Ear on Chicago; A.p.i.

This is the Associated Press, the largest news gathering organization in the world. This teletype you hear is sending news to every part of the world. And this is the story of how the Associated Press reports the news from one of its major news bureaus here in Chicago. Our guide for the program will be Al Orton, Chief of the AP Bureau in Chicago. Al, there's going to be a million questions I want to ask about different operations of the AP. I know that many of these wires go coast to coast. Some of them go just to state regions. But in order to, first of all, briefly describe some of the mechanical operations, allowing me to ask you just a few questions about the teletypes themselves. And I think we'll start over here with the one that is typing out some information. Let's take a look at it. This one has a date line of Gaza Palestine. I suppose that's some information from the Gaza Strip. Now, is this one of the trunk wires? This is the National Radio Wire. This goes to all radio on TV stations. All right, and the next one over here is what? This is also a radio wire. That's a regional radio wire that goes to stations within the state

of Illinois. We're going to describe in a little more detail later what these wires do. But first of all, we're going to show you just how large the operation is. And this wire next to that? This wire is a transcontinental business news wire. You're around 18 hours a day, and this man over here, as you can see, is punching on the wire. That story is going all over the country. Yes, right over here, you can hear it. The man is sitting at the teletype and punching out a tape. That tape has a series of holes in it, and as the holes move through mechanism here, why it, in turn, punches out the information on the wire itself. The wire is going out. This, again, is some business news of some kind. Is this what you call a trunk wire? This is a trunk wire, and this man to keep this wire operating was punched and minimum of 60 words a minute. Otherwise, the wire will stop because the tape won't be through the transmitter fast enough. I think at this point, we might be able to describe briefly what a wire is. Now,

for example, we talked about a radio wire, a business wire, and intercontinental business wire. And here we get to a point where we say, this is a trunk wire. Now, what do you mean by a trunk wire? Trunk wire is transcontinental. Bureau is all over the country. From coast to coast, consent and receive. As can the newspapers can receive, too, on this is a national trunk circuit. And then as it hits individual bureaus across the country, it's relayed then from specific points within the state or within the region. Well, now, I suppose that you'd have to set up a schedule. For example, Chicago just couldn't punch in on the trunk wire any time they wanted to, could they? No, that's right. This wire here is all we call our B wire, our regional wire, which is also used for message and scheduling purposes. If we have a story, that's pretty good story. We schedule a story into the monitor in New York, a man who controls the wire, and he determines by looking at the schedules from the various bureaus, which stories should have priority. And consequently, the better stories move ahead of the stories that are not of national interest or of

more regional interest. Well, now, I'll briefly tell us what the rest of these wires do. Just move on down the line. This wire here, the one with the green paper on it, is the one I was just speaking of. That's your regional wire. It's also transcontinental, but it's broken up into regional points and we use it for messaging and scheduling. The second wire is the next one is what we call our A wire, which is the main stem. That's the wire that goes from coast to coast, that carries the top news of the day. As you can see, a bulletin is moving on there now from Washington. The next wire is a transcontinental, all sports wire. That wire runs about 18 hours a day, too, and there's nothing on this wire except sports and it's transcontinental. And the next one? That is the same as the other one. That's the business news wire. It was over there where we were a few months ago because the man was punching on it, and they switched him back and forth to where they're punching. Well, as I said, Al, we'll be describing some of these wires in a little more detail a little bit later on. But for the purposes of our program, we want to find out how we get this news, first of

all. Now, for example, here in Chicago, one of the major bureaus of associated press. You have reporters out on the scene throughout Chicago. You subscribe to the city press here in the city. You also have access to the newspapers, all four dailies in Chicago. And as I understand it, you have a working arrangement with all newspapers that subscribe to the AP. In other words, you can take news out of newspapers that subscribe to the associated press service. Is that right? Well, yes, that's right. Each newspaper that's a member of the associated press is obligated to provide its news to the associated press. So, here in Chicago, for example, all the newspapers provide through the pneumatic tubes, through the city news bureau, duplicates and proofs of all copy that goes into their newspapers so that we see it instantly. Al, in order to tell a story, I'd like to start out with a phone call, perhaps. I think that's how it works. A reporter out on the scene for associated press might phone in here.

