I recently posted this message to the OTR listserv, with little response. I thought some of the learned individuals on this listserv might be able to help...
Hello all,
I've recently discovered the excellent NBC Chimes Museum website (http://www.nbcchimes.info/). What a wonderful resource to get the story on the NBC chimes! Reading about that great on-air trademark inspired me to set the NBC net ID and chimes as my Windows logoff sound.
Veering back on topic: I didn't know that before the NBC production
facility was built in Hollywood in the late '30s, NBC shows originating from
the West Coast were fed directly to Chicago before being sent out on the
network. I suppose that meant KFI, Los Angeles (which was not an O&O)
received the feed of Hollywood shows only after they had made the trek to
Chicago and back! Were the chimes for West Coast shows rung in Hollywood or
Chicago?
All this info about chimes and routing on the site got me wondering if there is any more info out there regarding the processes in routing network feeds. Apparently the West Coast feed was only one way, with Los Angeles having no way to monitor the rest of the net while it was feeding a program down the line.
What was the relationship exactly between NBC and AT&T? I always assumed that AT&T merely supplied the requisite phone lines, but apparently they had quite a bit to do with routing and switching feeds to the different networks and legs.
And finally, what was the exact timing of an NBC (or other network show) supposed to be? Some sources indicate a half hour show was 29:30 exactly. No matter what. I've also heard 20 seconds was the required amount in between shows. The Chimes site says shows often ran long or short, and the chimes were rarely rung exactly on time. Listening to airchecks from the '30s seems to bear this out, with the KFI ID following the chimes on many Jack Benny programs giving the time as, "10 seconds before 9." I just heard one that said, "5 seconds before 9"! If the next show on the net didn't originate from Hollywood, I can imagine some poor engineer trying to get the circuit turned around before 9, a task that it seems took about 15 seconds to do!
Interesting to note that it sounds like the Benny program from 6/21/36 uses the Rangertone chimes at the end, but the very next show after the summer break 10/4/36 uses the hand struck dinner chimes. Is there a precise date known when the Rangertone chimes went into service?
When I first began collecting OTR I just assumed little was actually known about how shows were produced and how networks operated on a day to day basis. I reckoned all these shows just existed on cassette or reel and the history behind them was lost. I've learned that's really not true. Books like Michael Biel's "Making and Use of Broadcast Recordings" are eye opening. There's lots of information already out there, and even more waiting to be uncovered. Does anyone know the answers to my questions?
Thanks, Sammy Jones