NBC Memories 1942 - 1964
by Bill Roddy

Chapter Four of Twelve

The War Years

The summer of 1942 brought many changes to NBC. For the first time the station stayed on the air 24 hours a day. It always had signed off at midnight and returned at six in the morning.

Around the clock operation started because San Francisco now never went to bed; workers were getting off shifts at war plants at midnight and they didn't want to go to bed right away. Many wanted to hear the radio shows they had missed in the evening, so NBC rebroadcast all the prime time shows after midnight.

This meant recording all of the evening shows for playback. This was no easy task as there was no tape, of course, and acetate discs had to be used. The recording room was busy all the time.

NBC Recording Room

This is the recording room on the second floor. An acetate disc could only record 15 minutes of the show, so the engineer had to switch to another machine at the right time. The tubes coming from each recorder sucked up the acetate as it was cut from the disc. A microscope was attached so the engineer could see if the proper cut was being made.

The plate glass window at left allowed the public to watch the operation.

Chapter Five: Becoming an announcer.