Ear on Chicago; A.p.i. - II

This is the Associated Press, the largest youth gathering organization in the world. This teletype you hear is sending news to every part of the world. And this is the second part of our story of how the Associated Press reports the news from one of its major bureaus here in Chicago. Our guide for the program as last week will be Al Ortiz Chief of the AP Bureau. We are moving now into the sports department where we will talk to the sports one of the sports editors. You cover sports throughout the entire Midwest from this bureau, don't you? Yes, we have three men assigned entirely to sports and they cover all the major sports in the area. Right now, our sports editor, Jerry Lisca, is an Arizona covering a baseball training camps. And Charlie Chamber, another one of our writers, has just gotten back from Iron Mountain Michigan where he is covering a national ski jumping championships. And he's leaving this week for the NCAA basketball tournaments down Evansville, Indiana. And our third man is a swing man, Joe Muscio. And we keep him

pretty darn busy right in our own area here. Can we go over and talk to Charlie? Sure. We arrived at the sports desk now in Charlie Chamberlain, who is one of the top sports writers in the Midwest, if not in the United States, is here. He works directly under Jerry Lisca, who is a sports editor, isn't he, Charlie? Yes, you, that's right. Well, now, Charlie, I'd like to talk about the AP sports coverage. First of all, from the standpoint of the reporter, who actually goes out to the scene of whatever event is occurring. Now, for example, let's take the football season. Where would you normally go? Well, we'd usually staff the home games at, in order to aim, or Illinois and Northwestern. Then, if there is a big conference game on, we may shoot a man out to that too, if it's in this immediate area. Do you have some of the reporters up here that the right city side news can go out and cover sports once and a while? Yes, they're a very versatile group. They can fill in when we really get a

crush on, and that comes now and then. Charlie, what do you have to do to set up to cover a football game? You personally. Now, I'm not talking about mechanical standpoint, but I'm talking about setting up spotting boards and things like that. Do you have to do all of that, same as a radio station? No, we don't, we don't set up spotting boards. For instance, we go down in order to aim why we have our Western Union man sitting next to us. And as the game progresses, we do what we call a condensed running each quarter on it, and keep it up that way. And then we do what we call a lead day right after the game, which is a bulletin, and a wrap -up night lead on it all together. I should imagine on a big game, in order to aim, we'd file around 2 ,000 words. Which is quite a bit on one story. Yes, it is. Well, now, Charlie, what about the mechanical operation of a sports coverage? Now, for example, well, we'll stick with football and Notre Dame football game. You have to have space down there for the reporter. You have to have, well,

what else do you have to have? Well, all we have is space. Well, the AP has been assigned on the 50 yard line, the press box, I think, for the last 20 years or so, and we always have that seat. Well, now, Charlie, what about the mechanics of your coverage? For example, you must have to have a telegrapher go along with you to type the story that you have written back to your office here. No, they're a sign, Western Union signs them, but we do a lot also by phone coverage. For instance, a big horse race out Arlington, Orson, and Park. The time element is so competitive in that particular sport that we'll just pick up a phone that's connected direct to the office and dictate what we call right off the cuff. We won't bother you to write it all. You're used to doing work of that kind while you can keep the continuity running right along. And you can barrel through a story, a 500 -word story, and wrap up the race in about 15 or 20 minutes that way, and be on the wire in that short of time, too. Well, now, Charlie, for what you call your night lead, or your wrap up story, would you have to go down

to the dressing room after you've covered the game? Well, after a big football game, yes, we staff the dressing rooms of both teams. And probably right three to 400 -word story and what the coaches have to say, what the players have to say. And a lot of cases down the dressing room, we'll get a lot more meat into our story or into our report, because some controversial thing will come up during a game, which is explained fully by the coach or by the players themselves down the dressing room. So I think that's a very important part of a big game. It's also a place where TV cameras can't go, so you've got something there. Yes, radio microphones don't go there too often either. Well, now, Charlie, we just did the story of how a local story is phoned into the office here, and is processed and finally ends up on a state wire. Now, does this same type of operation happen on a sports story? For example, once you get it filed in here, does it have to go through all the editors, and they decide whether it's going to be used or not? Yes, it has

