NBC Transmitter (Jan-Dec 1939)

8 NBC TRANSMITTER NBC TRANSMITTER Published for and by the employes of the National Broadcasting Company from coast to coast. VOL. 5 DECEMBER, 1939 No. 12 EDITORIAL BOARD John Kelly Editor Howard Flynn Assistant Editor Charles Van Bergen Photographs ASSOCIATES James Beardsley Guest Relations Thomas Canning Guest Relations Charles Turner Guest Relations James Tyson Guest Relations Address all correspondence to: NBC Transmitter. National Broadcasting Company, Room 317, RCA Building, New York, N. Y. Telephone: Circle 7-8300. Extension 220. Note: Due to the discontinuance of the RCA Family Circle, the NBC Transmitter will carry some of the material that formerly appeared in that organ. NEW YORK ( Continued from page 7) announces the entrance of Chicago’s John Milton Hayes, who, previously associated with Transco as sales manager of Syndicated Programs, has taken a position with NBC and is at present on the road. In the personal expansion department we find that C. Otis Rawalt of Transcription Sales has just been married to Roberta Mace. Mrs. Rawalt has taken a leave of absence from Bonwit Teller, where she is associated with the Children’s Division. They were married in the Chapel of St. Francis Xavier, and plan to make their home in New York City. The first, smiling face you meet upon entering Electrical Transcription is, of course, Marion Stuart’s. Why the smile? Well, she announced her engagement to Peter Edwards, Jr., of Glen Ridge, last October 27th. The Transmitter wishes to apologize for the mistake in the last issue in the name of Mr. William Gartland. The Artists Service Department of NBC announces the following changes and promotions effective December 1, 1939: Rubey Cowan will join Artists Service in New York. Mr. Cowan, in conjunction with Mr. Von Tilzer, will handle bookings for vaudeville, night clubs, motion pictures, and television. Alexander Haas will be transferred to Artists Service in San Francisco, where he will assume the duties of manager. A. Frank Jones is appointed assistant to the vice president in charge of Artists Service. KDKA OPENS TRANSMITTER An event which attracted the eyes and ears of the entire world of radio took place a few days ago in Pittsburgh when Westinghouse KDKA, the “grand daddy” station of them all, dedicated its new 50,000 watt transmitter, located at Allison Park, just eight miles from the Pittsburgh “Golden Triangle.” The dedicatory ceremonies took place just eighteen years and two days from the time KDKA first went on the air as a yowling 100 watt infant which has grown into the giant it is. In striking contrast to that original station, with its wire aerial anchored to a factory chimney is this new, sleek, streamlined marvel of engineering genius. Ideas never before incorporated in a 50 kilowatt station make the KDKA transmitter the most modern, and the most simplified station of its size in the world. For the first time in radio history, a transmitter station of this size is heated by the same air which is used to cool the giant transmitting tubes. There is no furnace in the building. Air ducts and fins circulate cool air about the tubes and then recirculate the heated air throughout the building. Thus, as the station is on the air 18 hours a day, electrical heating units inside the ventilating ducts will be able to provide sufficient heat for the remaining hours. The antenna tower, which is 718 feet tall, is situated on the knoll of a hill, the elevation of which is 1,200 feet above sea level. So the structure will have a total height of approximately 1,900 feet above sea level, making it one of the tallest welded steel structures in the world. Although at present the new transmitter will be used to send out only the standard broadcasts of KDKA, it ultimately will be used to broadcast short wave programs over the Westinghouse International station WPIT and experimental noise-free short wave programs from a “pick-a-back” aerial which will be mounted atop the present tower. One of the outstanding performances of the new transmitter outfit is to take the KDKA programs which come from the Grant Building studios over special high quality telephone lines at an input power of one sixty-millionth of a watt and send them out the length and breadth of the land with the roaring power of 50,000 watts. Another “first” at the new KDKA transmitter is a master control set-up which provides a duplicate set of controls for ARTISTS MANAGEMENT CROUP ( Continued from page 1) Artists Management Group. He appointed a committee to handle this matter. Suddenly — at a wave of his hand — a recording of their Alma Mater Song, The Show Must Go On, written by Peter De Rose and May Singhi Breen, was dramatically presented to the listeners. Following this, Mr. Engles spoke of the high average of the applicants and of the exciting opportunities ahead. He termed the profession “a public service and a service to the great talent of the world,” and said that a manager must combine the qualities of an “explorer, architect, builder, doctor, diplomat, lawyer, and soldier.” The latter part of his talk dealt with the “five dominant words” of his philosophy and ethics, “Faith, Experience, Personality, Humor, and Humility.” During the discussion a special recording, The Magic Key of Entertainment Broadcast, was played for the assembled company. It dramatized the opportunities and usefulness of the field of entertainment in America. Finally, he mentioned all the things the men would have to learn and wished them the greatest success. The meeting was a complete triumph. The men, inspired by Mr. Engles’ dynamic idealism, formed their organization the next day, and elected John Collins president, Lewis Julian vice president, and Robertson Schroeder secretary. The following Tuesday, the 14th, the group met again. The major part of the evening was given over to a stimulating talk by Doctor Walter Damrosch. This was the first in a series of talks by such outstanding personages as Edward Johnson, general manager of the Metropolitan Opera, Major Lenox R. Lohr, John Royal, A. H. Morton, Edgar Kobak, and Bob Landry, radio editor of Variety. Plans are being made for weekly visits to the theatre, opera, and for backstage talks with producers, performers, and other key men in the entertainment world. At a later meeting the men presented Mr. Engles with a scroll, personally signed by all the members of the Group, which expressed their appreciation for his efforts in their behalf. each of three transmitter units. This enables one operator in a glass enclosed room to supervise the programs carried by all three transmitters simultaneously. The station also boasts a push button relay device which banishes interruptions of broadcasts due to burned out tubes.