And give a story what to a rewrite man. Well, he reports it to the city editor first, and the city editor takes a brief summary of it, and then he turns it over to a rewrite man. All right, then why don't we start with the initial phone call? We'll have to stop recording for a moment, and wait until a phone call comes in from one of your reporters, and when it does, why we'll start recording once again. That sounds like a fine idea. City press. City desk, thank you. Could you tell me who's calling in? Bill Conway. He's asking for the city desk? That's right. Al, I think this may be a phone call we've been waiting for. I felt about the name of Bill Conway is phoning in for the city desk, because suppose we get over there and find out what he's doing. Is he one of the reporters? Yeah, he's one of the reporters. He's calling in with a story. Where is he? I think he's a detective bureau. All right, let's walk over to the city desk and find out what's happening. City desk, here I am. Oh, yeah,

Bill, where are you? You're at the detective bureau now. Okay, I'll give it to Gertiel, he's free at the minute. Now that was the city editor you heard just then on the phone talking to Conway, who was out of the detective bureau. Let's ask him just a minute what happened. He's at the bureau, he's got a story on a knife chase capturing a burglar or some criminal. He's going to give it to Gertiel, it's not going to have the story coming in any minute. He's giving it over here to the rewrite. Yeah, it'll be on there. All right, let's go over and listen to Gertiel, thanks very much. Let's listen to him as he gets that phone. A woman's screen for help brought 52 policemen to arrest you on the south side. Right, a 23 -year -old waitress.

She had just left the bus on her way home from work. Right. She was seized by a young man and she got off the bus, right? Okay. Well, I think we have as much of the story right now as we need. It's a routine story. He's still getting the story over the phone from Conway, who was down at the detective bureau, down at 11th and State Street here in Chicago. Now, as soon as he finishes the story out, what will he do with it? Well, this story will then go to the city editor. He writes this thing on a, on Dupont, what we call a book. It makes nine copies at the time he writes a story. And these copies go all over the office to the various wires and the various desks. After the city editor edits the story, he either calls for a boy or rings a bell. And then this story is delivered to the wire desk and the other part of the room over there, as you can see. And there it is edited and determined. They

determine which wires it will go out on. Well, now we're going to follow that operation. As soon as he finishes the story, and it'll take a few minutes, why we'll move it over to the city editor and then on and we'll trace it all the way to the wire. Now, as he's typing out the final portion of Conway's report, and as he gets to the point where he's going to write the story, allow me to ask you just a few other questions. Now, there's another man over here on a phone talking to somebody, and apparently that's a beat man out on a business assignment. He's talking to the United States Department of Agriculture at the moment. He's getting the hog prices and so forth that we have to have for our markets wire, and which are very important, of course, both newspapers and radio stations. This long death care contains one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight smaller desks which are pushed together. And well, in our terminology, we call it a bullpen. I don't know what you call it here, Al. Well, we don't actually have a name for it. It's just our central news operation. And at this long series of desks, set the city editor and the reporters and the market editors

and rewrite men. Now, these men sitting at the telephone have a headset which they put over their head, men, of course, over their ear, and they sit here and listen, and they can therefore have, by using the headset, they can have two hands free to type. Now, you might tell us something about how many reporters you have out on the beat. For example, you have Conway down here at the detective bureau. Well, we have the good fortune here of having a city news bureau connection, which means that they cover most of the beat assignments. And our men cover normally things that are only of interest outside the city of Chicago. A lot of people wonder how radio stations and how newspapers and wire services such as the AP get information about all these press conferences. And how do they know what's going on all over town? You and I know, but suppose we let the secret out to the nation. While there are various means, we have connections, of course, with all the various political headquarters and with all the public relations

