NBC Transmitter (Jan-Nov 1942)

AUGUST 1942 IS Scholarship Announced For NBC Radio Course # One of the 100 students in the NHCNorthuestern University Summer Radio Institute is getting his instruction free of charge, hut he doesn’t know it. Harry C. Kopf, vice-president and general manager of the NBC central division, has announced that the network w ill award a full scholarship to the student who in the opinion of the faculty has done the most outstanding work. At the same time, Mr. Kopf reported that the Institute — representing the first effort on the part of a network to give instruction in radio acting, announcing, production, writing and public service administration — is achieving its objective of helping to meet an impending shortage of trained personnel during war time. Not only faculty members and NBC executives hut the students themselves are enthusiastic about the Institute. One class member declared that in two weeks he had picked up as much knowledge as in a year of previous radio instruction. A college instructor enrolled in the course termed it “a milestone in radio education.” Another student praised the course because of the “inside slant” on broadcasting available to the Institute’s classes. "A BUS FOR OS" This smiling trio of NBC western division executives decided it was better for themselves and their tires if they traveled to Hollywood's Radio City via bus. Photo shows (top to bottom) Paul Gale, traffic manager; Jennings Pierce, station relations manager, and Henry Maas, sales traffic manager. SCORE OF YEARS FOR HIGH-SCORING WEAF NBC's New York key station celebrates its twentieth anniversary with a special program on Sunday, August 16. Photo shows Sherman Gregory, WEAF manager, awarding war stamp prizes to NBC employees who submitted the best ideas for incorporation in the anniversary program. Left to right: Alton Kastner, of the press department ; Rivera Ingle, of the information division; W. G. Martin, manager of guest relations; Sherman Gregory; R. Gordon Webber, of radio recording, and George M. Nelson, supervisor of mail and messenger service. Sixth winner (not shown here) teas William E. Webb, manager of institutional promotion. ARMY HOUR'S MISSION [Continued from paged) commanders. Local NBC ])eople, however, often provide useful assistance. “Plainly there are right and wrong ways to get broadcasting cooperation in the Army. Generals sometimes have brainstorms that must he discouraged, ddiis requires tact. Again the time is short, the details many, there is no allowance for the kind of guy who would go sightseeing or spiral into tailspins of awe. Knowledgeable gents are much needed. Wyllis Cooper himself has the advantage of being a fo rmer commissioned officer of the last war. ■“ “Real peoj)le are used most of the time. These range from field marshals to privates. An occasional woman, as for examjjle an English ferry pilot or the head WAAC, are included. There are some j)rofessional actors at the Radio City studios where the productioii is tied together before a studio audience. The actors are used as impersonal voices, never as characters or persons. Lt. Col. W arren J. Clear w ith his hardbitten account of the Bataan heartbreak and his epigram ‘there are no atheists in foxholes’ was one of the memorable eyewitnesses of the series. * * * “Jack Joy of the War Department comes to Manhattan every Saturda\ to rehearse and conduct the NBC orchestra. One of his accomplishments was transcribing at a piano in W ashington as a member of the Chinese embassy hummed to him the melody of the "March of the Ninth Route Army.’ Joy built up an orchestration for this. Meantime the Chinese gentleman went to New \ ork and painstakingly taught the NBC choir the Chinese words. By these great labors ' I he Army Hour’ has a thrilling martial j)iecc from a great, little-known ally. * * * “Timing a j)rogram that is stitched together by cable, transatlantic phone, teletype and intuition calls for a rubber cushion that inflates or deflates with a wag of a forefinger. * * * "