NBC Transmitter (Jan-Dec 1939)

12 NBC TRANSMITTER ^ltniticr^aru, Sljimitf Edwin C. Wilbur The NBC Transmitter salutes these members oj the National Broadcasting Company who, this month, complete their tenth yeai with the Company. Edwin C. Wilbur Edwin C. Wilbur is another member of the Engineering staff to complete his tenth year with NBC this month. He is a native New Yorker, educated in the city’s public schools. He became interested in radio at an early age. He built and operated his first amateur station while still a student in grade school. His present station W2BNL has been in operation for nineteen years. Mr. Wilbur's first position in the electrical engineering field was with a local utility company as manager of the first three-phase power station in New York City. In his spare time he managed radio station WOKO, then located in the city, which he had designed and built. Ten years ago he sold his radio station, resigned from the utility company, and came to NBC. He spent a year in the Maintenance Division and then was transferred to the Field group. There he was active in the designing of two of NBC’s famous mobile units. One of them is the aluminum-colored, streamlined car used to cover numerous outdoor pickups in and around New York. Mr. Wilbur spent several years with the mobile unit as operating engineer, and participated in many hair-raising assignments. In October of 1937 he was transferred to the television division of Engineering. At present he is assigned to the tele-mobile units. Mr. Wilbur is married and lives in West Englewood. New Jersey. He lists working around his home as his principal hobby. Those of us who have lived in the suburbs can well appreciate the wisdom of his choice. Edward R. Nathan A native New Yorker, educated in the public schools, Edward R. Nathan, one of NBC’s studio patrolmen in Radio City, left school ten years ago to take a job as a page at NBC. However, he continued his studies in night school, and after high school he attended the RCA Institutes. After serving on the page staff for four years he was promoted to a clerical post in the office of the executive vice president which was then occupied by Richard C. Patterson, now Assistant Secretary of Commerce. From the executive offices he was transferred back to General Service where he continued as a clerk until he was transferred to the electricians’ staff. Having served as junior electrician for two years, he was transferred to Guest Relations to don the familiar NBC patrolman’s uniform. An ambitious young man. Mr. Nathan— or Eddy, as everyone calls him — has also studied advertising at the City College of New York. He was married five years ago on Thanksgiving Day which gives him and the Mrs., two good reasons for celebrating. Peter C. House NBC’s number one bowler in the NBC Bowling League in Radio City. Peter G. House, this month completes his tenth year with the Technical Service Division of the Engineering Department. His work consists primarily of design drafting for equipment used by the EngineerPeter g. House ing Department. He is a native of Brooklyn, and following his graduation from Brooklyn Technical High School, he attended Pratt Institute. Prior to NBC he worked at the Bell Laboratories, E. W. Bliss and Company, and the Brooklyn Edison Company. In addition to his bowling activities, Mr. House indulges in a variety of hobbies, namely, model ship-building, stamp collecting and making additions to his collection of pipes of which he already has more than 350. Once, much to his embarrassment, his hobby of pipe collecting put the Federal Narcotic Bureau on his trail. He wrote to Washington in an attempt to secure an authentic opium pipe. Consider his embarrassment when he later learned that following the receipt of his letter, a Federal Narcotic agent shadowed him for a week in order to check on his activities and habits. It was only after this investigation that the Bureau, convinced that he was a collector, forwarded him the prize. Engineer House is a National Guardsman—a first-class private in the 245th Coast Artillery. Henry E. Kenny A native of Buffalo, New York, where he attended St. Joseph’s College, Henry E. Kenny, transmission engineer of the Master Control Room in Radio City, was employed as an engineer at a Buffalo station for more than two years before he came to NBC ten years ago. Before entering radio, he worked in Florida as a land surveyor during the great real estate boom in that state of famous winter resorts. He had learned civil engineering at St. Joseph’s. Mr. Kenny has spent most of his time at NBC as a studio engineer. During all those years thousands of programs went through his hands. He rode gain in the control room for the RCA Magic Key programs from the time the series went on the air years ago until he was transferred to the Master Control Room last fall. Engineer Kenny is married to a former NBC Henry E. Kenny hostess, the former Miss Patterson, and they have a five-year-old daughter named Nancy. When they were married the NBC headquarters were still at 711 Fifth Avenue. Edward R. Nathan