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BROADCAST ON WNYC TODAY IN…
1960: Odetta and The Corvairs perform at the I Am An American Day ceremonies.
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Raymond Asserson: Built First WNYC Studios
Asserson (1891-1955) was a 1913 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy. He retired from the Navy in 1920 and was hired by Grover Whalen in 1922 to plan and build WNYC's first facility. He left WNYC in 1929 when he was named Assistant Chief Engineer for the Federal Radio Commission, the predecessor agency to the FCC, where he served until 1942 when he was recalled by the Navy. He left the service again in 1946 as a Commander.
(Photo courtesy of David Johnson at the New York Post.)
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LITTLE-KNOWN FACTS
Whalen Battles Radio Trust to get WNYC on the Air
It took just over two years from the time Commissioner Grover A. Whalen got the NYC Board of Aldermen to approve $50,000 for the equipment and facilities for WNYC and our first broadcast on July 8, 1924. Some might chalk it up to inefficient city bureaucracy, a civil service mentality or some other pejorative phrase about the government bungling of public funds. In fact, it was none of these. Whalen had a vision and he moved on it despite being undermined along the way by the communications power broker of the day, AT&T in collusion with RCA, General Electric, Western Electric and Westinghouse.
By today's lexicon it was a struggle between efforts to subvert net neutrality and the forces of free speech and innovation. In this case, a large corporation (AT&T, which owned WEAF in New York) used patents and licensing to maximize profit while maintaining power and control at the expense of the public interest, convenience and necessity. The company, despite the findings of a Federal Trade Commission investigation supporting this conclusion [1], denied any wrongdoing.
Speaking on behalf of Whalen before the House Merchant Marine Committee on March 12, 1924, Raymond Asserson (pictured above) charged the telephone giant with controlling the public airwaves. In his testimony, the city's top radio engineer said AT&T not only refused to sell the City of New York a transmitter for a reasonable price, but made it financially prohibitive to use given various licensing and patent restrictions.
"Now, to buy a broadcasting station under such restrictions, is not to buy a broadcasting station at all; it is simply to buy a toy to play with. You might just as well buy a truck from a trucking corporation, under the restrictions you shall not use it for business ...that you shall run in second gear instead of high...that if you want to go to Boston, you shall not go; or if you want to go to Philadelphia, you shall do so only after having obtained permission from the telephone and telegraph company, under concessions which the telephone company is now operating, having a monopoly in advertising, in toll service, in power, and in the use of remote control," Asserson told the House panel. [2]
In the end, corporate efforts to monopolize the airwaves, what Grover Whalen called 'the radio trust,' were busted. Secretary of Commerce, Herbert Hoover, and Congress were in agreement about the need for federal regulation of the airwaves. In the meantime, Whalen managed to circumvent 'the trust' by locating and purchasing a second-hand Westinghouse transmitter from Brazil for Asserson to have installed at the Municipal Building.
[1] "Report of the Federal Trade Commission on the Radio Industry," December 1, 1923. Government Printing Office.
[2] "Hearings Before The Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries," House of Representatives, March 11-14, 1924. Government Printing Office.
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