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

Against a convention backdrop, Pauline Frederick dem- onstrates the two-way radio transceiver to be used by NBC reporters for on-the-spot news. The news, whether it's from the convention floor or from half way across the country, will be channeled into Convention Central. There it will be evaluated, edited and sent on to NBC commentators — including John Cameron Swayze, Bill Henry, Morgan Beatty, Chet Huntley, David Brinkley, Ray Scherer and Dave Garro- way. When on camera, the commentators will be within push-button visual and vocal contact with all key news points. In addition to its own commentators and reporters, NBC News will have the services of Dr. George Gallup, founder and director of the American Institute of Public Opinion. Dr. Gallup will interpret opinion surveys in the light of developments at the convention. His institute has covered the last ten national elections. Its average error on the division of the popular vote has been 3.8 percentage points. NBC began planning the convention coverage four years ago at the close of the 1952 conventions. The preparations have been carried out under the direction of Davidson Taylor, NBC Vice President in charge of Public Affairs; William R. McAndrew, Director of NBC News; and Barry Wood, Director of NBC Special Events. The new, more mobile approach to the conventions — known at NBC as the "man-in-the-aisle" plan — was developed by Mr. McAndrew in conjunction with Joseph O. Meyers, Manager of NBC News, and Reuben Frank, staff producer assigned to coverage of the convention. Schedule Problems Planning the coverage was complicated by the fact that only a weekend intervenes between the close of the Democratic convention and the opening of the Republi- can meeting. This tight schedule poses a difficult logistics problem — the transfer of the entire NBC convention personnel and equipment from Chicago to San Francisco in a single day. The operation is further complicated by the possibility that the Democratic convention may ex- tend into the second week — after the Republican con- vention has opened. If this should happen, NBC will rush standby staffs into action in both cities to maintain complete and simultaneous coverage. The transport of personnel and equipment from Chicago to San Francisco will be carried out entirely by air. The massive transfer has been planned with all the precision of an Air Force operation. All members of the staff — commentators, reporters, technicians — have been briefed on the overall operation and each has been assigned a specific job and a place on one of the special planes. In addition to the special convention programming, NBC's full roster of news programs are geared to give a complete picture of the election-year activities. On these programs, including NBC-TV's "Today," "Home," and the "News Caravan," and NBC Radio's "News of the World," "Monitor," "World News Roundup," and "Weekday," audiences will become acquainted with all the personalities and issues. RCA Film: "The Story of Television" THE STORY OF TELEVISION, a half-hour docu- mentary film on the development of television from its earliest days down to the present, has just been pro- duced by RCA and is now ready for public distribution. Going back to the mid-20s, when the iconoscope and the kinescope were first developed, the film dramat- ically portrays the tremendous scientific and engineering effort involved in perfecting a workable television system. History is made when television is shown pub- licly for the first time by RCA at the New York World's Fair in 1939. Halted by war, television surges forward in peacetime to become a vast new entertainment, in- formation and art form. The film is climaxed by the advent of a new medium —compatible color television. In a series of brilliant scenes, the film demonstrates color's versatility and its potentialities as a new instrument for linking areas and peoples of the world in new bonds of understanding. THE STORY OF TELEVISION is available for 16mm showing to groups and organizations. Requests to borrow a print should be addressed to RCA, Depart- ment of Information, Rockefeller Center, New York City. RADIO AGE 77