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What Is a Special Events Broadcaster , and
What Does He Do for His Pay? Here
a Veteran Tells His Story
By Dave Driscoll
Os the Mutual Broadcasting System /
T
the usuaJ amount of spot-news broad
casting opportunities. In addition to
the usual run-of-the-mill news broad
casts, this year has seen the following
stories break broadcasting schedules
into jig-saw puzzles—the Ohio and Mis
sissippi river floods, the Coronation, the
Hindenburg disaster and the first com
mercial transatlantic flight. Then, there
was the amazing story of Edward, Duke
of Windsor. Radio, in the closing weeks
of 1936, covered the first chapter com-
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pletely and concluded it with the most
dramatic broadcast ever heard.
Late in January the swirling waters
of the muddy Ohio engulfed whole areas
in the mightiest flood in American his
tory. Never before had radio played a
more heroic and important role in time
of need. Stations in the stricken areas
remained on the air as long as power
held out, often feeding national net
works dramatic stories of disaster.
In a total of six days I covered more
than seven thousand miles of flooded
area by air We found it most prac
tical to cover as much territory as pos
sible by plane and then get back to
Memphis and report our observations
from the studios of WNBR. There a
small crew carried on valiantly
There were times during these flights
when my heart jumped up around my
throat because our motor faltered as we
swooped over a devastated area sur
rounded by miles of water, or because a
mallard duck, encountered in flight, had
slashed a hole in our wing with a sound
like that of a wing breaking away.
A ROAR of motors
overhead signaled the arrival of the
Hindenburg over Manhattan. Because
the great ship of the skies had been
seldom seen over the city in daylight
hours during its 1936 flights, we broad
cast an announcement that the ship
was visible over Staten Island and South
Jersey. A few minutes later flashes ot
lightning danced off the Empire State
Building tower as an electrical storm
thundered ovei New York. No one
thought of the Hindenburg at the time
HE year has pre
sented more than
She had flown through storms many
times before. More than four hours
later, at dinner, we dismissed her ar
rival and the subsequent storm, believing
she was safely berthed at Lakehurst.
Suddenly the telephone in my apart
ment rang. The Hindenburg was on
fire. In a few minutes G. W. John
stone, head of the WOR Press Depart
ment. and Jerry Danzig, my associate,
had dispatched a crew of engineers to
the scene by motor car. Bill Maloney
of the press department and I tried to
fly direct to the Lakehurst field, but the
Navy barred a landing and I was forced
to drive the 80 miles from my home on
Long Island. Miles of roads were blocked
in the area around Lakewood and Lake
hurst. The curious were there by the
thousands.
Unable to get near the field, at 10
o’clock we gathered a group of eye
witnesses A short time later we made
our way to the field, set up short wave
equipment. There followed a night of
broadcasting, a night of watchful wait
ing at hospitals, that I shall never for
get. I was not surprised when a pic
ture taken close by the charred wreck
showed my eyes popping out of my head.
T" HE round-trip trans
atlantic flight of Dick Merrill and Jack
Lambie, the first commercial flight
across that ocean, provided the most
strenuous session of broadcasting since
l have been on the air. It included
three completely sleepless days and
nights.
We were rewarded for our efforts
because for the first time in the history
of radio, • listeners from coast to coast
were privileged to hear the hourly re
ports of the fliers themselves as they
winged their way across a stormy sea.
To make ij more interesting, this series
of broadcasts was presented only by
outwitting a rival network. The cover
age of this flight was a throwback to
the days of rough and ready newspaper
reporting. That is why it was Interest
ing and that is why Special Features to
me is the most Interesting job in radio.
It is rapidly becoming one of the
most important phases of the Industry
and with the development of short wave
and television it knows no barriers.
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The life of a spot-news man: During a varied year Dave
Driscoll tells the nation that (left) it’s hot enough in New
York to fry an egg on the sidewalk; that (above), from his
vantage point with Beatrice Lillie the New York Easter parade
looks pretty fine; and that (below) the airliner Hindenburg lies
. at Lakehurst in smouldering ruins before his anguished eyes.
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