in-
vaded the studios in the Merchan-dise Mart a decade ago—regaled
each other with tales of the pio-
neer days.
Goincidentally enough, the cele-
bration of this tenth anniversarywas preceded a few weeks by the
sale of the old WENR transmitterproperty at Downers Grove to the
Great Lakes Garbon Gorporation.The new owners plan to convertthe “Voice Of Service” building
into a research laboratory.
WENR and WMAQ joined with
Kissing The Boys Goodbye:Evelyn Lynne, congenial NBGsinger, blows a goodbye kiss to
three Ghicago employes “off to theservice”.
the Ghicago Daily Times in run-ning the “Mile O’Dimes” campaignin Ghicago. At the end of thedrive, NBG turned a check for
$16,538.40 over to Herbert Lor-ber, Ghairman of the Gook GountyGhapter of the National Founda-tion. Special Events manager K. D.
Fry, George Bolas, and JohnThompson handled most of the de-tails of the successful campaign.
Judith Waller, Educational Di-
rector for the NBG Gentral Divi-
sion, has been honored on twooccasions since the publication ofthe last NBC Transmitter. Her first
honor came when the SchoolBroadcast Conference presentedMiss Waller the First AnnualAward of Merit “in recognition of
her services to radio education”.Following on this. Theta Phi Eta,
the national professional speecharts fraternity, elected her to hon-orary membership and initiated herat Northwestern University.
IN THE SPRING, YOU KNOWDurwood Kirby, popular stooge
for Ransom Sherman on the NBCClub Matinee and NBC CentralDivision announcer, caught therhythm of St. Valentine’s Day andbecame engaged to Mary Paxton,
Dan Thompson
pretty radio writer and announcerof the Stack Coble Agency. Kirbywas encouraged to take this stepby Announcer Dave Carroway whomarried Miss Adele Sawyer onFebruary 1 5, and by AnnouncerHenry Cooke who sauntered altar-
ward on February 19 with MissMary Fickes.
PERSONAL PARADE
Frank Blatter of Sound Effectshas a second child now, a boy. He’scomparing notes with W. J. Mc-Edwards, Local Sales, who had his
second, a girl, during the holidayseason. . . . Grace Beeby, Agricul-tural department secretary, had a
chance to display extra-specialNBC service recently when a farm-er and his wife came all the wayfrom Arkansas with their 2-year-old son to see a broadcast of theNational Farm and Home Hour.Youngsters of that age aren’t ad-mitted to broadcasting studios, soMiss Beeby promptly dropped pen-cils, papers, and program schedulesand set about entertaining thebaby while mama and papa sawthe big network show. Miss Beebywas once a baby herself. . . . Hit of
the year in Wheaton is Special
Events manager K. D. Fry’s singingwith the P-T-A double-quartet.None of the boys at NBC knew hehad a musical note in him, for all
they ever hear is “No!”. . . . How-ard T. Crissey, NBC Chicago engi-
neering stock clerk, swaggersaround these days. Crissey bowleda perfect 300 while showing off
before NBC Champs Ed Davies andGeorge Bolas. That Press gang, in-
cidentally, is still trying to learn
to bowl, but the secretary of theoutfit is regularly bribed to hide all
scores. . . . The envy of the Engi-
neering department is Curt Pierce
who spent six weeks in Miamimonitoring the Dr. I. Q. show.Irma Glen, Agnes Seward, Fort
Pearson, Bob Brown, Ray Neihen-gen, and Adele Crawford wereothers who went south for spring
training.
So you can see that Spring finds
Chicago flexing its muscles andlooking about a bit expectantly for
new red and blue fields to con-quer.
MARCH. 1941 9
ATHLETIC ASSOCIATIONBASEBALL
The NBC baseball team, disre-
garding the recent heavy snowfall,issued plans this past week for thecoming diamond campaign.
"The prospects of a champion-ship nine this Summer is no longera mere possibility”, according to
Jack Wahlstrom, playing-managerfor the past few years. "With suchreturning veteran stars as ConnieNicholas and George Flood, formerVillanova College battery mates.Bill Little, Manhattan College in-
fielder for the past four years, andthose reliable NBC campaignersFrank Crowley, Jack Garland, Ed-die Nathan, Dorm Albert and thehard hitting Pete Bonardi return-ing once again to the diamondwars, our outlook seems the bestin recent years.”
Again this year NBC will enterthe race for the New York FilmLeague crown. The league includesour friendly rivals. RockefellerCenter, and the other usually
strong clubs. Paramount Pictures,
MCM, Consolidated Film, Simplexand Skouras. Arrangements will
also be made to play our brothers,the strong RCA Camden team in a
home-and-home series.
Although at present handicap-ped by bad weather, the boys areshaking off that Winter lethargyin gyms around the city. And fromall indications they are gettingthemselves into condition for
NBC’s biggest year on the diamond.
BOWLINGFrom 75 to 80 people have been
bowling regularly every Thursdaynight. Over 100 are registered.
The bowlers are proud of their
record, feel that they are truly themost active 100% AA group, sinceyou have to be a member of AAto join.
There are twelve teams, rep-
resenting nine departments. All
are men except one team of ladies
who, at this point, have won ex-actly as many games as they havelost in competition with the men—33.
The season ends April 10, andplans are being made for the an-nual dinner which will probably beheld April 17, at which time prizes
will be awarded. New bowlers arealways welcome. Get in touch withthe Captain of your departmentalteam or call George Milne in En-gineering—Ext. 371.
Mr. McElrath, Engineering No.2, Room 517; Mr. Nicol, Auditing,Room 600; Mr. Lowell, GeneralService No. 1 ,
Room 317; Mr. Bur-holt, Sales Research, Room 300;Miss Michel, Ladies Team, Room560; Mr. Mack, Program, Room400; Mr. Kost, Sales, Room 412;Mr. Berrien, Guest Relations,Room 573; Mr. Hayes, GeneralService No. 2, Room 317; Mr. Mat-hew, Traffic, Room 560; Mr.Facer, Artists Service, Room 500.
DANCINGMary Coyne says that dancing
classes at Arthur Murray’s Studiosbegin their new series on Wednes-day March 1 ,
from 6 to 7 P.M. Thevote so far is very heavy on therhumba, conga side. Anyone still
interested in coming call her onExt. 561. $5.00 for the ten les-
sons. Excellent chance to brush upfor the NBC AA Spring Dance.
RIDINGWhen we asked Mr. Van Hou-
ten for news he revealed that theNBC Riding Club had been ready-ing a "spring announcement"about the second week in Marchwhen You Know What happened.Although it postponed the notice,
it did not prevent those of thegroup well stocked with capsulevitamins A, B, Bl, C, D86, andV69 from digging out and enjoy-ing their regular Saturday after-noon jaunt in Jersey. For, dis-
believe it if you will, many of theboys and girls have been in thesaddle all winter.
While continuing the regularSaturday afternoon ride, there arepossibilities that a beginners groupwill be started to bring the neo-phytes up to the old liners pro-ficiency.
Daylight Saving Time may makepracticable a long evening ride andif there are enough insatiables theafternoon group may continue un-abated.
Under the new Athletic Asso-ciation arrangement, AA members
will have part of their riding ex-penses defrayed. Present rates area dollar an hour, but Mr. Shower-man has assured Mr. Van Houtenthat within a very short time thenew arrangement will be in effect.
SOFT BALLAttempting to formulate plans
for Spring season right now.Would like to have anyone whois interested write Steere Mathewin room 560 or call him on ex-tension 695. Last year enough menwere interested to form two goodteams, from which one very goodteam was chosen. They beat thepicked WCY Schenectady boys atthe outing and journeyed to Sche-nectady where they were beatenin turn.
This year Mr. Mathew wouldlike to have at least four teams sothat the men could get in someLeague competition. Also he wouldlike to arrange for the games to beplayed nearer the RCA base, andwill start working on it as soon ashe knows how many are interested.
SKATINGSince the last issue of the Trans-
mitter there have been eight ice
skating parties arranged by MaryZostant of the Research Division,
one of which was a combinationice skating, dining and dancingparty.
Mary Zostant says that amongthe regular skaters, a great im-provement has been noticed; mostof them having abandoned the"Figure Eleven” for the "FigureEight”. All this great enthusiasmfor fancy figures is no doubt due to
an envy for the perfect form of
J. L. Hathaway of Engineering.He flies into space — comesdown on his feet
We can’t help admit he’s grace-ful and fleet.
To see him you think of a bird
on the wing.To watch the others, oh well,
why say anything?Since the season is fast drawing
to a close, we would like to urgeeveryone to take advantage of thelast few parties being arranged for
their pleasure and to come out andskate with their NBC friends.
10 NBC TRANSMITTER
WHAT DO DENVERYOU KNOW^
If you’ve been with NBC threemonths you should be able to an-swer correctly five of the followingquestions; if you’ve been with us
a year or so you should know the
answers to at least ten of thesequestions, but if you’re an old-
timer— say, three or more years,
you shouldn’t have to turn to pagetwelve at all for the correct an-swers.—And if you’ve been with NBCless than six months and you knowall the answers come to the NBCTRANSMITTER office or send us a
picture. We want to look at you.
1 . What do the following standfor: FCC, IBU, NAB. BBC. BBD& 0 ?
2. How many NBC affiliated
stations are there?3. What are the titles of Phil-
lips Carlin, Margaret Cuthbert,
Janet MacRorie?4. What is contained in the
NBC THESAURUS library?
5. How many NBC studios are
there in Radio City?6. In radio production, what is
the meaning of nemo; on the nose?7. Where are the transmitters
for WEAF, WjZ, W2XBS located?
8. Define carrier wave. Clear
channel.9. Who is chairman of the
board of NBC?10. Iconoscope and coaxial cable
are terms relating to what?1 1 . Who sponsors the Metro-
politan Opera program on Saturdayafternoons?
12. At what time do the NBCnetworks in New York open andclose?
13. Dish-pan, ribbon and tomatocan are terms to describe what?
14. Explain the following termswhich have been used in the radio
section of Variety: loop, juve, P.A.,
spieler, wax.
NBC newcomers are cordially
invited to take the NBC StudioTour as the best and quickest wayof seeing and learning about the
broadcasting plant in Radio City.
Present your employe’s pass at the
Guest Relations Division, Room254, for complimentary passes for
the NBC Studio Tour.
It’s “Welcome to Denver’’ for
Grade Fields, British Relief emis-sary, whose warm, from-the-soil
humor means to the English whatWill Rogers’ meant to Americans.Miss Fields is the first blonde fromthe left.
IN THE FOCUS
Tor Torland, one of KOA’s crackannouncers, takes the first bow.Tor recently led the Golorado teamwhich participated in the Jeffers
Gup Ski Tourney at Sun Valley. . . .
Grade Fields, the famous English
comedienne, was warmly welcom-ed at the airport when she arrived
to present a local program for
British War Relief. General Man-ager Lloyd E. Yoder, Assistant
Manager Owen, and Mr. Jack Ly-
man were on hand along with a
number of Denver socialites andpublic figures. . . . Ruth Ghatter-ton of the stage and screen wasinterviewed by Starr Yelland in a
special broadcast while she was in
town starring in the road show of
“Pygmalion”. . . . General ManagerLloyd E. Yoder has been appointedto the Rodeo Association of Amer-ica as a member of the NationalPublicity Gommittee along withSports Editor Harry B. Smith of the
San Francisco Ghronicle, WalterBrown of Boston, John Bruener of
the Gheyenne post of The Associ-
ated Press, and others who are
keenly interested in horses of dif-
ferent cholers. . . . Don Martin es-
tablished a splendid record of com-plete newspaper cooperation in the
recent KOA Mile O’Dimes Cam-
Evadna B Hammersley
paign, and this greatly con-tributed to a successfuldrive.
COMINGS AND GOINGS
A new announcer hasbeen added to the KOAstaff, Martin Tobin of
Kansas City. . . . Virginia
Anderson of General Officeis back at work after a
leave of absence due to ill-
ness. . . . Al McClelland,Transmitter Engineer, hasbeen called to active dutyon the West Coast withthe U. S. Naval Reserve. . . .
Starr Yelland attended a meetingin Kansas City of announcers fromstations carrying programs for Nu-trena Mills. . . . Newcomers to KOAare Betty Brown, who will succeedGeorge Mathews when he joins
the Army, and Jeanne Carter, whowill take over the post of recep-tionist and switchboard operatorformerly held by Thelma Ericksonwho has resigned.
STATISTICS VITAL AND NEARLY VITAL
Stan Neal of the KOA ControlRoom is now the papa of a brandnew baby girl tagged Janet Louise.. . . Andrew Gainey, soloist on theRed Network show “Serenade ToLoveliness” and a member of theGuest Relations staff, was marriedon January 20th to Miss CeorgeneMichael, who has played dramaticroles on KOA programs. . . . KOAannouncers faced a near disaster
during the recent National West-ern Stock Show when a wildBrahma steer in the arena chargedthe microphone. The red cloak of
the clown, Holmer Holcomb, di-
verted him in the proverbial nick
of time. Shortly afterwards, a wild
horse got his head and forefeet
over the chute rail and sent Pro-
duction Manager' jack Lymanchasing for the fence to escape the
flailing hooves.
Recently Program Director Clar-
ence C. Moore recorded his 12th
year as Toastmaster for the 4-HClub District Banquet.
Next time you’re out Denver
way drop in and pay KOA a visit.
It’s a grand bunch.
MARCH, 1941
CLEVELANDBob Dailey
STATICALAN KENT
and STEVE DE BAUN
THE FIRST IN THE SERIES
The new NBC series, “AmericaIn Defense”, got off to a vigorousstart in late February, with thefirst program coming from Cleve-land, a center of the machine tool
industry. Production Man Paul
Dumont and Announcer Milo Bol-
ton came out from Radio City to
work with WTAM staff membersand Larry Hammond of the Na-tional Association of Manufactur-ers for the initial broadcast. HalMetzger, WTAM Program Direc-
tor, and S. E. Leonard, Engineer-in-Charge, worked out the details of
the complex show. When it wasover, some simple logarithm dis-
closed that the following membersof the WTAM staff had takenpart: Announcers Tom Manning,Wade Barnes, and John Hicks;Production Men Fred Wilson andWaldo Pooler; and Engineers JohnDisbrow, Jesse Francis, ThomasCox, Grant Makinson, and FrankWhittam. George Milne, NBG di-
vision engineer from New York,was on hand to make observations.
SPOT NEWSWTAM announcer Harry Burge
is the man behind the cheery ma-tutinal greetings heard daily on theprogram called “Ghanticleers”.This feature of the Red Network is
produced at WTAM and spotlights
the orchestra of WTAM’s MusicDirector, Lee Gordon.
Manager Vernon H. Pribble andAnnouncer Tom Manning headedinto downstate Ohio several weeksago. Pribble addressed an educa-tional forum in Columbus on“Radio and the Press in Defense”.Manning’s mission was more extra-curricular. He spoke at a testimon-ial dinner in Massilon for PaulBrown, the new football coach at
Ohio State University.
Five members of the VvTAMstaff orchestra journeyed to NewYork recently to play at CarnegieHall with The Cleveland SymphonyOrchestra. They are Ben Silver-
berg, Paul Cershman, Sam Willis,
Bob Morris, and John Coffey.
Announcer Wade Barnes had a
somewhat disturbing experiencewhen he invited a nine-year-old
HARRY BURGE
prodigy to appear on his musicalquiz show, “Know Your Notes”.Young Kenneth Wolfe (9-years-9)not only knew the answers to all
the questions, but he also pipedup before any of the adult “ex-perts” could collect their thoughts.
RIBBON VELOCITY
Production Director Fred Wilsongoing around the studios with his
left hand in a sling. A gas heaterblew up in the basement of his
home, thoughtlessly. . . . News Re-porters Harry Burge and TomFields both getting new automo-biles on the same day. . . . MarianHercik, head of the Steno depart-ment, wearing a pearl engagementring, on the right finger. . . . Kath-ryn O’Connell, of the AudienceMail department, and Emily Brick-son, of the News Room, makingfrequent trips to Toledo andYoungstown to see friends. . . .
Mildred Funnell, secretary to Man-ager Pribble, having “before-and-after” pictures taken while work-ing out in a downtown women’sgym. . . . Announcers Tom Man-ning and Wade Barnes screeningnewsreels for the opening of a newTelenews Theatre. The openingshow also had some good shots ofManager Pribble, in depicting theCleveland radio stations and news-papers.
PACE: Wears blue citation cordon left shoulder, chip on right
shoulder. Can dial ext. 780 blind-folded with both hands tied behindhim. Is the only human extantcapable of decoding a rehearsalsheet.
QUIZ PROGRAM: ‘The Passing of
the Third Floor Buck’.
AIR CONDITIONING: Once upona time someone dropped one mil-lion dollars ($1,000,000.00) onthe tenth (10) floor; the result
was an air-conditioning plant for
delivering seventy-two (72) de-grees of controlled air. It seems to
us that one million ($1,000,000)is a lot of money to spend for a
draft, especially today, when somany of us are getting it free. If
all that was wanted was a draft,
why didn’t someone wave fifty
dollars ($50.00), disguised as a
fee, around the Announcer’sRoom? The resultant bare-fangedrush for the scratch would havecreated a draft that would haveundoubtedly circulated for years.
And when that had died out Con-cert Service would still be creatinga mild typhoon trying to put thebite on their proteges for their
customary ten per cent.
VICE PRESIDENT; One ear to theground, one eye on the budget, a
nose to the grindstone, one shoul-der to the wheel, one hand on thepulse, one finger in the pie. Mixwell with one upper lip until stiff.
Sweeten to taste, garnish withchopped memos. Excellent as anentree.BOARD MEETING; Censored.DIRECTORY: Wherein can befound all telephone numbers (ex-
cept correct ones),all departments
(except important ones), lunchservices, blind dates, and Hurley’s.
MUSIC LIBRARY: The only library
in the world where they don’tcram ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls’
down your throat.
OFFICE; Can usually be identified
as belonging to any one individual
by the constant absence from its
confines of that one individual.
Has, as equipment, one large filing
cabinet and one small filing cabinet(which are interchangeable) ; onelarge wastebasket and one smallsecretary (not interchangeable)
.
12 NBC TRANSMITTER
ON THE SHELF EXCHANGE ANSWERSIn Our Library
NBC’s news room boss, A. A.Schechter, has turned out a vol-
ume called “I Live on Air,”* whichwill do for a radio Bible until somenew James, John, Peter or Paulcomes along. (And bring a sponsor!)
“I Live on Air” deals only withAbe Schechter’s work; news andspecial events. The news sectionis the history of radio’s struggle to
remind newspapers that there wasa Town Crier before anyone start-
ed printing news. It’s the history
of how newspapers fought newsvoices, the modern Town Crier, andhow Abe Schechter and his long-
distance phone worked aroundtheir strict boycott. A solutionwas finally reached, and that bat-tery of teletypes in NBC’s newsroom is the result.
Special events Schechter recordsin full, from the epic Graf Speescuttling and the Scoop of Munichdown to the Singing Mice contest.The book moves as fast as Schech-ter, which is fast. Don’t expect a
sociological study of What RadioMeans to the World Today. In “I
Live on Air” the accent’s on “live”—bustling, racy, vivid stories of
the “air” we all live on.
*“l Live on Air,” Frederick Stokes—$3.75.
FOR SALE— 17 miles from GeorgeWashington Bridge— Hudson
River waterfront property— 8rooms, 3 baths, garage—beautiful
grounds, water-fall, brook and pool—zoned village. Sacrifice. Gall
Ext. 231.
SHARE SUNNY apartment. With-in walking distance of Radio
City. Inexpensive, pleasantly ap-pointed. Call Kathleen Goddard,Ext. 613.
FOR SALE—L. C. Smith GoronaPortable A-1 condition. Price
$30. Gontact A. Frank Jones, Gon-cert Service.
THREE ROOMS—4th Floor Walk-up. Sunny and pleasant. Four
closets. $55. Unfurnished. Subletuntil October 1. Call Ext. 431.Cordon Vanderwarker. 336 East
71st—71st and First Avenue.
FURNISHED APARTMENT— Six
rooms, two bedrooms, 34 foot
living room with natural fireplace
and baby grand piano. Five blocksfrom station. Reasonable. Address92 Bayview Avenue, Port Wash-ington, Long Island. Or call JackWahlstrom—Guest Relations NBC.FOR SALE— Plymouth Coupe—
’36 model. Motor recently over-
hauled. Passed New Jersey Test.