to go through all the editors' hands, and the state wire, we may be outstaffing a sports story that the state isn't too interested in comparatively, and so the state wire will edit it down to take care of state wire points, while go full force on the sports wire. What about stories in this area that you can't actually staff? For example, you couldn't possibly be at all of the locations of the Illinois High School basketball tournament during the regionals or the sectionals. Now, how do you get those stories? Well, those are all set up either through stringers or correspondence in these various towns who phone in with the results of the basketball games, and we round them up here in Chicago and put them out from here. And Springfield does a tremendous job in rounding up the stories for PMs and also for AMs for morning papers. They handle most of the prep stories down there. We just round up the scores from this end here. Well, okay, Charlie. I think that pretty much wraps up the story of the sports coverage

for Associated Press. We want to thank you very much for telling us about it. Well, thank you, Hugh. We're going to move back over to our guide, Al, who, as I said at the beginning of our program, was Chief of the AP Bureau here in Chicago. Al, there's one thing that I don't think we've described completely. And at the very early stages of our program, you and I were talking about the trunk wire. And that word keeps cropping up in the conversation as we go along telling the story of AP. So I'd like to go a little bit more into detail about what the trunk wire is. Now, suppose first of all, you just explain what it is. Well, we like to make a plural. Our trunk wires, we have several trunk wires. Trunk wires are transcontinental wires. These transcontinental wires are controlled by the New York Bureau. And the New York Bureau determines which stories are going to move at which time. Except that if we had anything a bulletin caliber, I mean, if we had a story that was really big, would break here now, we can take the wire away from anyone who has the wire by just cutting a switch. And then we control the wire. And we get through with this

story. That's a real good story. We have several designations. We have a bulletin, which is, of course, next to the top designation. The top designation is Flash. Flash is preceded by 17 bells, which most people in both radio and newspapers recognize immediately. The second most important is a bulletin, which means a publishable story or a readable story, which is a major importance. And the third designation is 95. A 95 is in, for us, just an indication that the story is better than ordinary, but not quite as good as a bulletin. I wish we had a bulletin moving out of Chicago right now so we could actually see that operation. Perhaps we'll move over there and see how it would be done if you did have one. Well, let me ask you this. For example, if you had a, oh, somebody cracked the grimes case here in Chicago. Would that be a bulletin on the trunk? That would be a bulletin on the trunk. Flashes are reserved for, we used to flash promiscuous labor, but flashes are now reserved for anything of strictly major international importance, such as the death of a president or a declaration of war or something rather. Anything as important as the grimes case would be a bulletin on the wire. I think that

in my experience with all of the wire services, I have seen the flash all perhaps in the last seven or eight years, only a matter of four or five times. Well, I think during the Korean War, when that was over, I saw a flash. That's true. I think the last flash that we've had out of here was the Stevenson concession. And the reason that was flash mostly was because of the time of the night, and we were able to catch late shows, late radio shows, or late early morning newspapers. Well, now there must be some routine things you file out of Chicago. You said, for example, that the trunk wires are filed out of all bureau points and controlled by New York. Well, when is it your turn to file, or do you take a turn, or is it just come as you get it, or what? The only routine part on the filing on the wire is our markets department. And because we happen to be situated in Chicago, markets is an important thing here. We have a market manager. We have a man at the board of trade all the time. And this is certainly an important

news all over the United States or all over the world, so that he operates on a definite schedule on the wire. That it's say 1132, the green market will move, an 1147, a livestock will move, and the wire is automatically his at a given time of day. Can we see him and talk to him? Sure, I'm sure we'd be glad to. Mr. J. W. Robertson. Mr. Robertson is standing right over here, and I suppose the best point of information is him because he has to edit all of this information. It comes in over the wire. Now, we get the market reports over WBBM every day, the same as every radio station that carries the trunk wire, newspapers, and so on. And I've always been interested in just finding out just exactly how you do it. I went over to the board of trade one day, Robbie, and we did the story on this very program of the board of trade. And I found that AP, I think, was one of the very few news services that had a staff reported there at all times, is that right? Well, yes, I believe that it is. That are the other wire services, as anyone there, I don't think. I've never seen him around. Well, now what happens? He sets

