Radio Digest (June 1932-Mar 1933)

WHAZ, Troy, N. Y. the Air a Decade on ''T^HE pioneer college radio broadX casting station, radiophone WHAZ at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N. Y., celebrated its tenth anniversary "on the air" recently with a series of fifteen programs of varied character during the evening hours from 6 p. m. to midnight. The entertaining artists included some of the pioneer broadcasters. Among these were Irv Gordon and his Domino Club Orchestra, which furnished the first program from this station September 10, 1922, and has been heard regularly throughout these ten years as probably the oldest radio orchestra still in existence. Likewise the Campus Serenaders, composed of students of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute under the direction of A. Olin Niles for almost a decade, celebrated its tenth anniversary this Autumn. Although the personnel of this orchestra changes with every graduation and many of its hundred or more members who during the course of years have played saxophone, trumpet, piano or drums for radio listeners are now sedate alumni engaged in technical professions, the orchestra goes on like Tennyson's brook. Many who have since become famous in broadcasting were first heard from this earliest college station in Troy. Former Governor Alfred E. Smith, who has stirred millions with his familiar voice on the air, was first introduced to the "raddio" in the Fall campaign of 1922 in the studio of WHAZ by Rutherford Hayner, program director, who has continued in that capacity throughout the entire decade as probably the announcer longest in continuous service from any single station in the country. Another who had his earliest experience in this studio is Little Jack Little, that youthful veteran at the piano known to all radio chains, who whispered his songs into the WHAZ "mike" years ago. T. H. Barritt, who first introduced the musical saw in broadcasting, had an early try at the larger audience here. Several accomplished singers now in national radio, in concert, on the stage or even at Hollywood overcame microphone fright in the attractive and accoustically correct WHAZ studio. And there are a legion of others, all pioneer radio volunteers who gained their early experience in the Rensselaer Tech broadcasts. V V V Stages Underground Audition on Train ERSKINE BUTTERFIELD, the young composer-accompanist for Jacques Belser, tenor, (on WINS, New York, every Monday morning at 11 :30), was riding the Hudson tubes train to his home in Newark. He was thinking about the problem Belser had presented to him: where to find an outstanding guitarist for their WINS radio act? Then he saw another colored boy at the other end of the car carrying a guitar case. "A guitarist in the tubes is worth a dozen in the open where they can get away from you," Erskine thought, so he made the acquaintance of the other chap, told him about Belser's radio program and induced him to unleash the guitar and provide some music for the passengers who were Newark-bound at that late hour. "And how that boy can play the guitar!" Butterfield says of his discovery. "I got him to play for Belser the next day and there never was any question about him being just the man we had been looking for. He'll give listenersin an earful." The new guitarist is Walter Cornick, professional musician, now playing with one of the famous orchestras, a master not only of the guitar but the banjo, with that distinctive sense of rhythm and harmony so characteristic of the Negro race. In honor of his three colored instrumentalists, Butterfield and Walter Bishop, pianists, and Cornick, Belser hereafter calls his new act "Jacques Belser and His Three Spades." They are heard on WINS every Monday at 11:30 a. m., in an entertaining program of popular music. V V V Is Harrison Holliway the Oldest Announcer? HARRISON HOLLIWAY at the present time can lay claim to being the oldest announcer — and he is only 31 years old. He is manager of station KFRC in San Francisco, and has been since 1924. But he has had his finger in the radio pie since as far back as 1911, when he built his first receiving set out of a crystal detector, a loose couple and a fixed condenser. In 1919 he built his first transmitter, with the call letters 6BN, which he still retains. It was in November of 1920 that he talked over his station and was heard way up in Vancouver, Washington, setting what was claimed at that time as a long distance wireless telephone record. It was about that time that KDKA at Pittsburgh made its official bow on the air as the world's first commercial broadcasting station. The original KDKA announcer has long since left the radio announcing picture, while Holliway has remained very much in it during all these years. Yes, Mr. Ripley, Holliway identified himself with the first commercial station in San Francisco — KSL, 1922. IS hristfmas /Winds like a tDatcK HE one outstanding gift of 1932 is the new Conklin Nozac (no sack) available in a beautiful assortment of colors and models. Here is the first really new fountain pen seen in many years. You fill it by turning theknurled end of the barrel like you wind a watch. It holds 35 % more ink because there is no rubber sack in the barrel. And the ink supply is always visible through a transparent section in the barrel. Here is novelty, value and a greater utility than any pen ever before offered. At $5.00, $6.00, $7.00, $8.00 and $10.00. Pencils to match $3.50 and more. Other Conklins include the famous Conklin Endura, the peer of all pens employing the familiar rubber sack ink reservoir, at $5.00 and more: the Conklin Ensemble, a combination Conklin pen and pencil at $5.00 and $7.00, and genuine dependable Conklins in new color combinations at $2.75, $3.00 and $3.50. Pencils to match at $1.00, $2.00, $2.50 and more. Shop for gifts where they sell Conklins. THE CONKLIN PEN COMPANY Toledo, Ohio Chicago San Francisco Conklin NOZAC RB«. U.S. PAT. err, SATISFACTION GUARANTEED