Synopsis
Military training film on a New York radio station, WMCA, owned by the Nathan Straus family, showing its ownership, management and activities. Good view of radio in the era when most stations were locally owned and operated.
Uploader's description on archive.org
Details
- Running time
- 18 minutes
- Collection
- Prelinger Archives
Subjects on the Internet Archive
- Communication: Radio
- Media: Radio
Reviews on the Internet Archive
★★★★★ · This is WMCA, New York · Wilford B. Wolf · 2003-05-04
An excellent, yet curious, film showing how small, independant radio stations work in the transition from the Golden Age of Radio of the 1930s and 1940s into the more mechanized process that would arise starting in the 1960s. What makes the film so great is not only the excellent cinematography and scoring, but it also provides great information on how the business of radio operates, emphasizing that it is a business and requires advertisers. The film also has some great footage of scenes in and around the radio station and early 50s New York life. However, the curious thing about this film…
★★★★★ · Gone Are Those Early 50s At WMCA! · Charlie Heinz · 2013-02-15
Every time I visit New York and the plane lands at Liberty Airport, I get memories of WMCA when the bus goes past WMCA's transmitter and three towers in New Jersey. My recollection of WMCA is in the early 60s when they were WABC's main competition. Visiting the station, their studio equipment was the same vintage as in this film! The only change was they put a sleeve on the turntable to play 45 rpm records. Same union shop with the engineer spinning the records. Same old RCA tube type console and RCA mics. And the DJs were "The Good Guys." No more studio orchestra and staff composer. As to…
★★★ · They Have Everything for you men to enjoy, you can hang out with all the boys! · Spuzz · 2003-08-19
This portrait of WMCA New York (make your own joke up here, I have) a radio station in a democratic country (that would be the US - which explains why this short was made by the Army, no commie controls here!) and is quite a nice snapshot of how radio was programmed in the yesteryear. A special emphasis is placed on advertsing, after all, how could this station stay on the air? And the many types of programming presented until of course, the christian end of the broacast day at midnight. There's sports broadcasts, religious shows, and educational programs as well. The highlight comes in this…
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