Broadcasting (July - Dec 1940)

Awards Plan Speaker AN OUTLINE of the plan, effective this year, for public service awards for broadcasting by the Peabody Foundation, under the auspices of the U. of Georgia School of Journalism, was to be given the NAB convention in San Francisco Aug. 4-7 by Dr. John E. Drewry, director of the School. The awards, to be radio's counterpart of the Pulitzer Awards in journalism, were worked out last spring by the Board of Regents of the University, in collaboration with the NAB. WliS. CliicMgo, has eomplcred arrangeiiu'iits with tlie Chicago JIciahl-Amerii-iui to iircsciit a tie-in announcement folldwing tlie Monday evening ^Yashingtun Mcrrg-Go-Bound program for which in return the newspaper plugs the station with a box at the head of Pearson & Allen's syndicated column. Reminiscences of a Veteran {Continued from page 50-1) There is a Market Where the State's Largest Industry Will be Expanded 60% /t's Served By wcsc CHARLESTOIV, S. C. Free & Peters, Inc. Representatives Islands as told by a man who had been marooned there — a New York City taxi-driver. Red Christiansen. This program, on the order of a present-day We, the People broadcast, had to be given time and again by request. Radio, Star Maker We also learned of radio's ability to make a star. The constantly changing Eveready Hour, starting in the vv^inter of 1923, carried through to the following summer when we put Wendell Hall on for the summer period. You may recall him, "The Red-Headed Music Maker". If you don't remember him, you undoubtedly remember "It Ain't Gonna Rain No Mo' ", for which he was responsible. Hall achieved such popularity through his radio woi-k that he feecame much sought after for personal appearances, from which our client of course benefited. Incidentally, radio was put to an odd use in the case of Wendell Hall, in a program that would attract much attention even today. His marriage to Marian M. Martin, a Chicago newspaper woman, on June 4, 1924, was solemnized as part of an Eveready Hour broadcast. This particular broadcast, incidentally, was the first in which remote control was employed to supply part of a program from one point while another part of the program originated somewhere else. The organ music for the service was "piped" F M PAGE S DAVIS Consulting Radio Engineers WASHINGTON, D.C. from the loft of the Skinner Organ Co., on Fifth Avenue, to the WEAF studio, where the marriage took place. However, interesting as all this was, it was not quite as significant as another development hastened by the success of the Eveready Hour. Radio was then in a stage of development similar to that of television today. The broadcasting stations had a limited range and each station arranged its own programs. It was not long until the National Carbon Co. found its broadcasts so popular that an extension of the idea seemed desirable. Geographical Posers To permit people in outlying sections to see and hear the famous Eveready Hour entertainers, a series of personal appearances was arranged. Wendell Hall, Vaughn de Leath and Carson Robison in particular made a great many personal appearances. Often where it was possible, these out-of-town appearances were broadcast locally. However, this made for difficulties of many kinds. We found ourselves rapidly getting into the show business, with traveling entertainers shuttling between widely separated points. It began to look as though our radio and related ventures were becoming too cumbersome despite the excellence of the results. The answer seemed to lie in some sort of network. If somehow two or more stations could be connected with telephone lines, or even by radio, a large area could be served simultaneously. We investigated and learned that it was practicable. Indeed, it had been done and was being done on a basis that was largely experimental. The first record of two stations broadcasting a program simultaneously concerned WNAC at Boston and WEAF, on Jan. 4, 1923, when a saxophone solo by Nathan Glanz was relayed from the WEAF studio to the Boston station. The first regtilar service between stations came about in a noteworthy manner. The late Col. Edward H. R. Green, son of the fabulous Hetty Green, made science MAPS ANY SERVICE A BROADCASTER MAY NEED— THE BEST MAPS IN THE INDUSTRY. NO COPYRIGHT FEE his hobby at his large estate in South Dartmouth, Mass. To assure himself of a supply of new scientific equipment, he had placed a standing order with Western Electric for one unit of everything they manufactured. One day he received a number of crates containing a radio transmitter. Puzzled, he got in touch with Western Electric officials and asked what they thought he could do with this. "Broadcast," he was told. "Broadcast what?" he asked. "Speeches, phonograph records, anything," was the reply. Col. Green had his transmitter assembled, received the call letters WMAF, but shortly found himself in difficulty trying to make up schedules of broadcast entertainment. Then he had an inspiration. Invited to the home of Harry B. Thayer, then president of the AT&T, in New Canaan, Conn., he came across what seemed to be the solution of his problem. Mr. Thayer, unable to hear WEAF well at that distance, had arranged for a special telephone line from the studio to his home. Col. Green asked for a similar hookup to feed his new transmitter programs originating at WEAF, and the request was granted. On July 1, 1923, he started broadcasting WEAF programs on WMAF. Thus the first "network" came into being. Like so many other developments in radio, it was the result of circumstance rather than planning. $60 Per Hour It goes without saying that the system worked, and Col. Green entertained the countryside with music that streamed from New York via telephone line. One of the outlets for this, incidentally, was on his own estate. Col. Green rigged up huge speakers for the benefit of fishermen working along the coast. Others heard of the entertainment, and hundreds of cars could be found parked on the grounds of the Green estate, the occupants listening to the music that poured from the speakers. The first commercial radio station to be tied up regularly with WEAF by means of telephone lines was WJAR, owned by the Outlet Store in Providence. The first WEAF program to go out over this station's transmitter was a COPY a vigorous presentation ofjhe besj selling" facts, brochures trade paper advertising WAITER P. BURN & ASSOCIATES, INC. 7 W. 44th ST.,N.Y. DATA 1939 ANNUAL ADVERTISING AWARD FOR "RESEARCH ACHIEVEMENT" Page 152 • August 2, 1940 BROADCASTING • Broadcast Advertising