99% Invisible - 238- NBC Chimes

Episode Date: November 30, 2016

The NBC chimes may be the most famous sound in broadcasting. Originating in the 1920s, the three key sequential notes are familiar to generations of radio listeners and television watchers. Many companies have tried to trademark sounds but only around … Continue reading →

This is 99% invisible. I'm Roman Mars. Sound design is one of the more overlooked aspects of design, but it's so critical to our enjoyment of the world. Few sounds please me more than the satisfying move that my car doors make when I get inside my VW. My current least favorite sounds are from credit card chip readers that Blair and obnoxious warning buzz that clearly signals to normal humans that something has gone wrong, even though it actually means everything went right and it's time to remove your card. My love of sound and story is why I was excited to find the new podcast 20,000 Hertz, which tells the stories behind the most recognizable and interesting sounds.

And I'm pleased to present one of their episodes today. Here host Dallas Taylor tells the story behind the most famous sound in broadcasting. This is the National Broadcasting Company. For being only three tiny notes, the NBC chimes have had a colossal impact on media and culture for nearly 90 years. It was back in the late 1920s when NBC started using this for the first time to identify itself on the radio. W-E-A-F, New York. They became so iconic and so popular that they were the very first sound to ever be awarded an audio trademark.

And that's hard to get. Take, for example, the Harley-Davidson engine sound. After six years of litigation and challenges from other companies, they withdrew their application. Courts also denied Motorola's request to trade markets chirp, saying that, among other things, they didn't do a good enough job promoting it as an actual soundmark. Budweiser even tried to trademark the sound of an opening beer can. I think I'm going to go with the courts on this one. So there are only about 100 sounds that have actually officially become US trademarks,

and most of them are incredibly iconic. No! Oh, oh, oh, you've got mail. The concept of a trademark is that it's something that's generally accepted that can't be confused with something else that you can make the case represents your product. That's Rick Greenhut. He used to work for NBC and was actually the last person to ever officially play the chimes on the NBC radio network. An audio trademark that doesn't have any lyrics in it, it's very hard to say, well, this represents my product. And the reason NBC could actually trademark that is they've been doing it for 40 years

before anybody thought to trademark it. Today, whenever you think about branding, you think about the visual mark, the visual logo, but back in the 1920 mark, the visual logo. But back in the 1920s, the most powerful form of mask communication was the radio. The only way you could brand yourself would be through sound. Anybody who heard that in the 50s or 60s would instantly note was NBC. The chimes were everywhere. They were so popular that they even appeared in some pop songs. This is Anouncers Blues recorded in 1936 by Paul Whiteman and his orchestra.

The artist behind this next track, NBCI Love You, remains a broadcasting mystery. To understand where the Chimes came from, we have to go back nearly a century. Stations were using Chimes, Gongs, all kinds of different musical devices to create a sound signature for themselves. This is John Snyder, a radio historian. Chimes in particular would have been an easy choice due to how common they were. Dinner Chimes were often used to summon guests to the table, and it was also used to indicate the start and stop of intermission. NBC created a seven note sequence and the idea was that at the end of each program, the

announcer was at the microphone and is saying this is the national broadcasting company would strike a seven note chime sequence on a set of hand shimes that he held next to the microphone. As you could imagine, since this was being played live by the announcer, it was really hard to keep consistent. So they shortened it to three notes. Originally the three notes were CAF, which had the same sound that we know today just in a different key. Eventually, they use the notes G-E-C,

which some people think stood for the General Electric Company. That would have been the coolest branding story, having the G-E-Cimes stand for the General Electric Company. But the truth is, General Electric didn't have much to do with NBC until later. Eventually, because it still wasn't being done uniformly on the handchimes, they went to an electronic device. I remember getting a tour of the technical facility.

That's Rick Greenhead again. There was this strange thing back in the racks, and I said, what's that? And they said, it's a Chimes machine. NBC hired an electronic organ pioneer kept an Richard Ranger to build more of an automated system for playing the Chimes. Not only did the Chimes serve a branding purpose, but it also solved a really big technical

challenge. When they would change studios, they would be literally plugging and unplugging these patch cords, and it would make kind of clicks and pops on the air. Since we end each show with the Chimes, each studio would have a take control button and a Chimes button. When you pushed the chimes button, it would take that studio off the air under the sound of the chimes, so you didn't hear the click. Aside from its iconic cultural status,

the NBC Chimes also played a really important role in history. Outside of radio, the only other form of mass communication was through newspaper. There was no medium that passed news or information or entertainment to the public in real time. Again, John Snyder. And all of the people who were pioneers, they had to invent techniques that we take for granted today. It must have been a fascinating time to participate in the birth of modern electronic media. One of Radio's most important moments came during World War II.

