NBC has the technology to televise sports matches. If Chen Qiang wants to bring the All-Star Game to TV, he has to go to NBC for help.

Founded in 1926, NBC is the oldest and most powerful commercial radio and television company in the United States. The thirties and fifties were the golden age of radio broadcasting, and NBC represented the pinnacle of broadcasting.

At this time, radio broadcasts would broadcast music, news, interviews, sports competitions and other programs, and several major broadcasters in the United States owned hundreds of radio stations.

As for television, although it has begun to appear in many American homes, it is far less common than radio.

When it comes to telecasting, we have to mention a man named David Shanoff, who is a pioneer of commercial radio and television in the United States and is known as the father of the American radio and communications industry.

David Shanoff is a Belarusian Jew who immigrated to the United States with his family when he was 9 years old, and like many immigrant families, David Shanoff's family was difficult, so he often worked part-time jobs as a newsboy to support his family when he was a child. When David Shanoff was about to graduate from elementary school, his father died of illness, and David Shanoff had to drop out of school and work as a handyman in a telegraph company. Because he was too young, he could only do things like cleaning the office, helping departments pass documents, or buying coffee for his boss. But because of David Shanoff's hard work and hard work, two years later, the telegraph company recruited him as a regular employee, and he became a newspaper delivery man.

After David Shanoff became a newspaper delivery man, he worked even harder, and at the same time used his spare time to learn telegraph knowledge and master the skills of sending and receiving newspapers, so the company turned him into a newspaper dispatcher. Compared with the newspaper delivery officer, the newspaper reporter is a skilled job, and it is also a white-collar worker, who can sit in the office without the wind blowing and the rain not getting the sun. At that time, David Shanoff was working on the top floor of the Manhattan department store, one of the most prosperous places in the world.

On April 14, 1912, David Shanoff ushered in a fateful moment, and on this night in the Atlantic, Jack shouted the words "you??" to Ruth, "You?? jump??，i?? jump", and then jumped into the icy water.

The sinking Titanic sent a distress signal, and when the signal arrived in New York, it happened that David Shanoff was on duty, and he passed the news to the world, and because he was the first sender to receive the news of the Titanic's death, David Shanoff became a news figure at the time and was promoted to the top of the company.

In 1919, David Shanoff co-founded the American Radio Company and served as its general manager, which achieved a monopoly on radio patents at the time. Then David Shanoff teamed up with boxing promoters to broadcast boxing matches on his own radio, which became a sensation in the United States, and David Shanoff also accumulated his first pot of gold.

Americans love boxing, the main reason is that boxing can be betting, and a boxing promoter can build a top stadium like Madison Square Garden, which shows how big the American boxing betting market was at that time. However, many people buy betting, but do not have the time or energy to watch the game on the spot, just like we now go to buy a lottery ticket, and do not necessarily have the time to stare at the TV to see the lottery results, most people are in the lottery after the check results, to see if they have won.

David Shanoff broadcasts his boxing matches on the radio, just so that those who don't have time to watch the fights can follow the proceedings and the results at all times. Sports betting is such a thing, or the excitement of watching the real-time game process, I believe that many people who have bought football lottery tickets can understand this.

Taking advantage of the opportunity to broadcast various boxing matches, David Shanoff began to sell his radio, which was not a cheap commodity in the early twenties, and even in terms of American income, buying a radio was a big addition to the family. But for those involved in boxing betting, money to buy a radio is a necessary expense.

In just a few years, David Shanoff sold $80 million worth of radios, which means that by the first half of the twenties, David Shanoff had become a multimillionaire.

In 1926, David Shanoff founded NBC, the famous NBC, and he himself served as president and chairman. It was also at this time that David Shanoff's business acumen made him perceive the potential of televising.

Although there were already television sets in that era, the television signals of that era were transmitted by mechanical scanning method, and the picture was very blurry and noisy, which was not suitable for television broadcasting. So David Shanoff funded scientists to develop photomirror CRTs and CRT receivers, and used the image splitter invented by another scientist to create a clearer television.

In 1928, David Shanoff began to experiment with television broadcasting, and was the first to start the television broadcasting business of NBC, but until the end of World War II, NBC's television broadcasts were actually helping David Shanoff sell television sets.

At the beginning, David Shanoff bought a phonograph company to produce radios, and later after the picture tube was invented, this company also began to produce televisions, but if there are only televisions without TV programs, then the television sets are a waste, and the TV sets from David Shanoff production office cannot be sold, so David Shanoff used his position as the chairman of the ABC to let the ABC rebroadcast TV programs in order to sell the TV sets he produced.

