Columbia Broadcasting Company Shifts Network Control To St. Louis
(Unsigned article) Radio & Entertainment 4/24/32
St. Louis last week became the central control point of all East-West radio broadcasting activities of the Columbia Broadcasting Company, according to an announcement from the office of William H. West, director of operations at KMOX.
The new system of controlling programs from St. Louis establishes this city as the focal point of Columbia network programs from coast-to-coast. The broadcasting company also plans to centralize control here of activities in the Southwest.
Until St. Louis became the control point, Chicago had this important place on the Columbia system. Equipment and personnel were moved here from Chicago last week as definite evidence of the favorable location of St. Louis in the radio world.
Through a master control room at KMOX, Hudson Graham, chief dispatcher, relays messages to all the eastern CBS stations in Morse code and sends them westward over a telephone-typewriter service.
All information about national programs is reported at the opening and close of the periods as to air transmissions and reception. Even a second’s delay or time off the air is immediately sent out and an elaborate check is kept. Each station thus knows exactly how the programs were received at each point of the vast chain.
Dispatchers at work in the control room are visible to visitors at the station. The control room is prominently located near the studio entrance in the Mart Building.