Swell for Spring. BertSchlanger, CR.
To questions on page ten
1 . Federal Communications Com-mission.
International BroadcastingUnion.National Association of Broad-casters.
British Broadcasting Corpora-tion.
Batten, Barton, Durstine & Os-borne.
2. Two hundred and thirty.
3. Red Network Program Man-ager.
Director of Women’s and Chil-
dren’s Division.
Editor of Continuity Accept-ance.
4. Recordings or electrical tran-
scriptions, for broadcasting.5. Thirty-one.6. Broadcast originating outside
the studio facilities.
Perfect timing— program onschedule.
7. WEAF—Port Washington, L. I.
WJZ—Bound Brook, N. J.
W2XBS—Empire State Bldg.
8. The carrier wave is a continu-ous number of constant vibra-
tions (or a wave) betweenwhose limits the broadcasttravels. In short, the carrier
wave “carries” the programfrom the transmitter to the re-
ceiver,
A clear channel is one whichis used by only one station
within a certain area. (i.e.
WJZ is always at 770 kc.)
9. David Sarnoff.
1
0.
Television.
1 1 . The Texas Company.12. Normally 8;00 A.M. to 1:00
A.M. (Locals 6:30 A.M.)
.
1 3. Microphones.1 4. Loop—network.
Juve—juvenile.
PA—press agent.Spieler—news commentator or
announcer.Wax—record or electrical tran-
scription.
MARCH FIVE YEARS AGOThe millionth tour guest ex-
pected soon. Company dance onthe 20th in the Hotel Great North-ern’s Grystal Room featuring RudyVallee and his Gonnecticut Yan-kees. ”01 Sporting Life” Al Walkerbought the first ticket. P.S.—cash!
POSTAGE DUEFrom NBC's Information Division
Dear Sirs:
I wrote you a letter about two weeks ago, to which I havereceived no reply. If you did receive it won’t you kindly reply? Onthe other hand, if you did not receive it, let me know and I will
write again.
Yours truly,
I write to ask how much you offer for news featuring how I
pulled my own back tooth and how I pull out my corns on thebottom of my foot.
Yours very truly.
Believing that small fellows can have suggestive ideas, I submitthe following to you . . .
Guest Relations Manager Jerry Martin received these
—
The National Broad Casting Companyand
The Quest Relations Deportment30 Rockafellow Plaza
MARCH. 1941 13
WINE OFCHOICEON ACTIVE SERVICECompany Sergeant Major
Mark Casel 53038No. 3 Armoured Car Co.South Africa Tank CorpM.F.F.; U.D.F.Army P. O. Nairobi18 XII 40
Dear Sirs:
Your programme featuring re-
lays from the Metropolitan OperaHouse has afforded the men of myCompany a tremendous amount of
pleasure.
Situated as we are, hundreds of
miles from civilization in the cen-tre of Africa’s blazing desert, it
was a relief to listen to somethingdifferent from the interminableblaze of propaganda punctuatedby ill-chosen dance music that is
poured from every station day andnight.
Your commentator painted aninteresting and vivid picture of thescenery, and though tired and hot,
the commentary held us through-out the performance. It was a
night well spent, and we are look-
ing forward to the next broadcast,“Don Pasquale.’’
In such times as these, musicand more so the music of the opera,provides the one sane haven of
refuge in this world of turmoil.
Congratulations to your sponsor,and our appreciation to all con-cerned.
Yours very sincerely,
C. S. M. Mark CaselLance Corporal E. V. R. KingLance Corporal I. A. FischStaff Sergeant Max
Colin-Twersky
Co. “C” 155th Infantry (r) Reg.,
31st Division, A. P. O. No. 31
Camp Blanding, Florida
I should like to take this meansof telling you how much I appre-ciate the opportunities the NBCoffers for hearing good music.
I am a young man who is nowserving his year of military trainingand since I have been in camp, theradio has been my only contactwith the best musical literature.
Cood music is the one thing I havemissed most during the last twomonths. At home . . . our small
Victor record library has been a
number of years in the makingand limited funds have forced usto make careful selections. How-ever, I believe that we can boastthe very “cream” of musical re-
cordings among our thirty someodd albums and approximatelythree hundred single records.
But it is not about my family’scollection of recordings that I in-
tended to write. I mention themjust to give you some idea of howmuch I appreciate the opportuni-ties for hearing good music.
There are many programs whichI should like to mention. Numberone program is the broadcast everySunday morning by Dr. CharlesCourboin and this is followedclosely by the NBC Symphonybroadcast on Saturday night andthe Metropolitan Opera broadcaston Saturday afternoon.
I have written you this ratherdisjointed letter because I am in-
formed that the National Broad-casting Company desires to knowthe likes and dislikes of its listen-
ers.
I feel that your company is do-ing something that is greatly ap-preciated by music lovers in thebroadcasting of good music. I sin-
cerely hope that as time goes onthere will be more demand for this
type music, for I know that theNBC will keep oace with the musi-cal development of the listening
public.
Sincerely yours,
A D W
PERSONNEL GROUPThe NBC Discussion Croup or-
ganized by Personnel ManagerAshton Dunn has been featuringunusual opportunities for roundtable discussion of all aspects of
the industry with virtually everyexecutive of the company. Plans
are already under way for a newtwo year cycle to begin this Fall.
Contact the Personnel Office at
any time.
RADIO RECORDINGTemple Black joined the sales
force during February. . . . Bill
Cartland was drafted and is in themedical detachment at Falmouth.Mass. . . . Bill Ogden took joe Pep-per’s departure for an entrancecue. ... Ed Ehrich found March a
swell month in which to get
married.. . . Barry Schenck is one
of the most recent additions. . . .
C. Lloyd Egner is displaying proofof the Florida sun.
NEW MEN IN G. R.
Promotions within the company,and the drafting of many of ournumber into various branches ofour National Defense program,have brought about many changesin the personnel of NBC NewYork. From January first to theend of February, 35 men from al-
most as many walks of life havejoined the Guest Relations division.
"QUOTATION MARKS”“I have been told that radio in America is ‘utterly commercial-
ized,’ but commerce did one great thing for radio— it took it awayfrom centralized authority on the one side and from the esthetictyrant on the other.”
—DEMOCRACY by Gilbert Seldes, GOSMOPOLITAN, 1937.
“Surely we need not fear the influence of false philosophy on theminds of our own people if we look toward the new horizons of
industry which our inventive genius, our research, and our natural
resources disclose. The security which we can build makes thesecurity offered by dictatorship look pale by comparison. Theimagination and skill of our scientists, our engineers, and our workerscan be directed toward raising the living standard of all our people:toward creating a better life for ourselves instead of plotting a worselife for our neighbors. Our security will be attained by adding to
human liberties, not by subtracting from human rights.”
—NEW HORIZONS OF INDUSTRYSpeech by David Sarnoff
January, 1941
14 NBC TRANSMITTER
HOLLYWOODNoel Corbett
BUSINESS AND PLEASURE
No grass grew under the feet of
Don E. Gilman, Vice-President in
charge of the Western Division,
during January. On a tour of thePacific Northwest, he addressedthe Ad Club in San Francisco, theChamber of Commerce banquet in
Seattle, and the Rotary Club in
Portland. In between businessconferences and his talks, Mr. Gil-
man managed to find the time to
get in a little golf along the waywith advertising men. Accordingly,
he missed several short putts.
It was a small RCA Family get-
together at Music City recently
when the Press department ar-
ranged for Dinah Shore to visit the
record shop across the street andautograph her Bluebird recordings
for her Hollywood fans. Carroll
Tornroth of Talent Sales, your re-
porter, John J. Coyle and Victor
Ralston of Victor, and Harry Mey-erson of the RCA ManufacturingCompany alternated in reachingfor the blotters.
A couple of lads who’ll bemissed around Hollywood RadioCity for the next twelve monthsare Karel Pearson of Traffic andJohn Margraf, page, who recently
left for government training camps.
MOON, JUNE, MISS CALHOUN DEPT.
Two of our pages, Eddie Lippert
and Ernie Brashear, have turnedsongwriting-team, and are doingrather nicelv. Their first tune,
“Why Love?’’, has already beenpublished. Other tunes which BudDant has orchestrated for Lippert
and Brashear—pardon us, it’s Rich-
ard Loring and Steven Cross whenthey go into their keyboard ka-
tharsis—are “Vision of You’’ and“Spendthrift In Love’’.
Nathan Scott, another piano-
pounding page, has been doingwell, all right himself. His “JohnScotter Trot’’ was played on a re-
cent Kraft Music Hall broadcast bythe orchestra leader of almost thesame name. Scott has written an-other piece, “You Ain’t Kiddin’’,
with Ed Helwick of |. WalterThompson supplying the lyrics.
Helwick and Carroll Carroll writethe Kraft show, Mr. Crosby’s poly-
syllabic push-over.
The septet above is preoccupiedwith projecting a composite Hula.Reading in the usual order, theCrass Shackers are Elaine Forbes,Ben Byers, Mary Tyner, Phyllis
Murphy, Blanche Davies, HaroldHaklik, and Richard Brooks. Read-ing from right to left, just to varythings, their positions are conduc-tor of “Sidestreet Vignettes’’,Traf-fic, Secretary to Lew Frost, Press,
Secretary to Sam Hayes, Press, andSales.
Here’s Buddy Twiss with a fish
story out of the Northwest. Notsalmon or trout this time, butsmoked white fish. Three yearsago Birt Fischer, manager of
KOMO, told Buddy he would sendhim a goodly supply of the fish. Nofish came. Buddy wrote him sev-eral follow-up letters, but still nofish, no smoked white salmon.Finally Buddy asked Syd Dixon to
remind Fischer and, if possible,
bring back the finny haul on his
return from Seattle. Dixon faredforth staunchly — and broughthome the fish, he did. Theyweren’t unsavory. As a matter of
fact, the fish were so good that
Buddy is motoring North nextmonth to put in his bid for moreof that smoked meat. He has hopesof receiving this shipment shortly
before the Buck Rogers’ era.
Alec Retry and William LeroyMarshall, who started in MusicRights together back in New Yorkeight years ago, are having a lot of
fun these days seeing California
with their wives. Mrs. Retry, theformer Mary Hunter, worked in
the San Francisco office of NBCuntil she and Alec were married a
short while ago. Their home is in
Hollywood Hills.
Another chap who is getting a
kick out of touring around thehinterlands of Los Angeles thesedays is Bob McAndrews, head of
Sales Promotion, recently transfer-
red from Frisco.
Jim Lyman, who started outwith NBC in San Francisco severalyears ago, is now with Bob Schuetzin the Radio-Recording Division.
Lyman passed the cubebs onVVashington’s Birthday after an-nouncing himself the proud parentof a 7 pound, 7 ounce baby boy,since named Richard.
HIKE, READY—SHIFTMore changes on the staff: Max
Hutto from Program Traffic, to
Assistant Night Program Super-visor . . . Bob McWhinney fromMaintenance taking his place . . .
George Hatch to Maintenance . . .
Carl Schaele to that departmentalso, with Bruce Anson taking overhis duties in Ticket Distribution. . . Al Gage and Herbert Fearn-head from Guest Relations to Au-diting . . . Miles Auer now assistantto Ralph Stephen on the parkinglot . . . Bill Brandt taking overAuer’s spot in Maintenance.
Quick pix: Bill Andrews, headof Guest Relations, doing a sootof jury duty these days . . . NadineAmos and Blanche Davies arestudying Spanish at the BeverlyHills Night High (to be able to
orobe the subtler corners of “ForWhom The Bell Tolls”) . . . KayHarris moving into her new home. . . A. E. Saxton, Division Engineer,going over plans with his West-wood builder . . . Dave Laslev dick-ering with builders out La Canadaway . . . Dresser Dahlstead has a
new home in the hills over LakeHollvwood. Next door neighbor is
|oe Kay . ..Johnny Frazer moving
into his place in the Valley. Ahouse goes with the swimmingpool.
Ed. Note—For some time nowNBC Hollywood in the person of
Noel Corbett has been carrying ona resistance breaking campaign of
luxuriant pix. We’d like to knowif it’s really true what they say
about Dixie-on-the-Pacific.
MARCH. 1941 15
SAN FRANCISCOKay Barr
THE OMAR KHAYYAM GANG
San Francisco has not had a
chance to forget either the Side-
walk Superintendents Club or the
Dainty Dozen since these two or-
ganizations were launched at the
ground-breaking ceremony for the
new NBC Building on November14. George Mardikian, presidentof the association of incurable
kibitzers, has been a most active
executive, giving hundreds of newmembers the official kibitzer’s
obligation. Some of these havetaken the form of club luncheonsand meetings—everything fromthe Daughters of the AmericanRevolution to the Feather Mer-chants Club.
Then George has amplified theidea by signing up Tommy Har-mon, Rudy Vallee, Fanny Brice,
Tallulah Bankhead, and othercelebrities who visited his OmarKhayyam restaurant for Shish Ke-bab dinners (and thou) . The Har-mon and Bankhead pledges werethe feature at a dinner the KGO-KPO announcers gave for Tommywhile he was in San Francisco for
the East-West football game. Everypatron joined in with the two no-tables in taking the oath.
Twelve pretty girls from theNBG stations donned red andwhite striped overalls for theground-breaking. In appreciationfor their assistance. General Man-ager Al Nelson gave the girls a
luncheon at which President Mar-dikian ordained them the DaintyDozen vice-presidents of the SSClub. The girls will receive newand uniform frocks for use whenthey are called to put in an appear-ance at public functions.
GOLDEN, GATES!Veterans who have been identi-
fied with San Francisco business35 years or more were honorguests at the annual dinner of theNational Association of Manufac-turers on February 12. KCO per-formed an outstanding publicservice for the 800 guests as wellas for the radio audience by con-densing the city’s history duringthe past century into a rapid-fire,30-minute resume, in narrationand dramatic bits. Sam Dickson
Front rows were not bald headswhen KCO celebrated its 17thbirthday. These 22 studies in facial
expression should inspire any stageshow.
wrote a brilliant script. Ricardoprepared special music, and BobSeal handled the production.
Another high spot in publicservice during the past quarter wasthe “March of Dimes’’ broadcaston january 8. Milton Berle actedas master of ceremonies, and thespeakers included Mayor Angelo j.
Rossi of San Francisco and notablesof the stage and screen. Cliff
Engle was the announcer, johnRibbe produced.
Classes in more than 100 SanFrancisco public schools were sus-pended on February 1 1 and 21 tohear special Lincoln and Washing-ton programs from KPO. JenningsPierce, director of public healthservice broadcasts, handled thearrangements.
At this annual building season,KCO is watching the actual con-struction of a new family home. It
was Producer Bob Dwan’s idea,and it’s clicking. Mr. and Mrs.john Edwards and their three chil-dren, jack, Sam, and Florida
—
known on the air as “The FiveEdwards”—make up the family.The house is being built actuallyon the south slope of Mt. David-son. Two broadcasts each weekfollow the construction and the
solution of all the bothersomeproblems involved in the realiza-
tion of a dream home. Some of
the broadcasts emanate directly
from the site, and the public is in-
vited to these. Question-and-an-swer sessions follow the broadcasts,
so that other families who areactual or potential home-buildersmay have the benefit of the Ed-wards’ advice.
STORK CLUB NEWS
Three new babies at KCO-KPO'Ray Rhoads, Sales, passed cigars
and candy on December 12 for
Elizabeth Louise who had the nick-name of “Betsy Lou” as soon as
she received the more formalhandle. . . . Announcer Frank Bar-ton became a daddy to little MissSharon Barton at 12:26 AM, Feb-ruary 3. Engineer Don Hall as-
sumed the same status for youngDonald Finch Hall just four minuteslater. Even the proud papas haveall recovered by this time.
Mary Hunter, Music Rights, re-
signed in mid-january to marryAlec Petry, formerly of the NewYork and San Francisco NBC of-
fices and now in the Music Rightsdivision of NBC in Hollywood.Mary and Alec are now at homeat 2520 Dearborn Drive, Holly-wood.
Will Aubrey, “Bard Of The By-ways”, Glenn Hurlburt, blindpianomaster, and Lew Dunbar,comedian, furnished part of theentertainment for the huge NewYear’s Day party which WardenClinton Duffy gave the thousandsof involuntary guests at San Quen-tin prison. Altogether, it was a
four hour show. “Wotinell’s theuse of living if you don’t do somegood, some time, for someone?’’,opined the “Bard Of The Byways”.
Al Nelson, general manager ofKCO-KPO, has been elected to theboard of directors of the San Fran-cisco Better Business Bureau, thefirst radio man ever to receive thatdistinction.
Jennings Pierce went to Chicagoto attend a conference of educa-tional directors. He spent five
days in a Chicago hospital. Flu.
And by that time the conferencewas all over.
16 NBC TRANSMITTER
PROGRAM PRODUCTION GROUP
There is every reason why RadioCity should be the center of train-
ing in all phases of radio produc-tion. The concentration of ambi-tious young men and women of
sound background in the midst of
New York’s intensive productionschedule and with the finest of
facilities should logically producethe reinforcements in an expand-ing industry. But the amazing in-
fant medium, maturing in the brief
span of twenty years, was too con-centrated in the strenuosity of ex-pansion to have time or breath for
such considerations. True, therewere a number of attempts at dra-matic training, a class for actors,
meetings, etc., but these were in
almost every instance short lived.
One outstanding exception is
the announcers class. Sponsoredby Pat Kelly and under the direc-
tion of Dan Russell it grew in fameover a period of years and furnish-ed announcers for stations in virtu-
ally every part of the country. It
is now under the energetic direc-
tion of Gilbert Martyn and bearswatching.
The Program Production Groupwas organized in August of 1940to provide the needed training in
all phases of radio production andto give those who might possessspecialized ability a chance to dis-
play it. Designed for practical re-
sults, each position or work assign-
ment is carefully planned to matcha comparable function in the com-pany itself.
A regular schedule of produc-tion provides for a half hour re-
cording each week.The director draws his cast from
those on the regular company pay-roll who are interested in acting.
Announcers are assigned as a re-
sult of competitive auditioning in
Mr. Martyn’s class. Sound effectsare produced by a staff sound manand an apprentice working underhis supervision. The writing of
original music and dramatic under-scoring is a valuable part of thework. A library of original musicis being assembled for the group’suse.
The basic idea of the group to
sponsor and develop original talent
is further carried out in the pro-
duction of new scripts. To watcha script undergo the test of pro-
duction is the finest training pos-
sible for a prospective script
writer. There is as much if notmore to be learned from the pro-
duction of an uneven or partially
inadequate script as from the pre-
sentation of the works of radio’s
top writers. To this end fifteen outof twenty-seven productions havebeen scripts not previously heard.
Directors, announcers, soundmen and composers all benefitfrom working against deadlines
and under broadcast conditions.Writers discover what happenswhen other personalities come in-
to contact with their words. All
learn to think in terms of radio.
In the six months of its exis-
tence, the Program ProductionGroup has made steady progressin the solving of its problems andthe extension of its possibilities. It
has proven itself a healthy organi-zation which has produced results.
Stanley Miller, one of its origi-
nal directors has since become As-sistant Program Manager in Chargeof Production at WMRN, Marion,Ohio.
Charles F. Hill, who composedthe original music for the first fif-
teen productions, joined NBC’smusic division. Eldridge Packham,the Croup’s present musical direc-
tor, followed him into music, jimBeardsley, Gillette Malcouronne.Sanford Doremus, Bill Roche andHoward Flynn have gone to outsidestations with additional experi-
ence gained as actors, announcersor production men.
One of the most encouraging as-
pects of the Production Croup is
the noticeable maturing of the
work of many of its people over a
period of months. The assuranceand poise which come only fromfamiliarity and participation are
unmistakably emerging whereoriginal talent lay.
NBC TRANSMITTER
2 NBC TRANSMITTER
NBC ATHLETIC
SEAWANE, June 18.
The NBC Athletic Associationheld its fifth and largest outingthis date at the Seawane CountryClub, Hewlett, Long Island.
Buses left the 50th Street NBCStudio entrance. Radio City, at
9:15 AM and 9:45 AM. NBC cabsmet Long Island RR trains at Hew-lett station on schedule from 10:30AM until 6:01 at night.
Private cars found markers onthe Grand Central Parkway, South-ern State, the new Belt Parkwayand other main roads leading to
Hewlett. In fact, only the Trans-mitter staff couldn’t find the way.
