that horrible BEEP

[Donna Halper]

>Paul wrote--
>
>ABC radio always had a tone at five seconds before a newscast started.

Yes, and I do remember those tones (like the NBC chimes, or the 
telegraph sounder that ran under the news... even though nobody had 
used telegraph in years).  But what started my original query was 
that I'm trying to figure out was why some of the pioneering radio 
talkers like Joe Pyne and KDKA's Ed & Wendy King at first paraphrased 
the caller instead of putting him or her on the air.  I thought it 
was technological-- but then I found clippings of callers put on the 
air in 1929.  SO now I am thinking maybe it was the annoying beep on 
the phone line?