NBC transmitter (Oct-Dec 1944)

10 NBC Transmitter GETTING THE LISTENERS NBC’s Election Night Coverage Proved It’s the “Network Most People Listen to Most” TALLYING THE BALLOTS— Scene in Radio City's Studio 8-H showing the “ score board.” commentator's rostrum, and newsxvriters' and tabulators' desks. NEW YORK.— The listening audience, more than half again as large as that of a typical Tuesday night, showed a decided preference for the election returns program broadcast November 7 by NBC. according to a survey made by C. E. Hooper, Inc. NBC held the lead consistently through the survey period covered. With radio sets in use varying from 40 to 57 per cent of the total sets in the United States, NBC’s treatment of the election earned average audience ratings from 13.2 to 23.3 per cent. The smaller audience was checked between 7 and 8 p.m. (EWT I , the larger between 9 and 10. Between 7 and 10:30 p.m., the survey period, NBC's audience rating averaged 49 per cent over the next highest network and 41 per cent above the combined total of the third and fourth networks. To accomplish this complete coverage. NBC concentrated activities in studio 8H. the world’s largest radio studio. Network commentators from Washington and New York occupied a central dais giving them a view of the 50-foot election chart erected against the rear wall of the studio. Tabulators seated at tables on the stage compiled the material as it was received from AP, UP and INS on a battery of teletype machines, and relayed the information to the chart markers. Direct lines to headquarters of both major parties and to Kansas City, Missouri, and Columbus, Ohio, home cities of the vice-presidential candidates, gave NBC additional sources of election news and trends, as reported by NBC analysts stationed there. NBC’s audience-building plan of election night operations, originated and supervised by William F. Brooks. NBC director of news and special events, placed emphasis on maintaining a constant flow of returns uninterrupted by irrelevant comments and entertainment. Beginning at 8 p.m., when all commercials were cancelled and continuing without interruption until 3:46 a.m., reporters assigned to all major candidates and to their party headquarters fed constant streams of on-the-spot newrs into the Radio City nerve center, supplemented by a battery of teletypes supplying bulletins and the latest returns as gathered and compiled by AP, UP and INS. All commercial programs were cancelled for the night at 8 p.m., giving complete sway to election news. The hall started rolling, however, at 7:30 p.m. when Brooks gave a preview of the network's method of coverage scheduled for the night ahead. Then he introduced the network’s commentators. Newcasters who covered the event in New York were: H. V. Kaltenborn, Lowell Thomas, John W. Vandercook. Richard Harkness. Morgan Beatty. W. W. Chaplin, Cesar Saerchinger, Don Goddard. Don Hollenbeck. James Stevenson and Ben Grauer. W. M. Kiplinger was heard from WRC. Washington. In addition, other NBC newsmen were stationed in vantage points around the country. Carleton Smith and Don Fisher of WRC were with President Roosevelt at Hyde Park. Kenneth Banghart of WRC and Ann Gillis. assistant to Brooks, covered Governor Dewey and Republican National Headquarters. Bob Stanton and Len Schleider wrere at Democratic National Headquarters. Robert St. John was stationed with Senator Truman at Kansas City, and Tom Manning, of WTAM. Cleveland, reported Governor Bricker’s doings at Columbus. NBC’s international division interrupted its regular schedule of programs in Spanish and Portuguese beamed to Latin America for late election news. It also presented eight special programs, four each in Spanish and Portuguese. Approximately 4.000 homes in New York City and suburbs and 200 in Philadelphia knew the results of the Presidential race seconds and sometimes minutes ahead of their neighbors equipped only with standard radio receivers. Television signals transmitted b\ NBC from its Station WNBT on the Empire State Building and relayed by WPTZ. Philadelphia, made possible the speedy service. Nerve center of the television network was a small studio in Radio City, equipped with AP teleiypes and an assortment of charts and other visual aids which provided viewers with an instantaneous record of the vote as it varied from minute to minute. In the studio, banks of hundreds of lights made brilliant a scene of orderh confusion. Cameras shuttled hack and forth on their rolling platforms trailing snaky coils of wire with them. Producers and directors, wearing telephone headsets that brought orders from the control booth high against the ceiling, signaled with waving hands and cabalistic signs. Moving in turn from a blackboard carrying last minute compilation of returns arranged by states to dual thermometers labelled “Roosevelt' and “Dewey’ on which indicators were shifted constantly to show the relative standing of the candidates, cameras made it possible for viewers to see results at a glance.