NBC transmitter (Jan-Dec 1938)

2 NBC TRANSMITTER WHO'S WHO IN THE NBC NETWORKS Vernon H. Pribble Vernon H. Pribble, energetic manager of WTAM, can trace back most of the highlights in his life to the fact that the state of Illinois operated a rifle range within a few miles of his home and that he would rather shoot at targets than eat — even at the tender age of 16. For it was to get the chance of using the rifle range that young Pribble got the written permission of his parents to join the National Guard while still in high school. His home then was Ridgefarm, Illinois, near Chicago. When his enlistment was up, Pribble entered the University of Illinois. On March 26, before the United States entered the War in 1917, Pribble was in a rhetofic class half-heartedly listening to the professor. A long distance telephone call interrupted his revery. It was the captain of his former National Guard company. “Vern, we’ve been ordered to East Alton with as many recruits as we can muster. It looks like war! Will you enlist?” Pribble stopped only long enough to tell the professor, “Sorry, I’m going to war. I didn’t have my theme anyway.” He was the first student on the campus to enlist. Starting as a private, he worked up the promotion ladder during two years and eight months service and finally was made an infantry captain in command of a company of 84 men and 450 German prisoners. He was then only 24 years old. Mr. Pribble fought in the second battle of the Somme and the Meuse-Argonne engagement. Like many Army men, he attributes his understanding of men to active service as an officer. He believes that this valuable insight, obtained indirectly because of his earlier ability with a rifle, has assisted him materially in business. Back in the United States, the young exsoldier joined a stock company in Danville, Illinois, but his stage career suddenly ended when he was hospitalized for a major operation. Work was scarce when he emerged from the hospital so he tried his hand at house-to-house selling of washing machines and vacuum cleaners. He was successful; and later turned salesman for Remington Rand. His Army experience again came in handy when the Chicago Tribune was looking for a man who understood “army Vernon H. Pribble Manager of W/TAM paper” work and who could work on a promotion plan in connection with the soldier’s bonus. But Mr. Pribble soon realized that a newspaper by-line was not eatable, and directed his energies toward the more lucrative business departments. Over a course of years he worked through the classified, local, merchandising, business survey and national sales departments and when the publishers looked around for a man to manage the newspaper-owned station, WGN, they decided that Mr. Pribble had gained the necessary experience to handle the job. Under his direction, WGN developed from a pioneer station to one of the foremost broadcasting institutions in the country. Mr. Pribble left WGN to open a radio department for the advertising agency of Stack-Goble. From there he came to NBC in December 1934 as manager of WTAM. Though the depression was then at its worst Mr. Pribble tackled the job of building up WTAM. His ambition to make a bigger and better station was realized in February of this year when WTAM was moved into modern four-floor studios in the NBC Building. Mr. Pribble was married in 1925 to Agnes Clark, a fellow worker on the Chicago Tribune. They have two children. Bunny, 9 and Betty, 11. 1 1 i Vacation or sport* picturss of NBCites are wanted by the NBC Transmitter. Prizes for the best pictures. Read the rules of the Photo Contest on page 11. TELEVISION TESTS NOW ON THE AIR WEEKLY A four-week period of experimental television transmissions from the RCANBC station, W2XBS, in the tower of the Empire State Building, New York City, began on April 19. The schedule calls for five full-hour broadcasts a week. Having resumed field tests after being off the air for several months, NBC is now radiating two series of telecasts, one at an afternoon hour and the other during the evening. The evening series, composed of living talent shows and selected films, are broadcast from the NBC studios in Radio City on Tuesday and Thursday evenings between eight o’clock and nine o’clock. These television programs, although strictly experimental, are being broadcast under conditions as near as possible to those governing a regular public service. The afternoon broadcasts, on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays beginning at three o’clock, consist entirely of intricate test charts and still pictures. Of no entertainment value but of great assistance in judging quality of transmitted pictures and testing performance of receivers, these images are put on the air for the sole benefit of television experimenters. Although the present series of television broadcasts is primarily for the use of NBC and RCA officials and engineers with receivers in their homes, it is reported that amateurs in the Metropolitan area also are receiving the telecasts with home-made receivers. Good reception of the broadcasts is limited to the area north of the station, because the programs are being broadcast from an experimental antenna array on the north side of the Empire State tower. The steel and masonry of the tower itself act as a shield and prevent the ultrashort waves from penetrating directly to the south. The only signals received south of the transmitter are those reflected by tall buildings of the north. This results in multiple images at the receiver, each image overlapping the others. NBC engineers, therefore, are using receivers in the northern area. The antenna array regularly used, mounted on the top of the Empire State tower, is being redesigned to incorporate several engineering changes in the array itself and the associated transmission lines connecting it with the transmitter on the eighty-fifth floor level. When the work is completed the station’s normal service range of about fifty miles in all directions (Continued on Page 10)