m NATIONAL EfiOADCASTINQ COMPANY, general library 30 ROCKEFELLER PLAZA, NEW YORK, N. 1 >:.-s Vr-. iS- ’ NBC VOL. 6 JANUARY, 1940 No. 1 LATEST PROGRESS IN TELEVISION NEW YEAR SftS MANY TRAINING FCC VIEWS NEW PORTABLE UNIT GROUPS HELD FOR YOUNGER MEN elevision de- S the New Year ajrproaches and gets underway, it finds T velops so rapid- AI the largest number yet of employe training courses ly that it is always in action. This is a result of the Company’s policy of filling outmoding its own vacancies from its own ranks. It has been said more and news. This month more often in the past few years that the Company is old there are several enough to prepare its personnel to fill the responsible posi- items for the record. tions created or opened as time goes on, and this year a We are all familiar more comprehensve effort than ever is being made in that with the ten-ton, direction. two-truck mobile Ashton Dunn of Personnel has already organized a group unit which has so for the purpose of learning the structure and activities of successfully picked various departments. It is similar to last year’s group which up such nemos as was developed to satisfy the expressed interest of the younger Evolution of an Idea. boxing and tennis employes. Some of the more specialized courses recently matches, and base- planned or begun are working in connection with the larger ball and football games. This sleek monster is the incredi- group to fill out the general training program. All of them ble descendant of the early moving-picture apparatus. The have members of a remarkably high standard, the majority picture above clearly shows the dramatic evolution. Ed having received anywhere from one or two years of college Stolzenberger travels back through time to to an M.A. degree. demonstrate the actual Pathe camera used The most elementary course, given to to shoot The Birth of a Nation. In the all new employes of General Service and center Roy Meredith is at the controls of to any others who may wish to enroll, is the modern Mitchell movie camera which the Orientation Class. Meetings last about he uses in producing the television sub- two weeks and are held whenever there ject, Teletopics. And on the right is Ed is a sufficient number of enrollees. Dur- Cullen mastering one of the television ing the ten classes or so, the history of cameras at present employed in Studio RCA and NBC is explained and the or- 3H. ganization of NBC taken up. And now there is a further development. After that, the logical step is to attend The RCA Laboratories in Camden have the group first mentioned above, which produced a new light-weight portable now has sixty-five members from eleven television field different departments. first pick-up . Since tbe unit. The compact . • examines . Ml 1 11 1 • 1 rCC new apparatus Will be able to televise material (l. to r.) James Fiy, Thad'^Brown?'Nor- meeting in October, at which Dr. Angell Craven beyond the reach of the equipment pre- A. M. spoke, they have gathered every Wednes- viously used. There are also many other practical day evening in the Sixth Floor Board Room to hear execu- advantages in the new unit. The cost is about one-sixth tives from the Continuity Acceptance, Engineering, Informa- and the weight about one-tenth that of the present mobile tion and Program Departments discuss their work and the equipment. An entire three-camera assembly in eleven functions of their divisions. Following the talk there is “suitcases” and with 1000 feet of cable weighs less than usually a lively question and answer period to clear up any 1500 pounds. Also the power needed is about one-fifth of {Continued on page 4) that formerly required. 110 volts, single phase, is enough. The flexibility of the system has been improved to allow dissolving from the scene on one camera to that being picked up by another, so that on the receiving screen you can see one view build up as the other dies out. The accompanying radio transmitter works on a wave-length of about one meter, the shortest yet employed in practical television work. The power is much less than that of the two-truck unit, but the wavelength is not only equally free of static, but can be used with small, highly efficient antennas which multiply the effective power several times. The RCA Manufacturing Company has already delivered one such unit to NBC. The new field equipment was demonstrated Friday, November 24, before members and officials of the Federal Communications Commission in Washington. D. C., by the RCA Laboratories. Among those present were James Lawrence Fly, Chairman of the FCC; Commissioners Thad H. Brown. Norman S. Case and T. A. M. Craven, members of One of the Wednesday night meetings in the personnel training {Continued on page 4) program. 