Broadcasting Telecasting (July - Sept 1951)

Record Details:

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A REMOTE in 1929 was planned in the face of incalculable odds. When the By 1936 the remote technique had improved considerably (center photo) an Graf Zeppelin arrived at Lakehurst, N. J., that year (left photo) Floyd when the Hindenburg arrived at Lakehurst May 9 NBC gave exclusive cove Gibbons, wearing a pack transmitter, described it for NBC listeners while age from its remote truck. The 1927 World Series was covered (right photi G. W. Johnstone and William Burke Miller struggled with a portable aerial. by NBC when Graham McNamee (with hat) handled the announcing NBC's 25 Years . . . 1926 Sept. 9: NBC organized as a service of RCA with aim "to provide the best programs available for broadcasting in the United States." First network included 21 stations, to begin operation Nov. 15. Merlin Hall (Deac) Aylesworth named first NBC president. Nov. 15: Inaugural broadcast with Walter Damrosch and a symphony orchestra, Titto Ruffo, Goldman Band, Weber & Fields, Mary Garden, Will Rogers, New York Oratorio Society, and the Vincent Lopez, Ben Bernie, B. A. Rolfe and George Olsen orchestras. 1927 Jan. 1 : NBC-Blue Network, with WJZ New York as key station, begins operation as adjunct to NBCRed, original network, with WEAF New York as key. First coast-to-coast broadcast — Rose Bowl Game from Pasadena — broadcast over 4,000-mile hookup. Jan. 5: General Foods Corp. starts its first network series. Feb. 6: Crowell Publications starts famed Collier's Hour. Feb. 18: Cities Service Co. ns NBC weekly broadcasts still continuing in 1951. THE National Broadcasting Co. will be 25 years old this fall. NBC, first of the radio networks to be formed on a permanent basis, began operations Nov. 15, 1926, with a gala all-star program. In addition to presenting such headliners as Walter Damrosch, Titto Ruffo and Weber & Fields, this inaugural program included the then daring experiment of making two remote pickups, bringing in the voice of Mary Garden from Chicago and that of Will Rogers from Independence, Kan. The founding of NBC was based on good business sense. The novelty of radio was wearing thin in 1926; people were beginning to demand better programs than were then available; the sale of receiving sets was falling off alarmingly. Better, more widely distributed programs seemed to be the answer. RCA, which then served as sales agency for the radio sets manufactured by Westinghouse and General Electric, joined with those companies to form NBC. The network's purpose, as set forth by Owen D. Young, GE board chairman, at the first meeting of the NBC advisory council on Feb. 18, 1927, "is to provide the best programs available for broadcasting in the United States and to secure their distribution over the widest possible area." To celebrate its quarter-century of progress, NBC will devote much time and many programs during the last half of 1951 to saluting broadcasting's veteran performers and recounting its great achievements. BROADCASTING • TELECASTING presents this chronology, abridged from NBC's own compilation, for the industry's official record. Feb. 22: President Calvi Coolidge's Washington Birthda address broadcast on coast-to-coas NBC network of 42 stations. April 11: NBC Pacific Coast Nei work organized. June 11: Presidential receptio of Charles A. Lindbergh, horn from solo flight to Paris, broac cast on coast-to-coast network. July 24: First broadcast linkin U. S. and Canadian stations. Sept. 22: Dempsey-Tunney cham pionship bout broadcast on 69 sta tion-network, largest to this time Oct. 1 : NBC opens new studio at 711 Fifth Ave., New York. Nov. 7 : General Motors Corp starts first network series. Dec. 2: Pahnolive Hour starts oi NBC. 1928 March: Pacific Coast stations of fered to advertisers on "specia facilities basis" as part of coast to-coast hookup. March: First nationwide survej (Continued on page 78) When the Metropolitan Opera was broadcast for the first time in December 1931 (left photo), Milton Cross (center) did the announcing while other details were handled by Herbert Liversidge (I), production expert, and Charles Grey, Engineer. At the 1936 Democratic National Convention (center photo). NBC used a portable microwave transmitter to pick up the comments of thi delegates. Handling this phase of the coverage were Fred Shawn (back ti camera) and Tom Manning. Sound effects in early days (right photo) wer( of the crudest design and often were the actual items to be reprodu