their all day and gets the important information, and what does he do, phone it into you? Well, no, I go down and get it and dictate it. The board opens at 930. I usually plan to get there a little before 930. Well, you're the one that covers it yourself. Oh, yes, right. Oh, I see. I usually get there shortly before 9 and talk to brokers, see what news is about overnight that might affect the market. And when the market opens at 930, the phone apprises in and dictates a brief lead, which has to move all by around a quarter of 10. And then I have to run real fast for the press room on the next floor up and write a lead of about 300 words and come back and dictate that. I should start dictating that by 5 after 10 at the very latest. That's a long lead and has a lot of information that can be picked up later in the day in the later leads. What's your deadline on that morning report? Well, that deadline on that's about 1020. So, and when does it hit the wire? Well, it's about that. About that time. They usually get it and takes over there

and put it on instantly. I see. What is called 95, which means you just take over the wire when you get it. Now, that goes to every point of the nation. Right. On every point that's on the financial circuit and that is most of them. Well, now Robbie, we're talking about the board of trade, which is mostly grain over there. And we also have in Chicago the Midwest stock exchange. Do you also cover that? We don't cover that very fully. No. The action of the Midwest stock exchange largely follows out of the New York Stock Exchange. No, we don't carry stories on that unless there's outstanding developments. Do you file the returns of the Midwest stock exchange on your wire? They're filed by New York. I see. Well, okay, Robbie. Thank you very much for talking to us. You're welcome, sir. We're now in the wire photo room. And first of all, allow me to explain or perhaps I better let Al Orton explain just exactly what wire photo is. But I'll say first of all, Al, that I've seen in many

newspapers throughout the nation. The AP wire photo identification. Sometimes at the bottom of the picture. Usually it's at the bottom right hand corner, as I recall. But many of these pictures are filed right out of Chicago here. Is that right? Yes, that's right. Any bureau in the Associated Press and many places that are not bureaus can file on the National Wire Photo Network. This network closely parallels the news network that you saw up and out in the other room. And any picture can move on this network to all points. It travels at a rate of an inch of picture per minute so that an eight inch picture will move in eight minutes. And you have a complete picture at the time as you finish. Now we can hear a high pitched tone in here. And that's part of the machinery that is in this room. So I suppose we better first of all talk about the machinery. Yes, I think I'm getting out of my field. Let me introduce you to Fred Francis who is a traffic bureau chief and knows just what makes these things tick. Well, Fred, first of all, let's talk about a specific picture and how it goes out. Now, here we have a

picture that's going to be sent out by Associated Press in Chicago. It's a fight picture. It's also got a caption on it and the caption goes out along with the picture. State Line Chicago March the 6th. Double header for boxers. And the caption reads, George Reiter nearest to camera of Minneapolis. And Bill Reacon of Grand Rapids, Michigan. Take a double spill in third round of their 126 pound golden gloves semi -finals about here tonight. Reiter was the winner on a decision. AP wire photo. Then they have a long series of letters and numerals which identify the photo and then 1957. Now, this picture goes on a machine over here. What happens then? This picture is revolving on a cylinder in front of a photoelectric cell. What we actually do is convert the reflected light into electric current. And that electric current is sent out over the wire at the receiving end. It is reconverted

back into light from electric current. And the exposure is recorded on either a negative or a positive or on the photo -fax machine. In proportion to the changes activated in the photoelectric cell. We can see now that the picture is being revolved on that cylinder and it is passing over that electric wire. There it is. It's a good. The exposure is in 1 -100 -inch lines. On each revolution, as the carriage moves horizontally, the exposure takes place in 1 -100 -inch lines. On each revolution. That's why it takes a minute to scan 1 -1 -inch of picture. So it takes 1 minute to send it? 1 minute to sound 1 -1 -inch of a picture. And 8 -8 -inch picture would take