Mr. I. E. “Chick” Showerman,in a statement to the Transmitter,said, “It’s the biggest outing we’veever had and it gets bigger everyyear. The A. A. Outing is for theranks. The executives are welcome,but it’s essentially for the NBC em-ployee and it’s for fun. Last yearwe broke all records in tennis andgolf. This year exceeded even thoserecords.”
The chairman of the social com-mittee, responsible for the splendidorganization of the Outing, waslovely Marian Ayer. Her assistants
at making things happen wereMary Coyne, Helen M. (M for
Mm-m-mm) Korday, Frances Bar-
bour, Al Protzman and Al (Hi-ya!)
Walker.The Outing began with 9:00 AM
Coif and finished with 1 :00 AMDancing to Irving Miller’s orches-tra, minus a celeste, but all very
melodic nonetheleste.
It was the 22nd Golf Tourna-ment for NBC. The Seawane courseis 6500 yards, with a par of 72 anda lot of water out by the 1 6th hole.
The number one golfers of the
day found Bill Johnson of Sales
Service out in front with a lowgross of 77-81-158. Runner-up wasa guest. Jack Purcell, with a lowgross of 80-87-167.
Henry Meyer of Engineering tookthe Men’s Handicap with a score
of 99, a handicap of 33, giving hima net of 66. Lathrop Mack of Newsand Special Events was runner-upand close, with a score of 99, hand-icap of 32 and a net of 67.
Hugh Seiler took the Members’Consolation Round. Dorothy Millerof Blue Sales played 36 holes to
take the women’s championshipwith Helen Winter of the Treasur-er’s office runner-up.
Ray Kelly of the rain-makingmachine and other sound effectsdrove, from an approach drive, to
four feet of the 8th hole, winninga prize. A leather traveling bag it
was.Notice we’ve given up listing
scores? That’s because we stand in
awe of Jim McConnell. The Mc-Connell of Spot and Local Salesmanaged a 96 for the first nineholes. Just to prove that he coulddo it again, Jim up and scored ex-actly 96 for the remaining nineholes, bringing the grand total to
192.
At 10:00 AM, 1:30 PM and3:30 PM, D. B. Van Houtan led
horseback riders on three 2 hourrides. Nineteen horses were at thedisposal of NBC equestrians and,at the conclusion of the 3:30 ride,
games were held.
The first event was a potato raceon horseback. Dick Berrian won,with Mathew Boylan and EdWeille placing second and third.
The second riding event had to
do with nightshirts. The riders
dashed to the far end of the field,
dismounted, donned a nightshirtand then galloped furiously for thefinish line.
Selma Wickers of ProgramSupervision got into her nightshirtfirst, but Al Patkocy, on the maddash for the finishing line, passedher and on the left side, too.
The tennis courts were crowdedto capacity as the largest turnoutever responded to Chairman BobFine’s efforts.
Helen Korday of Personnel cameaway with the honors in the Wo-men’s Singles.
Bob Fine scored over Paul Rit-
tenhouse to take the Men’s Singlesafter a superb exhibition of tennis.
Both Fine and Rittenhouse placedtheir shots with championship ac-
curacy and in the cool afternoon,their match was something to see.
Dorothy Schutt accepted the sil-
ver softball statuette for her team,defeating a fighting ten led by MissAshmead.
Claude Barrer of InternationalShort Wave made a clean sweep of
the swimming honors winning bothevents for men.An obstacle race was the most
amusing. Old Guest Relation uni-
forms were worn and then discard-ed in the water, which is a goodtrick if you can do it. Even out of
water.The second race was something
with a spoon and a ping pong ball
which Dorothy Lewis of GeneralService won in the women’s divi-
sion. Lucille Lizotte, a desk awayfrom Dorothy, took the obstaclecontest, C.R. uniform and all.
SEEN GOLFING: Vice PresidentStrotz of Program; C. Lloyd Egner,Vice President in charge of RadioRecording; Vice President MarkWoods; Colonel Davis of R.C.A.
Program Manager Phillips Car-lin; Television Program ManagerTom Hutchinson; Clarence Men-ser. National Production Director;
I. E. Showerman of Red Sales;
Keith Kiggins of Blue Sales.
Wilfred Roberts, New York pro-
duction head; George Milne of
Engineering; Ray Kelly of SoundEffects; Bob Close of Air Condi-tioning; Bill McClancy of Traffic;
Irving Miller, Scrappy Lambert,Burke Crotty and Jean Caval.
“Bud” Barry was on the course.
That man from Washington played16 holes of golf. Didn’t finish theother two because he’d alreadytaken 4 hours and 1 5 minutes, andbesides, wasn’t there a creek at the16th hole?
Birger Hagarth and Bill Cardenof Tours, both sliced so far to the
right they began playing on the
18th green instead of the first.
Herb Wind stepped up, reset the
tee a foot to the left, then drovestraight down the fairway, whichproves plenty.
A thundershower, one of thethreatening sort, threatened too
much and caught Evelyn White,
JULY, 1941 3
ASSOCIATION OUTINGJosephine Torres! and Eve McCul-lough in a rumble seat.
The 1 :30 riding group left in
deep apprehension but the darkclouds turned out to have moregrowl than gale and some 19 riders
enjoyed the wooded Hewlett coun-tryside from the saddle.
The storm set badminton backtemporarily, but after the passingshower had showered, all birdlife
was once again taking its featheredlife into its hands by flying too lowover Mary Lou Irvine and AlWalker.
Present at the Outing, and ourspecial guests, were the chief engi-
neers of NBC from coast to coast:
Curtis Peck of San Francisco; H. C.
Luttgens of Chicago; A. A. Saxtonof Hollywood; Ed Leonard fromCleveland; Robert Owen of Den-ver; A. E. Johnson from Washing-ton, and George Milne of NewYork.
Coming in on the first bus, JeanCaval, NBC artist, gave things a
carnival spirit. Later that evening,the singing Frenchman teamed upwith one of the Singing PowersModels in a rhumba that was a
neat bit of harmonizing.
Ray Forrest, television announc-er, arrived at 3 :00 PM, said he wasjust going to loaf through the day,and then placed second in themen’s swimming events.
There was a little difficulty find-
ing the beach. Les Smith and RossMacPherson went bicycling for
three hours and all they could find
resembling water was a puddle onthe golf course.
The Transmitter staff found it-
self on the way to Jones Beachagain, but on the way back collid-
ed with Hewlett Beach Club just in
time to discover that it was MissBrainard’s birthday, thereupon of-
fering our very best congratula-tions.
At the beach were Helen Moore,supervisor of Stenographic; Ade-laide Piana of Research; Mrs. VanHoutan; Virginia Kelly; Elliott
Mesnick carrying bathing beautiesashore from row boats, Grace Cun-derman being one of the beauties;Bill Orange; Lucille Lizotte; Dor-othy Lewis and Walter Ciebelhaus.
Dick Berrian, winner of that rid-
ing event mentioned elsewhere,had to leave soon after dinner.Dick is stationed these days at theShort Wave Listening Post at Bel-more, Long Island, and had to beon duty at midnight, working until
8:00 AM.
That was not a razor strop FredSpires went riding with, but a
gaucho riding crop. That’s his story.
We say it’s a fly swatter.
Bert Schlanger, on hands andknees, remarking, “Horseback rid-
ing doesn’t bother me a bit.’’
The informal moment beforedinner was one of the nicer parts ofthe day. Everyone gathered on thefront lawn in groups, discussingthe day’s event, Jim McConnell’sscore, and swapping stories.
Arriving at 6:00 PM to spendthe evening were Vice PresidentMorton of Television; Vice Presi-
dent O. B. Hanson; Clay Morgan,Assistant to the President; JuneHynd of Public Service.
SEEN AT DINNER: E. C. Horstmanof Chicago; Lewis MacConnach ofRCA; Sidney Strotz; “Happy Birth-
day’’ Miss Brainard; Marian Ayer;Ed Evans; Mary Coyne and, at their
own table, most of the riding clubincluding Mr. and Mrs. Van Hou-tan; Helen Korday; Claire Max-well; Virginia Black; Al Patkocy;Lucille Lizotte; Fred Spires; Doro-thy Lewis; Walter Ciebelhaus andMatt Boylan.
Frank Jones, golf chairman, wason the course until the last minutebefore dinner checking the winnersof the day’s events.
Over 150 people went throughon golf. At the conclusion of din-ner (and very nice steak, too) ,
“Chick” Showerman, chairman of
the Athletic Association, compli-mented Miss Ayer on her success
as social chairman and thankedFrank Jones for turning out thelargest attendance at golf, largerthan ever before.
Frank Jones awarded the prizesto the various winners of the day’sevents.
Bill Johnson received a barome-ter, Dorothy Miller a forged silver
plate. Henry Meyer took homeeight cocktail glasses and LathropMack a folding serving tray.
Hugh Seiler won a toaster, HelenWinter a salad knife and fork setand Jim McConnell took home“The Golfer’s Prayer.”
Al Patkocy, winning that night-shirt horse race, received a veryfine pair of boot-trees, and DickBerrian a classy covered dish.
Claude Barrer, the swimmingchamp, received a clock. Lucille
Lizotte and Helen Korday, for
swimming and tennis, each re-
ceived a Kodak reflex camera.Shades of Wynn Wright.*
Door prizes, donated by RCA in-
cidently, went to Edith Boyd andAl Walker. Both received RCAVictor Personal Radios.
That harmonizing after dinnerwas Joe Jenkins, Bill Carden, Bill
Orange and, we suspect, Birger
Hagarth and Charlie Horn. Sopranoand alto was taken alternately byJeanne Bradley. Not bad, gang. Notgood, but not bad.
PASSING PICTURE: “Doc” Mor-ton, Alice Cook, Tommy Cannon,Virginia Lennon, Al Protzman,Catharine Ross and Lorraine Sag-win all listening to the Louis-Connfight on “Doc’s” Personal Radioand very excited too.
AFTERMATH: The following col-
lection of lost articles have beenfound. Kindly communicate withLost and Found, Guest Relations,
Ext. 625, concerning the following;1 tan jacket, man’s; 1 white sweat-er, woman’s; 1 pair brown andwhite saddle shoes; 1 scarf, blue;1 silk handkerchief; several un-mentionables. All communicationswill be kept strictly confidential.
*See Chicago outing.
4 NBC TRANSMITTER
RADIO CITY
TOUR HISTORY IS MADEOn May 29th, the two NBC
Tours in Radio City became one.The Studio portion now takes 45minutes, leaving a quarter of anhour for Television.
The “all-inclusive” tour’s newtitle is now “The Radio City NBCTour.” The 55c tour rate, formerlythe single charge for either Studioor Television, now applies to both.
The combined tour used to be 90c.NBC Radio City has been the num-ber one tour attraction throughoutthe country since 1932. With this
new streamlining of the NBC Tour,it is believed that Radio City nowhas the greatest tour bargain as
well.
The tours will leave, as before,
at ten minute intervals from 9:00AM to 1 1 :00 PM every day in the
year. The four millionth guest is
expected this summer for the av-
erage number of people passingthrough NBC has been a half mil-
lion a year.
NEWS STUDIOSThe need for more adequate stu-
dio space has long been felt in
Radio City. Increasing demands of
actual broadcasting, rehearsals, au-
ditions, international broadcastsand Radio Recording have shownthat our present facilities, large as
they are, are not sufficient.
When the studios here wereconstructed, the sixth and seventhfloors of our studio section wereleft vacant to provide for the in-
evitable need for expansion. Thatfar-seeing policy has proven its wis-
dom. Construction has been started
on these floors to meet the present
demand for more space.
Two large auditorium type stu-
dios, seating approximately 450people each, are under way. Thesetwo studios, which will at somefuture date be known as 6Aand 6B, are similar in construction,
both having ramped or inclined
floors. This will afford each mem-ber of the audience a full view of
the entire stage.
Equipped with specially built
seats, the studio will remain at a
constant acoustical balance wheth-er there is an audience in atten-
dance or not.
The stages, which will be at thewest end of the studios provided a
difficult problem. Their construc-tion necessitated the removal of
the steel structural framework andthe substitution of an entirely newframe to permit the 40 foot long,
two story-high, stage opening.These tons of new girders wereraised from street level to the sixth
floor by crane where they weretaken in through a window andplaced in position. To cut the ele-
ment of danger as far as possible,
this work was all done in the early
Sunday morning hours when traffic
and pedestrian travel was at a min-imum.
The remainder of the two floors
will be given over to dressingrooms, an artists foyer, a new cli-
ent’s audition room, a receptionfoyer, and some new, much need-ed, office space. Adequate provi-
sions will also be made to enableus to provide our guests on tour
with a back-stage glance at ournewest additions.
When the work is completed onOctober 1st, NBC will possess twoof the most modern studios in thecountry. Studios which will be a
fitting tribute to the years of re-
search and experience that havehelped make them possible andwill represent another milestone of
achievement.
NAMES IN THE NEWSPaul Rittenhouse, assistant man-
ager of Guest Relations, and GerryBicking who recently moved fromTraffic to International as secre-tary to Mr. Elwood, will wed July1 2. . . . Otto Brandt of Station Re-lations by now has wed Miss Thel-ma Beulow in Detroit. . . . Clemen-tine Torrell became Mrs. HughJames as you doubtless know, andalthough few of the details areavailable, we understand thatHoward Gardner of Sales Promo-tion, took that fatal step. . . . Fran-cois Pelletier of C. R. and Val Bor-ger. Hunter Stall, and Joe Kane ofthe Mail Room all have receivedwedding congratulations. . . .AllenBengston of Concert Service mar-ried Miss Florence Buckley of Sum-mit, N. J., in June. . . . Russell Stre-
tel, of Traffic became a father for
the first time on June 1 6th. A babydaughter. . . . Blue Sales held a
christening in May. The depart-ment’s semi-official “dope-sheet”was christened “Blue Points” as
Ruth Guthrie and Bert Hauserbroke a bottle of Roget 1914 overthe manuscript. Ruth and Bert, bysimply thinking of the same name,each won $25.00. Edgar Kobak,who is $50.00 poorer, tells us that
the next time he won’t say “Dupli-cate prizes will be awarded in caseof a tie.”
Mr. John Elwood is the newmanager of International ShortWave, replacing Mr. Yandell who,in turn, has moved to Blue Sales.
. . . From Washington, D. C.,
came Charles “Bud” Barry to look
over the New York “Mile o’
Dimes.” He liked it so well in Man-hattan, he stayed on. You’ll find
him assistant Program Manager to
the Blue Network. . . . William“Bud” Mattern is Blue Sales con-tribution to the Navy. . . . TheWest Coast sends us Cliff Englefrom Announcing in San Franciscoand Jack Wormser of Sound Effectsfrom Hollywood. . . . Bob Joneswent from Research to Station Re-lations replacing Bill Whitfieldwho is now Chief Clerk in SR re-
placing Bill Davidson, now with J.
Walter Thompson’s agency. . . .
Horace Hagerdon may be found in
JULY. 1941 5
WEAF National Spot and Local
Sales. . . . Robert Morris is nowBusiness Manager of Radio Record-ing, replacing John MacDonald nowAssistant Treasurer. . . . WilliamFelundy moves from Stenographicto Engineering. . . . Arthur Cooperand Robert Prescott are our new-est sound technicians. . . . GeraldMayer is a writer in Press. . . .
Charter Heslip, is a writer in Spe-cial Events and Hugh Beach trans-
fers from Press to Sports underBill Stern. . . . Cordan Weber hasbeen shifted from Press to RadioRecording as a production director.
. . . Doris Corwith now assistant to
Public Service Counselor. . . .
Thomas is an assistant director of
Public Service Programs. . . . jackMcPhaull is now operating a dupli-
cating machine for Uncle Sam. . . .
Returning to New York for a
visit, Tom Severin and Carl Can-non, both doing well at WSCN,Birmingham, North Carolina, re-
ceived a big send-off when theyleft New York City. Microphones,posters and a general turn-out of
all the ex-C.R. fellows once in
uniform with Tommy and Carl,
turned Pennsylvania Station into a
carnival. See George Olenslager for
complete details. . . . Herb Ritter,
Ernest Stanger, Bob Jones, BobMiller, Reed Lighten, George Mack,Peter Kutchmy, Bob Hoffman, PeteBass, Andre Yedigaroff and Bill
Middleton have all answered their
country’s call to service since thelast issue.
Guest Relations, in the last fewmonths, have advanced these men;Bill Patterson and Robert Adams to
Information; Ralph Perry to Inter-
national; Robert Meyer to Conti-nuity Acceptance ;
Norman Cash to
Radio Recording; Charlie Turner to
Press; Terry Ross is now in NightProgram; Ed Stearns to Special
Events; Charles Woodford to Press,
and George Fischer to Engineering.
The Production Department hasacquired five new directors; Cyril
Ambruster; Theodore Corday; Ray-mond Buffom
;Bruce Cameron and
Edward S. King.
THE PROGRAM PRODUCTIONGROUP
THAT FELLOW TURNERCharles Leroy Turner is now in
the army. No draftee. Turner hasenlisted for the full three years andis, at present, stationed at Fort
Monmouth, New Jersey.
A motion picture man throughand through. Turner is returning to
his first field of endeavor, for he is
now serving, at Fort Monmouth, as
a film editor preparing official
army films.
Turner found himself in radio
by accident and yet, as he leaves
NBC, he can look back to beingeditor of the Transmitter, presi-
dent of the NBC Film Society andhead of the Program ProductionCroup.
The last mentioned was consid-ered generally to be impossible. Toorganize and sustain, over a periodof time, a company group withinsuch a large organization was re-
garded as folly. Critics cited prev-
ious conspicuous failures and pre-
dicted a similar fate for the Croup.It hasn’t come to pass, however.
By the simple procedure of re-
maining “out of people’s hair,’’ theProgram Production Croup will, in
August, enter into its second yearof activity.
From this point on, it must chartits course without the advice andaid of the softly spoken, quiet
young man from Washington, D. C.
The remaining members of thegroup’s governing board are meet-ing, as this issue goes to press, to
select a new head, not to replace
Turner, but rather to continuewhere he has now left off.
NBC without Turner is quite a
thought for a lot of people. He hasmade and held friends from coast
to coast. Whether Charlie returns
to radio at the end of his period of
service, or continues further in mo-tion pictures, we’ll still considerhim a gentleman and a scholar.
Best of luck, Charles.
THE CROUP ITSELF
The situation in the ProgramProduction Croup as Charlie Turnerleaves NBC is worth mentioninghere.
The young men in Guest Rela-
tions and Mail Messenger divisions
who direct the Croup’s produc-tions, can not and do not expectany recognition as prospective di-
rectors with the regular NBC Pro-
duction Division.
The same situation holds truefor announcers. The turn-out of
men from the Announcer’s Classand the Production Croup find,
when they have landed a position
out of Guest Relations, that theyare no longer with NBC. Their po-sition is invariably with some out-
of-town station or one of thesmaller outfits here in New York.That is, if their job is that of an-nouncing or producing.
Whether this policy is the best
to be found is still being talked
about by some folk. There are twoschools of thought on the subject.
One side maintains that, in orderto train men correctly in yourmethods of work, you must takethem in early as apprentices anddevelop their talents under the
guidance of established authorities
in the field.
The opposite, and prevailing idea
in NBC, is in keeping with the
present day, efficient factory idea.
Briefly, it’s the belief that menworthy of holding down NBC pro-
duction and announcing jobs mustcome to this company from other
stations with complete, impressive
backgrounds.The argument used most fre-
quently against this method is that
such men are as scarce as the pro-
verbial flies and an impressive
background doesn’t always tell the
complete story.
Knowing this situation to exist,
men still apply for the opportunityto direct the Croup’s shows. At the
last count there were over thirty
applications in for guest directorial
assignments.Despite the promise of nothing
concrete in the way of advance-ment, still these young men find
something in the Group worth seek-ing. The chance to work under ac-
tual broadcasting conditions and so
improve their chances for outsideadvancement is enough to keep in-
terest in the Croup alive and active.
It is the only goal held out to
Program Production people, andyet it seems to be enough.
6 NBC TRANSMITTER
WASHINGTONNBC TRANSMITTER
Published for and by the NBCPersonnel from Coast to Coast.
VOL. 7 JULY, 1941 No. 2
EDITOR Roy Pascal
ASSISTANT EDITOR Roy Dent
CIRCULATION MANAGERRobert Schroeder
Address all correspondence to; NBC Trans-mitter, National Broadcasting Company,Room 465, RCA Building, New York, N. Y.Telephone: Circle 7-8300. Extension 220.
