Audion and Patent Concerns

  Parent company of the Bell Telephone System, AT&T recognized the potential of de Forest's Audion tube as an amplifier for telephone circuits and secured rights to the device. Although the Audion could not be used in radio circuits due to a suit by the Marconi Company alleging patent infringements, AT&T licensed its use for telephone circuitry, quickly refining the technology and thus making transcontinental telephony a reality. AT&T also used vacuum tubes to pursue development of continuous wave transmitters necessary for voice communication as ancillary devices supporting telephone services. At the outbreak of World War I, the U.S. Navy took control of all radio patents, accelerating the development of wireless and radio receiver technology. At the end of the war, large electronic manufacturers such as AT&T, Westinghouse, and General Electric reclaimed their patents.

     After the war, U.S. government officials expressed their desire to settle the patent problem quickly in order to keep key radio technology in the hands of a U.S. company. In 1919 RCA was formed as a way to pool the patents and cross-license the various technologies, making the large-scale manufacture of radio vacuum tubes possible. Under the agreement, AT&T's manufacturing arm, Western Electric, gained exclusive rights to produce long-distance transmitters and other key technology used in conjunction with wired communications. By 1922 Western Electric transmitters were powering 30 of America's pioneering radio stations, including such legendary stations as WOR in Newark, New Jersey, WHAM in Rochester, New York, and WSB in Atlanta, Georgia. AT&T soon came to realize, however, that the sale of transmitters to others conflicted with the company's strategy of beginning a nationwide commercial broadcasting service.

Birth of Radio Networking

 Beginning in 1877 AT&T started experimenting with the use of telephone lines for transmission of music and entertainment. These experiments used telephones or public address systems to carry program material such as music or speeches. By 1919 AT&T had refined vacuum tube technology to the point where large, elaborate auditorium demonstrations were possible. With the advent of broadcasting, however, the need for high quality connections to bring live events to radio stations became apparent. Soon AT&T undertook experiments to test public acceptance of broadcasting.

     In January 1922 AT&T began construction of its own broadcasting facilities. AT&T vice president Walter S. Gifford outlined the commercial "toll" concept of broadcasting, calling for the creation of a channel through which anyone could send out his or her own programs. AT&T originally contemplated building 38 "radiotelephone" stations linked together by the company's Long Lines division. The first two stations were constructed in New York: WBAY was erected atop the AT&T Long Lines building on Walker Street and WE.AF was constructed at Western Electric's Labs on West Street. WBAY signed on to 360 meters (830 kHz) on 3 August 1922. When signal coverage from WBAY proved unsatisfactory due to the steel construction of the Walker Street building, WEAF became the company's principal transmitting facility. In 1923 WCAP, Washington, D.C., was added to AT&T's station lineup.

     Both RCA and AT&T started experimenting with interconnecting stations, but RCA was limited to using Western Union telegraph lines, and these proved to be unsuitable for the transmission of high-quality voice and music. The first AT&T network experiment started on 4 January 1923, when engineers connected WEAF in New York, New York, with WNAC in Boston, Massachusetts. Soon after, Colonial H.R. Green, owner of station WMAF, convinced AT&T to provide a link from WEAF to his station in South Dartmouth, Massachusetts. Green agreed to pay AT&T $60,000 for a permanent connection, and WMAF began retransmitting WEAF programming. This arrangement gave AT&T engineers a full-time connection, which they used to experiment with transmission equipment. Other networking experiments followed. On 7 June 1923, WGY in Schenectady, New York, KDKA in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and KYW in Chicago, Illinois, were connected to WEAF. AT&T used the term chain to refer to interconnection of radio stations. Later, chain broadcasting became the term commonly applied to radio network broadcasting.

     Using Long Lines Division's capabilities, WEAF undertook a series of spectacular remote broadcasts that generated great interest among radio listeners and gave WEAF a programming advantage over other stations. Sporting events such as the Princeton-Chicago and Harvard-Yale football games, the Demp­ sey-Tunney boxing match, and recitals from the Capitol Theater demonstrated that coverage of live events was of great interest to Americans. At the same time, AT&T held control over the capability to provide remote broadcasts via its telephone lines, and it began to refuse to provide hookups to other rival stations owned by RCA's radio group.

     In 1924 AT&T connected radio stations in 12 major cities from Boston to Kansas City, Missouri, for special broadcasts of the Republican and Democratic national conventions. One year later, it used its circuits in the first coast-to-coast demon­ st-ration. As these experiments continued into 1925, radio network connections regularly linked WEAR and other stations in cities throughout the East and Midwest. AT&T executives began to rethink the company's involvement in broadcasting, however, as disagreements with RCA over the cross-licensing arrangements increased. Finally, in 1926 AT&T decided to discontinue broadcasting operations and sold WEAF to RCA.

