Jim Stokes 
Starter of this subject: Bob Watson
Last post in this subject: 10/13/2000
Messages in this subject: 8
| Bob Watson | 10/13/2000 8 replies |
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Several years ago, the now gone Radio Yesteryear company offered the NBC-Red and NBC-Blue recordings from 12/07/41 in two bookshelve sets. I ordered them and was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the recordings, since the company said outright that the quality was poor and they were being offered for historical purposes. Most of the recordings were actually very listenable. I was also pleasantly surprised to find that they actually extended there offerings till Midnight on 12/08/41 on a custom order basis. Well, I procrastinated and didn't start buying the offerings from the early morning hours of 12/08/41 quick enough. I did manage to obtain a couple of hours more before Radio Yesteryear was absorbed into Radio Spirits and the offerings discontinued. I was wondering if anyone else out there knows where I can obtain the rest of the recordings from NBC. Also, I once owned a few scattered news interruptions from CBS. None from Mutual. I was wondering how many CBS recordings survived. I had at one time the World Today broadcast from 2:30 and the Philhamonic intermission newscast as well as the CBS broadcast of the President's Day of Infamy speech the next day, but the tapes have since worn completely out and are now totally unlistenable. Is there a good source on the net for Pearl Harbor recordings for CBS, Mutual, and both NBC networks? Now to my MAIN question!! Does anyone know why NBC started recording their broadcast day at 2:00?? The first announcement of Pearl Harbor was still almost half an hour away?? Also, why didn't CBS follow suit and record the rest of the days activities once the news event started??? As an aside, in rural central Georgia in the 40's, at least in my area I believe, probably the only stations listenable at 2:00 in the afternoon would have been the NBC-Red station in Atlanta and the CBS station in Macon. After hearing the offerings of NBC Red and reading about what was available on the local CBS station, I would have to say that I probably would have listened to NBC-Red that day, although I do understand that CBS actually had more newscoverage. Does anyone know if this is true?? I am interested in hearing about any recollections that anyone reading this board has about 12/07/41.
Thanks, Bob |
| Jim Stokes | 10/14/2000 1 replies |
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Somebody here in Minneapolis got hold of the CBS version of Pearl Harbor reporting. As I recall, the 16 inch transcriptions were acetates from General Mills. I made an open reel dub of the recordings. They were a bit scratchy. So, I go the acetates wet and then dubbed. That took care of most of the surface noise. Then I ran the output of my preamplifier through a limiter/compressor. And drove the heck out of that device. That would not allow much of the ambient scratch to come through. Worked great. Sounded like I was in the studio
Jim Stokes |
| Bob Watson | 10/14/2000 0 replies |
| Jim, do you recall how many hours worth of coverage had survived the years?? |
| ELizabeth McLeod | 10/14/2000 5 replies |
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As to the question of the origin of the NBC recordings, these were actually cheap-and-dirty reference recordings made on a Memovox dictating machine, which embossed a groove on a flexible plastic disc running at 33 1/3 rpm, constant linear velocity (meaning the disc speed changed as the recording proceeded, allowing the recording stylus to move at a constant speed thruout the length of the disc. This process allowed a full half hour to be recorded on each side of the disc, but the audio quality was only marginal.)
During the early forties, NBC New York and NBC Chicago apparently recorded most if not all of their programming on these devices for purposes of legal documentation -- but the recordings were not ordinarily saved for archival purposes. The recordings were running as usual during the afternoon of December 7th, and apparently it was decided to preserve the Memovox discs from 2pm forward once the historical importance of the day's events came into focus. Other than these Pearl Harbor recordings almost no NBC Memovox material is known to survive. CBS did not make any of its own recordings in 1941 -- it had no internal recording department of its own, such as that operated by NBC. All of CBS's recording work at this point was contracted out to outside studios -- Radio Recorders in Hollywood did much of the west coast recording and WOR Recording Service and Harry Smith Inc. were among the studios used in New York. Recordings were not made as a matter of course-- arrangements had to be made in advance. So, when the news broke, there were no "official" CBS recordings being made. The only reason *any* CBS news material from 1939-43 survives is because it was recorded off the line by an affiliate, usually for time-shifting purposes. Most of the surviving CBS news broadcasts from this era exist only because station KIRO in Seattle recorded them for later playback, and then thought to save the discs. The circulating copies of CBS's Pearl Harbor coverage have been severely mutilated over the years by collectors trying to edit them into some sort of logical sequence. The famous "interruption" by John Daly of the Philharmonic broadcast for the initial announcement of the attack is the most obvious example -- it has been documented that this recording is in fact a forgery, created for the "I Can Hear It Now" record album series in 1948 because no actual bulletin recording existed. In fact, no such "we interrupt this program" bulletin was broadcast on CBS -- the network's first announcement of the attack was as the lead story in the 230pm newscast. (NBC scooped CBS by almost a full minute in breaking the news of the attack.) But this forged bulletin has been crudely spliced into the circulating fragment of the Philharmonic broadcast -- even though it makes no sense to have it there, since the program aired a full half hour after the story broke.... As to the amount of coverage of the rival networks, neither chain presented "continuous coverage" of the unfolding events. Both went on with their regular programming over the course of the afternoon and evening, interrupting for news only as it became available. Neither network had any particular edge in the amount of coverage aired.
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| Bob Watson | 10/14/2000 4 replies |
| I know what you mean about the CBS newcasts being edited, or maybe more accurately, added too. The Philharmonic 'interruption' was the first newscast I ever purchased from 12/07/41. For years I hung onto the belief that it was the first newsbroadcast of the event. I learned a few years back that it wasn't. I always wondered why CBS would interrupt programming for an hour old story. Also, I forgot when I posted that I do indeed still have a viable tape of the World Today 2:30 broadcast. It is almost an entire half hour long. It would be very much enjoyable, EXCEPT that someone has pasted on the 'usual' introduction complete with sponsorship announcement. It is an obvious add-on, which I usually skip over to go to the actual broadcast which is extremely interesting and insightful. |
| Jim Stokes | 10/14/2000 3 replies |
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I made an open reel dub off of almost an entire side of the transcription. The discs were in excellent shape. Bob Trout was the announcer. Although the discs were from General Mills, they no doubt were recorded off WCCO-AM, the CBS affiliate here in Minneapolis. Aside from processing I did, the sound quality was excellent. Must have been right off the network line.
Jim Stokes |
| J.Cooper | 10/16/2000 2 replies |
| I do recall the NBC page-tour-guide tellng me on my tour of NBC-radio 1944, that.... they(NBC) record all of their shows to keep on file on glass discs... I remember at the time she said that I thought.."wouldn't I like to have those recordings, but I would probably drop and break all of them!" |
| Jim Stokes | 10/17/2000 1 replies |
| You might say "people with glass discs shouldn't throw words around." heh |
| Thomas Trethewey | 1/6/2001 0 replies |
| Great Stuff! The more I read, the more I learn. You guys are the masters. However, as I recall listening to FDR addressing Congress, the audio sounds like "December 7th, 1941: A Day that will live in Infamy...." FDR actually said "a date"--and correctly so. December 7th, 1941 is a date. Moreover, SUNDAY, December 7th, 1941, would have been a Day that will live in Infamy. December 7th, 1941--a date that will live in Infamy. |