MEMOIn the office of the Transmitter
there are three items that gener-ally make up the policy of this
staff. The first is a reprint of theDeclaration of Independence. Thesecond is a picture of an eye float-
ing bodiless in space. The third
item is a quote, “Help Us Build a
Greater Kansas.”
The Declaration of Indepen-dence is the most obvious. We arenot a reissue of a stockholders re-
port or a dramatized tour manual.The Transmitter has always gottenits own news and printed it ac-cordingly.
The “all-seeing” eye, staringfrom the ceiling, is a reminder to
treat our elders with respect, butnever to forget that we will beelders ourselves some day. It’s a
reminder of responsibility.
The quote, “Help Us Build a
Greater Kansas” impressed us asimportant. It brings to mind thatNBC spreads from coast to coast.If you’ll glance at page 12, you’ll
see that it goes far beyond theseborders.
Every station on the NBC net-works will always find considera-tion and space in the Transmitter.We’ll help build a greater Kansasany time we can.
There you have it. The Trans-mitter has always endeavored to
say something. It is, too, entirelysympathetic to its superior’s sug-gestions and company policy. It hasalways bent a listening ear to theout-of-town stations, big or little.
It all adds up to this: in the pastand in the future we want theTransmitter to be worth reading.
NBC WASHINGTON
Two NBC Washington studiosare undergoing changes. Studios“N” and “O,” through which mostWMAL and WRC programs travel,
are being reconstructed to allowadditional space for studio engi-neers and turntables. Beginninglate this Summer, engineers will
play all records and transcriptionsused over the two stations. The an-nouncers are pleased, of course,but don’t be surprised if the de-mand in Washington for engineersfar exceeds the supply on hand.
Congratulations from all to ChiefAnnouncer Bryson Rash and PageDon Collier. Bryson has receivedhis LL. B. and is preparing for thebar examination. Don was gradu-ated summa cum laude from Cath-olic University, and has won a
three-year scholarship to Princetonand a medal from the AmericanChemical Society.
Vacations are making inroads onthe staff of WRC-WMAL. FredShawn, Assistant Manager, is stay-
ing close to town, just in case. . . .
Auditor Ruby Coldenstroth is see-
ing the sights in Atlantic City,
New York and Williamsburg. . . .
Harold Thomasson of Commercialis planning a trip to Canada. . . .
Bess Dees, Traffic, entrains soonfor the great Northwest. . . . RalphPeterson is in Florida for sand andsun while Announcer Dorian St.
George slushes through the sloughs
and bayous of Ole Mississippi. . . .
Martha Cosgriff of Commercial is
off for Cape May, and Eva Cluff,
front office secretary, is puttering
around her new house. . . . Lookingback to vacations are Assistant
Manager Carleton Smith, whospent his time on tees and greens
and in front of the new baby’s crib
;
Mary Mason, who has just returnedfrom Havana; Don Fischer whomade his a vacation-honeymoon.
ODDS AND ENDS: Now workingfor Uncle Sam are ex-NBCers Mar-garet O’Neil with the Defense Sav-
ings Staff and Betty Bissonette at
Camp Meade. ... A total of 123news programs and commentaries
Tom Knode
Mary Mason, Director of WRC’sHome Forum, doesn’t like picnics.Ants, mostly. But one day last
month she solved her problem. Shegathered together twenty of herhome economics friends, in Wash-ington for the National NutritionalConference for Defense, took themout to Washington Airport and en-tertained them at lunch, aloft,
aboard two American Airlines Flag-
ships. just before the flights,
Cousin Mary originated her HomeForum from the airport, interview-ing her sisters of the skillets andskeins. Here’s Mary with three ofher friends just before the take-off.
eminate from NBC’s Washingtonnews room each week. . . . Bill
McCall of Sound Effects, on theRed Cross network show, fell flat
while pretending to be a man run-ning and needed a bit of first aid
himself.
Among newcomers to W R C -
WMAL is Joan Harding, formerlyof WHEC and WHAM, Rochester.Joan has a regular program for theladies at 9:35 each morning onWMAL. Other new faces . . . HildaKirby, Commercial . . . FlorenceCox, Program . . . Virginia White-head, Radio-Recording . . . Phil Jo-achim and Pete Cousins, News . . .
Stuart Finley, Announcing . . . andKatherine Richards, Traffic. . . .
JULY. 1941 7
CHICAGODan Thompson
CHICAGO HAS ITS DAY!A record number of 270 NBC
Cities turned out to make the Fifth
NBC Athletic Association Outing,at the Medinah Club, near Chicago,a rousing success. The entire NBCCentral Division was representedand general credit for the splendidorganization of the Outing belongsto President Lynn Brandt, DorothyMasters, social chairman and FredKlein, treasurer.
Activities divided themselvesinto golf, softball, ad lib swimming,tennis, horseshoes, dancing, horse-back riding and just plain loafing.
Climax of the day’s events wasthe dinner at which prizes wereawarded by President Brandt andGolf Chairman Frank O’Leary.
Larry Dutton, engineer, won theCurt jonatat Cup from Singer EdDavies. Three consecutive wins are
necessary to obtain permanent pos-session of the trophy. The sad partof the story is that Ed Davies hadtwo wins on it, with a low gross
of 78.
Guide Captain Warner Holm-gren won the Breakfast Club Cup,which was awarded for the first
time this year.
L. j. Edgley, assistant continuityeditor, took the ’’ConfusionTrophy.” The famous tin can fun-nel cup was suitably engraved byFred Klein for the fifteen strokesMr. Edgley found necessary on the1 8th hole.
The three fair ladies with thethree excellent scores, winning this
and that, were Harriette Hansen,Laura Satterwhite and TereseLauer.
The NBC Ball Team with RudyNeubauer on the mound, won thechampionship from the Artists, theATE nine, and the Musicians. In
the first game with the Musicians,the NBC team came through witha 3-2 victory.
The Musicians then trouncedATE, 28 to 18. NBC sank the Ar-tists, 6 to 2, and in the play-off,
NBC came through with a sensa-tional 1 5 to 3 blitzkrieg over thecocky Musicians.
Pitcher Phil Shukin was knocked
out of the box and his successor,Pianist jerry Marlowe all but suf-
fered a similar fate.
The Big Moment came whenSalesman Gil Berry hit a home runwith three men on base. GeorgeBolas pulled a ’’hidden ball” trick
on second to put two men out andGeorge Diefenderfer showed Big
League style in right field as didFreddie Kasper on first base.
Near-tragedies of the Outing in-
cluded Curt Mitchel’s dive fromthe back of a horse, Sam Kaney’sdeparture at 4;00 PM, and WynnWright’s loss of his camera.
Stellar horseshoe pitchers wereNBC Central Division ManagerHarry C. Kopf and Salesman JimMcEdwards. Stories vary on thechampionship style of these ’’ring-
ers”, but most reliable informationhas it that Engineers joe Alusic andW. O. Conrad defeated the Kopf-McEdwards combo consistently for
some 30 or 40 games, then gavethem a big handicap for the ’’play-
off” and the boys won.
Cashier Irene Shields and Chair-
man Paul ’’Tarzan” Millen stayedin or near the water for four hours,
starring in the strictly ”on yourown” swimming events. Irene wona very nice sunburn and took it
home with her.
Door prize winners were ByronSpears, Dorothy Bowser, John La-
gen, John Carasalla, Loretta Cooneyand Dick Sample.
Movies of last year’s Outing wereshown at the conclusion of the
dinner by W. F. Lanterman.
Free lance photographers includ-
ed Frances Morton, Gale Swift,
Judith Waller, Emmons Carlson,
Fred Klein and, of course, poorWynn Wright who can no longer
prove it. Not with his Kodak Re-tina anyway.The photo exhibit of the Outing
will be prepared under Carlson’s
direction. By just glancing to yourleft you can see that a grand timewas had by all and 270 NBC Cities
covers a lot of grand time.
8 NBC TRANSMITTER
NBC ATHLETIC
JULY. 1941 9
ASSOCIATION OUTING
X
r
.TUf*^..
10 NBC TRANSMITTER
ON THE SHELFBy FRANCES SPRAGUE
CONTROLLING BROADCASTINGIN WARTIME.By C. J. Friedrich.
A tentative public policy. Pamphletprepared by the RadiobroadcastingResearch Project at the Littauer
Center, Harvard University, 1940.
THE EUROPEAN POSSESSIONS INTHE CARIBBEAN AREA.By R. R. Platt et al.
American Geographical Society.
1941.
Strategic importance, industries,
government, resources and otherdata.
HANDBOOK OF BROADCAST-ING.By Waldo Abbot.
McGraw-Hill Book Co. 1941.2nd ed.
Written especially for students,teachers, and speakers, but equallyhelpful to those interested in all
phases of broadcasting.
OUR CONTEMPORARY COM-POSERS.By j. T. Howard.
Thomas Y. Crowell Co. 1941.
Present-day American musiciansand music.
RADIO ENGINEERING HAND-BOOK.Edited by Keith Henney.
McGraw-Hill Book Co. 3rd ed.
1941.
All phases of engineering practicesbrought up to date.
REPORT ON CHAIN BROAD-CASTING.
Federal Communications Com-mission.
Government Printing Office.
1941. Official text.
THIS IS LONDON.By E. R. Murrow.
Simon & Schuster. 1941.Selections from his broadcasts early
in the war.
WAR ON THE SHORT WAVES.By H. N. Graves.
Foreign Policy Association.Headline Book. 1941.
CLEVELANDBob Dailey
INCIDENT AT CROSSE ISLE
Announcer Tom Manning, Spe-cial Events Man jack Fern andManager Vernon H. Pribble werecovering the WTAM broadcastfrom the Naval Air Training Baseat Crosse Isle, Michigan, duringNaval Aviation Week.A young man broke out of drill
line and rushed across the paradeground. It was Buzz Lloyd, formerWTAM office boy, so excited atseeing someone from Clevelandthat he forgot all about drilling.
Lloyd almost had a two hourtraining penalty to work out, butManager Pribble explained the sit-
uation to Lloyd’s commanding offi-
cer and Lloyd got off with only a
reprimand. He’s a full-fledged fly-
ing cadet now at Lakehurst, NewJersey.
DOUBLE DATEThere is one anniversary in the
life of Chester Zohn, WTAM’snight manager, that is faithfully
celebrated year after year. Moreaccurately, it is a double anniver-sary, for the date of his wedding is
also that of his joining the WTAMstaff here in Cleveland.
just recently, it was his 15thwedding anniversary and the 1 1thcelebration of his years at WTAM.POET LAUREATE OF THECONTROL BOARD
Bert Pruitt has found new pathsof poetic glory. A national newssyndicate is angling for Pruitt to
Cracie Fields, England’s numberone comedienne, appeared recentlyon WTAM’s “Women’s Club ofthe Air.’’ Here she is, shown in aninformal pose with jane Weaver,right, conductor of the program,and Mildred Funnell, center. MissFields has the distinction of beingthe highest paid performer in theentertainment world.
do a bit of verse daily for its news-paper clients. If the deal goesthrough, the series would start in
the Fall.
This broadcast engineer’s poetrynow appears frequently in Cleve-land, Detroit, Columbus, Indian-apolis and Philadelphia newspapersand in several nationally circulatedmagazines.
Pruitt has been at WTAM for 1 1
years, but he began writing verseonly 16 months ago. At that timehis poetry was mere relaxationfrom difficult mathematic prob-lems encountered in an advancedengineering course.
It is a lot more than relaxationnow. Bert turns out from ten to
twelve poems a week. MostlyPruitt’s subjects are the common,everyday happenings and emotions.Occasionally, however, he borrowsfrom his colorful background of six
years spent with the United StatesNavy in far-away ports.
The WTAM engineer is hardly a
Keats or Shelley in appearance.Bert Pruitt is over six feet tall andtops the scales at 190 pounds.
ITEMSThe first WTAM staff member
to be drafted is Claude Moye,known to thousands of Ohio listen-
ers as “Pie Plate Pete”. . . . An-nouncers Wade Barnes and JohnHicks both spending their vaca-tions in New York State. . . . An-nouncer Tom Manning donning apainter’s cap to do a stroke-by-stroke version of a house paintingderby. . . . Katharine Holgan andSally Ruple joining the staff asswitchboard operators.
ED. NOTE: And Bob Dailey ofNews and Press is the proud fatherof a seven pound baby girl. It’s theDailey’s first. Congratulations, Bob.
JULY, 1941
DENVEREvadna B. HammersleySTRUCTURAL CHANCES
Additional equipment has beeninstalled at KOA to facilitate the
switching of both the Red and the
Blue networks.Denver has become a pivot point
in handling the new switchingoperation, formerly done by thetelephone company.
Remodeling of the Master Con-trol Room will make it consider-ably larger and completely air
conditioned.Latest type continuous recording
equipment is being installed. Acar-penter knocked down a piece of
plaster onto a turntable in use thefirst few days. The needle duginto the plaster and only the quickaction of Control Engineer StanNeal kept KOA on the air.
A 5-KW auxiliary unit has beeninstalled at KOA to keep thingsrunning In case of local power fail-
ure. It recently had a good work-out when, during a severe electrical
storm, KOA experienced its first
“blackout.” Lights went out all
over the building and Martin Tobin,reading a newscast in Studio B hadto do some fast thinking before theflashlights arrived. The new auxil-
iary unit kept the station on theair, however, without a hitch.
ODDS AND ENDSBundles from heaven have ar-
rived for the Ivan Schooley and theWerne Andrews households. Girls
in both cases.
Has anyone an alarm clock andcalendar to spare? Please send sameto Tor Torland. Tor woke up theother AM not quite sure of thetime or the day. He called theoperator and got the correct timeall right, but when he asked whichday of the week it was, the opera-tor replied, “Sorry, we’re not al-
lowed to give out that informa-tion !’’
Miss Leone Leigh, Night Recep-tionist, has resigned to take upbeing a housewife. Lilyan Schofieldsucceeds her. . . . Glenn Glasscock,control engineer, is now with theNavy on active duty. . . . D. D.
Kahle takes Glasscock’s place and
GLARENCE MOORE
Howard Johnson comes in for Sum-mer relief duty. . . . Genial DuncanMcGoll has been elected Directorof the Lion’s Glub. . . . Lloyd E.
Yoder, KOA General Manager, act-
ed as General Ghairman of the“President’s Ball” during the Ro-tary International Gonvention in
Denver recently. . . . James Mac-Pherson, manager of National SpotSales, tried to lead a heifer to waterand was dragged through a barbedwire fence for his trouble. . . .
Glarence Moore, whose picture is
directly above, came back fromEstes Park, scene of the Red Net-work “Nature Sketches”, with a
nature sketch in the form of a neatsunburn on the top of his head. . . .
Miss Beverly Ward has taken overMusic Glearance and will assist
T. E. Stepp in Transcriptions. . . .
Virginia Anderson, KOA steno,has resigned and is probably mar-ried by now. . . . Jack Lyman wascalled in on amplification arrange-ments for the Denver-owned moun-tain amphitheatre at Red RocksPark. Lyman’s experience at threeWorld’s Fairs has made him a rec-
ognized authority on the subject.
. . . Perry Perregrine has been a
flower lover for years. This yearhis tulips were particularly beauti-ful, so he invited friends to an in-
formal exhibition. Two days beforethe exhibit a hail storm struck Den-ver. Result: No tulips, no exhibit.
1 1
EXCHANGE
FIVE ROOMS— Apartment avail-
able, with roommate, $25.00 a
month. Located near NBG on49th St. off Sixth Ave. See KenShaw in Room 254.
WANTED—One roommate in ex-
change for one leaving July 1.
Attractive locality, convenientto NBC, 25 W. 51 St St., oppositeAP Building. See Frank Owens,Room 41 6.
ONE ROOM—Lots of light, plenty
of space, kitchen privileges if
desired, convenient location. SeeM. Little, Room 304.
C. E. TABLE MODEL RADIO—Eight inch speaker for use withAC current only. Original cost,
$90; now at bargain. See FrankOwens, Room 416.
GALLET STOP WATCH—Sevenjewels, easy to read. See FrankOwens, Room 416.
LARGE ROOM TO RENT—Boy or
girl. Modern apartment house.
51st St. between 7th Ave. andBroadway. Phone Magaret Mac-Laren, Circle 6-1339.
GUEST RELATIONS STATISTICS
Did you know that since January
1, 1941, there have been 51 menhired for the Guest Relations staff
and these half-hundred men are
still working for NBC? This figure
does not include those who werehired and have since left the com-pany. At the present time, there
are 96 men working for C. R.
Since the first of the year, 25men have been permanently trans-
ferred to other departments. Seven-teen men have been drafted or
joined the ranks of the UnitedStates Army, Navy, Air Corps, or
the Marines.
EDITOR’S NOTE: The entire
Transmitter staff, not only here in
New York, but every one of ourrepresentatives from coast to coast,
was very glad to hear of Miss Ham-mersley’s recovery from a recentillness. She’s too swell a person to
be out of action that way.
12 NBC TRANSMITTER
INTERNATIONALRALPH PERRY
International Broadcasting has its studios in Radio City and broad-
casts seven days a week to Europe, South America, Central America and,
in fact, to the rest of the world, via two stations, WRCA and WNBl.
In 1939, letters received in New York from points outside the United
States, totaled 39,149 letters.
In 1940, the letters received totaled 46,500.
More than fifty men and women, who speak at least two languages,
comprise the ever growing staff of NBC’s International Division, which
had its modest beginning in 1937 when two or three Spanish language
broadcasts were made weekly to South America. It now broadcasts six-
teen hours every day, seven days a week and has its own live talent shows.
Some of the artists and leading personalities featured on International
broadcasts include General Camacho, brother of the President of Mexico;
Professor, Doctor, Madame Angelique Panayotatou of the Scientific Staff
of the University of Athens; Princess Mare De Bourbou; the President of
the Senate of Peru; the Brazilian Admirals and Aviators; Rouben Mamou-lien and Leo Carillo of Hollywood; Xavier Cugat; Olga Andre; GuyLombardo and Sammy Kaye.
NBC Personnel has made ar-
rangements, or have you heard,with William Saroyan for employ-ees of NBC to see his latest crea-tion, “The Beautiful People” at
special reduced prices.
Every night except Monday andmatinees Wednesday and Satur-day. That’s the set-up and here arethe prices;
$3.30 Orchestra $1.652.75 Balcony 1.382.20 Balcony 1.10
Mr. Saroyan will contribute 15per cent of all monies received to
the NBC Athletic Association,which is good enough for us.
Arrangements had also beenmade to give NBC people a dis-
count on Orson Welle’s “CitizenKane” at the Palace Theatre.
Jeanne Bradley in Personnel is
the person to see for discounttickets to “The Beautiful People.”
On Thursday, June 12, Ted Ma-lone referred to the day as “Friday”on three occasions. Twelve phonecalls came in in as many minutes.
BOWLINGThe NBC Bowling League ended
its season with this success: Thereare over 100 members in this AAgroup and every Thursday night at
least 60 active members make up12 teams. There is an enthusiasticcheering section of other members,not playing that night, who comecome over to the alleys and root
for their department.General Service 1, the winning
team for the season, took 60 gamesand lost only 21. The high gamescore was 933 and the averagescore for the season was 821.
Engineering 2 finished in secondplace by winning 59 games out of
81 . Their high game score was 958and their average, 809.
Auditing wound up in third po-sition winning 55 games and los-
ing 26, with a high game score of
962 and an average of 800.Heitmann, General Service 1,
was the highest individual scorer of
the season with an average of
174.22, based on 81 games. Rubin,Auditing, placed second with anaverage of 170.55, based on 77games. Nicol, also of Auditing, took(Continued in column 3, page 13)
"THE HOMEWARD SCENE"Have you ever traveled homeward.When the sun was falling fast.
And the colors dyedThe countryside
That slid so smoothly past?
On a train that’s clicking swiftly
O’er the ruddy rail ahead
As the quiet light
Of coming Night
Spreads o’er the gravel bed.
With such pensive folk around youNodding with the swaying train
In its violent
Flight, as silent
Shadows sweep the country lane.
Far away, the City TowersDwindle miniature and mist.
In the gloaming
As the homingMortals keep their evening tryst
With the station platform’s still-
ness
When the train has sped its wayHear a cricket
Voice a thicket.
Turned to blue with closing day.
Now the station lies deserted.
