Quincy High School - Goldenrod Yearbook (Quincy, MA)

Page 29 text:

LUIS MARDEN ANNOUNCING Louis Paragallo Feb. ’32 Takes Us The Other Side of The Mike October 24, 1933. To the Alumni Editor: I appreciate greatly your request for a letter to the Alumni column of the “Golden Rod.” Like the legendary busman on holiday, I am glad to hear of a “radio issue” of the school magazine. Though I have done nothing that would make very good copy, I have found the three years that I have spent in radio work interesting. In radio you get practically all of the atmosphere of the stage and screen without the disadvantages of a wandering life. Therefore I would advise all of you who are greatly intrigued by visions of a stage career to try radio first. However, you will find both lines crowded, making it a matter of choice after all. The major part of my radio experience has been gathered in the studios of W L 0 E, an independent Boston station with main studios in the Hotel Bellevue on Beacon Hill. For some weeks I was connected with the Yankee Network key stations, WNAC and W A A B. Since the latter stations are also members of the Columbia Broadcasting System, it is quite interesting to note their method of tying up the three outlets: Columbia, Yankee, and the two locals—N A C and A A B. Thus a program may originate in New York and be picked up or “tapped” by either of the local stations; a local program may originate locally and be sent up and down New England over the Yankee tie-up; or it may be sent out only locally to the Boston area. Besides these combinations, quite often a program is sent “down the pipe”, which is radio cant for a show that is broadcast only over the other member stations of the network, and not through the key outlets, as is usually the rule. So you see, there would be a good deal of room for a mix-up in timing, were not the schedules scientifically and carefully made out. Obviously, the minute is too large a fraction of time to be used in dealing with such complications, and as a result, network programs are worked on the half- minute.

Page 28 text:

TRAMP—TRAMP—TRAMP Over there it was:— Marching feet, Triumphantly conquering The enemy. Tramping feet, Eagerly charging The lines. Running feet, Victoriously going Over the top. Crawling feet, Slithering through No Man’s Land. Then it was:— Marching feet, Triumphantly back From the war. Tramping feet, Eagerly timed To the music. Running feet, Happily rushing To outstreched arms. Crawling feet, Dragging from The victorious parade. Now it is:— Marching feet, Bravely going On Hunger Marches. Tramping feet, Freezing and Nowhere to go. Running feet, Desperately stealing For little ones. Crawling feet, Hopelessly shuffling In Bread Lines. What is to come?— Marching feet, Triumphantly treking To work. Tramping feet, Swinging a full Lunch pail. Running feet, Eagerly rushing To wideflung arms. Crawling feet, Dragging from a Hard day’s work. Erna Koss.

Page 30 text:

There is a main control-room through which everything that goes on the air passes. Connected by wiring with this is what is known officially as an announcer’s booth, usually a little six by ten cell with nothing in it but a chronometer, a loudspeaker, a chair, and a microphone. Here the an- nouncer sits (poor man) and waits the long hours through for “cuts” or “breaks” as they are known, which mean simply station identifications or announcements of the call letters, such as “W N A C in Boston.” These “cuts” come either on the half or the quarter-hour, or usually both. Now, there is always a “cue” so that the local announcer may know when it is exactly the time to make his “cut.” These cues vary with the chains, but on CBS programs it is: “This is the Columbia Broadcasting System.” When the local man hears the network announcer say this, he “punches in” his own microphone by pushing a button on a control box before him. This puts him on the air with his “cut” or news flash. The cue invariably comes thirty seconds before the “nose” or exact half or quarter-hour. This means that at the end of a fifteen-minute program the cue is given at fourteen and one-half minutes past the hour, and on a thirty minute broad- cast, the warning phrase is given at twenty-nine and one-half minutes past. This leaves the announcer, who has cut in his mike at the cue, thirty seconds to make his station announcement and news flash, at the end of which he switches his mike off and the next program starts “on the nose” or exactly on the hour or half-hour as the case may be. The local announcements do not always consume the full thirty seconds allowed them by the networks, and in event of such a shortage of material, the remaining “dead air” or seconds of silence before the start of the next program must be filled in by a “sustainer” which is usually a bit of music or a run of bells or chimes played by some studio musician or recorded for just such emergencies. Despite these many measures of caution, there is often much confusion and scurrying about in radio stations to get pro- grams ofF on time, which the smoothly-running broadcast does not betray to the audience. Altogether it is a pleasant business (but for the hours) and it is educat- ing to meet the many personalities one does encounter in any form of the entertainment business. May I say just one word to those thinking of looking for radio work? Do not let yourselves be misled by the enormous sums reputed to be paid radio announcers or artists, since one hears only of the headliners in each field. For every one of these there are five hundred struggling plodders trying to make network ends meet. Thank you again for the privilege of writing you, and I suppose I should say Signing off: Luis Marden