[78-L] NBC tones

[Michael Shoshani]

On 01/16/2013 10:04 PM, David Lennick wrote:
> Just heard C-A-F as the NBC chimes in a WEAF aircheck, probably 1931. We've
> talked about this in the past..what other pitches were used aside from G-E-C?

That's pretty much it. NBC used several models of Deagan dinner chimes 
until they installed the Rangertone machine in 1932; the three-note 
chimes that came about in late 1931 were originally played on the No. 20 
chime, where the notes were C-A-F.  However, Deagan literature and music 
books called the chime plates G, C, E, G, and C if there was a fifth 
plate, regardless of the actual physical key of the chimes themselves. 
They were always pitched in A=435Hz, btw, not A=440.

The smaller tubular chimes used for the seven notes weren't used for 
three, as a general rule; however, small sets of very heavy 
wooden-resonator chimes were built with these same G-E-C plates mounted 
in that order, for remotes where the announcer may not have had a button 
for the Rangertones on location. Bill Harris and I both have a set of 
these; his has an NBC Engineering Department property tag.

I go into perhaps obsessive detail on my site, to which I've actually 
accumulated a bunch of research material I'm slowly adding.  For the 
Deagan chimes in general, see http://www.nbcchimes.info/deagan.php . For 
early NBC chimes, see http://www.nbcchimes.info/nbcorigin.php .

What's the exact date of your aircheck, do you know? The earliest 
recording of three notes is from November 3, 1931, via Elizabeth McLeod.

MS