Sprawled in solemn state and drear
While the glistening
Rails lie listening
For the Night to disappear.
Pasc.
JULY, 1941 13
chiding, inquiring and offering
some humorous slants.
A laundry in Brooklyn, person-
ified by a gentleman with a broadnon-Aryan accent, called to informTed Malone that “you are saying
in New York it is Friday. In
Brooklyn it is still Thursday.”Another gentleman held forth
that after hearing Ted’s assurancethat it was Friday he was outragedbecause he hadn’t received his
salary.
One of the newest NBC AA ac-
tivities is the Swimming Club. Un-der the direction of Elliott Mesnickit’s gaining impressive support fromNBC folk.
Organized in May, the club, in
two months, boasts a membershipof 70. The place is the Park Cen-tral Hotel where the group not only
has the use of the pool but the
gymnasium as well.
The charge is thirty-four centsper person when the club swims as
a unit and forty cents at any othertime for members individually.
Elliott Mesnick of the MailRoom and Walter Ciebelhaus of
General Service are the lads to beconsulted for further details.
"QUOTATION MARKS"
“I believe that the American system of free institutions—throughwhich the fruits of individual effort and foresight and sacrifice are best
protected—offers to mankind its greatest hope that individual security
can be attained.”SCIENCE AND SECURITYDavid Sarnoff
October, 1940
“In the all-out effort we must make to defend democracy, radio
stands as a great national asset. Broadcasting’s present efficiency derivesdirectly from its freedom. In the living patriotism which we need to
make our arms strong and our will indomitable, radio can play a signifi-
cant part. This war has shown that people can be bombed by air withwords as well as with high explosives!”
RADIO AND NATIONAL DEFENSENiles Trammell
January, 1941
“It may spread eastward to Turkey and Russia. The Germans may,for a time lay their hands on the granaries of the Ukraine and the oil wellsof the Caucasus. They may dominate the Black Sea. They may dominatethe Caspian Sea. Who can tell?”
COMMENTING ON THEBALKAN SITUATIONWinston Churchill
April 27, 1941
POSTAGE DUELetters From NBCs Information Division
Gentlemen
:
I have a very interesting act. I do shadowgraphs with myhands. My act would have to be done in front of an audience able
to read “APPLAUSE” which we could flash on a screen when wewanted it.
This would be of GREAT interest to the listening public . . .
they would hear the applause.If the public didn’t care for it . . . TO !
I would require $5,000 a week and the installation of a whitesheet to throw the figures on. If we wanted a change in programwe could play leap frog or do some magic.
Can you suggest a sponsor?Sincerely,
Dear Sir:
What I would like from Hitler is some different than I haveyet heard requested but here it is: I have ten 100,000 MarkReichsbanknotes of February 1923 issue. They were given to meand the children. My husband is in the hospital and I need moneyto pay off the mortgage and back taxes on this farm. If Mr. Hitler
would just cash these notes for me I could straighten things outswell
!
(Don’t tell him so but it would also put me in a position to
give another son to Uncle Sam.)
Here’s hoping
—
(Continued from col. 1, page 12)
the third position with an averageof 170.48, based upon 74 games.
Steer Mathew, chairman of theBowling League, has announcedthat the Fall season will open Sep-tember 12 at the Riveria BowlingHall, 1 16 West 50th Street.
The increase in bowling interestand popularity comes from the lad-
ies of NBC. They comprise about20 per cent of the group everyThursday.
New bowlers are always wel-come. If you have any ideas con-cerning the League, drop a line to
Steer Mathew, Room 560.
TENNIS
The regular NBC Tennis Tourn-ament, held every year, will takeplace in August. Contests will bethreefold. A men’s singles, a wo-men’s singles and the mixed dou-bles.
Trophies go to the winners, so
send your letter of interest to BobFine, Room 254.
14 NBC TRANSMITTER
SAN FRANCISCO
up a conference call on the switch-board and Madeline was greeted bysix young ladies, when she pickedup the phone, harmonizing “Hap-
py Birthday.”
Reed Browning, who joined theannouncing staff in March, passedcigars April 6. Reason; Little MissWendy Laurel.
Announcer Jimmy Mathews outeight weeks with a migratory strep-
tococcus infection.
Gladys Cronkhite, KPO’s “Inter-national Kitchen,” presented a p.a.
description of a horse show at theElmhurst Lions Club Picnic, June 8.
She also exhibited two thorough-bred hunters.
Jimmy Coffis left the Mail Roomto work in the U. S. Mint, whichis a good trick. Frank Olsson tookJimmy’s place.
Claire Valpey, Script, christeneda new submarine net tender andreceived a platinum-diamond wristwatch from the Navy officials.
Sales Manager William Bernard“Bill” Ryan was elected presidentof the San Francisco AdvertisingClub.
Temperance Smith, former edi-
torial assistant of “Time”, replacedEthel O’Kane in Continuity whenEthel resigned to become a hap-pily married young lady.
Marion Hansom, secretary to
Chief Engineer Curtis Peck, re-
signed in June to join her husbandin Southern California. She was re-
placed by Lola Camaches of Sales.
TIME MARCHES ON!
KGO’s A. E. “Shorty” Evans,
engineer in charge of the KCOTransmitter, and his crew havehung up a brand new record.
Out of 6,406 hours and 53minutes of air time. Shorty andthe boys lost only 31 seconds.For this bit of doing, they havereceived the annual plaqueawarded by General Electric for
the most nearly perfect recordin the matter of time off theair in 1 940.
0. B. Hanson, vice-presidentand chief engineer of NBC andJoe Arnone, architectural engi-neer of NBC, were special
guests at a luncheon broadcastcelebrating Shorty Evans’achievement.
As a feature of the program.Producer Gene Clark presented theshortest dramatic skit in radio his-
tory. It was exactly 31 seconds in
length.
OLD HOME WEEKFour former San Francisco alum-
ni, now with NBC at Radio City,
threw a welcome party for Cliff
Engle and Grant Pollack, both ofwhom have transferred to NewYork. Hosts were Announcers BobWaldrop and Nelson Case, Pro-ducer Joe Thompson, who is nowin the Army, and Sound EffectsMan Jerry McKee.
ROMANCEAnnouncer Floyd Farr and Jetta
Baker knew each other in highschool. Their school day romanceresulted in a marriage May 4.
Announcer Eddie King and Sally
O’Connell followed suit May 10.
The nuptials took place in Reno, ofall places.
Mary Milford, NBC dramatic ac-tress, and Frank Schlessinger, man-ager of Allied Advertising, ex-changed vows May 9.
PERSONALITIES
General Manager Al Nelson hasbeen elected to the Board of Di-
rectors of the San Francisco Festi-
val Association.Madeline Attabit, Traffic, had a
birthday. Bessie Atkinson hooked
Kay Barr
GOING UP!
All thoughts, words anddeeds at KCO and KPO in SanFrancisco these days have to
do with the new NBC Building,
now well under way at Taylorand O’Farrell streets.
April 16th, previous occu-pant started moving out andpower shovel digging beganMay 1. Last walls of the old
building crashed May 5. Exca-' vation was finished and work-
I
men started pouring concreteJune 4. All the footings, by
i
June 10, had been poured up to
I the basement floor levels.
Special broadcasts from thesite of the improvement, at
least once a week, will increaseas work progresses.
A “Speechless Mass Meeting”of the Sidewalk Superintendent’sClub was held. The official Side-walk Superintendent’s song wasintroduced as well as the official
cheer of the club and it markedthe first appearance of the DaintyDozen, 12 pretty KCO-KPO girls
in tricky costumes.War and weather permitting.
General Manager Al Nelson in-
tends to dedicate the new “MillionDollar Home of KCO and KPO”January 1 5, 1 942.
Florence Larsen moved fromTyping to Sales. Girls of the staff
gave Marion Hanson a farewellluncheon at the Sir Francis DrakeHotel.
General Manager Al Nelson hasbeen elected honorary director of
the California Rodeo, held annu-ally at Salinas in July.
Announcer Hal Wolf and Pro-
ducer Dick Bertrandias led an NBCsoftball team that beat the net-
work off a CBS outfit with a scoreestimated at 16 to 13.
Three weeks later, the Actor’sClub dethroned the champs 16 to
13, all of which proves the boysgot a lot of exercise.
FOOTNOTEAddition of an Associated Press
printer gives the KCO-KPO NewsDepartment all three of the newssyndicate services, AP, UP and INS.
JULY, 1941 15
H O L LY W O O DNoel Corbett
GOLF NOTESThe NBC AA chose the pic-
turesque Palos Verdes CountryClub for their third annual golf
tournament this year.
Staff Trumpeter Bob Kimicshot low gross of 78 to win.Sax player Dick Eckeles wassecond with a 79. Bing Crosbyand George Hatch, the defend-ing champ, tied for third place.
Low net honors went to BobBrooke of Engineering, fol-
lowed by John Wald of theRichfield Reporter program.Sperry Newscaster Sam Hayestied with Lew Frost for third.
The most handsome prize ofall was carried off by GeorgeVolger. All Ceorgie had to dowas to take his time between eachhole, running up the highest grossscore. Ceorgie pointed out thatwinning the swell Daily Varietycup didn’t surprise him at all, be-cause he’s getting all the luckthese days. It was only a couple of
weeks before that Mrs. Volger pre-sented him with a baby girl.
Tracy Moore’s inauguration as
head man of the Ad Club of LosAngeles means that the WesternDivision Blue Network Sales Man-ager is the first radio man ever to
hold both the vice-presidency andpresidency of the Ad group.
The season’s highlight in radiocircles was jack Benny’s 10th An-niversary party at the BiltmoreBowl, which was attended by overa thousand important radio people.Eastern NBCers who were there in-
cluded President Niles Trammell,Sidney Strotz, John Royal, ClayMorgan, Bertha Brainard and EdHitz.
New to Alex Robb’s Programand Talent Sales Department is
Leo B. Tyson, formerly of KMPC. . . Robb’s new secretary is NormaRinehart and Honor Holden is nowDepartment Auditor. . . . AleneButcher and Dorothy Daniels, bothnew to that Department. . . . Mar-garet Kent is now Lew Frost’s sec-retary, taking the place of BlancheDavies, vacated when she resignedto go to San Francisco and become
a full time housewife. . . . VavaBowers has taken a leave of ab-
sence (expecting the stork) andGrace Leddy has taken her placeas Bill Andrew’s secretary in GuestRelations. Aubrey Ison is now shuf-fling tickets in Andrew’s depart-ment. . . . Traffic Department per-sonnel notes included; HaroldHaklik now Night Traffic clerk . . .
Bud Spencer, Day Telegraph super-visor . . . Lefty Lefler, Night Pro-
gram transmission supervisor . . .
Miles Auer and Don Smith, bothnew to the Department. . . . ErnieBrashear now in Music Rights andNathan Scott into Music Research. . . Bruce Anson now a junior an-nouncer . . . Florence Cidley into
Press, taking the spot Phyllis Mur-phey left open when she went to
Auditing . . . Frank Hall now onthe parking lot.
QUICK PIX . . . Don E. Gilman,Sidney Dixon, Red Sales manager;Tracy Moore, Blue Sales managerand Bob McAndrews, Sales Promo-tion manager, will attend thePACA Convention at Santa Barbara,
June 29. . . . Abbott Tessman, an-nouncer, gave himself the hot-footwhen he fell asleep under a beachumbrella with naught but the bot-toms of his feet exposed to thesun’s rays. . . . Hal Brock, Presshead, had a new rancho out pastVan Nuys in the Valley. . . . NBCSoftballers took on Kay Kyser’schamps; score lost on the wayhome. . .
. j. R. O’Kelly, field engi-neer, out for seven weeks with a
broken jaw. . . . Bob Schuetz, head
Vice-President Don E. Gil-
man lunched the HollywoodPress Department in the Amer-ican Room of the Brown Derbyin honor of their topping off
Billboard Magazine’s AnnualRadio Exploitation Survey for
the second year.
Left to right, Noel Corbett,Catharine Schall, Dorothy Wak-nitz. Matt Barr, Martha Sher-win, Hal Bock, Press head, andClay Morgan, standing.
Mr. Gilman, Frances Scully,
joe Alvin, Nell Cleary, Phyllis
Murphey, Art Carter, photog-rapher, and Ben Byers.
of Radio Recording Division, touredthe Northwest. . .
. John Swallow,Division Program manager, also ona northern business trip. . . . TheAlex Robbs and the Hal Bocks cele-
brated their wedding anniversariesthe same day. The Robbs are 1
5
years up on the Bocks, however.. . . Bob Moss and Dave Elton aremotoring East together. . . . An-other going East for a new car is
Martha Sherwin of Press. . . .Wen-dell Williams and his wife, theformer Helen Buchta of New York,will vacation at Priest Lake, Idaho,after which she will vacation in
Gotham. . . . William’s secretary,
Kathleen Kelly, will vacation in
Yosemite. . . . Wynn Rocamora ona business trip to New York. . . .
Wally Boone had his tonsils
yanked. . . . Nell Cleary of Press
and PBX Operator Bill Clevenger,both sporting canes; bad ankles.
. . . Nadine Amos, Mr. Gilman’ssecretary, still industriously study-ing Spanish. . . .
MEMONow that Charlie Turner is in
the army and we have a new edi-
tor there is no longer the danger of
out-of-town correspondents beingfrightened by memos signed Phtho-lognyrrh.
Unraveled, that spells Turner,believe it or not. The explanationfor this bizarre orthography is as
follows;
phth, as in phthisic, is Tolo, as in colonel, is URgn, as in gnat, is Nyrrh, as in myrrh, is ER
16 NBC TRANSMITTER
THE NBC RIDING CLUB'S PAPER CHASE
The paper chases are fast be-coming an institution with the rid-
ing group. Its most recent one washeld Saturday, May 17, underthe able and original direction ofMr. D. B. Van Houten, Ridingchairman.
Color movies of the entire eventwere taken in perfect sequence.The photographer preceded theriders enough in advance to photo-graph them at key spots on theride. His sequences numbered pinegroves, wooded lanes, fields of
fern and crossing streams, whereeveryone hoped it would be theother fellow whose horse wouldbalk at going knee deep in coldwater.What is a paper chase? There
are several definitions. The ortho-dox one being a treasure hunt withpaper confetti clues on the trails
which lead to a hidden letter, thefinder of which is the winner of
the prize.
One of the newer riders on May17, contributed a slightly differ-
ent version. She assumed it was a
ride in which everyone hopped onand off their horses, trying to pickup small bits of paper strewnthroughout the woods and the oneable to collect the greatest numberof paper bits won the chase.
As usual, Mr. Van Houten pre-
ceded the riders by a half hour onthe trails to set the clues. Mrs. VanHouten and Dick Van Houtenjoined in the chase. Dorothy Lewisof General Service had Mascot andeveryone agreed she looked like a
circus rider for Mascot has that
same slow, graceful canter, so
beautiful to see. Helen Korday, in
Personnel, felt that she had beengiven the horse Good Luck becauseshe hadn’t been on a horse sincelast Fall.
Al Patkocy, of Duplicating, gaveeveryone a qualm when his horsetried to throw Al over his headwhenever he approached water. Al
managed to stay dry but developeda few blisters doing so.
After one hour of riding, Claire
Maxwell of C.R. and Virginia Blackof Blue Sales exchanged horses.
We wonder whether it was a ques-tion of matching costumes.
Ed de Salisbury of Sales Promo-tion was late. Just as the group wasmounting, up dashed a cab with thetardy Ed. Shame.Edme Logan, Stenographic, and
Paul Rittenhouse of Guest Rela-
tions kept to the rear. Paul, savinghis fire for the final stretch, fooledeveryone, including himself, bywinning the prize.
After the ride, an outdoor fire
was built and 32 people indulgedin frankfurters, hamburgers, cakeand coffee, prepared by Mrs. VanHouten, the guardian angel of all
the riding picnics.
The gods were with the group.While the morning was sultry, thesun shone brightly all afternoon.
Not until the fire was out and thegroup piling into the cars, prepara-tory to calling it a day did Old Sol
hide behind the clouds and usherin a real Spring storm.
j' t, ,, •!1 - T •££
NBC TRANSMITTERNATIOi'v'*! broadcasting company, iNCi
OCTOBER ^ glneral library^ J 9 4
1
80 ROCKEF&LLtR PLAZA, NEW YORK, N. im
2 NBC TRANSMITTER
INTERNATIONALOnce an obscure, hopeful offspring of domestic radio,
it took a World War 1 1 to expand NBC’s International Di-
vision into a most vital branch of broadcasting today.
From the 70 acres of the Bound Brook plant in NewJersey hum the 50,000-watt signals as they send six dif-
ferent languages from sixteen to twenty-four hours a dayto over 80 foreign countries and possessions.
Originating, for the most part, in Room 21 1 in RadioCity, these programs carry with them the greatest respon-
sibility yet known to broadcasting. Out of the “futurepossibility’’ dream that still cloaks television and fre-
quency modulation, has emerged International Broadcast-
ing into the very real present. In 1925, the trail-blazing
began. Raymond Guy, radio facilities engineers for NBC,reports that in 1925, in a 20- -
minute broadcast from Station
5XX in London, England, only oneminute was intelligible. In 1940,International had grown up and re-
ceived its commercial license.
Today, 92 stations in over 20Latin American countries havesigned contracts with NBC to formthe largest single Pan Americannetwork ever developed.A useful service to Latin Ameri-
ca, South America and Europe re-
quires daily transmissions in six
different languages: Spanish, Eng-
lish, German, Portuguese, Frenchand Italian. Transmissions in eachof these languages require separate
staffs. Radio City is merely the
headquarters; foreign representa-
tives and contacts are scattered
throughout the entire world.
Over a half -hundred people
make up the International Division
in New York. Under John W. El-
wood, energetic and likeable, the
company spirit that exists there
today is the finest example of
people working together. Young,vital, this division of NBC is mak-ing the world sit up and take
notice.
Throughout Europe, thosecaught listening, in oppressedcountries, to the news broadcasts
of NBC are heavily penalized.
Nevertheless, an audience exists of
such proportions as to redouble
the efforts of those on the Euro-
pean staff.
American news continues to be
the best and often the only source
of unbiased, complete news heard
in European cellars, under Amster-dam beds and in Belgian closets.
When International takes theair, all concerned subtly show thatthey feel their responsibility. Forin Europe, at present, with theexceptions of Switzerland andSweden, all news filters throughthe Dr. Goebbels’ propaganda ma-chine before it reaches the popu-lace of Germany and the occupiedterritories.
Sticking strictly to objective,
clear-cut news and commentary,NBC rightly surmised that the con-trast to European colored informa-tion would have the desired effect.
From travelers, officials and fromsmuggled letters have come thereplies. A few such letters are
published, for the first time, onthese pages.
Early this year, NBC inauguratedtwo new 50,000-watt transmitters
so that both WRCA and WNBIbeam abroad by means of new di-
rectional antennas just twice their
former strength.
NBC’s task in Latin America is
of equal importance. Today,WNBI and WRCA are the mostwidely listened-to stations belowthe Rio Grande. Some four years
ago, it was a different story. Ger-many, at that time, had thestronger signal.
Propaganda, as we know the
word today, is a powerful force.
The best practicable weapon to useagainst it is facts, presented factu-
ally. Having conquered our Rockiesand the Great Plains, this nation
has just discovered the frontiers
that still remain. Radio is both themusket and the plow.
NTERNATIONAL FIRST
. . . First American Network to en-gage in international broadcasting.. . . First Network to have full timeforeign correspondents.. . . First Network to receive pro-
grams from foreign sources anduse them in a commercial program.. . . First Network to send commer-cial programs to foreign countryfor rebroadcasting.. . . First Network to tie in a num-ber of foreign stations to transmitthe same program.. . . First Network to receive and to
rebroadcast from
:
Europe.Central and South America.Hawaii and South Sea Islands.
Australia and New Zealand,japan and China.Philippines.
Dutch East Indies.
Siam.Africa (North, East and
South)
.
Near East (Palestine).
Bathyosphere—2500 ft.
depth.Stratosphere— 13 miles.
m. Ships at sea.
n. Clipper flying Pacific.
o. Graf Zepplin.
p. Battlefield— Floyd Gibbonsfrom Manchuria.
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
g-
h.
k.
I.
THIS ISSUE’S GOVER:WRCA and WNBI, Inter-
national Broadcasting’s new50,000 - watt Transmitters at
Bound Brook, New jersey. 70acres of the most highly valuedproperty in the world today.
