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April 5, 1924. New York. "Lambdin Kay." Broadcaster and celebrated thingamabob prodigy. 5x7 glass negative, Bain News Service. View full size.
The chimes pictured are reveille bells (sometimes called military dinner chimes) made by the J.C. Deagan Company. Lambdin Kay may never have used the set shown in this publicity photo, but may have played a smaller 3-tube set for WSB's chimes in 1924.
Everyone is handsome and dashing on radio.
Those must be the black keys.
Just as I was thinking that this fellow looked as though his name ought to be Hubert Q. Peabody, I fired up the google-a-tron and found that Mr. Kay is credited with creating the Peabody Awards which he did as chairman of the National Association of Broadcasters when he was asked to create a prize to honor the nation's premier radio programs and performances. Also found this about WSB Radio in Atlanta: "Lambdin Kay was the station's first full-time general manager, as well as a popular on-air personality. The NBC chimes, which were used to identify that network's radio and television stations, originated at WSB. Lambdin Kay played three notes on a small xylophone to signal station breaks, and NBC began using them when WSB became a network affiliate in 1927. NBC still uses the three-note theme, in electronic form, on some of its news programs and on its MSNBC cable channel."
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