organizations around town. We also get each morning a list of the major meetings in the city. We know who's going to be there and when they're going to be there. And we assign our men accordingly. When I see that your rewrite man here is preparing to write that story that he was taking some notes on. And while he is preparing that story and is getting it ready for the city editor, let me explain just briefly all about the city press that you and I have been talking about. City Press is an organization almost unique in the field of reporting. Here in Chicago, they set it up a number of years ago. And it is associated with the newspapers and the wire services and the radio stations throughout town. And they have a number of reporters out on beats such as police, speech, city hall, county building and so on. Getting the stories on those particular beats and folding them into their press room. And in turn, they write the story and send it out to all of their services. Now, AP takes the city press wire, re -write it and puts it out on its wire. Radio stations do the same thing. They take city press and rewrite

it and then put it on the air. Newspapers re -write city press and put it in the papers. Al, do you know if they have any city presses, other in other communities? Well, there are a few. There's one in New York, which is operated by the Associated Press incidentally. And there's one in Los Angeles. These city press associations or city news bureaus, they call it here, is considered a training ground for young reporters. I see that that story is just about finished and he's handed it over here to the city editor. What's the city editor's name? Carol Aramon. Carol's got a phone call right now, but at least he has received the story. He had it in his typewriter just a moment. There are several carbons made on this story. Why do you make carbons? Well, because we have distribute carbons to the various wires, and one goes to the radio desk, and one is kept on file, and one goes to the city editor, and one goes to the photo desk. Now, Carol had it in his typewriter and was doing something with it just exactly what does he do? Well, he was doing some typewriter editing, is what it amounts to. He was

instead editing by hand, which is hard to do on flimsy copy. He edits in his typewriter. I think I showed us that a few months ago, and when the story was coming in, not all stories come in in the form of notes, on fast -breaking stories, on good stories. The reporters are trained to dictate the stories from their notes, so that they dictate directly to these books of nine copies, so the story can move faster. Carol, are you about to finish with that story? That's about ready to go now. Now, what would you do? I have one copy of the radio editor there. That's to go out on the radio wire immediately, and I ring for the boy to take it around the wires. Book out, boy. I hope you could hear that bell. It's about 25 feet away from us, and it's not too loud, but here comes the copy boy to pick up the story and move it along its way. Now, there he goes. He took it out of the basket, and is moving it along to various spots over there on the other side of the room. Al, what's going to happen now? Well, I would like to introduce to you, you Marvin Tonkin, who was our general news supervisor, which that's a comparable title to managing it during a newspaper. And Marvin is certainly well acquainted with what happens in the other side of the room, and let's turn it over to

Marvin. All right, Marvin, we have a story here. I'm not sure whether you're acquainted with it yet. A nifing story that was phoned in by your man Conway down at the Detective Bureau. It's just been picked up by the copy boy, and he's moving it over to the far side of the room. First of all, Carol said it's going to the radio editor. Now, what happens over there? Well, the radio editor reads it quickly and decides if it should go on his wire or not. He's responsible for filing a wire which goes to radio and television stations in Illinois. Why don't we go over there and see him and find out if he's going to use this story? All right, let's go. His name is Jan Hartnett. Jan Hartnett. All right, let's go over and see Jan. Well, Marv, we've come over now to the spot where Jan Hartnett, the radio editor, is beginning to work. And may I just read the lead of the story? It's dated Chicago March 7th. Police today captured a young knife -wielding man

who later told him he had committed three assaults and four burglaries on the southwest side. Jan, what about it? I don't think I can use it. We've got a lot better stories on the wire right now and we're sort of jammed. And as I said, I think this comes under the head of minor crime. We've got from 54 or 55 radio stations on the wire from here to way down the southern Illinois and up to Rockford. And I don't think they'd be interested in a story like that. So I think I'll kill it. Very interesting indeed to find out just how you do decide whether to use a story or not. Now a little while ago, Jan, as we approached your desk over here, you were on the phone and we were getting, I think, a market report. Yes, we get a market report every morning at 10 .30 from the United States Department of Agriculture. And we also include in there a lead which is written by our man down at the board of trade. And that's included. We call it the morning farm prices. It

moves on the national wire. We take over the national wire at 10 .45 and it runs from 10 .45 to 11. Now this story here, if you would use it on the wire, would go only to the state split, right? That's right. And the state split means only the state of Illinois and perhaps one or two stations on the borderline. But when we have a big story, I mean when the city desk writes a big story, a bulletin story and they put it on the A wire, generally, New York comes right back with it on the national wire. I see. In other words, New York controls your national wire. That's right. They do. Okay, Jan, thanks so many for talking. All right, thank you. Mark, we better move along with our story. Where should we go next? The story's already been distributed, but we've got to pick it up now. Where's the next stop? Well, there are two other wire editors who get an immediate look at this story and must decide whether it will or will not move on their own wire. One is the man who edits the trunk wire and the other is a man who files a state wire which goes just to

