Radio Broadcast - 1925, February - 113 Pages ... - VacuumTubeEra

. "You
Our Busiest Dav 7'5
Follette Convention from the Public Auditorium
in Cleveland the next day, July 4th!
That certainly did set the electrical kettle
boiling.
Here we were all tied up with a Convention
coming in from New Y'ork, sitting around
waiting to work in the remote control job
from the Hotel Cleveland, and along came the
news that we would have to get our hook-up
all set down at the big Public Auditorium in
Cleveland for still another job, beginning at
ten o'clock the next morning!
Well, Thorburn, our engineer, and Johnson,
our announcer, work on the theory that nothing
is impossible. If it had to be done, it had
to be done, that was all.
THE DEMOCRATS CONTINUED BALLOTING
THE Democrats kept right on balloting.
They balloted so long that the Leviathan
orchestra didn't get a chance to broadcast at
all. So at eleven o'clock that night, Johnson
rushed our remote control panel from the
Hotel Cleveland down to the Public Auditorium
and began to get all set for our installation
down there. He worked until about
two in the morning and then the boys decided
that sleep was more important at that time
than any microphone or control panel in the
world.
At six o'clock the next morning they were
back again at the Public Auditorium and completed
their installation. This consisted of a
tie-up with the public address amplifying system
already installed in the auditorium.
While the boys were working on that, we
had to set up our glass broadcasting booth on
the stage of the Public Auditorium just behind
one of the wings, as near as possible to the
speaker's platform. At four o'clock of the
afternoon of July }rd, this broadcasting booth
lay knocked-down in several pieces up in the
storeroom of the twentieth floor of The Union
Trust Building. Between four o'clock that
afternoon and eight o'clock the following
morning, movers took the sections of this
booth down to the Public Hall, a building
company put the thing together and set it
up,
and then our remote control panel had to be
installed inside of the broadcasting booth and
the lines tested.
THE LITTLE OLD LADY IN
BLACK
^ITHE Convention was due to open at ten
* o'clock. At a quarter of ten the boys
were almost desperate. It didn't seem possible
to get the job done in time. Three minutes
of ten two minutes of ten at last the
installation
was complete and they made the
test.
The test was rotten!
Something was wrong. The tie-in with the
general amplifying system didn't work worth
a hoot.
The Chairman mounted the platform with
his gavel in his hand.
"Oh! what's the use," Johnson cried, and
slammed a pair of pliers on the floor.
But just then we had a life saver.
A little old lady in a black dress and a black
hat I don't know who she is, but she certainly
saved our lives came bustling up on
the platform and she said to the Chairman:
"But we haven't rehearsed our songs yet.
We must rehearse our songs."
"But," the Chairman objected, "we have
got to start this Convention, it's due to start
at ten o'clock."
"Well, the Convention will just have to
wait until we rehearse our songs!"
The Chairman gave up, and the old lady
gathered about her a group of women who began
to rehearse the various La Follette songs
which the convention was going to sing.
Suddenly Johnson had an inspiration.
"Well! we can try it," he said, "we will
see if we can't put in our own installation."
If you think you know what fast work is,
you ought to have seen the boys fly around
during the next few minutes. They tore out
entirely the hook-up with the amplifying
system, got their own microphone and put
in their usual remote control plan of installation,
running the cord from the remote
control panel through the roof of the broadcasting
booth, down to the floor, under the
chairs of the delegates who were seated there,
and up on to the speaker's platform.
The installation was almost complete all
that was necessary was to place the microphone
up on the top of the speaker's platform
and then a terrible catastrophe.
The cord wasn't long enough! It wouldn't
reach! It lacked two feet!
The ladies stopped rehearsing their songs
and once more the Chairman mounted that
platform with the gavel in his hand.
I wish you could have seen Johnson's face
when he saw that that cord wasn't going to
reach.
Life just wasn't worth living any more, that's
all there was to it.
And then somebody had a bright idea.
doggone fool," he yelled, "if you
stretch that cord from the top of the booth
to the top of the platform instead of running it