NBC Transmitter (Jan-Dec 1938)

MAY, 1938 17 Aside from radio “Roth” has two principal interests in life; his family which includes a four-year-old son, Derek, and his hobby, which is raising hybrid flowers, particularly of the lily and iris family. Since he became a San Franciscan last fall he has purchased some land in Marin County where he expects to build a country home. A. W. Kaney Ask A. W. (Sen) Kaney what he knows about radio and he’ll tell you how a freefor-all graduated into an industry. How radio programs grew from haphazard somewhat social events into mechanized split-second perfection. And if he weren’t so modest, he could tell you how Sen Kaney himself rose from announcer to program director and to his present job as assistant to the vice president in charge of the Central Division of the National BroadA. W. Kaney casting Company. Born in Cincinnati, Sen got his public school education in Oak Park, Illinois, later attending Northwestern University where he studied law. While managing a brokerage house on La Salle Street, he heard about this so-called radio and wandered into the studios of KYW, where he was taken on immediately as an announcer. That was in 1922 and Sen has been in radio ever since. Mr. Kaney joined NBC on May 16, 1928 as an announcer and has worked at everything in the business with the possible exception of engineering. He is vitally interested in television. He was married in 1925 and has one daughter, Peggy May, 11 years old. His hobby is yachting and his unbreakable habit is twelve cigars a day. John R. Miller J. R. Miller came to NBC’s Engineering Department on May 24, 1928. As operator of NBC Chicago’s first central control board, he has seen the control room grow from eight racks to approximately 40. As a youngster of 13, Mr. Miller was granted his amateur radio operators license to station W9CP in 1919. His call letters are still the same. In 1920 he received his commercial license and before he joined NBC was radio operator on lake boats. During the 1933 Convention of the American Relay League, Miller was one of the eight, out of 250 entrants, to qualify for the finals in the world’s championship code speed contest. Finalists were required to receive and type perfect copy at 40 words a minute. He is married and the father of two youngsters, Nancy Jean IV-i years and Charles Ralston 3 years old. His hobby, you guessed it — amateur radio. Lewis Lane Lewis Lane’s first job with NBC was in the Music Library where he served three years before he was commissioned to organize the Music Research Section. When the NBC headquarters was moved from 711 Fifth Avenue to Radio City, Music Research and Lewis Lane were transferred from the Music Division to the Script Division. More and more, the bulk of his work was for the scriptwriters. However, Music Research was and still is, to all the departments of NBC, the source of any kind of information pertaining to serious music. Before coming to NBC, Lewis Lane toured the country as a concert pianist. And even today, whenever his NBC tasks allow him, he gives an occasional concert in and around New York City. He also has been heard on the NBC networks and various New York stations. He played his own composition. Fragments, which has just been published, on the NBC Employes Show last February. If you look in Who's Who in New York you will find many interesting facts about this quiet talented gentleman. There, you will see that he studied at the New York College of Music and the New School for Social Research. He also studied with Edwin Hughes and the late Rubin Goldmark. His life has always been in and for music since his early childhood. He started to play the piano at seven and at fifteen he gave his first public concert. At the age of twelve he unwittingly prepared himself for the job he now holds by starting a collection of books, articles and newspaper clippings relative to all phases of music. Today, his music collection, which includes over 4,000 recordings, fills his New York apartment. His library often comes in handy for his work in NBC because he possesses many rare books which are out of print. John R. Miller Lewis Lane A composer in his own right, Musicologist Lane belongs to many musical organizations and clubs among them being the Beethoven Association, MacDowell Club and The Bohemians. He is a bachelor, and defiantly hopes to remain one. Gerald Sellar One hot day, back in 1925, three young men from a ship, one of them the telegraph operator, were strolling along an apparently peaceful Shanghai street when there suddenly appeared before them a group of well-armed and rather menacing Chinese “student strikers.” The three young men came to a cautious halt. As the armed band moved slowly towards them, and they were about to make a retreat, a squad of U. S. marines came to their rescue. Before they could move, the air in this confined “no-man’s land” was filled with rocks, rifle slugs, and miscellaneous missiles. As a rock hit one of them, they took to their heels, and with the telegraph operator leading the way, flew without further casualties back to the ship. Today, that same fleet-footed telegraph operator can be found at the NBC Master Control Board in Radio City. He is Master Control Supervisor Gerald Sellar, who this month, completes ten years with NBC. Gerald Sellar The Shanghai incident took place soon after Mr. Sellar graduated from Oakland, California, Technical High School. For five years he worked at sea, in the Orient, in Alaskan and Australian waters, and ashore for the Federal Telegraph Company and the Independent Wireless Telegraph Company in ship-to-shore work. He left the latter company at East Hampton, Long Island, in January, 1928, and four months later joined NBC at its 711 Fifth Avenue studios. His first work here was in studio engineering — the technical handling of programs. He did this work for three years and was then assigned to the Master Control Board. Today, Mr. Sellar, a native of Tacoma, Washington, is thirty-two, and an ex-president of the Association of Technical Employes of NBC. He lives, with his wife and five-year-old son. Gene, in Sunnyside, Long Island. And as a hobby — yes, a “believe it or not” — he operates a radio station — his own, W2ALB.