[78-L] Metropolitan Opera broadcasts in the old house

[lizmcl at midcoast.com]

> Now that the Library of Congress Sonic catalog is back on line (it was
> down
> last night for routine maintenance), I am able to see at least a dozen
> full
> length recordings of MET Opera broadcasts from the 1930s, in the NBC
> Collection, starting about 1936. Linechecks, not airchecks. Made by NBC. I
> invite you to verify this for yourself.

Interesting -- they seem to exist in isolated batches, with apparently no
effort being made to preserve all of the broadcasts, in keeping with the
Met contract stipulation that this wasn't to be done. However, at least
one of the recordings listed indicates that it was made for use on the
"White Network," which was NBC's International Division -- maybe that
explains what these were intended for, and it may be that some sort of
arrangement was negotiated to allow this, an arrangement which didn't turn
up when Jackson was researching his discussion of the subject.

A lot of random intermission features were preserved as well -- these were
produced by NBC and wouldn't have been covered any contractural
restriction in the Met contract.