OCTOBER. 1941 3
LETTERSHelsingfors, Brando.
"On board of this ship 1 haverepeatedly heard your broadcasts.
. . . The rest of the German-speak-ing world could hear more of thefate of the Baltic peoples. ... In
the Baltic there is now much less
freedom than under the formerregimes, which by far were notdemocratic.
The material situation of the
workers has catastrophically be-
come worse, the prices of goodshave risen 3, 4 and 5 times in com-parison with the much advertisedrise in wages.”
Beograd, Yugoslavia.".
. . When Laval was dismissedfrom his office ... I listened to
another American broadcastingstation from 6:15 to 6:30 p.m.,
and it did not give this news, butwhen I listened to your newsbroadcast one minute later, theabove-mentioned sensation wasannounced. That same evening I
tried to check this news throughany one of the European broadcast-ing stations, but in vain; it onlybecame general news on the fol-
lowing day.”
This letter was smuggled out of Germanyby an emigrant and brought to Colombia,South America, via Russia, Japan and overthe Pacific. The letter was mailed fromMedellin, Colombia, on Feb. 17, 1941, andreceived by the International Div. March11, 1941.
Berlin.
September, 1 940."It will take several months be-
fore you will receive this letter . . .
The time of your broadcast andwave length is a quietly-kept secretof very, very many . . . We havetwo big favors to make of you:
1 . Most of our radios have a
short wave dial beginning only withthe 19 meter band . . . GermanHour, if possible, use the 31 meterband.
2. Please change the broadcasttime of your news period to theend of the hour, as the GermanRadio Station broadcasts the newsat 8:00 p.m., to which we mustlisten, so one at least knows thenext day, what Dr. Goebbels hadto communicate to us.
BROADCASTINGJohn F. Royal, Vice-President in charge of International Relations,
has flown more than a half-million miles over most of the world’s air
lines looking after NBG’s far-flung broadcasting interests. Returningfrom a 20,000-mile air tour of all the Republics below the Rio Grande.Mr. Royal brought with him signed contracts with 92 stations in the
20 Latin American countries. This step by NBG, in extending its PanAmerican network, results in the largest single network yet developedby any major American broadcasting company.
Mr. Royal, on returning, said, "This is another step on the part of NBGto cement the social, commercial and cultural ties with the people of
the United States and our South American neighbors. In completingthis extension of our Pan American network we have dealt separatelywith every one of the countries instead of considering the ‘South of the
Rio Grande’ as a whole.We have followed this plan since each of the Republics has radio
problems and circumstances of a local nature which had to be considered
PROGRAMS"GUGAT FOR GAMELS”—the
Red Network show featuring Xa-vier Gugat, Garmen Gastillo, Lina
Romay and Miguelito Valdez is
sent simultaneously to Latin Amer-ica. Rafael Herrera performs theneat trick of listening to BertParks, via earphones, while an-nouncing in Spanish the same com-mercials from a soundproof, glass-
enclosed booth in the studio.
"FASHIONS IN MANHAT-TAN”—beamed abroad to Europeon Wednesdays. Designed to give
helpful hints and constructive ad-vice to the women of England who,war or no, keep up with the latest
fashions. The broadcasts describetrends in design and stress the pos-sibilities of dressing smartly undertrying circumstances.
"BETWEEN THE BOOKENDS”—Ted Malone, heard regularly
over the Blue, is now beamed to
Europe five days a week.
"MEN OF MUSIG”—featuringserious music and interviews withfamous composers, singers andmusicians. The artists performduring the program while theworks of the composers are beingplayed. Frank Nesbitt, head of theEnglish Section of International,interviews.
"FOR AMERICA WE SING”—the Blue Network show featuringDr. Frank Black and the NBC Or-chestra, Helen jepson and FrankParker, is heard in England onMondays via delayed broadcast.
before any thought could be madein the direction of an extendedPan American network.”
All of the 92 NBC affiliates in
the 20 Pan American countriesnow have the opportunity of pick-ing the best programs of the NBCBlue and the NBC Red networks.American firms, doing business in
any of these countries, will be ableto sponsor commercial programsdirected to Latin American con-sumers as well as exchange ideas
and new techniques through thefacilities now made possible by this
extended NBC network.
The type of station signed byNBC varies from 1,000 watts to
200,000 watts with one or morestations in each of the 20 LatinAmerican countries.
A part of the picture was Mexi-co’s largest network of 21 stationsbecoming affiliated with the PanAmerican Network of the NationalBroadcasting Company. Mexico’slargest station, XEW, recently in-
creased to 200,000 watts, is thekey station in the group and, withits increase, is now the most pow-erful radio station in the WesternHemisphere.
Through Mexico and CentralAmerica alone it is estimated thata vast radio audience of 28,000,000people today can be served withthe best programs of both the Redand Blue networks and the spe-cially-built programs of the Inter-
national Division, receiving theseprograms through their own sta-
tions. In the words of John W. El-
wood, general manager of NBC In-
ternational, this opens "a new erain international broadcasting.”
4 NBC TRANSMITTER
RADIO CITY
PUBLIC SERVICEThe new RCA Alert Re-
ceiver, the modern Paul Revere,is an important innovation in
broadcasting. Pictured on this
page are Mayor Fiorello La-
Cuardia, National Director of
Civilian Defense, and DavidSarnoff, president of RCA, in
the first test of the device, as
a nationwide audience listened
in over the Blue Network.The receiver turns on auto-
matically when a special, in-
audible signal is flashed froma broadcasting station. A bell
rings, summoning listeners.
The demonstration tookplace at LaCuardia Airport.
Word that “enemy” airplanes
were sighted over Long Island wasrelayed from Army officers at
Mitchel Field to a Civilian De-fense Officer in an NBC Studioat Radio City. He immediatelypressed a button, sending the robotsignal riding across WJZ’s wave.Within a few seconds, the impulsesturned on the Mayor’s RCA AlertReceiver in the AdministrationBuilding of the airport, notifying
him that the NBC Blue Networkwas ready, from coast-to-coast, to
broadcast any message he mighthave as Director of Civilian De-fense.
The device can be incorporatedin standard broadcast receivers andtelevision sets to make them alert
to the robot signal.
Developed by RCA engineers to
more closely affiliate broadcastingwith national defense, it stands as
still another example of radio per-
sonnel being invaluable to the
average American community.
DISCUSSION CROUPWith a new idea running
through the set-up, the PersonnelDivision’s new series of Discus-
sion Croups will begin Wednesdayevening, October 15, and continueevery two weeks thereafter duringthe winter season.
In the past, almost every depart-
ment head has, at one time or an-
other, discussed his individual
department, its organization, op-
eration and the type of personnel
engaged. These past discussions
are all on file in the Personnel
offices and it is believed by AshtonDunn, Personnel Manager, that the
story is complete.Since the ground has been cov-
ered and, it is hoped, cultivated, a
new approach may be taken at this
time. Having inspected the de-
partments as individual units, the
idea behind this new series is to
discuss these same units as con-tributing to the whole. Why doesNBC need each division bearing its
name? How does each departmentmake up the entire picture of theNational Broadcasting Companyand thus, broadcasting in general?
This general knowledge of radio,
instead of general knowledge of
some one part of radio, should in-
terest all throughout and not a
succession of different groups of
varying interests. At the conclu-sion of the series, those participat-
ing may consider themselves as
intelligent about the entire com-pany and not just phases of thepicture.
NAMES IN THE NEWSBill McClancy resigned as head
of Traffic to enter defense industry
with the Eaton Manufacturingoutfit.
E. B. Lyford and john Murpheyof Traffic presented their depart-ing boss with an engraved silver
cigarette box in the presence of
Niles Trammell, president of NBC,and almost every other departmenthead in the company, in the plush
surroundings of the RockefellerLuncheon Club on the 67thfloor of the RCA Building.
Charles E. Phelps celebratedhis 10th Anniversary and wedidn’t record it last issue,
bringing the justifiable wrathof Blue Sales down upon us.
Forgive us, suh.
Even more sadly neglected is
Roy Sharp of Traffic. We notonly failed to mention his mov-ing from C.R. to Traffic all of
a year ago but, more important,we are only now reporting thatRoy married the former MaryParsons 12 months back. Con-gratulations on your first anni-versary, eh?
Harry Woodman, from StationRelations, from KDKA, from Traf-fic before that, resumes his postin Traffic, replacing Bill McClancy.. . . Birger Hagerth, Tour Super-visor, married Miss MarielouiseWilkens at St. George’s EpiscopalChurch, August 9th. . . . WilliamCort Miller, senior guide, marriedMiss Doris Love Kirkland at theVander Park Church, August 10th.. . . Franklin Butler of Legal wedMiss Maxine Marie Baribeau at St.
Michael’s Church, Grand Ledge,Michigan, July 23rd.
Miss Mary Sheppard of Produc-tion is now secretary to Mr. HenryLadner of Legal, replacing Miss Iva
Singer. . . . also of Legal, MissHelen M. Hartman is secretary toMr. Swezey ... as is Miss EvelynV. Schmidt, secretary to Mr. Prime.. . . Miss Olive E. Binz has trans-ferred from Legal to Radio Record-ing. . . . Transfers into Televisioninclude: C. G. Alexander fromG.R. to Programs; Dick Dinsmorefrom Recording to Production;Garry Simpson from G.R. to stagemanager; Walter Glarke, Ed Na-than and Stoddard Dentz fromG.R. ; Felix Ghirlando from GeneralService; Henry Mallen from Main-tenance and john Allen from theMail Room.
Walter Law and Herb Matticktransferred from Guest Relationsto International. . . . Irene Kuhnwent from Press to Sales Promo-tion and Gene Hamilton movedfrom Announcing to Production.
OCTOBER, 1941 5
BELLMORE LISTENING POST
NEW YORKThe National Broadcasting
Company’s new short wave Lis-
tening Post at Bellmore, LongIsland is considered the moststrategically located radio ears
in America today. Listening in
to the radio waves of the worldtoday is one of the most im-portant functions in Americanbroadcasting and representspublic service in its purestform.
Operation of the post is
under the supervision of A. A.Schechter, NBC News and Spe-cial Events Chief, with Jules
Van Item in direct charge. Topromote the highest efficiency
in the NBC search of the world’sether waves, an entire corps of
engineers and foreign language ex-
perts has been moved to the newlocation.
Linked to the growth of NBC’sInternational Division, the Listen-
ing Post’s expansion is a direct re-
sult of World War 1 1 and its spreadto Eastern Europe, the Middle East
and Africa.
A battery of the most sensitive
short wave radio receivers has beeninstalled at the former site of
WEAF’s transmitter. The staff of
foreign language news expertsdaily maintains 24-hour watch onthe world’s airways, tapping Eu-rope’s main sources of significant
news stories. Situated far from thetowering steel-ribbed buildings of
Manhattan, ideal receptionis found.
The Listening Post is linked
with the NBC Newsroom at RadioCity by three direct lines. One is
a microphone line enabling any of
the shortwave experts to take theair from Bellmore at a moment’snotice. The second line serves a
teletypewriter circuit which relays
the translated news from the LongIsland outpost to Radio City. Anauxiliary telephone circuit makesit possible for short wave monitorsand news editors to check incom-ing news bulletins.
Two electrically - operated re-
corders and playback devices havebeen installed to insure accuracyof translation.
The news of Germany’s assorted
invasions of Russia, Yugoslavia andGreece, all significant events in
the development of our foreign
national policies, are representative
of the type of news these NBCshort wave monitors pull out of
space and pass on to listeners andnews agencies on this side of the
Atlantic.
The 24-hour vigil at the ear-
phones is no easy stint. Reporting
what they hear with complete ob-
jectivity, these men must obtain
the news in spite of atmosphericdifficulties, twisted facts and the
fog of propaganda.
Since the time the war of nerves
became a war of reality, the in-
creasingly important NBC role in
the gathering of foreign news fromthe shifting centers of hostilities
has kept this staff functioning ona watch-around-the-clock sched-ule on all foreign broadcasts.
Behind the vine-covered build-
ing at Bellmore, a formidable array
of equipment hums away as it
catches every phase of the foreign
news coming in via short wave.
A bank of receivers, a battery of
dictaphones for recording impor-
tant dispatches, telephones, type-
writers and teletypes complete
the array.
Jules Van Item, responsible to
A. A. Schechter for the short wavemonitoring staff, was born in Hol-
land. He is now an American citi-
zen after having lived abroad
principally in Germany, France,
Rumania, Hungary, Spain, Por-
tugal, Argentina and Uruguay,and speaks a half dozen lan-
guages fluently as a result.
This staff must know a mini-
mum of four languages, sensepropaganda from policy trends,
facts from lies, be able to
write, preferably from news-paper experience, have had a
European education or havelived abroad for several years.
As an aid, any program com-ing over the short wave can berecorded at the touch of a
switch. The first account of
Marshal Petain’s announce-ment of the capitulation of
France was obtained in this way.Listening to a speech from Bor-
deaux, the static was so bad that
the NBC man couldn’t make it outand recorded it. Listening to thecylinder over and over again, it
finally gave up its message to himand the news made history.
The Listening Post is daily ac-
complishing what it was designedto do: bring the United Statespublic, at the earliest momentpossible, the story. Whether it
takes place in the far reaches of
Asia or the capitals of war-tornEurope, still the average man in
America must know, has the right
to know, and NBC has providedanother service to sustain thatright.
HOLLYWOODLocated in North Hollywood,
NBC has established a Pacific
Coast Listening Post to supplementthe listening activities carried onat the large Eastern plant at Bell-
more, Long Island.
This sensitive radio ear is tunedin to the Orient’s war of words andfollows a pattern of operation es-
tablished at Bellmore. Relaying
news to Los Angeles and other
West Coast newspapers as well as
the Hollywood headquarters of
NBC for broadcast over the doublenetworks, the new Hollywoodplant will be manned by a staff of
foreign language experts as highly
proficient at interpreting foreign
news as the men in the East.
6 NBC TRANSMITTER
NBC TRANSM ITTERPublished for and by the NBCpersonnel from coast to coast.
VOL. 7 OCTOBER, 1941 No. 3
EDITOR Roy Pascal
ASSOCIATES Robertson Schroeder
Arthur Bellaire
Charles Pinckney
Address all correspondence to: NBC Trans-mitter, National Broadcasting Company,Room 465, RCA Building, New York, N. Y.Telephone: Circle 7-8300. Extension 220.
SUGGESTION SYSTEMThe long hoped-for Suggestion
Plan has been announced to NBCPersonnel.
In nearly every office of theEastern Division, boxes are nowinstalled. In each of these maybe found suggestion blanks and en-velopes. Employes are asked to
mail, to the Suggestion Committee,their ideas for greater efficiency
of operations and for programmaterial.
The Committee has for its chair-
man Ken R. Dyke, Director of
Promotion and Advertising. Theother members are Vincent Gil-
chur. Director of General Service;
William S. Hedges, Vice Presidentin charge of Stations; John H.MacDonald, Assistant Treasurer;George McElrath, Operating Engi-
neer; Glarence Menser, NationalProduction Director; Roy G. Wit-mer. Vice President in charge of
Red Network Sales, and AshtonDunn, Personnel Manager.The Personnel office will receive
and record all suggestions submit-ted, turning the suggestions overto the committee. The committeewill then act on each idea, with-out knowing who submitted it. If,
after a study of the idea, it is
deemed worthy of acceptance, anaward of from $5.00 to $100.00will be authorized and the authormade known to the committee. In
this way, all ideas and suggestionswill be judged on their worth alone.
Everyone is eligible for receivingawards except department headsand officers of the company.With the adoption of this sys-
tem, now, more than ever before,
we all have the ability to share in
the operations of our company.
WASHINGTON
ANNIVERSAYEdwin Rogers, dean of Washing-
ton announcers, last month cele-
brated his tenth anniversary withNBC. He has served the entire
decade at WRC-WMAL.Ed first announced the call let-
ters of the two stations on Septem-ber 28, 1931. Today, at WRC-WMAL, Ed has assumed commer-cial importance as a newscaster, in
addition to his regular staff duties.
He is the Senate Beer and Ale re-
porter on WMAL, four times a day.
Ed’s first appearance before a
microphone was in 1923 when hesang at station WDAR, Philadel-
phia. Later, while studying for his
A.B. at Columbia University, heperformed a number of times overWjZ and WEAF. He also appearedin several New York musical showsand was on the staff of WOR andWTIC in Hartford, Connecticut.
PROMOTIONWRC-WMAL has a new promo-
tion manager and a new announcer.Hugh Higgins, for the past four
years engaged in public relations
work at Creighton University,
Omaha, is the promotion man. Ken-neth Banghart, manager of thelocal Cooks Tour travel agency, themike man.
GOLF STORY
Keith Williams, WRC-WMALengineer, reveals a unique story of
having missed a hole-in-one by 30seconds.
Keith, preparing to drive from a
Rock Creek golf course tee, noticed
a workman on the green, but paid
no attention to what he was doing.
However, when he approached the
green, the workman, an Italian,
excitedly pointed and stuttered,
“You justa miss . ..you justa
miss!”Investigating, Keith found that
his ball had stopped dead in the
center of a little round piece of
new turf, the former position of
the cup which the greenskeeperhad just moved several yards away.
Keith says if he’d driven his ball
30 seconds sooner—yep, he’d havemade a hole-in-one . . . if . . .
Tom Knode
ED ROGERS
ODDS AND ENDS
Our odds and ends will include
no vacation bits, which is morethan our other correspondents cansay, no doubt. . . . Fritz Balzer,
Music Supervisor, plays viola in the
studio band in his spare time. Thisyear he’s been promoted to the
first row. . . . George Wheeler,production department, is thebouncing father of a brand newbaby boy, at seven pounds ten
ounces. . . . Auditor Rudy Golden-stroth is slightly incensed that theTRANSMITTER should spell his
name Ruby . . . (ED. NOTE; !)
. . . Walter Salb is WRG-WMAL’snew studio organist. . . . Busiest
announcer: Steve Douglas, doub-ling in brass for Ray Michael,sports; Larry Marino, Kitbitzers;
and Bill Grago. ... Is that RayMichael looking at that windowfull of wedding rings? ... Jim
Seiler, former promotion man, re-
ports from Panama Gity that he
and John Hurley, announcer, are
enjoying their tour of duty with
the Navy, but oh, that rain—that
incessant rain! . . . Our congratu-
lations go to Mr. John Hartley and
the former Miss Maxine Cook whowere married the 9th of Augusthere in Washington. . . . Mary Ma-son, Director of WRC’s Home For-
um, is the newest member of the
100 thousand mile Mainliner Club.
OCTOBER, 1941 7
CHICAGODan ThompsonNEW SPACE
Expanding offices and studioshave now brought practically theentire 19th floor of the Merchan-dise Mart Penthouse into use for
the NBC Central Division. Threenew studios, modernistic in designand beyond-the-minute in con-struction, will be in operation bythe time this appears in print.
Roy Shield, Musical Director ofthe Division; the CommunicationsDepartment under C. V. Olmstead;the Program Traffic Departmentunder Frank Colder; and the RadioRecording Division under Frank E.
Chizzini have moved into new of-
fices opposite these studios.
New observation facilities werearranged for the Transcription De-partment on the 20th floor, whichnow takes over space formerly oc-cupied by the Program Traffic, theCommunications and the NightManager’s departments.
Completed and in operation in
August was the newly redecoratedand redesigned Studio A, largestof the NBC Chicago audiencestudios.
WEDDING BELLSNBC Chicagoans celebrated
twice on Saturday, August 16.
Once when Miss Frances Morton,secretary in the Engineering De-partment, married Hubert Abfalter,NBC Chicago studio engineer;again when Miss Violet Colliander,secretary in the office of Harry C.Kopf, NBC Central Division generalmanager, married Robert K. Mc-Elroy, student in engineering atPurdue University.
Eric Danielson, Program Traf-fic; Newsman C. Clinton Youle;Vic Brown, Program and TalentSales; Virginia Rabe, Sales; An-nouncer Durwood Kirby; DorisJakeway, Music Library; LucilleHagen of Continuity and MarionLoomis of Spot Sales have all
marched to altar since the last
check-up.
MOVIE CRITICISMThe NBC Athletic Association
Camera Committee listened tomingled catcalls, whistlings, stamp-ing of feet, cheers and applausewhen “The 1941 NBC Follies”—
a
40-minute film record of the last
Central Division Outing—was re-
leased as “the most stupendous,colossal, super-special film of theyear!” in Studio D, before an as-sembled audience of some 200NBChicagoans.
