NBC Transmitter (Jan 1943-Sept 1944)

APRIL 1943 11 (Written by a new NBC employee who made the first tour ) • NEW YORK.— A program to acquaint new employees with inter-department operations, has been launched by NBC’s personnel department. Tours for new workers are conducted each Monday by personnel department guides who explain to the newcomers the contribution which each department makes to NBC’s over-all activities. “Oldtimers" are invited to join and reacquaint themselves with the network's expanding facilities. Employees see almost everything “backstage,” from the unvarnished carpenter’s workshop to the luxuriously furnished hoard of directors’ room. They learn how the vast amount of stenographic work is centralized, how network traffic is expedited. how program scripts are filed and how program recordings are made. They visit studios to witness preparations for rehearsals. They enter the sales, research, promotion, press and executive offices. The new ladies’ lounge and lunch room is pointed out and guides explain that this section is the result of an idea suggested by an employee -who won a 25-dollar War Bond for offering it. Brief stops are made at the elaborate PBX room where 24-hour service is maintained, and at the splendidly-equipped first aid room attended by three nurses and a physician. The busy news room and special events department with their teletypes and glassencased broadcasting chambers are explored. and NBC’s war reporters and commentators pointed out. The tour includes visits to the program and guest relations departments, the information bureau and public service office. The trip is concluded after stops at the legal and treasurer’s departments. To this new employee, the tour revealed in one hour just a glimpse of the fact and fantasy of radio which it took NBC many years to create and develop. He saw before him a kaleidoscopic picture of the work in which he is to participate, a montage of new tools and machines, new words, new ideas and new ideals. MODERN STUDIOS OPENED BY WPTF Left: The new auditorium studio. Above: Manager Richard H. Mason. Upper photos show the master control room's RCA custom-built console, and the client's audition room overlooking the auditorium studio. • RALEIGH, N. C.— A new radio showplace has been opened in Raleigh. The dedication of WPTF’s new studios was marked by very little ceremony, Manager Richard H. Mason believing fanfare inappropriate during wartime. WPTF’s move to modern quarters follows by a little more than a year the installation of its new 50,000-watt Westinghouse transmitter. This gives the NBC outlet, which operates on 680 kilocycles, complete modernization and places it among the South’s finest broadcasting stations. The studios are located in the recentlyerected 16-story Durham Life Insurance Company building, parent organization of WPTF. Situated in the heart of the business district and having fluorescent lighting and air-conditioning throughout, the studios are on the mezzanine floor with the business offices and program depart ment quartered on the second stor\ . Highlights of the greatly enlarged quarters of WPTF include an auditorium studio and three smaller studios, clients' audition room, artists' and announcers' lounge, visitors' lounge and music library . The auditorium studio is the showplace of the station. Seating more than 100. it has a stage, a concert grand piano and an organ. Two other studios of about equal size house baby grand pianos and are used for speakers as well as small instrumental groups. A fourth studio contains custombuilt turntables. A centrally-located master control room faces each of the four studios. Separate control panels for each studio are placed on a semi-circular console desk. This console and all control room equipment were custom-built In RCA. "Get Acquainted" Tours For New N.Y. Employees