Thursday, November 15, 2007

The Peacock Network: 9²

Wouldn't ordinarily bother w/ a non-divisible by five anniversary, but these NBC logos (left: 1943, upper right: 1956, lower right: 1954) have been sitting in the devil box for a while, so we'll take this opportunity to note that the first NBC broadcast occurred 81 yrs. ago.
RCA formed a new corporation on September 9, 1926, known as the National Broadcasting Company. The new company was owned by RCA, as well as two of its parent companies, Westinghouse and General Electric.

NBC's first broadcast on the WEAF network took place November 15, 1926.

[...]

In the beginning, NBC was "National" in name only, as its programs reached only as far west as Denver. In its first years, NBC was unable to set up a coast-to-coast hookup. AT&T had not yet installed broadcast quality telephone lines across the Rocky Mountains.
That's right kids, in the Golden Age of Radio it went over the 'phone lines, replaced by microwave xmission from one land station to the next, & now you & every other living & inert thing on the planet are under constant microwave bombardment from satellites. More detail, & the story of NBC Orange (news to us too) from The Broadcast Archive, who don't want us infringing on their copyright, but we're going to go fair use nuts anyway.

Local yokels may be amused by these postcards of the NBC studios at Sunset & Vine, now occupied by the Home Savings bldg., which is no longer Home Savings, but a WaMu branch.

2 comments:

Larry Harmon said...

Home Savings, WaMu, bah, that's not important, the important thing is, do homeless people still bathe in the fountain?
P.
P.S. Hey, check that out.... bowling on Vine street.... and the American Legion Lanes just a block away.

M. Bouffant said...

The Editor Speaks:
Who knows when these were taken, but the Legion Lanes may still have been a boxing arena then. Ah, Hollywood, land of liberal sophisication. My memory is hazy, but in Nocturne, w/ George Raft, 1945 or so I think there's a shot of Hywd. Bl. w/ a bowling alley on it near Vine. And the Frolic Room.