Bribes were offered on everyhand in an attempt to obtain dele-tions from the film which nowgoes into the Athletic Associationarchives and may be borrowed forprivate showings at ones’ homes
—
which many of the celebrants said,
“is just the trouble.”
PRODUCTION TURNOVERWhen Lloyd C. “Bucky” Harris,
long-time NBC production director,decided to leave NBC to join theGrant Advertising Agency, hestarted something. Earl Ebi,
“heart-throb” of the department,decided to leave NBC for the luresof Hollywood; Ted MacMurray de-cided he wanted to free lancedirect; Tom Hargis yielded to theblandishments of the Seed Adver-tising Agency and headed forRenfro Valley as director of threehill-billy shows, to be broadcastdirect from that Kentucky town;and Arch D. Scott, long anxious tojoin his family in Hollywood, wastransferred to the production staffof Hollywood, Radio City.
Maurice Wetzel replaces Harrisas assistant production managerand new men in the departmentinclude; Howard Wiley, Ed King,Alan Fishburn, and Martin Magner.
Gilbert McClelland, news editorof the NBC Central Division PressDepartment, has been transferredto the NBC Central Division SalesPromotion Department as assistant
to Mr. Emmons C. Carlson, man-ager of the department.
ORCHIDMiss Judith Waller, Director of
Public Service for the NBC Cen-tral Division, began her 20th yearin radio this year. The GeneralFederation of Women’s Clubsnamed her among 53 women in 30occupations in the United States asrepresenting the “great strides
made by women in the past 50years.”
One of the best known and bestliked figures in radio today. MissWaller joined the staff of theChicago Daily News to organizeand operate Station WCU, nowStation WMAQ, in 1922. All NBCis justly proud of her.
CHANCESMiss Kathryn James replaces
Miss Herbes who resigned as Secre-tary to Mr. Joseph A. McDonald in
Legal. . . . Miss Annamae Dormeyreplaces Miss Seward as Secretaryto William Ray, manager of thePress Department. . . . Miss Sewardwas one of the oldest employes ofthe company, resigning aftertwelve years of service. . . .
NOTESGladys Ferguson, Blue Network
Sales secretary, won the summertennis singles, besting semi-finalerMarian Cooper of Production. . . .
Glenn Webster, engineer, got his
new title of Control Relief Super-visor and a brand new daughter onthe same day. . . . Col. C. V. Olm-stead of Communications reportedthat his 5-year-old son, Ned, bowl-ed 51 in a match play game withhis Dad. . . . Raymond F. Snyder,George A Creech, Ed Weber andPaul H. Clark have left us thesemany months for the colors. . . .
Elizabeth Whitney, former secre-tary in Radio Recording, accepteda Civil Service Commission ap-pointment in the Navy Departmentand left us for Washington, D. C.
8 NBC TRANSMITTER
NBC TELEVISION
NBC is just rounding out thefirst two months of commercialtelevision, operating the first andonly television station, WNBT,during this period. All eyes, there-
fore, are directed to NBC as theproving ground of this new radio
service.
Speaking commercially, the first
question that comes to mind is
—
how many advertising accountshave been signed on during these
first two months? The answer is
eleven, five of which are on for
1 3 weeks or longer, and the others,
for one-time broadcasts.
Accounts that have been signedfor 13 weeks or longer are: AdamHat Stores Inc., Bulova Watch Co.,
Botany Worsted Mills, Blooming-dales and Abraham & Straus.
Advertisers that have been onfor one-time broadcasts are: FrankH. Lee Hat Co., Lever Bros. -Spry,
Missouri Pacific Railroad, Proctor
& Gamble Ivory Soap and the SunOil Co.
Of the series, Bulova and AdamHats have already started. Botany,Bloomingdale and Abraham &Straus are to start this month.Bulova has been continuously onthe air lanes since the first com-mercial broadcast.
This success may sound like
sudden activity out of a clear sky,
but it is just as much a part of thestory to recall that, during the twoyears prior to July 1, the NationalBroadcasting Company transmittedsome 1400 different television
programs, totaling approximatelyI,000 hours of air time.
These programs ran the entiregamut of entertainment and edu-cation from live talent studio pro-
ductions and film programs to
instantaneous pick-ups of sportingand special events in and aroundthe New York area.
These facts reflect experiencein television broadcasting. Theyalso show that television broadcast-ing is not a new and untriedmedium of public entertainmentand information.
During these same two yearsNBC Television made itself knownas an advertising medium. Over200 advertisers were kept inform-ed of television’s progress. Adver-
tising agencies were invited to
send representatives to watch this
new medium grow.The Federal Communications
Commission foresaw the wisdomof permitting experimental televi-
sion broadcasters to seek the co-operation of advertisers, who area major factor in the broadcastingstructure. NBC exercised this op-portunity to the extent of enjoy-ing the cooperation of 125 differ-
ent advertisers, representing 21
diverse industries, in the produc-tion of over 300 commercial-typetelevision programs.
During the two months of Julyand August, there were approxi-mately 15 hours of programmingper week. They consisted of
45.6% outdoor pick-ups, 32.7%Studio, and 21.7% film transmis-sions.
A few of the outstanding pro-grams were the Brooklyn Dodgersbaseball games; professional fight
pick-ups from Ebbets Field; theweekly Monday evening amateurbouts from Jamaica Arena; theintroduction of a new type of waranalysis called, “The Face of theWar” by Sam Cuff; a series of
civilian defense programs; a wo-man’s afternoon hour, “Radio CityMatinee’’; and the televising of
some of sound radio’s popularshows such as: Lowell Thomas;“Truth or Consequences”; “UncleJim’s Question Bee”; Paul Wing’s“Spelling Bee”.
Due this Fall are wrestlingmatches, football games, an OperaWorkshop series and a continua-tion of the most popular shows ofthe past two months.
With the start of commercialtelevision programming on July 1,
NBC’s weekly postcard survey of
audience reaction was resumed.Through these surveys, each mem-ber of the audience has the oppor-tunity to register his opinion of
each program on the basis of “ex-cellent”, “good”, “fair” and“poor.” For the purpose of tabula-tion, numerical values 3, 2, 1, and0 respectively, are assigned to
these ratings.
For the first two months, theaverage of all programs transmittedwas 2.07%. This represents the
Noran T. Kersta
average opinion as 7 units above“good.” It is interesting to notehere that the average of August,2.12, is above the average for July,
which is 2.03. As operations getinto full swing, it is expected thatthese averages will show an im-provement with each month.The number of receivers in the
field and their performances are,
naturally, very vital factors in ourservice. As commercial broadcast-ing opened, there were thousandsof television receivers that had to
be adjusted to new industry stand-ards.
The television receiver manufac-turers immediately began convert-ing these existing receivers to meetthe new standards. In the last weekof July, the audience rated “tech-nical reception”, on the basis men-tioned above, at 1 .99, which is
just below “good.” Four weekslater, during the week of August18-24, they rated it 2.25, which is
considerably above “good.”
In the field it was found that,in the evening, it is rare to haveless than 80% of receivers turnedon. In the daytime, the average is
around 55%.In the evening there is an aver-
age of 5.8 viewers in the home andan average of 22 per receiver in
public places. Applying these aver-age-per-receiver figures to the percent turned on out of the 4,700estimated receivers in the field, thetotal actual number of individualsviewing in the evening, is broughtto something over 30,000.
Naturally television, like all
other industries, in recognizing theorganization of this country’s re-
sources for defense, must, for themoment, be satisfied with its pres-ent rate of steady progress. Onall sides, it is recognized that tele-vision will grow to be a service to
the public supplementing our pres-ent day sound broadcasting.
As a pilot industry during this
national emergency and as a re-
covery industry after the war, tele-
vision takes on the added role ofabsorbing some of the economicand labor surpluses which will re-
sult as national defense construc-tion is eased off when the worldsituation clears.
OCTOBER. 1941 9
COMMERCIAL
t
10 NBC TRANSMITTER
LET'S GETACQUAINTED
CLEVELAND
There are only one or two things
that Clarence C. Alexander can’t
do. One of them is to deny that
he’s been an essential part of thetelevision picture; the other, to fit
a hippo through the doors of Studio3-H—and he could probably dothat, if he had to.
Young, worried, outspoken,Alexander holds down the admit-tedly “worst job’’ in the new art.
But he has the knack of gettingthings done and, when television
went commercial, the first man re-
called from his comfortable berthas general manager No. 2 in GuestRelations was “Alex” Alexander.
Today, he soothes temperamen-tal actors, while seeing that they’re
properly made up; he herds anylivestock on the show in and outon cue (try that some time) ; hesees that the sets are properlydressed—and therein hangs a tale.
His order sheet for one daycalled for; butterfly net, elephantgun, Gaucho outfit, quinine tab-
lets, bow and arrow, bag of pea-nuts, copy of “Cone With theWind’’, jug of moonshine, waterwings, life preserver, one subwayturnstile, two daggers, a stuffed
deer, sled or toboggan, several
petunias and a sweet potato in
bloom.The man who doesn’t blink an
eye at all this was born and raised
in Pittsburgh, Pa. His academicstudy majored in civil engineeringat Carnegie Tech.
Before discovering NBC, he wasmaintenance manager of the Com-monwealth Trust Company underhis father. Root, Clark, Bucknerand Ballantine and the ArlingtonCorporation both knew his services
before this restless, hard hitting,
young man broke into NBC as
assistant building maintenancemanager some four years ago.
His interest in his work is pro-
digious. His aversions; people whocan’t make up their minds, for healways can; things that happenwithout warning, for they threatenthe perfection this fellow’s everafter; no time, for too much left
to chance is dangerous. “Alex”Alexander never leaves things to
luck when he can make them cer-
tain.
JACK FERN
NIGHT PROGRAM MANAGERNOW ANTIQUE COLLEGTOR
Ghet Zohn, WTAM’s NightProgram Manager, dropped downto Medina, Ohio, recently to at-
tend an auction sale at a farmhouse there. He picked up an oldsea chest for two dollars, a pumporgan for two and a half, and 176books in three boxes at 25 centsa box. Total expenditure; $5.25.
Zohn then went to work to find
buyers. He got an offer of 30 dol-
lars for the sea chest, 25 dollars
for the organ and three dollars
apiece for three first editionsamong the books. Total amount of-
fered: $64. Profit, when and if
Zohn sells: $58.75.Zohn, you see, is holding out for
better prices. Meanwhile, Ghethas his antiques stored in the base-ment of his home where his eight-
year-old-son, johnny, is also keep-ing a six-foot black snake.
Mrs. Zohn, who won’t go nearthe basement these days, insists
that the family either move into a
larger house, equipped with zooquarters, or hang out a sign, “An-tiques and Snakes, For Sale.”
NEWGOMERSAnnouncer Irving Waugh, from
Nashville, Tennessee, is a new ad-dition to the staff. Ditto BerthaWolfe, who is a bookkeeper.
Gharles Day is a newcomer in
the Stenographic Department. In-
cidently, Madeline De Paola, of
Bob DaileyNEWSMAN TO ARMY
Jack Fern, of the News staff, hasbeen inducted into the army and,at present writing, is stationed atBolling Field, Washington. Fernhad been at WTAM for nearly a
year, working previously for NBGas a newsman in Denver andChicago.
Replacing Fern is Al Orrick. It’s
really a homecoming for Orrickwho was in the WTAM news roomup until last October, but who hastransferred to Denver, Hollywoodand back to Cleveland since then.
Orrick is married to Helen For-sythe, formerly of the WTAMNews Room, and the couple is ex-pecting an addition to their familyabout the time this edition of theTRANSMITTER leaves the presses.
Steno, is flashing an engagementring.
LATE VACATION NOTESManager Vernon H. Pribble and
Program Director Hal Metzger bothselected the state of Maine fortheir vacationing ground this year.
Engineer-in-charge S. E. Leonardhad the time of his life pulling in
strings of fish at Put-in-Bay, Ohio.. . . Mail Clerk Katherine O’Con-nell also stayed at Put-in-Bay. . . .
Dorothy Cogswell, of Music Rights,in Florida. . . . Emily Brickson, ofthe News Room, to her home townof Minneapolis. . . . Women’s Di-rector Jane Weaver and her hus-band took another ocean cruise,this time to the West Indies. . . .
Engineers Harry Caskey and Tom-my Cox both went to Michigan forthe fishing. . . . Engineer BertPruitt spent a few days visiting
Cecil Bidlack, who left the WTAMcontrols when Uncle Sam calledhim to active service as a first lieu-
tenant at Fort Knox, Kentucky. . . .
Salesman Russell Carter improvedhis golf and Salesman Harold Cal-legher and family went up intoOntario for the fishing. . . . MildredFunnell, secretary to the manager,spent most of her vacation on thegolf course. . . . Production ManWaldo Pooler visited relatives in
the East. . . . and Announcer WadeBarnes divided his time betweenNew York and Sandusky, Ohio.
OCTOBER. 1941
DENVEREvadna B. Hammersley
Don Martin at the
Mike and VerneAndrews at theControls broadcasting
from top of Arapahoe
Glacier near Boulder,
Colorado, over Sta-
tion KOA.
PARAGRAPHSKOA Staff Members are re-
covering slowly from hazards en-
countered in broadcasting from thetop of Arapho Glacier near Boul-der. Announcer Tor Torland lost
the running board from his car.
Public Service Director ClarenceMoore came home minus a fenderand a headlight, Assistant Man-ager Bob Owen lost a bumper andDon Martin his temper when Tor-land got himself lost and failed to
show for the broadcast. Tor waslike the bear who went over themountain, only he went over thewrong mountain.
James MacPherson of KOA SpotSales has purchased a new car to
celebrate his wife’s return homefrom the hospital where she hasbeen ill with a throat infection.
Thelma Erikson, former KOAsecretary, pinch-hit as receptionist
while Jeanne Carter took her vaca-tion. . . . California was vacation-
land for Ed Sproul, Mr. and Mrs.
Jack Lyman and Mary Morti-
mere. . . .
Al Crapsey and Mrs. Crapseyspent two weeks at their mountaincabin near Evergreen. . . . BeverlyWard, of Music Rights, attendedthe Fiesta at Santa Fe, New Mexi-co. .. . Ace Roberts enjoyed thesights around Carlsbad, NewMexico. . . .
Duncan McColl, KOA AccountExec., vacationed in New Orleanswhere he attended the Lion’s In-
ternational Convention. . . . Fisher-
man T. E. Stepp and Mrs. Steppidled away their vacation anglingin Rocky Mountain streams. . . .
The Ivan Schooleys, ClarencePeregrines and Joe Rohrers enjoyedthe mountains. . . . Mary Keller
spent her two weeks on a guest
ranch in the Rockies. . . . HelenLoucks journeyed to the Pacific
Northwest, Vancouver and Prince
Rupert Island. . . . Tor Torlandwent home to Seattle. . . . GeneAbernatha, KOA Guest Relations,
was married August 25 in Taos,
New Mexico, at Verona Ghurch.
KOA has cornered the marketon football broadcasts in the RockyMountain region this Fall. On thedotted line are nine biggest gamesof the year to be played against thevarious foes of Golorado University
and Denver University.
Lloyd Yoder was recently ap-pointed Ghairman of the RadioSection of the GommunicationsGommittee of the Colorado De-fense Council.
Word reached KOA recently
that its June 5th broadcast of
“Rhapsody of the Rockies’’, RedNetwork release, was heard that
day in a town called Palemburg,Sumatra, Dutch East Indies, byNorman B. Sauve, formerly of
Denver.
Chief Engineer Robert Owen an-nounced the appointment of Wil-liam Kumpfer to the position of
Studio Engineer, succeeding Bill
Williams who transferred to Holly-wood recently. . . . Stan Browntakes Bill Ratigan’s place as KOAContinuity writer. Bill No. 2 hasalso been transferred to Holly-wood.
1 1
EXCHANGE
CAMERA—Kodak Senior Special—Self Timer—6.16 Film—f45lens—Carrying Case. Good Condi-tion. Call Wilbur Welsh. Ext. 681
FOR SALE—Sacrifice. Must dis-
pose by October. Blue over-stuffed chair. Four-shelf walnutbookcase— 12 inches wide. Elec-
tric (AC) vacuum cleaner w. up-holstery attachment. Iron meshfireplace screen w. brass trim. Call
Lou Reader. Ext. 607.
FOR SALE OR SWAP—JewellFlush Mounting AC meters,
0- 1 5V. Pattern 74. Also 0- 1 5 AMPPattern 74. Also D-lOO RF Cur-rent Squared Thermocouple TypeGalvanometer Pattern 64. Call MelGreene. Ext. 275.(EDITOR: !)
FURNISHED ROOM—with PrivateFamily — 2 Windows — very
large closet—hardwood floors
—
steam heat—adjoining tiled bathw. shower—hot water alwaysavailable—nicely furnished—tele-
phone—room serviced. Gonvenientto 6th, 7th & 8th Ave. subways.Price—$7.00 per week. 2 PerrySt., Greenwich Village. Gall Ade-laide Piana. Ext. 580, for furtherdetails.
FAREWELLLieutenant Jack Tartiere, 26,
former NBG guide, decorated five
times as a liaison officer in theFrench, and later, the Free Frenchforces, died in a Jerusalem hospitalof wounds sustained in fighting at
Damascus.Relatives in New York, includ-
ing Ernest Byfield, NBG guide andstep-brother to Tartiere, were in-
formed by General Gharles deGaulle, commander of the FreeFrench Army. Tartiere is survivedby his widow, whom he marriedwhile in the United States.
Born and raised in Paris, Tartiereplayed opposite Michele Morganon the French stage.
Among his five medals for ser-
vice, with the French Army andwith the Free French ranks, wasthe famed Croix de Guerre. Tar-tiere participated in Dunquerque,Narvik, Brest and Greece.
12 NBC TRANSMITTER
PROGRAM PRODUCTIONIn a two hour conference with uniformed men interested in radio pro-
duction, Mr. Clarence Menser, National Production Director, analysedthe situation confronting young men seeking futures in NBC New Yorkas producers.
The most important point made by Mr. Menser directly refers to the
Croup article in the last issue. Mr. Menser asserted that no doors are
closed to ability, but proof of that ability must be established.
A young man’s capabilities, Mr. Menser pointed out, in Script or An-nouncing are at once apparent. In Production, the method of judging menis more complex. Only trial and error tells the story. As expense immedi-ately enters, a novice must have the two essentials, background andspecific training, to justify the gamble.
Since Mr. Menser believes that NBC should be the ultimate, compar-able to a first place ball team, the training ground would seem to besomewhere other than Radio City. Just where, is the hitch. To remedythis, Mr. Menser has long been formulating plans for an eventual farmsystem, similar to baseball. Promising material may, in this way, be giventhe chance to develop before assuming the responsibility of an NBC net-
work show.
With the Program Production Croup and the Announcer’s School underCilbert Martyn, still the only definite steps taken, to date, toward de-veloping future program executives, the Croup members are delightedwith Mr. Menser’s welcomed offer to have a production man assignedto supervise the Croup’s productions from time to time, realizing that
this might bring them a step nearer Mr. Menser’s needed farm system.
SPECIAL MENTION
NBC young ladies, 26 in all,
have completed a six week eveningcourse in air raid precaution work.The special mention is their col-
lective average of 97 percent,establishing a class record higherthan any previous company or pri-
vate group.
In the final examination, de-signed to baffle even professionalfirefighters, none of the studentsscored less than 90 percent andthere were six perfect papers.
Members of the American Wo-men’s Voluntary Services, whohave trained more than 5,000American women since March, thegirls, all NBC employes, receivedtheir diplomas and the company’scongratulations from Mr. NilesTrammell, president of NBC.
RECORD BREAKERNBC may well claim another
record breaking achievement, but
BOWLINGThe NBC Bowling League,
under Chairman Steere Mathew of
Traffic, will begin competitionearly in October on the recently
constructed alleys at 1680 Broad-
way.
The new site of this winter’s
matches is the last word in moderndesign and comfort. Although the
official entry list had not beencompiled at this writing, the roster
of teams was expected to resemble
last year’s set up.
Engineering 1 and 2, General
Service 1 and 2, Guest Relations,
Traffic, Treasurer’s, Artist Service,
Program, Sales and Auditing will
all be represented. A Ladies Teamwill most certainly be present.
New members for the most popu-lar team see Dorothy Michel.