2 NBC TRANSMITTER SHORTWAVE CARRIES FIRST COMMERCIAL PROGRAM TRANSMITTER AT RCAM Europe often gets its own news more Whitman, advertising manager of the Six much impressed young men quickly by NBC shortwave than by any United Fruit Company, has said, “is spent Thursday, November 30, visiting other means. From the fifth floor stu- being sponsored strictly in the interests tbe RCA Manufacturing Company at dio, French soldiers have even heard of good will.” There will be no prod- Camden, N. J. The six men were the the first report of leave about to be uct selling on the program, according staff of the NBC Transmitter, and given them. The fan letters received by to Whitman, and all commercial an- this was the second in a series of visits the International Division are aweing nouncements will be directed solely to various RCA subsidiaries. both in quantity and praise. And such toward creating better understanding Mr. Gilbert, of the RCAM Press De- is the quality of these broadcasts to and good will between the United partment, met the group at the Phila- foreign countries that many colleges States and the countries of Latin- delphia station and conducted them to have become interested in using them America where the United Fruit Com- the offices in Camden. Welcome NBC in the study of languages. They have pany does business. banners greeted the staff as they en- also proved successful enough to be The programs are broadcast over tered the Administration Building. granted a commercial license by the the international stations WNBI and There they were introduced to Mr. FCC. WRCA. The news is translated by Ad- Julius Haber, director of RCAM Press, Experimental programs in Spanish dison Durland and Eli “Buck” Canel who outlined the day’s activities. were started back in July, 1936. They of International, and announced by The tour began in the display room covered only a few hours a week at the John Barrett and A. L. De Olivares, where Mr. L. L. Titus, head of display, beginning, but increased in number as crack NBC International Division pointed out the latest products time went by. Exactly a year later, Spanish announcers. RCA and gave demonstrations of some of July 26, 1937, program services were John Barrett is the son of mission- the equipment. A record of the in- inaugurated in six languages, Spanish, ary parents and spent his early years dividual voices of the group was made Portuguese, French, German and in Puerto Rico. He graduated from on a portable recording unit. Thus Italian besides English. And from that the University of North Carolina, the gratitude of the men for the hos- time on they have been developed to where he was particularly active in pitality they received and their im- the unprecedented stage attested by the dramatics, in l935, and a few years pression of the Camden plants was large volume of foreign mail received later received an M.A. He has trav- preserved for future generations of daily. eled throughout the United States and Transmitter staffs. Until a few months ago, however, the West Indies, and taught Spanish the FCC granted only experimental for several years. In 1938 he made a Next, Mr. Throckmorton, president licenses for international shortwave tour for NBC to points of interest in of RCA Manufacturing, was kind broadcasting. Now the service has a this country in order to write and enough to greet the group personally, commercial license and will operate record in Spanish, material for Latin- following which Mr. Gilbert took them on it sixteen hours daily. It will cover American audiences. for a short walk to the Research and twenty Latin-American countries with A. L. De Olivares was born in Spain Engineering Laboratories. Here they programs in Spanish, Portuguese and and studied at the University of Bar- met Mr. L. M. Clement, vice president English, beginning at 4:00 p.m. and celona and the Conservatory of Music in charge of Engineering and Re- running to 1 :00 a.m., EST. In addi- there. He has had extensive experience search, and Mr. E. T. Dickey, who is tion a service to Europe from 9:00 as an actor and singer in both Bar- in charge of Engineering Publications a.m. to 4:00 p.m., EST, in English, celona and New York. During the past and Engineering Societies Contacts French. Italian and German will be two years he has been a commentator Mr. Dickey guided the men on an in- available to sponsors. Negotiations in Spanish for M-G-M newsreels, trav- spection tour of the Laboratories where already instituted with a number of elogues and shorts.