Illinois and some neighboring states. They each look at this story with a different perspective. One analyzes it for whether it's worth the use on a national basis. That is, is it worth being printed in Kansas City and in Boston and in San Diego? And the other one decides if it will be printed or used in Illinois or the neighboring states. Now, if you want to talk to those men, I'm ready to go with you. All right, let's move along. Mark, we've reached another desk. What happens here? Well, this is the trunk desk where the decision is made whether this story should move on any of our trunk wires. And the man who is making the decision right now is Willis Young, our day desk editor. Will, I suppose you take a look at that story and I suppose you've had a chance to look it over by now. Tell me, are you going to use it? Well, we don't feel

the story is quite important enough for the main national wire. At this time, it's very busy there, but we think we'll offer a few paragraphs on a regional wire for Midwest papers who do publish quite a bit of Chicago crime news. You don't consider it as a very big story. No, not at this time of day when there's important national news breaking, it would have a hard time getting on that wire. Okay, well, thanks a million for telling us how you look at the story. Mark, we want to move on now to the state wire and I can see that he's sitting over here across the desk, but he looks like a rather busy man at the moment. He is, he's one of the busiest men in the bureau. His name is Earl Acroix. Well, let's go over and see if Earl's going to use that story. Earl, are you going to use it? Yes, we plan to use it. It will be headed down to probably 60 or 70 words. Now, in your

experience, Earl, what cities like Joliet, maybe Aurora, Rockford, communities, rather large communities with dailies around the Chicago area, be more likely to use this and say East St. Louis. Yes, that's true. In other words, the closer you get to the source of the story. The closer you get to the source of the story. Well, you have a tremendous job here because you have to decide, first of all, what local stories that come out of Chicago are going to be sent to the state wires and also decide what stories you get off of all the bee wires and the trunk wires may be sent out on local. Of course, the trunk wires wouldn't be sent out, wouldn't they? Yes. All the copy that comes off of the trunk wires, the A and the B. They come to this desk, they're edited down, and the editor here has to try and meet the requirements and the papers are being served on this state wire. You must do a tremendous amount of editing. Well, the man who files his wire does. Do you do it all the time? No, I don't. I'm just going to say I've seen you out on a lot of stories as a reporter. That's right. Most of the boys who work up here are reporters?

Well, we have... I'd say yes, a greater majority are reporters. Anybody up here could go out and cover a story. That's correct. And then come back and edit the wire if you had to. That's correct. We have no very few experts or columnists and so forth. The fellows working in these bureaus usually are trained to do almost every job in the office. Well, Earl, we have traced this story now from the point of origin, which was down at the Detective Bureau. We had it phoned in here by your man Conway down at the bureau. Was rewritten and was written, I should say. And then given to the editor, the editor moved it out. Couldn't find anybody to take it, but finally we arrived at the state's split or the state wire. And you're going to get it out on the wires. So what we want to know is how that's going to happen. Well, that'll be the story once edited. We'll be handed the operator, who will then punch the tape, and then move it on what we call a split going to all Illinois newspapers. Well, now when you say edited, what do you mean?

