Debut Broadcast of NBC Orange Network

The inaugural program of the NBC Orange Network was held April 5, 1927, from temporary studios in the Colonial Ballroom of the St. Francis Hotel. The program opened with an address by Henry M. Robinson, the Pacific Coast member of the NBC Advisory Board and president of the First National Bank of Los Angeles. Robinson spoke from the studios of KFI in Los Angeles. The program was then turned over to San Francisco for the broadcast of music performed by Alfred Hertz and the San Francisco Symphony, and by Max Dolin, the newly-appointed West Coast music director, conducting the National Broadcasting Opera Company. 

In this opening day photo, we see (L-R):  Max Dolin, NBC Pacific Coast Music Director; Roy Shields, accompanist from New York; Jeanne Gordon of the Metropolitan Opera Company; Alfred Hertz, director of the San Francisco Symphony, who conducted the orchestra; and Lambert Murphy, former Metropolitan Opera Company performer.   (Radio Age Magazine photo)