Show Vanishes, April 11, 1948

[Yhtapmys]

You've probably heard a few occasions when network feed problems briefly cut Jack's show off the air. It happened near the start of the April 11, 1948 broadcast. The newspaper services picked up on it and explained what happened. Here are two stories.

Benny, Bergen Cut Off Air By Line Fault
NEW YORK, April 11 (NYT)—Telephone line trouble, apparently originating in California, cut the Chase and Sanborn program, starring Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy, off the air Sunday for its full 30-minute period and interrupted the Jack Benny program for two minutes.
Both programs are carried by the National Broadcasting Co. The line trouble affected the entire network—148 stations for the Bergen-McCarthy show and 163 for the Benny program. The former show, originating at Claremont, Cal., was off from 8 to 8:30 p.m. (EST) and the latter originating at Palm Springs, Cal., was silent from 7:02 to 7:04 p.m.
An NBC spokesman said the break in the Benny program was because of amplifier failure on a special telephone line at White Water, Cal.

Line Trouble, Bergen Off Air
HOLLYWOOD, April 12.—(AP)—Charlie McCarthy’s radio program last night was just a “dummy run.”
Comedian Edgar Bergen put the usual impudent words in Charlie’s mouth and the quips came out all right, but a nationwide National Broadcasting Company audience didn’t hear them.
An unexplained slip-up in telephone line relay connections turned the $25,000 show into just another rehearsal for Bergen and his troupe and a half-hour piano music for listeners.
The program originated—or was supposed to—at Claremont, 25 miles east of here. NBC said its program engineer checked cables from the stage to the jackbox and that the microphones were carrying sound from the auditorium. From that point, it vanished.
NBC is checking to determine who will have to foot the $25,000 bill, but the sponsors are protected against such an eventuality.
Line trouble also briefly blacked out the Jack Benny program. Benny was off the air for two and one-half minutes when trouble developed between Palm Springs where the program originated and Hollywood.
Another line trouble casualty was the Elmo Roper program, a public opinion poll analysis. The first 25 seconds were lost on the Columbia Broadcasting System network yesterday afternoon because of difficulties on a line to New York from New Orleans where the program originated.
Commenting on the Edgar Bergen blackout, an NBC spokesman said in New York that when an entire program is lost, the cast is paid and the network makes a rebate to the sponsor.

Despite the talk of 2 1/2 minutes, the show I've listened to is missing less than a minute. What I don't understand is if they did two broadcasts, one for the east and one for the west, someone should have heard a full broadcast. Incidentally, KFI ran Jack's show twice.. at 5 p.m. and again at 10:30 p.m.

Yhtapmys

[Moose Hatrack]

These articles are solid gold. Once again OTR proves to be a window into history. In this article http://calteches.library.caltech.edu/114/1/Thomas.pdf which is written in pretty understandable language, you can learn more about the piece of equipment that failed. (See document page 12: Repeaters and Power) You can also speculate about the choice of Palm Springs for regular remote broadcasts. The proximity of Palm Springs to the Whitewater switching station could certainly have made regular remote transmission more affordable.
The transcontinental coax (which is metioned in at least one Benny episode) was the engineering "cat's meow" until it was replaced by the next feline utterance: the long lines microwave tower network. The kitty bellowed again in the 1980's to ring in fiber optics. Satellites were in there somewhere.
Radio and later TV networks paid dearly to ride on AT&T''s network, but the cold war defense budget built and maintained it. More history.

And Jack had more stations than Bergen!

[scottp]

Where in Claremont were they doing the Bergen broadcast? Claremont is on the A.T.&S.F. mainline between Azusa and Cucamonga, by the way...
I remember Whitewater was mentioned in the based-on-a-true-story period film, "Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here."

[Moose Hatrack]

Maybe Bergen was in the Fox Theatre: http://www.foxpomona.com/historyofthepomonafox.php