Any NBC employe interested in
entering competition, contact anyof the following:
Charles Facer, Alexander D.
Nicol, George Milne, George Mc-Elrath, Edward M. Lowell, Lathrop
Mack, William E. Kost, Robert
Burholt, Steere Mathew, Birger
Hagerth, Henry Hayes.
All bowlers must be members of
the NBG Athletic Association to
compete in the league.
POETRY BY PRUITTAfter reading Bob Dailey’s column, last issue, on Cleveland’s ’’Poet
Laureate”, we asked Bert Pruitt to send us a suitable verse for the Trans-mitter and, if he would, we’d print it. He did and we did and here theyare, for Bert sent two and we couldn’t choose between them. Bert lives
in Lakewood, Ohio, is an NBC engineer, over 6 feet tall and has hadverse printed in newspapers in five cities.
“Yes,” I said, “I’ll see my boss
About a raise in pay.
I’ll tell him that my food and rent
Are going up each day!”
I put a shine upon my shoes.
Then straightened up my tie.
‘Til get a raise today,” I thought,
“Or know the reason why!”
I loudly knocked upon his door.
With confidence to spare.
“Gome in,” he said, quite friendly
like,
“And grab yourself a chair.”
“You’re just the man I’m looking
for,”
He told me right away.
“I’d like to borrow twenty bucks,
— I’ve had a cut in pay!”
“Dad,” she said, “I mowed the
lawn
While you were down at town.I also sprinkled it becauseThe grass was getting brown.
I picked the flowers that were out.
I oiled the mower too.
I started work at 9 o’clock
And finished up at 2.
The sun was mighty hot,” she said,
“While I was working there.
But children need the summer sunAlong with healthy air.
And Dad,” she said, “although I
had
A fairly easy time,
I somehow feel the work I did
Is worth, at least, a dime!”
—Bert Pruitt.
OCTOBER. 1941 13
this time, instead of radio or en-gineering, it’s the story of Bumpus.
Bumpus is owned by Vice Presi-
dent O. B. Hanson, Chief Engineerfor NBC. You see, Bumpus is a
dog, but not the ordinary kind.
Here’s the story:
Bumpus was cruising aroundwith Mr. Hanson out on Long Is-
land Sound, where there’s plenty of
room for cruising, and dove off his
master’s yacht, "The Phantom,’’for a short dip in the drink.
Bumpus had done this sort of
thing before. But on this spree, thenext time Bumpus felt a deck be-neath his paws, it was that of a
motor launch. Still nothing un-usual? The motor launch merelyhappened to be five miles from thepoint of immersion.
Bumpus has done something un-equaled in dogdom. His five mileswim is unique. It 'impressesBumpus not in the least we’rehappy to say. He knows his masteris proud of him, but all that con-cerns him now is his return to thesolid comforts of home.
"SQUADS LEFT"
The news on the defense front is the organization of the New YorkCity Defense Recreation Committee. NBC has taken a leading role in thecommittee’s work to provide hospitalization and recreation for men in
the armed forces on leave in Manhattan.
More than forty NBC girls have volunteered as hostesses, serving at
the dances and various other functions for the service men run by theCommittee. Any other NBC girls who qualify by being single, between21 and 35. citizens of this country and are interested, may learn moreabout it from Miss Lucille Claus of Central Files, who is Assistant Chair-
man of the Committee of Hospitality and Welfare.
The program originally was not scheduled to start until October, butthe great necessity for such an organization altered original plans andoperations began by mid-summer.NBC has further aided by making between 800 to 900 tour and broad-
cast tickets available each week for the men on leave. These tickets are
distributed to the men by the Committee.
MEMOS—Bill Wells returned to NBC on leave, and his fellow C. R.
pages and guides didn’t recognize him in uniform, on the third, eighth,
ninth and mezzanine floors. Bill transfers to San Diego Naval TrainingSchool from Rhode Island. . . . Charlie Turner, former Transmitter editor,
now a film editor in the signal corps at Fort Monmouth, still manages to
make the revivals at the Museum of Modern Art Film Library showings.. . . Tom Canning of C.R., in the Air Corps, cracked up a plane but walkedaway from the wreck.
"POSTAGE DUE"Letters from NBC’s Information Division
Program Director—Sir:
Perhaps you need a new announcer—or another one.
I would like to come over to where you are and get in backof one of your micro-boxes.
Maybe you’ll like what hits your ear and we could get
together—or no. Yes?Thanks.
N.B.C.:
Listening to your radio I heard this new song "Sylvia” and I
thought you should know that the words are not original. I read
the words in the library. Please inform your songwriter.
Very truly.
Gentlemen
:
I am 34 years old, 5 feet 2 inches and weigh 1 1 5 poundswith medium brown hair, green-gray eyes. My disposition is
very changeable and dreamy, romantic and ambitious.
I have a daughter 15 years old and have been married 16years.
1 have been a waitress for about seven years and did office
work for 3V2 years lately. I must admit 1 have just found outhow dumb 1 am and believe I could do a sketch on the radio
like jane Ace with little training so decided to write and askif you would consider giving me a job on the radio.
Truly Yours,
BASEBALLThe NBC Baseball Team lost a
closely contested game to their
RCA Camden rivals recently. Thecontest was bitterly fought here in
New York.
A return match had to be can-celled because of the NBC team’scommitments in the Motion Pic-
ture Baseball League of New YorkCity. Despite the RCA set-back,NBC has advanced to the semi-finals and is slated to meet thestrong Universal Pictures team atthe George Washington HighSchool Stadium.
The NBC-RCA Camden en-counter marked the third year theteams have met. Until this recentclash, RCA led by a single game.
SEALS AND PENGUINSIt’s about time someone put a
stop to Prometheus and the friendshe brings home. First it’s seals,
then it’s penguins splashing in thefountain and not a secretary in theRCA Building getting any workdone.
Now if they had Bumpus swim-ming around, it would really besomething.
14 NBC TRANSMITTER
SAN FRANCISCO
BUILDING UPSan Francisco people are refer-
ring to it as “Our new NBC Build-ing.” Taxi drivers are alreadypointing it out as one of the showplaces of the Bay City. The wholetown is conscious that somethingis happening to the communityand that radio is responsible.
Of course, the builders are just
pouring the concrete on the thirdfloor as this is written. There is
much work to be done. But thepace is good and Al Nelson, gen-eral manager of KCO and KPO, is
aiming at next January 15 as Dedi-cation Day.
PICNICIt was all-out for KGO-KPO per-
sonnel August 5, the day of theannual staff picnic. Bob Seal,
president of the NBC AthleticClub, planned the day but had tohave a lot of help in the handlingof all the races, games and othercontests. Harry Mayhorn, trea-surer, collector of the wampum,was a very important aide.
As usual, the day was spent atthe Beresford Country Club. Golf,swimming, tennis, badminton,softball, ping pong and other day-light activities brought trophies tothe winners. Dinner and a ribbing,roasting. Gridiron Glub sort of program ended the fun festival.
FAIROne of the features of the Cali-
fornia State Fair, in Sacramento,was the dedication of a new Radioand Press Building, August 30.
More than 60 radio folk fromstations in the San Francisco areamade the trip as guests of the FairAssociation. Those from KCO andKPO were Jim Pool, Helen Sten-son, A. E. “Shorty” Evans, ReolaJamison, Neil Lyons, KathleenMoore, Mr. and Mrs. Byron Mills,Beth Gardner, Neal Shafer, JackUlrich, Mr. and Mrs. Syd Dorais,Edwarda Pickett, Jo Elletson andFlorida Edwards.
RODEOIt required a fleet of private
cars, in addition to a big Grey-hound bus, to carry the San Fran-cisco radio crowd to Salinas, Cali-fornia, for the annual Radio Dayat the California Rodeo.
Talent presented informal pro-
grams after the noonday luncheonand the evening dinner. Theparade, the rodec and a cocktail
party filled the afternoon and a
carnival wound up the evening.Larry Keating em-ceed the
luncheon program, presenting thefollowing NBC artists: GladysSimpson, Camilla Romo, ElizabethRussell, Sonia Shaw, Ruth Sprague,Florida Edwards and Yvonne Peat-
tie.
Others from KGO-KPO wereMrs. Keating, John Wolfe, JackEdwards, Jr., Caren Puente andJuan Trasvina.
SUPER MARKETOne of the greatest promotion
jobs in the history of Oakland,California, was the joint effort of
KCO and the 22 Lucky StoreSuper Markets.
Although it was strictly a com-mercial activity all the way, theBig Show in the Civic Auditoriumnot only attracted more than 30,-
000 people but won a wealth of
good-will for the promoters.There were 12,500 in the main
auditorium, another 2,500 in theopera house section of the hugebuilding. Rain did not drive 7,500away from the speakers outsidebut did discourage some 10,000who were unable to get into theplace.
Prime movers were CharlesCrouch, manager of the LuckyStores, and Al Nelson, generalmanager of KGO and KPO. Bob
Kay Barr
Seal prepared and produced thetwo-hour program, half of whichwas broadcast. Ricardo had an aug-mented orchestra of 40 pieces andthe parade of talent was most im-pressive.
NOTESJack Bennett, formerly of the
KGO-KPO production department,has been made announcer in
charge of programs going out overthe Asia beam from the GeneralElectric short wave station KGEI.
Sonia Shaw, native of Russia,popular singer at KGO-KPO, be-came a citizen of the United Statesin August.
Frank Mason, Vice-President in
charge of Information, and A. A.Schechter, Director of News andSpecial Events, NBC New York,visited San Francisco in August.
Fred Schilplin, editor and pub-lisher of the St. Cloud (Minn.)Daily Times, which operatesKFAM, visited the San FranciscoNBC stations in June and attendedthe Speechless Mass Meeting at
the new NBC Building.Three clowns, including Felix
Adler, a wild animal trainer, a
slack wire performer and thekeeper of Gargantua, the giantgorilla, all from the RinglingBrothers and Barnum & BaileyGircus, put on a free show andbroadcast from the new NBCBuilding Monday, September 8.
William Kingstone Emery, headof KGO-KPO Guest Relations,
married Lucy Ellen Grofoot of
Porterville, Galifornia, August 31.
Upton Glose, NBC analyst of
news from the Far East, was honorguest of the San Francisco Press
Club, August 29.
George Mardikian, president of
the S. F. Sidewalk Superinten-dents’ Glub, was speaker at theOakland Advertising Glub lunch-eon, September 2.
Announcer Larry Keating wastransferred from KGO-KPO to theNBG staff in Hollywood and wasreplaced by Douglas Gourlay of
KDYL, Salt Lake CityGene Grant, KGO-KPO Sales,
was seriously hurt in an autocrash when he turned out to avoid
a head-on collision and smashedinto a tree. Improving.
OCTOBER. 1941 15
HOLLYWOODNoel Corbett
LISTENING POSTThe tension in the Far East
has provided NBC with the in-
centive to create a powerfulshort wave “listening post”
near the Hollywood studios.
A. A. Schechter, Director of
News and Special Events in
New York, came West to get
the new station under way.Don E. Gilman, Vice-Presidentin charge of the Western Divi-
sion of NBC, dedicated the
new post August 1 5.
QUICK PIX . . . Mr. and Mrs.Lew Frost (he’s assistant to
Vice President Don E. Gilman)have just returned from a motortrip through the northwest and into
British Columbia. . . . Now it’s his
secretary’s turn to vacation andMargaret Kent is off for twoweeks in San Francisco. ... It will
be a November wedding for Her-bert “jock” Fearnhead of Audit-ing and Miss joy Carolyn Richards.
The pair announced their engage-ment when the bride-to-be wasgraduated from UCLA last june.
“jock” is late of Southsea, Eng-land. . . . Hollywood’s newestbenedict, Ray Schultz of Guest Re-lations, is back on the job follow-
ing his Ghicago honeymoon. Rayand the former Gretta jane Lock-wood were married August 2 at
Wilshire Methodist Ghurch. Thebride is a USG graduate. . . . En-gineer Murdo MacKenzie partedwith his appendix and is now re-
cuperating at home. . . . A. H.
Saxton, head of Engineering, andKen Hicks of the same depart-ment, both moved into their re-
spective new homes during their
vacations. . ..jack Parker of Pro-
gram Talent Sales resigned to re-
turn to his home in Portland,Oregon. . . . Alene Butcher, secre-tary to Leo Tyson and GharlieSmith, has been entertaining hermother from East Orange, Newjersey. . . . Miss Dorothy Knight is
the new secretary to Mr. R. H.Graham in Legal, replacing MissGilligan who resigned August 15.
. . . Tracy Moore, Blue NetworkSales Manager, regretfully badefarewell to his secretary of five
years standing, Helen Aldrich, whoresigned to accept a secretarial
position at Mather Field, the AirGorps base in her home town of
Sacramento. First time Helen'sbeen back home in fourteen years.
. . . Vava Bowers, secretary to Bill
Andrews in Guest Relations, is theproud mama of a baby girl, bornAugust 7. The baby has beennamed Nadine and tipped thescales at six and a half pounds at
birth. Vava returns from her leaveof absence this month and pinch-hitter Grace Leddy returns to herhome in New York for a visit. . . .
Ben Byers of Press and Virgil Rei-
mer of Sound Effects spending all
their spare time and/or dollars in
flying lessons. . . .john Swallow,
Program Manager, showing off a
34-pound salmon sent him by DickKeplinger at KOMO in Seattle. . . .
The Wallows and the BuddyTwisses both celebrating weddinganniversaries September 12. TheSwallows have ticked off six years,
the Twisses 1 6. ... Ed Wulzen,of the Music Library, leaves the
company to join KVEG at San LuisObispo as an announcer. He’ll bereplaced by Gharles Sergeant ofGuest Relations. . . . Newcomersto the Guest Relations departmentare Victor Livoti, Louis Onofrio,William Adams and Alfred Ather-ton, while among those transfer-ring to Hollywood are ArchieScott, formerly a Ghicago pro-ducer, and Marjory Moline, for-
merly of the File Department in
New York, who is now in GentralStenographic. . . . And now yourreporter bids you adieux. Afterhandling Transmitter news fromHollywood ever since he trans-
PIGTURE
Seeking improvement in
service and facilities, nineradio station owners and man-agers of the National Broad-casting Gompany Pacific Coastbasic Blue Network, held a
precedent shattering meetingat Hollywood Radio Citv. Theregional meeting, the first of
its kind in radio, was called byDon E. Gilman, Vice President
in charge of the Western Divi-
sion of NBC.Those attending are pictured
here in this order: (standingleft to right) Hal Bock, Press
Manager for the Western Di-
vision of NBC; john Swallow,Program Director for the WesternDivision of NBC; Clyde Scott,
Sales Manager for KECA, Los An-geles; Louis Wasmer, President ofKGA, Spokane; Birt Fisher, Gen-eral Manager of KjR, Seattle; LewFrost, assistant to Don E. Gilman;Tracy Moore, Blue Network SalesManager for the Western Divisionof NBG; Howard Lane of the Mc-Glatchy Network; Arden Pang-born, Manager of KEX, Portland;Bob McAndrews, head of SalesPromotion for the Western Divi-
sion of NBC; (seated) CharlesStorke, Manager of KYMS in SantaBarbara; Tom Sharp, President ofKFSD in San Diego; Don E. Gilman,Vice President of the WesternDivision of NBG; Harrison Holli-
way. General Manager of KECA,Los Angeles; Keith Kiggins, BlueNetwork Sales Manager for NBC;and Al Nelson, Manager of KCOin San Francisco.
ferred from San Francisco severalyears ago, his other Press Depart-ment duties force him to relin-
quish the job. Beginning nextmonth, your Hollywood notes will
be written by Martha Sherwin.
ED. NOTE: Noel’s been a veryswell correspondent and we’resorry to lose his work. We wel-come Martha Sherwin though andwe’re sure that she can equal thefine caliber of Noel Corbett’scolumns.
16 NBC TRANSMITTER
FREQUENCY
The hullabaloo that launchedFrequency Modulation (FM)sound broadcasting has subsided a
little, leaving the new method to
progress strictly on its public ap-
peal.
Practically everybody has heardof FM. Thousands have heard FMbroadcasts. And some have boughtFM receivers in those areas wherethere are FM stations.
NBC, applying its policy of fur-
thering any development thatpromises to better radio service,
established an FM transmitter at
New York in 1939. The station,
W2XWC, now broadcasts eighthours a day, five days a week. Thestation’s power is shortly to beboosted.
There’s a lot of curiosity aboutFM. The initials themselves carrya suggestion of mystery and theclaims for it intrigue some personswhose morning listening is rudelyshattered at times by the neigh-bor’s electric razor.
Frequency Modulation, as a
broadcasting service, is new. As a
method of radio, it goes back to a
patent applied for in 1902. It ex-tends through patents in practi-
cally every year between that yearand this. A lot of engineers havehad a hand in its development. Butdevelopments in the last fewyears, both in the use of ultra highfrequencies and in FM itself, havemade the system practicable for
broadcasting.Practically all of radio the world
over uses amplitude modulation(AM). With this system, thetransmitter’s carrier wave remains
unchanged. Only the amount of
power radiated by the transmitteron its carrier wave varies from in-
stant to instant.
In FM the radiated power re-
main's constant, but the carrier
frequency changes in accordancewith the sound being broadcast.That’s the way O. B. Hanson, VicePresident and Chief Engineer,would put it, except that he woulddraw a few illuminating diagramsthat would pretty much clear upany further confusion.
Mr. Hanson agrees that FM is
an improved method of modulatinga carrier wave and that FM results
in noise-free reception at lowersignal strengths than is possiblewith AM. Frequency Modulation,he says, gives greater fidelity, part-
ly because it is less noisy and partly
because the Federal Communica-tions Commission has set asidechannels 200 kilocycles wide for
FM stations. This enables broad-casting to escape the constraintsof the 10-kilocycle band. It’s
simply a matter of getting moreof the overtones into the trans-mission to give the programgreater richness.
A good deal of FM’s static-free
quality is due, according to ChiefEngineer Hanson, to the fact thatFM stations use ultra short waves.These are practically free of
natural static. NBC’s experimentalUHF stations, using frequencymodulation, cut blithely throughterrific thunder storms with nomore than a faint click in the re-
ceiver.
Frequency Modulation has one
. . . that the rugs in NBC areshampooed? Soap suds and all.
. . . that the Wilson sign onBroadway, featuring those veryamusing silhouettes, is actuallytelevision in its early form?. . . that the second floor ofNBC is regarded by theatrical folkas the successor to the front of theold Palace Theatre?. . . that not every NBCite knowsthat the NBC Studio-Television
Tour is the number one tour at-
traction in the country?. . . that the worst air condition-ing problem is encountered in thecontrol rooms? Seems every agencyman has six assistants.
. . . that Lorin Maazel, Frenchyoungster who conducted the NBCSymphony Orchestra at the age of1 1 ,
first conducted at 8 years, hasabsolute pitch, rehearses and con-ducts without a score?
MODULATION
distinct advantage over AmplitudeModulation, Mr. Hanson says.
That is the effect of the “limiter.”
action in the receiver. This is a
gadget that keeps out all the peskyman-made noises that occasionallydisturb AM reproduction.
Vacuum cleaners, the afore-mentioned electric razors, dia-
thermy machines, electric coils,
transformers—the last are thoseblack boxes you see situated at
regular intervals on telephonepoles—all disturb AM reproduc-tion often enough to be very an-noying. Under FM, they amount to
nothing. Tube hiss also is held to
a minimum.How fast ultra-high frequency
broadcast services, making use of
this new method of modulationwill spread is still an unansweredquestion. To take advantage of thegreater fidelity that is possible
with FM, the receiver has to havea speaker unit capable of reproduc-ing, without distortion, the widerange of sound frequencies. Conse-quently, the prices of quality FMreceivers will be relatively high.
That’s just about the problem,greatly simplified, that FM faces.
It may grow along with television.
Both use UHF and television soundis FM.
Meanwhile, NBC will continueto operate VV2XWC; it will beW51NY when it goes commercial.A Chicago station will be built in
that future. When demand for FMspreads, NBC will apply for per-
mission to establish still other FMstations in still other parts of the
country.
DID YOU KNOW?
. . . that Personnel interviews
approximately 18,000 people a
year seeking positions with NBC?. . . that NBC people have seenmore of the Rockettes across the
way than any one else?
. . . that WEAF broadcast its
first commercial on September 7,
1922?. . . that 500,000 pounds or 1 1
carloads of rock-wool insulates
this building?