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

Record Details:

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In the NBC Xewsroom in New Voik, the enjrineeiinK staff did yeoman work installing a newly- developed control board to make foi- more perfect control of the network diirinjr news operational periods, regardless of their length. Ordinarily there are four pos- sible ways to cover a military oper- ation : First, by correspondents getting their stories with the troops and on the ships at the fighting front and sending them back to the main broadcasting points for transmis- sion. Second, by use of [portable wire and tape recorders. This magic of radio has been instrumental in bringing some of the most dramatic stories of World War II to the radio audience. Don Ilollenbeck used it in the Salerno invasion; Merrill Mueller had this device in the early stages of the Italian campaign, and Rali)h Howard used it later when the Allied armies broke through the German lines in the push which drove the Nazis from Cassino to the outskirts of Rome. Many of NBC's front lint- re- porters were eciuipped for invasion with these recorders. While not new in radio, this equipment is still very much of a mystery to the aver- age layman. The instrument weighs about thirty-five pounds, faced with a i)anel board on which are two spools. A wire (or tape) runs from one spool to the other. A reporter, using the wire recorder, speaks into a microphone and what he says is recorded on the wire. He can then reverse the spool, and what he has spoken is played back to him. Our front line men carry the re- corder into battle; tell the story of ingagements from fox holes, fuim ships and fi-om the air. They send the wire spools back to head- (juarters where censorship makes any necessary deletions, and then liass them on to NBC broadcasting |()ints for the world to hear. The third method (if covering the invasion is possible only after defi- nite and permanent landings have been made and fixed transmission facilities are available. The broad- casting setup in Naples was typical of this type of coverage. When the Allies took this city, there was no transmitter available. That condi- tion existed until the Army Signal Corps and RCAC were able to set up a transmitter powerful enough to relay broadcasts back to another transmitter, which powered the re- ports overseas to NBC in New York. From the Front Lines The fourth method of invasion coverage, and one of the most dan- gerous is by live broadcasting from the front lines. It necessitates a series of small transmitters and an equal number of transmissions. Such a broadcast was made from r.ougainville by George Thomas Folster. intrepid NBC corres]iond- ent. with three men, covered by a shari)shooter, beyond the American lines, mike in hand, while wire was played out to him through the jungle undergrowth. Kven as he spoke, gun fire broke out a bare 75 yards away. In the NBC Newsroom in New York daily conferences were held with engineering, traffic, program, and sales department representa- tives. Standby programs were set up, new facilities were installed and ordered from commercial com- panies, and the news staff was drilled incessantly with the fact that NBC hoped it would be first with every break of important news but, more important, it wanted to be correct. Monitoring of Axis capitals was ordered up from R.C.A. Communications in both New York and San Francisco, and arrangements were made for emer- gency cots and meals for the 24- hour shifts expected for the staff. Back of the on-the-spot NBC re- porters were the immense facilities and staffs of the British Broadcast- ing Corporation, with whom NBC made exchange arrangements for coverage, and, of course, the im- mense staffs of the three great American press associations — the Associated Press, the United Press, and the International News Service — whose world-wide reports are constantly available to the NBC news organization. The role played by RCA e(iuip- ment in the invasion on land, on sea and in the air was stupendous, but cannot now be told. The thou- sands of RCA workers surely ex- perienced an added thrill on D-I)ay realizing the extent to which they may have participated in equipping the heroic Allied armada. ADOI.PH SCHNEmER. ACTING MANAC;ER OF THE NBC NEWS DEPARTMENT. ON TELE- PHONE AT LEFT, AND ARTHUR CARY, ON 'PHONE AT RIGHT. AWAITING A GO-AHEAD SIGNAL FROM LONDON. RIGHT—ROBERT ST. JOHN ON THE AIR. * 'X JPl>t] \-^'>5^ RADIO AGE 6]