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

LEFT: FROM THESE LOFTY ANTENNA TOWERS ON LONG ISLAND, LISTENERS IN THE NEW YORK AREA RECEIVE PROGRAMS OF NBC'S KEY STATION WEAF. BELOW: NBC MASTER CONTROL ROOM FEEDS PROGRAMS TO AFFILIATED STATIONS ACROSS NATION. The reason for this is that net- work programs are now on the air for sixteen or more hours a day, seven days a week. When NBC was established, WEAF was on the air approximately twelve hours each week-day and nine hours on Sun- day; WJZ for approximately eight hours daily. The Quiz type of program is not to be found in NBC's early sched- ules. It was only as recently as 1937 that this form of program be- came established. Dramatic pro- grams filled only 2 per cent of NBC's total program time in 1926, compared with more than 26 per cent today. This increase of course is largely accounted for by the pop- ular daytime serials. News Reports Expand The program change of greatest significance is in the field of news and special events. Except for a few sports events, there were no news programs broadcast over the network in its early days. Such programs now occupy no less than one-fifth of the network's total pro- gram hours. NBC had no news re- porters or commentators in 1926; today, it has forty on its regular staff, in addition to a large news department. While the war is in large measure responsible for the present emphasis on news broad- casting, there is every likelihood that after the return of peace the reporting of national and interna- tional news will continue to play a major role in NBC programming. In 1926, the average number of Red network stations used on a sponsored program was nine, and on the Blue network, three. Today the average number of stations per commercial program on the NBC network is 110 in the evening and 85 in the daytime. When NBC was formed, it broad- cast no short-wave international programs. RCA. however, had in 1925 initiated international broad- casts to Europe over its Station W3XL at Bound Brook, New Jer- sey. This service was irregular until 1929, when programs pro- vided by NBC were regularly broadcast via short-w-ave under the direction of RCA Communications, Inc. In 1930. this service was taken over by NBC. and has been a regu- lar feature of the company's oper- ations ever since. In November, 1942, the Government contracted for the full time of NBC's two 50- kilowatt international transmitters, WRCA and WNBI at l-.ound Brook. New Jersey. Since that time the sevent.v-six men and women of NBC's International Division have been engaged exclusively in the production and broadcasting of in- ternational programs in eight lan- guages for the Government. This war service of facilities and per- sonnel is rendered by NBC on a non-profit basis. It is certain that after the war the broadcasting of international programs will con- tinue to be an important factor in America's foreign policy. Pioneer With FM Eighteen years ago Frequency Modulation (FM) was scarcely more than a technical phrase, known only to radio engineers. By 1939. however, FM had begun to show promise as a technical im- provement in broadcasting, and NBC erected its own FM Station W2XWG on top of New York City's Empire State Building. This was the first FM station to be estab- lished in New York City by any network broadcaster. It has been on the air regularly with FM pro- grams since January, 1940. NBC has also applied to the FCC for additional construction permits for FM Stations to be installed in cities w-here the company maintains stu- dios. In order to stimulate the progress of FM. NBC plans to make its network programs available to the FM stations operated by the company's network affiliates. Our objective is to make NBC programs available to all radio listeners, K^A ... 6 RADIO AGE' ^