8 -8 minutes. Well, now Fred, we have it moving out on this transmitter. We'll call it right here. And it's being received in newspapers that take the AP wire photo throughout the nation. Do you have a receiver here in this room that we might take a look at? We have two types of receivers in this room. One is the negative. We're receiving this picture on a negative. Four by five negative. Which will be printed in 8 -10 sides. Then we also have what we call a photo -fax. It's mechanical reproduction on a chemically treated paper. And that's it right here. This is a facsimile machine right here. That's it. I've seen facsimile in other places, I think. The last place I saw it was the Western Union office. And we talked briefly about the AP photo -fax. And certainly we've heard a great deal about it. Here right now is a picture coming over a vice president Nixon and his wife watching some sort of a ceremony over in Ghana.

And that was a yesterday story. The picture I suppose is a story of what's happening after Ghana has once become a nation. Anyway, it's moving out on the AP photo -fax. Now is this move to all newspapers? This is moved on our photo network. The photo -fax will operate in series or in conjunction with any type of receiving apparatus we have. All right. Now we have the photo -fax explained. And you said you have the negative receiver. Where is that? The negative receiver is just... We're going to walk about 10 or 15 feet away. We got enough cord? Yes, okay. The negative receiver, of course, is going back to the converting of the electric current received on the line back into light. We have a lamp here that exposes the negative just like your camera exposes the negative. Only in this case,

it's only exposing one tiny line on each revolution of this cylinder. And the negative is enclosed in a revolving cylinder within a case, a light -proof case, so that we can operate in room light. This series of controls, which is right in front of that rotating cylinder, I suppose controls exactly the... Yes, the operator in transmitting a picture on this type of machine, we have to set at a certain level for our dark and our light. Flight and blacks, as we call them. Now, does the newspaper office, for example, the Chicago Daily News here in Chicago have a similar machine in their offices? No, they have the photo -fax. They get prints as well as the photo -fax. I see. They get prints through the pneumatic tubes. You make the prints here? We make the prints here. And then you send them out to the newspaper? Yes, but they already have the picture on their photo -fax.

Well, thank you very much, Fred, for telling us about the mechanical operation of the wire photo. One of the most interesting things, I think, in the field of journalism, is the fact that you can take a picture. And a few minutes later, have it sent out throughout the nation. For example, this picture of these boxers that we took a look at just a moment ago, actually was sent out last night, a few minutes after the picture was taken. Very interesting story indeed. For example, they can take this picture that was shot, say at 8 o 'clock at night, and sent it out in Washington, DC, in Seattle, Washington, San Francisco. And wherever they take this service, they can have that picture in the morning paper the next morning. Is that right? That's perfectly true. From the time a camera man takes a picture on spot news, we can have it on the wire within 25 minutes. Well, that's speed, for sure. We also, on spot news, why we'll send a transmitter

to the scene and bring the picture into a bureau by telephone lines, and then we'll connect that telephone line as the signal comes over the telephone line, it'll go into our regular network. I see. Cover everything that happens any place, any time, or anywhere. Well, thank you very much, Fred, for talking to us. Okay, thank you. We have come out of the office of Al Orton, where we are prepared to close out the story of associated press by talking to Al and by talking to another gentleman here who is very much concerned with journalism. A field of journalism about which we just got through talking, and that is photos. Harry Hall is a man who worked for Associated Press and also for newspapers in Chicago as a photographer before there was such a thing as wire photo. Harry, back in the old days, how did you get your photographs to the newspapers? Well, we would fly

from different points back to Chicago, and the first wire set up was owned by the telephone company. They had offices in New York, Boston, Washington, Chicago, St. Louis, and Fiscal. Harry, you've been connected with the wire photo here at AP since it started, I guess, haven't you? Yeah, I was here when it started. You've been keeping it going here, as I understand, from Ed Kitsch, the wire photo department of AP is practically under your direction here at Chicago. Well, I wouldn't say that. Well, he did, and I'll take his word for it. Harry, in order that we can properly describe how you felt as had to work in the old days, I wish you had told us a story of how Lindbergh was flying some films back to Chicago for the Tribune and happened to pick up or happen to bring back some blank plates. Well, he got trapped in the competition we used to run with among the papers. He was