For the first time in history, news from the front lines of work had become available to the mass public in near real time. Radio had discovered its importance as a news medium and not just an entertainment medium. During the war, NBC added a fourth chime to covertly notify announcers that important breaking news was imminent. If the normal chime was GEC, at the end of a program,

they would play the chime GEC C. The National Broadcasting Company will continue its network service throughout the remainder of the night. And you're the important but so far, unconferent reports from overseas. This is the National Broadcasting Company. That fourth note, which probably most of the radio audience never even noticed, was a cue to the radio stations, pay attention, listen on the line between the program and be prepared for something momentous to come along. When it rings, all of us at NBC's, spring into action, wherever we may be.

The fourth chime means to us. Call the office. Get down here. Big things are happening. During the invasion of D-Day, the NBC fourth chime was played alongside the Morse code sound for the letter V, indicating that the invasion had just begun. That extra chime, the fourth chime, means news of the greatest world importance. The fourth chime rang on D-Day, the fourth chime will ring again on V-Day, the day of victory.

Thankfully, the fourth chime was only played a handful of times in the history of the network. NBC was huge. All the other networks were still up and coming, so NBC commanded all the top talent. Ladies and gentlemen, from Camp HONC, California, we bring you a man who peddled here all the way from Hollywood on the rear end of a tandem bicycle, Jack Benny! People who were getting the ratings and the people were the next day's water cooler conversation, that would be the radio show from NBC the night before. So NBC, to me, always had seemed like a Cadillac brand. It was a brand whose name you remembered, whose logo you could picture,

and when you heard the sound, you pictured the logo. When you saw the logo, you saw the logo you heard the sound in your mind. The NBC Chimes, at least on the radio, came to a close in the late 1980s. When Rick Green Hut played them for the last time on the 9 o'clock news. We typically would chime out of every network feed we did. And at about 8.45, the news casters already in the booth, the producer sitting next to me. I've got the commercials in the machines for each of the time zones, and the General Manager comes up. And he said, I wanted you to be the first to know that the radio network has been sold. General Electric acquired NBC Radio through the purchase of RCA.

This meant that NBC Radio no longer operated as its own entity. The NBC Chimes were not part of the sale because they're the NBC Chimes and the TV network is keeping those. Nine o'clock hour comes, we do the network newscast, and at 905-30, the newscaster says, Gary Nunn, NBC News, New York, I played the Chimes. I then pulled that tape cartridge out of the machine where I'd played it.

Well, no sooner I had done that the general manager shows up and he just looked at me and he said, make sure no one else can do that. I did that by taking that tape cartridge home and it's sitting on my shelf. The NBC Radio Network came to a close, but obviously the chimes still live on through promos and special programming and news, but this sound is bigger than Comcast or NBC or General Electric.

It's something that's deeply embedded and weaved through our history, through the good, an amazing little boy who gently, through the bad, one month after the massacre, through the most important moments of our collective lives together. This sound has been with us for almost 90 years. It started as a sound that just fixed a small problem, but has become something that's completely ingrained in our culture. 20,000 Hurtz is a production of De facto Sound, you can find it at 20k.org or wherever

you get podcasts. This episode was produced by Carolyn McCulley, Sam Sneebley, Colin Navarney, Miland Fitzwater Barrows, and Dallas Taylor, sound design and mix by Colin Navarney, special thanks to Rick Greenhott and John Snyder. 99% of visible is a project of 91.7K ALW in San Francisco and produced on Radio Row in beautiful downtown Oakland, California. In beautiful, downtown, Oakland, California. You can find this show and join discussions about the show on Facebook. You can tweet at me at Roman Mars or the show at 99PI org. We're on Instagram and Tumblr too.

But in addition to all the episodes you've heard, there is a treasure trove of design stories at 99PI.org. Music Radio to Beauty from PRX Thanks.