Announcer’s Handbook

Mike Berry writes

Here is a copy of the 1947 Producer/Announce manual that was used at NBC Washington DC. There are a few things you should know before reading it: NBC was located in the Trans-Lux building at 14th and New York Avenue at this time The building no longer exists. You will see references to the NBC Blue Network and radio station WMAL. It is my understanding that they were sold and moved out by 1945 so I really can’t explain why they are mentioned in a 1947 book. Job responsibilities of the day deserve some explanation: • In the studio the announcer was in charge. He (they were all men) kept the log, did identifications, switched microphones and remotes on/off as well as pick up and release channels. • The engineer set the levels, mixed and switched job assignments. • The talent did nothing but perform. They had no operational duties. • There was also a Master Control engineer who set up routing that would happen when the announcer would pick up or release channels. • If records were played, a second engineer was assigned. In some other cities, a musicians’ union ‘record turner’, was used instead of an engineer to play records. All of this changed in the 1950s. Master Control was eliminated. The studio engineer took over channel switching. In some cases people were both talent ans announcers. The only switching the announcers did after that was their own microphones. On page 3 there is a sketch of the announcer’s control panel (aka ‘Idiot’s Delight). Here is a picture I found on the internet which is very similar to the sketch.