hired by the Tribune to fly to Murphy's borough, Illinois, from St. Louis. The weather, going this way, was too bad, but they thought he could get in there at daybreak and pick up a lot of tornado pictures. There was a tornado there the evening before, and he was to pick up these plates and fly right to Chicago with them. One of the, he was in Murphy's borough looking for Eddie Johnson and Earl Barlow, the Tribune photographers, and one of the opposition papers, photographers, heard he was in town, so he gave him a box of blank plates. They were glass plates, and he said, you Lindbergh, he says, here, get going right away, and he had him in the box of plates. Lindbergh took off and flew to Chicago. We met him at the airport with a squad car and big preparations and rushed him downtown. They had never been opened. Did you know right away what had happened? Yeah, we knew

right away somebody. Tell them across this. Well, that's the way you had to deliver your plates then, was either by air or by railroads? By sickle, anything you could find. Just get it there. That's right. Well, it's a lot different now with wire photo. And now there's a wire photo station within less than a hundred miles nearly everywhere you go. Harry, I'd understand that you were in on the Floyd Collins story when he was trapped in the cave. We were down there, and that was quite an experience. We were hanging around out by this hole, we called it, and the mud up to your knees, until you got punchy, and then you'd go back to the hotel. And, as soon as you got in the hotel, you'd get a couple hours sleep. The cab drivers had a conspiracy against this down there. They'd come into the lobby and say, announced that it had been found. Everybody would immediately get dressed and run back out to the holes. $15 a trip. There's something they made a lot of money with their little kids.

That's right. The Floyd brother, by the way, was up selling postal cards, and his old man sandwiches to the people. You mean as Floyd was trapped? They were making money on the story. They went on an affordable tour right after they closed it up. Poor Floyd is still there. That's right. Well, Harry, I want to thank you very much for telling us some of the stories of the old days and bringing us a little bit up to date on this wire photo. So it's certainly a marvelous thing to see. And the photo end of this business is interesting as the news end. But because it's all blended into the same thing, and that's news. And you fellas, they're just as good newsmen as the reporters are reporters. We want to thank you very much for talking to us, Harry. Thank you. Now, finally, we've got to get back to Al Orton for a brief discussion about some of the things that Chicago has done to contribute to the building of this great organization known as the Associated Press. Chicago newspapers have always been involved in the AP. Haven't they, Al? Well, ever since it became the Associated

Press as a cooperative they have, was actually founded in New York. And after some fumbling around for a few years, a Victor Lawson in the Chicago Daily News became active in organizing the Associated Press in the form in which it is now. Joseph Madill, the Chicago Tribune, was in on the original plans. And Colonel McCormick, a cast of Tribune, was a prime factor in the Associated Press growth for years and years and years. It was a member of the Board of Directors and was chairman of the Board of Directors. And among the founders of the Associated Press were other people from St. Paul and Des Moines and St. Louis. It's been the origination of the AP was primarily an Midwestern operation. May I read briefly from some type of material here, which has been prepared by the coordinator of this program, Herb Grayson, Al, before we leave the show. The Associated Press as a cooperative news gathering agency was undertaken in 1848. David Hale of the New York Journal of Commerce became convinced that no one could continue indefinitely to meet the multiplying

problems of individual news gathering. Hale proposed that he and James Gordon Bennett, the enterprising editor of the New York Herald, pooled resources to cover the Mexican War and the other big news of the day and Bennett accepted. That was the first positive step toward cooperative news gathering and the AP was born. Now there are 35 strategic bureaus, such as Chicago and 82 smaller bureaus in the Associated Press. These bureaus service 1700 newspapers and 1500 radio and television stations around the country. It also services hundreds of others abroad. There are 1500 full -time AP reporters and 35 of them are based in the Chicago Bureau. It's located at 160 North LaSalle Street. Al, it's certainly been a pleasure to tour the Associated Press and see how you operate it. We want to thank you very much for allowing us to come up here and want to thank you personally for guiding us on the tour and all of the men who have appeared on the program. Thank you again.

And that's the story of the Associated Press and its Bureau in Chicago. This is Hugh Hill speaking.