     RCA created the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) to operate WEAF, WJZ, and its own radio stations. Under the terms of the WEAF sale, NBC was required to lease AT&T lines for network connections whenever possible. NBC decided to form two separate networks to handle stations where there was duplication in coverage area. AT&T Long Lines engineers used red and blue pencils to trace the connection paths for NBC's new networks and NBC adopted the colors as designations for the two networks. The Red Network, with WEAF as the flagship station, was the larger and more important of the two with 25 stations; the Blue Network began with only 5 stations.

Growth of the Chains

     America's growing interest in high-quality programs spurred further AT&T development of networking capabilities. As public interest in high-quality programming grew, many local stations joined one of the two NBC radio networks, but the NBC monopoly in network broadcasting was not to last for long. A small upstart, United Independent Broadcasters, was formed when Arthur Judson decided to establish a new radio network. In early 1927 Judson tried to secure telephone lines for the newly formed network, but AT&T refused to provide connections because it had signed an exclusivity agreement with RCA. By mid-1927 AT&T, under pressure from the Federal Trade Commission, agreed to provide network connections to the new network. That fall the newly named Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) began operations with 12 affiliated stations. Soon, chain broadcasting revolutionized radio in the United States.

     AT&T played a pivotal role in making network broadcasting a success. Long Lines Division developed elaborate specialized network capabilities that served both full-time networks such as NBC and CBS and specialized regional networks, such as the Don Lee Network in California and the Liberty Broadcasting System in the Southwest.

     By 1928 AT&T maintained four broadcast network interconnection systems (called Red, Blue, Orange, and Purple) linking 69 radio stations together with more than 28,000 miles of wire. New York served as the central distribution point for stations in the East and South, while Chicago, Illinois, and Cincinnati, Ohio, served Midwest stations. San Francisco, California, became a switching point for the West Coast. Both telegraph and voice circuits were used to provide affiliates with networking information and programming channel feeds.

     AT&T used an elaborate series of repeater stations to route high-quality audio transmissions across the nation. Special Long Lines operators provided maintenance for the system and switching for network programs. Stations that normally carried Red network programming needed to be manually switched by AT&T personnel when they wanted to carry Blue network programs. Important switching stations, such as Washington, D.C., could switch as many as 30,000 programs each year. To facilitate network quality testing, broadcasters provided musical programming for the Long Lines operators. NBC maintained a legendary jukebox at Radio City that played music whenever either of the networks was not transmitting a program. The jukebox selections provided AT&T engineers with a constant audio source to verify network quality. This practice continued through the mid-198os, when satellites finally replaced landlines. Broadcasters worked with Bell Labs to develop equipment to interconnect broadcast stations with the telephone network. The VU meter, a visual gauge for measuring audio, was an outgrowth of that cooperation, and special terminology such as nonemanating outputs, (NEMO) terminal block, and mu/ts entered broadcast parlance as a result of this relationship.

     The cost of renting AT&T broadcast lines was often too high to allow local radio stations to provide live coverage of sporting events. Announcers such as Red Barber and Ronald "Dutch" Reagan-and later Gordon Mclendon-made names for themselves recreating games by using sparse information provided by telegraph operators at ball games.

     As broadcasting networks grew in power and size throughout the 1930s, AT&T expanded its special services. By 1939 more than 53,000 miles of special circuit wires were used to provide network services. The number of specialized networks maintained by AT&T expanded to 21 just before World War II. Network designations continued to be based on the original engineering color schemes, with NBC having its Red and Blue networks and CBS using ivory, black, pink, scarlet, and other specialized broadcast facilities. Broadcast network operations represented approximately 15 percent of AT&T's $23 million in gross revenue for Private Line Services in 1933. By 1935 broadcasters were spending more than $10 million a year for telephone lines to link their networks. Some estimate that in 1950 nearly 40 percent of AT&T's $53 million in private network gross revenues represented broadcast services. Revenues generated from broadcasting and other special private services rose throughout the golden age of radio networks, providing AT&T with substantial profits.

     With the introduction of television, the decline in network radio led to a decline in AT&T's involvement in linking up network stations. Special services provided by Long Lines during this time were used to create a nationwide television network system for the growing number of television network affiliates. Long Lines continued to provide network connections for radio until the mid-198os, when domestic communication satellites replaced landlines. The competition from satellite distribution and FCC deregulation in telecommunication services made general landline distribution of radio unprofitable.

Technical Developments

     Bell Telephone Laboratories, created by AT&T in 1925, pioneered many technologies that have expanded the capability of modern radio broadcasters. In the 1930s AT&T invented stereophonic sound systems and microwave transmission, both essential technologies for today's high-quality radio programming. In the late 1940s Bell Labs invented the transistor, the forerunner of modern solid-state electronics, spawning both the transistor radio and solid-state computer era. Other key developments include the communication satellite, the light emitting diode (LED), and the laser. Today's advanced audio technology is partially an outgrowth of the basic scientific research undertaken by AT&T.