Sacramento on the Air by Annette Kassis

Author:Annette Kassis
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing Inc.
Published: 2015-05-02T04:00:00+00:00

THE LITTLE EAGLET’S DISAPPEARANCE HAS THE NATION TUNING IN

In 1932, CBS, KFBK’s national network affiliate, began broadcasting a sponsored news program presented by Boake Carter, an unknown radio announcer who would soon gain national prominence. At this time, the AP had adopted a policy that permitted radio stations to use news bulletins for stories considered to be of “transcendent importance,” the perception being that radio could not possibly provide the kind of in-depth news coverage the public desired and that the public, upon hearing the news bulletin, would turn to the newspapers for the complete story.175

All that changed on March 1, 1932, with the kidnapping of the twentymonth-old son of aviator and national hero Charles Lindbergh—the “Lone Eagle”—and Anne Morrow Lindbergh.

The kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby fit within the definition of transcendent importance, and the AP and other wire services worked with radio stations to appeal to the kidnappers for the “Little Eaglet’s” return. NBC, CBS and some local stations, presumably those in the general region of the Lindbergh’s New Jersey home, sent their own reporters to cover the story. The result was the first national news story in which radio figured extensively, and this coverage by radio continued through the trial and conviction of accused kidnapper and murderer Bruno Hauptmann. Broadcasters like Boake Carter began attracting large audiences of new listeners for their broadcasts as they covered all the details of the tragedy.176

By 1933, the conflict between the press and radio had escalated. At their conventions, the AP’s and the ANPA’s radio committees recommended that press associations stop supplying news bulletins to radio stations in advance of newspaper publication, and that bulletins supplied for broadcasting be no more than thirty words in length and not be available for advertising sponsorship.177

In response, CBS organized the Columbia News Service. Utilizing foreign reports from Exchange Telegraph and Central News in England, other foreign newsgathering agencies and “stringer” reporters in various U.S. cities, CBS established a competing news service and signed on General Mills as a national sponsor. In retaliation, newspapers in a number of cities pulled all listings of CBS programs from their papers.178

The Sacramento Bee, however, did not pull CBS program listings. At this time, KFBK was affiliated with CBS and the Don Lee Broadcasting System. Radio schedules published in the Bee included both CBS programs and the Columbia News Service airing on the station.179

The move by CBS to aggressively pursue its own network news strategy was regarded as a very real threat by the ANPA. When CBS filed an application with the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., requesting that its reporters be admitted to the Congressional Press Galleries, the application was denied on the grounds that gallery admission was reserved only for those representing “daily newspapers or newspaper associations.” CBS challenged this ruling, taking the complaint to the Senate Rules Committee to seek an amendment to the existing gallery rules, but the strong opposition from print journalists and publishers resulted in a denial of the appeal.180 In this case, “press” related more closely to “printing press” than to the media in general.

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