Radio doings (Dec 1930-Jun1932)

By One of Them judge presiding in the particular case involved gave his approval. So when Davidson informed him that we had declared him taking a stand in our favor, he denied it — and the effect the mix-up had upon Quinn and the rest of the board of supervisors was amazing. They shut up like clams and refused to have anything to do with radio and raised their hands in horror at the very mention of the word 'microphone.' Behind all this was the shadow of the newspaper, of reporters commissioned by their papers to keep us from the courtroom. The day of the trial drew near — even nearer, and still we did not know and were unable to find out what judge was to hear the trial. "Now, Judge Doran," we said so many times it became the standing joke of the Hall of Justice attaches, "Who are you going to assign to this case?" Whereupon the wily jurist would smile wisely and snicker, leaving us just as much in the dark as ever. Not till the morning the case got under way did we learn that Superior Judge Stanley Murray, of Madera county, was to sit on the bench. Johnson and I rushed into Department 26 and found a tall, heavyset individual staring gloomily at the ceiling. "Judge Murray?" we asked breathlessly. "Yes," he answered at great length. "We're from the Radio News Service of America — we want to put microphones in this courtroom so the world can hear the actual proceedings of this trial, we'll hide it so — " "No, you can not," he growled "This is a serious thing — a man is on trial for his life in this court and I'll not have these proceedings made into a circus!" The peculiar thing about Judge Murray's stormy reply was not in its phrasology — but in the fact that he began the answer before Ihad asked the question. It was obvious that someone had warned him of the advance of the army of the air. Clark Trial Courtroom Scene — The defendant is sitting second from the right next to his counsel, W. I. Gilbert. Prosecutor Ford is at the extreme left of the table. In fact, the whole civic center was buzzing with gossip about the sensational attempt — on every hand, frenzied newspaper reporters besieged us — asking where we had hidden the mike — when we were to begin broadcasting and who would make our bail when we went to jail? We tried a score of threats, persuasive lines of salesmanship and varied attacks upon the somber jurist from Madera, but there was no hope. Then along came Guy Earl, the progressive owner of Station KNX. "This is a marvelous story," Earl said, excitedly. "We'll put in a remote control panel somewhere here in the Hall of Justice and sneak a microphone in when no one's looking." And then began the battle of the Three Musketeers of Radio against the power of the press, the judiciary, the board of supervisors, the county engineering department and what have you. From that time on, Johnson, Earl and I found ourselves the center of a whirlpool of excitement and panic. Judge Doran, probably touched by our determined attempts, became liberal one morning and instructed his official reporter, a kindly old gentleman named Sullivan, to allow us to invade his private transcript room. In half an hour we had installed a remote control panel, Kenneth Ormiston had ordered the telephone company to install a direct line from Room 802 in the Hall of Justice to station KNX, where he is chief technician, and Earl had ordered a bevy of actors and actresses down to interpret the official transcript. Then havoc burst loose about our heads. Five men and three women were reading the transcript over the air by remote control to KNX — it was so real that everyone who missed the opening announcement thought it was coming from the courtroom itself. City editors went into a green rage. They frantically phoned their reporters. "Get that Radio News Service out of the Hall of Justice — they're broadcasting the Clark trial from the courtroom!" With the natural detecting ability of news-hounds, a handful of newspaper men discovered our hide-out in 802. They broke open the door in the middle of a dramatization and flash light powders boomed while the startled actors and actresses were reading into the mike. Then came the headlines. "Radio Broadcast Proves Fake!" They screamed the news to the world — while the dramatization continued — Judges, supervisors and other officials left their offices to hear the broadcasts over KNX. Radio was making history — telephone calls were pouring in to the Radio News Service stations, KNX and KMPC — for the first time in the history of radio broadcast, an official transcript of a real trial was going on the air! And the people were listening! Letters, telegrams, phone calls came down on KNX like an arctic blizzard. As soon as sensational testimony was given, it went on the air. Stuart Buchanan, the KNK announcer, had entered into the spirit of the game and, as Prosecutor Joe Ford, his voice reflected the excitement he felt — the thrill of the bat[Turn to Page 44] RADIO DOINGS Page Nine