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Durenberger Finalizes His eBook About AT&T and Radio

Read "Connecting the Continent"

Our colleague Mark Durenberger has published the final version of his e-book “Connecting the Continent.”

You may recall that Mark had produced an essay documenting AT&T’s contributions to radio, inspired by an article by Radio World contributor James O’Neal.

“I came to realize that, while many of us grew up in a broadcast industry created in part by AT&T, there’s no easily accessible access to the full detail of AT&T’s contributions,” Mark said then. “Furthermore, those with first-hand experience in an earlier analog world were retiring, and the heritage of experience with AT&T methodology was being lost. This might be a way to secure factual and anecdotal input from those who were part of that picture.”

He made his eBook available for free and actively sought comments and suggestions for improvements. Now the final version is out, incorporating feedback from readers and an improved format.

Topics include the founding of AT&T; the introduction of “Long Lines”; the development of wireless; AT&T’s broadcasting “experiment”; the evolution of national broadcasting networks; alternative methods of getting programming from station to station; the evolution of the VU meter; and the use of true “high-fidelity” audio transmission through the use of “carrier.”

Mark spent 55 years in broadcast and satellite technology and is now supporting the technology/broadcast initiatives of the Minnesota Twins Baseball Club. He tells me his interest in “Ma Bell” was jump-started by a wide-eyed visit to a local “Toll Test” office at a time when the world was all wire. He adds that he is beginning work on a book demonstrating in detail the mechanics of distributing propaganda 1930 to 1950, from the Russo-Japanese War through “Duck and Cover.”

Read “Connecting the Continent” here.

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