Radio age research, manufacturing, communications, broadcasting, television (1941)

THE "CONTROL ROOM" OF A REMOTE BROADCAST ON "THE ARMY HOUR," DURING ONE OF THE MANY DOMESTIC PICKUPS OF THE PROGRAM. WYLLIS COOPER, AUTHOR OF THE PROGRAM, STANDS AT THE TABLE. love to talk of what "might have been". Broadcasts from New Delhi have been their bigfrest headache. One week they looked forward to carry- ing a talk by Gen. Archibald P. Wavell, which would have been his first broadcast to this country. But reception conditions went bad. Another time, arrangements were made to interview a British flier who had crashed within ten minutes flying time of New Delhi and spent thirty days getting through the .jungle. Another swell broadcast that didn't come through! The third pick-up that didn't, was scheduled for a Russian airport, and would have been the first Rus- sian outdoors broadcast. Reception was fine up until two minutes after the broadcast began. Then a for- eign station accidentally put an unscheduled program on the NBC channel, marking the end of those fine plans. NBC production directors still dream of those plans that went awry. They don't talk about the fifty that did come through like clockwork, because America has heard them, and they're water un- der the bridge. In the domestic scene, "The Army Hour" has maintained just as vig- orous a program of remote broad- casts. It's an extremely obscure point that an NBC microphone hasn't visited on an Army Hour I)ickup. In its nine months of broad- casting, the hour-long program has aired more than 100 remote broadcasts in this country, visiting army camps, training schools, de- pots, air fields, war plants, and maneuver areas. From Camp Ed- wards, Mass., to Camp San Luis Obispo, Cal.; and from Aberdeen Proving Grounds to Lowry Field, Col.. "The Army Hour" has brought listening America a vivid picture of the Army in action, whether it was introducing V-Mail, or taking NBC listeners to a West Coast plane factory. Here again, operating under the most difficult broadcasting condi- tions, NBC has given "The Army Hour" an amazing record of few failures. There have been a hand- ful of near-misses on domestic pick- ups, but only one actual failure. For one broadcast an NBC an- nouncer turned up at a New Eng- land war plant an hour before the broadcast, and, with sinking heart, found only a night wak-liman be- hind locked gates. He called the studio, and hasty plans were made to fill the time in the NBC studios. But the war workers arrived ten minutes before the broadcast and the program went on as scheduled. The one failure that did occur was a heart-breaking affair. A broadcast from deep in the heart of Texas was scheduled to bring an eye-witness account of the Third Army blowing up a 240-foot steel bridge to demonstrate demolition tactics. Immediately after the dem- olition of the bridge WPB workers were going to move in and remove the steel for scrap. It was a swell idea. In the NBC control rooms, with other portions of the program on the air, tests from Texas came through well. The announcer took his cue: "Go ahead Third Army in Texas." Nothing happened. The phone lines had gone bad fifteen seconds before air time! Less hectic, but equally dramatic, is "The Army Hour's" presentation of high-ranking army officers. More than 90 important officers have been heard, half of that number generals. The roster of the nation's military leaders who have appeared on the program includes Lieut. Gen. Lesley A. McXair, commanding general of the American Ground Forces; Brig. Gen. H. L. George, of the American Air Forces Ferrying Command; Maj. Gen. L. E. Brere- ton, American Air Forces in India; Brig. Gen. James Doolittle; Brig. Gen. William C. Lee, commanding general of the Air Borne Command; and countless others. High-ranking officials of the United Nations have also voiced "Army Hour" messages. Among them are Field Marshal Sir Archi- bald Wavell of Britain, Maj. Gen. of Aviation N. Sokoloff-Sokoliensk of Russia, and Generalissimo and Madame Chiang Kai-shek of China. A dramatic incident was the re- cent broadcasting of a message from Yugoslav General Drago Mikhailovitch. The message was got out of Nazi-occupied Yugo- slavia by secret methods and read by George Putnam, NBC an- nouncer, in New York. 112 RADIO AGE]