Radio stars (May 1933)

RADIO STARS You've no idea of the perils which announcers and the technical staff go through in order to bring you broadcasts of national events. Actually risk life and limb RADIO'S Forgotten MEN... (Left) Henry Grossman of the Columbia Broadcasting System. He belongs to the group of men who take chances in order to secure perfect broadcasts. (Below, left) Read what happened when Milton Cross was introducing Stokowski. And about Wallace Butterworth's (below, right) shower bath. YOU'VE got to take things as they come in this radio business. I mean, if you are one of the unsung radio army of forgotten men. Radio has them, believe me. They're behind the scenes. You never hear their names. But they're there — all there! Doing their job with the single thought in their minds that came to them straight from the rich tradition of the theatre, "The show must go on!" Must go on, get it? Sometimes it isn't easy. July in 1931, for example. Lindbergh had announced that he would fly to Japan. As with so many flights, there were innumerable delays, and Ted Jewett who had been assigned to describe the take-off, telephoned back to headquarters to ask for a relief man. James Wellington, another of the staff announcers, was sent up to take over the microphone, and Jewett was told to report right back to the studio to handle the Women's Radio Review program. Heavy traffic held up Wallington's car and he arrived late. Jewett had just time to leap into a cab and head for New York in a big hurry. Hardly had the cab left the airplane field, when a light car swung out of a side street, directly into its path. There was a tremendous crash, and the cab was overturned. The first thing the NBC knew of it, William Burke Miller, who directs outside broadcasts for the network, received a telephone call, and heard an excited voice saying, "One of your men has just been killed in an automobile accident. We want you to come over and identify the body." Leaving an agitated crew to handle the take-off, Miller hastened to the scene of the accident. Jewett was not dead but he was badly hurt. Eventually, he recovered. ANOTHER time, Engineer B. Friedendall was taking some remote control apparatus back to the station after a broadcast from the Cotton Club, one of New York's gayer night places. His taxi was smashed, and Friedendall was hurt. Refusing to leave the microphones and amplifiers, he hailed another cab and brought them back to the NBC building. Once there, with the equipment safely delivered, he collapsed. It took two weeks in the hospital to put him back on his feet. Engineers always seem to be on the spot. George Milne, Division Field Engineer pf the NBC, tells some stories of misadventures at Poughkeepsie. Two years ago a thunder storm came up during (Continued on page 44 J 29 By ROBERT E I C H B E R C