Re: What hath God wrought? -- Spearfish Lake Tales

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Subject: Re: What hath God wrought?

Author:
Brian Jones

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Date Posted: 09:16:24 06/26/13 Wed
In reply to: Jim Scott 's message, "Re: What hath God wrought?" on 21:06:56 06/19/13 Wed

>Before World War II small town radio stations did not
>have available or could not afford the Teletype wire
>news services. Instead they would hire a local ham
>radio operator to listen to shortwave radio broadcasts
>from the news services using Morse Code. Those
>broadcasts were at 100 words-per-minute, so it took an
>exceptional ham to copy code that fast while typing
>that fast on a manual typewriter. The ham operator
>would use long rolls of paper fed through a manual
>typewriter to print out the news. For breaking news
>someone would tear the just-typed sheet off the top of
>the typewriter and rush it into the on-air studio to
>read it, hence the origin of the phrase "rip and read".
>
>In 1966 I started working with one such ham operator
>by the name of Jack Hudson who once worked at a small
>South Carolina AM broadcast station doing the above
>news transcribing. On December 7, 1942 he was about
>to go off duty when news came across about Pearl
>Harbor. He didn't go home but stayed on duty for 8
>more hours. Other staff in the station showed up to
>help by feeding him sandwiches and coffee. He would
>stop to drink the coffee and grab a bite and then go
>back to typing and catch up without missing a word.
>He could even take a quick trip to the rest room
>without missing a word. I doubt his performance was
>unique as most small AM stations across the country
>probably have a similar story in their history.
>
>Jim Scott
>
>
>>Another column picked up from the paper
>>
>>I happened to notice the other day that the world's
>>last telegraph system will be decommissioned in the
>>next few days. It's in India.
>> .........

I don't know about pre-WW2 news service using radio. However, I worked during the 1960s with a operator who worked here in England for a Trans-Atlantic cable news service. He told me that the text was transmitted using abbreviations and he had to type the full text out on a typewriter.

Even during the 1960s some reporters typed out their story using similar abbreviatons, e.g. t = the, tt = that. After copy was edited, the abbreviations were still there, and the typesetter would fill the text out.

The days of hot-metal type have almost vanished! Now everyone can create their own posters or letter head on the computer.

Brian

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