Radio age (May 1922-Dec 1923)

RADIO AGE— "THE MAGAZINE OF THE HOUR" The Passing of an Old Friend "W. J. Z. Signing off— Good Night" By FLOYD JACQUET YOU heard the familiar voice of the announcer s3»y: "This is Station WJZ", as you have heard it many, many times before. You may have detected a slight trembling, an undercurrent of emotion in the usually calm and even voice of AHN when he made this statement for the last time at the conclusion of the broadcast on Monday evening, May 14th. "What " you said, "is WJZ, the first station I heard, going to close down? Aren't we going to hear our old friend's voice any more The fact that the original WJZ, the one whose voice endeared itself to thousands of radio enthusiasts throughout the country, on that night spoke for the last time to its countless friends. North, South, East and West in many lands. It was a simple event, this farewell of the old WJZ. There was no impressive ceremony, no occasion for speech making. WJZ passed out of the broadcasting firmament as simply as it entered it, quickly, and with dignity. There were radio fans who swore by WJZ. It was the first station that many of us ever heard, our ABC in radio broadcasting. WJZ led the field for one and a half years. This is a long period for a broadeasting station, and in that period many stations have been built and operated. When WJZ began its first famous broadcast on October 12, 1921, there were only three or four stations broadcasting throughout the land. Today, there are about 600, but in spite of this immense increase, WJZ has held its own, and in many ways, has led the way. -,,;gW»!MaMMMA The leading characters in WJZ's history: (1) G. W. Horn who made the first broadcast from WJZ at Newark; (2) H. E. Miller who developed WJZ's staff; (3) George Bliziotis chief operator; and (4) William H. Easton, director of WJZ, who delivered the farewell address. Day in and day out, faithfully, WJZ's kindly voice was at the beck and call of the knobs of your receiving instrument. It never failed you once. You turned it in and there it was. It entertained, charmed, or cheered you. WJZ's sterling record was not a matter of luck. It required superhuman effort at times to uphold its past performance, and untiring efforts to provide the largest audience of any station with a peerless program. Who were the men behind the scenes at WJZ, the personalities whose work went on, unknown to the audience, and who labored to make WJZ the better station at all times? When it was decided in October 1921 to place WJZ in operation, there was no organization, no staff, no announcers, no artists. There was only a station, on top of the large plant of the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company, in Newark, N. J. As you go by on the Lackawanna Railroad, you can see the two high masts, supporting the antenna system. The first WJZ aerial was not as high, nor as pretentious. Neither was the station itself, located in a radio room specially built on the roof. A radio staff was developed under the master* hand of H. E. Miller, Superintendent of the Westinghouse Newark Works. Mr. Miller picked out from among the radio personnel of the Company, men who knew their jobs. '1? Employees were tested out to find men'with suitable radio voices to be trained as announcers. The entire radio personnel was Westinghouse, and went to work in the typical Westinghouse pioneer way. In the first days of broadcasting, the operation of the station was rather difficult, the public was a bit skeptical, but interested. It was quick to applaud the efforts made,^and'to"appreciate the ^superior programs.