[78-L] NBC (was: YOU)

[Sammy Jones]

> > > Even if the music had been from earlier, wouldn't
> a 1930 audition
> > > disc have opened with "The National Broadcasting
> Company presents.."
> > > instead of "NBC presents.."?  dl
> > 
> > What an interesting thought.  Did they ever refer
> to themselves by
> > initials that early?  I will have to start
> listening for this and ask
> > the OTR people about this.
> 
> I'd be surprised if they used 'NBC' on the air before the
> 1940s.  I've
> heard the "live audience" Amos & Andy broadcast from
> 1937 (or was it
> 1936?), in which the exit cue is "This is the Red Network
> of the
> National Broadcasting Company".  I've also heard a
> post-war Abbott and
> Costello program in which the Grand Ole Opry program is
> teased as coming
> "Saturday night on NBC".
> 
> I honestly have not sat through the entire 25 hours-ish of
> NBC's D-Day
> coverage, but parts that I have heard - including the
> fourth chime at
> some unholy hour in the morning - have repeated references
> to "The
> National Broadcasting Company" rather than NBC.  Based
> on that, I'm
> going to hazard a guess that using "NBC" on the air may
> have started
> about the same time that The Blue Network began identifying
> itself by
> that name.
> 
> MS

I can't be sure, but it seems like I've heard the system cue on some 1937-38 Jack Benny programs given as NBC, the National Broadcasting Company.  It stuck out because it's usually something like, "This is the Red Network of the National Broadcasting Company."  

I may be misremembering entirely, and will try to check and report back soon.

On the 1948 Benny shows that I have, the system cue is "This is NBC, the National Broadcasting Company [chimes]."

Is there a style manual for NBC system cues from this period?

Certainly the network was referred to informally as merely NBC on the air sometimes.  You will hear references to the "NBC studios" during 1930s Benny shows.

Somewhat relatedly, during Orson Welles's closing speech in the War of the Worlds he says something like, "destroyed the CBS," while the scripts that I've seen write out "Columbia Broadcasting System" during this part.  The system cue at the end of the program is, of course, "Columbia Broadcasting System."

Sammy Jones