You cut out words or you cut out paragraphs? We cut the story to, oh, if it's 100 or 150 words, we may cut it depending on the importance of the story. Thanks a million, Earl, for talking to us. Well, we've finally gotten the story wrapped up almost. We have it edited, and we have it prepared to go out on a wire service. It's going out on the Illinois wire because it is really a local Chicago story. The story is just about ready to go out on the wire, and here it goes. Let's listen. Before we do any more of the story of the actual operation of the Associated Press and how they file their stories out of Chicago, I'd like to get a little bit nostalgic for a moment. We want to interview a man who is renowned throughout the field of journalism as one of the finest and oldest reporters in the game. We're going to talk to Mr. Herschel Holt McDonald, who will be 80 years old

on July 5th. He is one of the oldest living former Associated Press correspondence. Mr. McDonald and his wife, Emmy, live at 1628 Sherwin Avenue here in Chicago, and they'll celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary on July 8th. Mr. McDonald was the AP correspondent who reported the now famous words on April 18th, 1906. San Francisco is burning. The occasion, of course, was the famous San Francisco earthquake and fire which raged throughout the city by the Golden Gate for four days and nights. He and his wife have six children and 20 grandchildren. Well, Mac, that's quite a family. Thank you very much. Mac, the first story I want you to tell us is the San Francisco earthquake. That's probably one of the most famous stories in the annals of journalism. And you were there, you saw it, and you reported it. Tell us about how you first decided to send out the words San Francisco is burning. Well, I was in Berkeley

across the bay from San Francisco and I was knocked out of bed at 518 on the morning of April, 1906. It was a college town and the young people of the sororities and fraternities disturbed by the earthquake and shaken up, ran out in their 90s onto the street and then scurried back. Well, I hurriedly dressed and climbed to the top of the town's skyscraper, the first national bank, a five -story structure. Looked across the bay and through the fog, could see huge flames arising. I had a very dear friend in the Berkeley Western Union office and she was on the job and flashed the story to the nation, to the associated press that the city was

burning. Then I grabbed the last ferry boat to San Francisco and went up to the office at Pine and Montgomery Streets, which was about to burn. It's a wonderful story, Mac. Now, how many words did you file on that San Francisco story? We filed a total with the aid of my pals, the newspaper pals, more than probably a quarter of a million words. And did the newspapers continue to publish during the fire? Indeed they did. They went right over to the Oakland Tribune and the call, the Chronicle and the examiner joined in a single publication which they issued for several days until they could reestablish their printing processes. Well, you said, Mac, that you didn't get much sleep and I can well imagine that you didn't. Were

you the only associated press reporter on the scene? Oh no, there was, well, practically so, yes. Well, that was undoubtedly the biggest story of your career, wasn't it? Well, I'll tell you, it was a reporter's dream. Yes, it was a nightmare for the people who lived there, but for a reporter. No, let me tell you this, that the first shock of the earthquake, which incidentally only lasted three quarters of a minute, but it was a terror, not people out of beds, not down walls in San Francisco, started the fire, and the chief of the fire department was killed by a falling stone from one of the taller buildings that fell through the roof of the firehouse. The earthquake broke the water main and so they had no means of controlling the fire. They started to

dynamite in Chinatown and I was down there covering that angle when a blast went off, knocked me to the ground and I said to myself, gee, this is better get out of here. Well, Mac, that's a wonderful story to have told once again and we certainly appreciate you're coming over here to the office of the Associated Press and telling it to us. Well, the dare associated press with its happy memories and its efficiency and great journalistic feet is an inspiration to see. It certainly is, it's an inspiration to one and all and especially to those who are in the field of journalism. Well, Mac, your birthday isn't very far away, you're going to be, what is it, 80? What do you admit to? 80. Well, you admit to the full count. Yes, indeed. And Emmy and I will celebrate our 50th anniversary with our six wonderful children and 20 grandchildren on July 8th next year. Well, on

behalf of everybody at the AP and everybody in journalism, Mac, let me wish you a happy birthday and a happy anniversary and I hope Emmy, here's the program we want to wish her the same. Well, believe you me, I'm going to tell all my friends about your wonderful broadcast on WBBM. Thank you, Mac. And so ends the first half of a two -part story of the operation of the Associated Press at a Chicago Bureau. We will come back next week to do the second half. Which time we will talk about the sports coverage and wire photo. So ends the first half of the story of Associated Press. This is Hugh Hill speaking. First of all, John, that... I'll put this on tape. That was the...