The Waterbury Democrat., 1942-08-14
WEAF Celebrates
 20 Years Service
Early BrOadCasts in New York Form Important Mile.
 stones in Radio History Today

WEAF, celebrating its 20th birth day Sunday, August 16, with suec- ally-produced programs (WEAF- NBC. Saturday, August IS, 1l:15 to 52 Midnight; WEAF, Sunday, August ll6, 4:30 to 5:30 D. m.), started its 5lsty life Wednesday, August 16. i922, on the 24th floor of the Ameri- gan Telephone and Telegraph Com pany building, 24 Walker street.
 Broadcast through a transmitter at 46S West street, WHATS first program went on the air with no 9anfae and little indication of the trail-blazing for which it was des- tined in the radio industry.
 Talent was drawn from telephone company employees whose desk work for some time had been interrupted by sos calls from the engineering department to lend themselves as hgurative kuinea pigs to experiments In voice and music transmission. / Experiments in studio deadening were proceeding continually, echos being reduced by using two-inch sound absorbing material on ceil- lngs. by padding side walls with thick felt and carpeting the floor.
 No amateur to broadcasting tech- nique even then-She was one of score of clerks doubling at desk end microphone-Miss Helen Graves then in the general plant managers office, now computing room super visor, long lines department, was among other employees featured on WHATS first program.
 Accompanied at the piano by Mrs. May w. .Swayze, who has been sec- retary to general commercial man. ager but is currently retiring, Miss Graves, mezzo-soprano, sang the aria from Saint-Saens' Samson and Delilah," "Just Song at Twilight" and Roland's Down in the Forest"
 An instructor in long lines school in %, Miss Edna Cunningham, now chief operator, long lines traffic department, was asked to read with out rehearsal an article addressed to women only" from one of the wom- ems magazines. Having been told 8 majority of her audience was male, she was embarrased-but her humiliation passed as she read and learned the content dealt with the proper treatment of husbands by wives. She also read James Whit comb Riley'S "An Old Sweetheart of Mine.'
 Since they worked on company time, artists, of course, were not paid for their microphone appear ances in currency, but in courteous ly-worded cards of appreciation, printed as follows:
 Station WEAF wishes to extend to you its sincere thanks for your recent radio appearance. Both. sta tioh and radio audience appreciate your cooperation S. L. Ross, Director of Programs"
 WHATS first log records merely start broadcasting through 'WEAF' Western Electric Company, West street" together with remarks re- quirCd by the government as to sta tions and signals picked up during the day.
 Precocious WEAF was only 12 days old when it solved the problem of revenue that had plagued radio operators for years-by selling the first commercial sponsorship of a broadcast.
 In contrast to the commercials of today averaging 50 seconds, this his toric commercial ran for 10 long minutes. Paid for by Queensborough Corporation, Jackson Heights, New York City, in the interests of Haw- thorne Court, part of the real estate development being promoted by the client, 1t was recorded in the oper- ating log of WEAF, August 28, 1922, by the engineer, R. s. Fenimore, operating supervisor, as folows:
 5.00- 5.10 Queensborough Corpn. "Our first customer"
 Vischer A. Randall, WHATS first announcer, introduced Max H. Black well, sales manager, Queensboro- the name has been shortened whose institutional talk was re- strained and cleverly tied in with the ideals of Nathaniel Hawthorne, American novelist.
 The phenomenon of revenue con- tinued to bless WEAF, whose log shows that Greensboro broadcast August 29, 30, 31 and September 1 at rate of $10O for each 10-minute talk.
 By September 21 WEAF had three commercials on the air:
 Queensboro, 7:55-8.06.
 TideWater Oil, 716-8.26.
 American Express, 4.46-9.00.
 Program entries in the WEAF operators log book were discontinu- ed after September 28 and no other records of WEAF broadcasts ap- parently exist until December 8, 1922 when daily program sheets were started and the following entry is found:
 800 p. m.-'The Story of the Little Glass Slipper" by Gimbel Brothers, New York City.
 Although there is no indication that this was a commercial pro- gram, Gimbel Brothers thereafter for many months was WHATS chief advertiser.
 A significant, event occurred in the Fall of '22 when engineers demonstrated the principle success fully employed in network broad casting.
 By special transmitters and ampli-