Radio doings (Dec 1930-Jun1932)

It Takes the United Efforts of Hundreds of Men and Women To Produce a Single Nation-Wide Network Program, and Sometimes Months of Planning and Thousands of Dollars Expense. This Article Explains Many of the Things Youve Wondered About Chain Broadcasting by Don Frank finishedspeaker -he can hear her through a n his studio — and then start? Miss Bebe Daniels, who sang from Los Angeles. Both Miss Daniels and Whiteman used earphones to hear each other; they both governed themselves accordingly, and the result was broadcast over the entire network as a single program! lAmos V Andy, placing a mike up against the speaker, and blithely presenting it as their own program? All network broadcasting is done through the telephone company. The special wires, with which the country is already honey-combed, have to be prepared especially for radio messages. About every fifty miles along these lines, powerful amplifiers, or "boosters," are installed, insuring the same volume and strength of current at the receiving end of the line as were produced at the radio transmitter. At each of these boosters an operator is stationed constantly. If it were not for these operators, it would be possible to broadcast in but one direction, as from KFRC to KHJ. After a program originating in KFRC over CBS, before KHJ or any other station can go on the chain, every "boost er" along the line to KHJ must be switched, or "reversed." These reversals, which are made by telephone company operators, require only a few seconds, usually from five to twenty; over long distances, however, it sometimes takes much longer. Suppose a San Francisco station and a Los Angeles station, both members of the same chain, produce a program in which artists of both stations appear alternately from their own studios. If San Francisco goes on the air first, all of the boosters along the way are switched in one direction beforehand. After the San Francisco soprano finishes her number it is arranged that the Los Angeles announcer is to come on the scene. A prearranged space of five seconds allowance for reversal has been made. The Los Angeles announcer waits five seconds after the soprano has When the Los Angeles part of the program is finished, the San Francisco announcer also waits five seconds before coming on, and so on, back and forth. Sometimes an announcer begins too soon, or a lineman is slow in making a reversal, and as a result, the listener hears only a part of his first words, or misses the first bar or two of music. Usually, however, it is all done with infinite precision, with hardly a break. The old joke about the schoolboy's definitions of "radio" and "telephone" ilustrates the network system, reversals and all, quite strikingly. When Jimmie was asked to define "Telephone," he replied, "It's like a dog with his tail in Chicago and his head in New York. Pull his tail in Chicago and he barks in New York." "Well then, Jimmie," the teacher queried, "how do you define 'radio'?" "Oh," came the answer, "it's just the same, only without any dog!" By the same token, Jimmie would probably answer that a "reversal" was turning the dog around so that when the New York tail was pulled, the Chicago head would bark. The advantage of a local station being associated with a chain is largely one of prestige. Upon joining the chain, it must guarantee that it will "take" every sponsored program sent to it by the chain headquarters. An exception to this is the "Blue Monday Jamboree," a long-established, popular program that the Don Lee system refused to relinquish. Arrangements were made with the powers-that-be in the Columbia company, whereby the Jamboree would maintain its eight o'clock Monday spot, while Bing Crosby was limited to every day except Sunday and Monday. Unsponsored, or "sustaining" programs released by the chain are optional, and the local member may use them or not, as it pleases. Some sustaining programs may be sold to local sponsors — but not programs already sponsored nationally. Volumes could be written about network broadcasting. The few sketchy incidents told in this article are but a few of the details in the great story of the chain hook-up. There is more back of it than meets the ear — interesting tales of romance and thrills that are never heard through your radio receiver; a whole world of activity whose secrets the loud speaker is powerless to reveal. There will be more articles of this kind in forthcoming issues of RADIO DOINGS, which will further describe the mighty machine behind network broadcasting. Watch for them. RADIO DOINGS Page Twenty-one