NBC transmitter (Jan 1943-Sept 1944)

May 1944 o RADIO BECOMES FOURTH “R” NBC loins N. Y. Board of Education in Starting Broadcasting Courses in Metropolitan High Schools NEW YORK.— The most extensive undertaking ever formulated in this country by a city school system and a national radio network has been announced by NBC and the New York City Board of Education. Purpose of the joint venture is to create an experimental center for training talented high school seniors in the fundamentals of radio broadcasting. Slated to start in the Fall of 1944, the plans call for one-year courses in the fields of radio writing, production and speech, and the fundamentals of radio engineering, broadcasting station operations, and principles and practices of sound recording. Selected youngsters from the New York City high schools will receive credit toward graduation for successfully completing the first or the second trio of the courses. In announcing the plans. Dr. James Rowland Angell, NBC public service counselor, said: “This new educational venture, entered into by the largest city school system in the nation and the country’s greatest radio network, opens a broad field for experimentation on a laboratory basis. If it is successful, it will create in this area a cooperative technique that can later be expanded into many other areas throughout the nation. “Never before has such a large-scale cooperative educational enterprise been attempted by a radio network and a school system for the development, through their respective facilities, of special courses of training for talented youngsters in all aspects of radio and techniques for its use in supplementing their education.” According to Sterling Fisher, director of the NBC Inter-American University of the Air, under whose auspices the experiment is conducted, the proposed courses are intended to give talented students the opportunity for a sound understanding of several aspects of radio communications. They will permit the Board of Education to widen the scope of public education in the field of communications, and enable NBC to pioneer in a new and highly valuable field of public service while establishing contact with young people of unusual aptitude. Finally, the joint venture will provide leadership and stimulation to all Students conduct a forum over ft NYE, the station operated by New York's Board of Education. secondary schools in the proper utilization of audio aids in classroom instruction. Arrangements call for the complete facilities of the New York City Board of Education’s EM non-commercial station — WNYE— the instructional staff of the board, and the classrooms and laboratories to be made available for teaching purposes in the courses. In March. 1943 the board, through the superintendent of schools, Dr. John E. Wade, approved two of the Inter-American University of the Air’s programs for its in-service teacher training without credit, on an experimental basis. After studying the programs for a half-year, the board announced in October 1943 that the two courses, “Lands of the Free” and “Music of the New World." would be acceptable for full credit by teachers toward annual salary increments. This was the first time in the history of broadcasting that the N. Y. Board of Education had approved courses for teachers based on radio programs. This experiment proved so successful that the board continued to approve two NBC programs: “Lands of the Free,” the university’s historical series, and “American Story,” its literary series (formerly written by Archibald MacLeish and now by Allan Nevins during the present Winter-Spring school term) . Plans for an extension of this type of in-service training of teachers by radio on a nationwide basis were announced last October in the formation of a Committee on Use of Radio in Supervision by the National Educational Association. In the announcement of the new arrangements between NBC and the Board of Education, NBC has agreed to supply a private wire to Station WNYE for the utilization of valuable public service features for study, transcription, demonstration and rebroadcasting for schools via FM when desired. I he network also will supply guest instructors for the courses, and will give advice and guidance in the planning and operation of the actual experiment. Contents of the courses to be offered starting next Fall are: A. Radio Writing: continuity, station announcements, spot announcements, musical continuity, radio newswriting, special events, sports, interviews, dramatic scripts, the unit drama, the serial, the episodic, dramatic narrative, requirements of radio dialogue, planning the radio plot, transitional devices, character delineation, and script research. B. Radio Production: system of modern broadcasting, American commercial station and its operation, personnel of a modern radio station, networks, steps in radio production, radio production terminology, live programs, records and transcriptions, the radio show, tests of quality, the dramatic sketch, sound effects, sources of radio music, microphones and microphone setups, round tables, quiz and musical programs. C. Fundamentals of Radio Engineering: a.c. waves, radio waves and radiation, vacuum tube theory, power supply equipment, generation of radio waves, radio wave as a carrier of intelligence, reception of radio waves, the radio receiver and transmitter. E. Broadcasting Station Operation: operation and servicing of radio power supplies, operation and testing of speech input and audio control equipment, microphone placement and related studio techniques, transmitter operation, test and maintenance, radio law and FCC operating rules, preparation for FCC licensing examination. F. Principles and Practices of Sound Recording: relationship of sound recording to radio broadcasting and rebroadcasting, education projects and remedial teaching, industry and engineering. selling and advertising; types of recording systems, their characteristics, advantages and limitations, components of recording systems, mechanical construction of recorders, audio frequency amplifiers, equalization of microphones, lines, amplifiers, recorders and reproducers, playback systems, techniques of recording, trouble shooting, economic factors in recording.