A similar situation happened in China, where in the thirties and forties, American businessmen brought radios to China, but found that there were no radio stations in China, so the radios naturally did not receive programs, and as a result, American businessmen could not sell a single radio. In order to sell radios, American businessmen began to run their own radio stations, and at that time, many radio stations in port cities such as Shanghai and Tianjin were set up by American businessmen who sold radios.

The 1939 New York World's Fair was a very successful promotion for television, and from then on television began to enter the average American home. However, the outbreak of World War II still affected the development of the television industry. Doing TV broadcasting is 100% loss-making, TVB is originally free, and TV advertising is almost equal to none, and broadcasting companies doing TV broadcasting is tantamount to losing money and making money.

For example, ABC's cost of broadcasting television shows also comes mainly from the sponsorship of David Shanoff's television company. In other words, in this era, the manufacturers who sell TV sets pay the TV broadcasters to keep the TV broadcasters operating normally, so as to ensure that there are programs on the TV set to watch, and then sell the TV set.

So do customers buy TVs to watch TV programs, or do they buy TVs to watch TV programs? No one can say clearly. It's a bit like a chicken-and-egg or egg-and-egg question, and it makes sense. But I have to say that David Shanoff is worthy of his Jewish identity, he is really shrewd in business, he is the one who does the TV broadcast, and he is also the one who sells the TV set.

This is the equivalent of selling the chicken to the person who wants to eat the eggs, and telling the other person that you can eat the eggs every day after you buy the chicken; At the same time, sell the eggs to the people who want to eat the chicken, and tell them that if you hatch the eggs, you will have chickens to eat.

Now, for the TV broadcast of the All-Star Game, Chen Qiang is looking for David Shanoff, a shrewd businessman.

At this time, David Shanoff was also a busy man, at least much busier than Chen Qiang, he had to run the American national radio station, run his own factory, and serve the US military.

As the godfather of the communications industry, after the United States entered the war, David Shanoff had been hired by Eisenhower as a communications consultant, and also received the rank of a brigadier general of the United States, so later generations often called him "General Shanoff".

Communication was very important to the war effort, and during World War II, radio communication was clearly the most important and irreplaceable form of communication at that time. David Shanoff provided the U.S. military with an expanded radio system, and David Shanoff also built a high-power radio transmitter in Europe, whose radio waves could reach almost every corner of the country, and could send orders from the Allied command to any Allied force on the continent.

So David Shanoff is not only a successful businessman, but also has very close ties with the US military, and can be described as a big man in the political and business circles.

Chen Qiang came to ABC at the appointed time, but waited more than twenty minutes to meet David Shanoff.

"Mr. Chen, I'm very sorry, there are some urgent matters at the moment, and I have been delayed for some time." After David Shanoff met Chen Qiang, he took the lead in apologizing.

Chen Qiang didn't care about David Shanoff's tardiness, after all, this time he was asking for help, and the TV broadcast of the All-Star Game was counting on people to help.

After the two sat down, Chen Qiang explained his intention.

David Shanoff nodded and then said, "I've seen the basketball All-Star Game advertised in the newspapers, and as far as I know, my radio station has partnered with you to broadcast the entire basketball All-Star Game on the radio. I have been broadcasting sports on the radio for more than ten years, and the live broadcast of sports on the radio has always been very good. ”

"I'm very optimistic about television, and I think within 20 years, it will overtake the radio as the most popular entertainment device in American homes. Television broadcasting of sports matches is also the trend of the future. Chen Qiang replied.

David Shanoff was slightly surprised, he didn't expect Chen Qiang to say such a thing.

The '40s were the golden age of radio, and it was a time when people said that television was surpassing the radio, which sounded like a fantasy to ordinary people.

This is like around 2005, in that era of the prosperity of online games, some people said that mobile games will surpass online games, and they will definitely be angry by many online game players, after all, the mobile phone of that era can also play a small game such as Tetris, in the eyes of people in that era, there will never be hundreds of millions of people holding a Nokia to play Tetris, they must not have imagined that with the emergence of smart phones, after more than ten years, the number of players in mobile games really exceeds online games.

The same is true for people in the 40s, whose perception of television is still stuck in the unclear picture, unstable signal, small screens, and the same boring programs, and most importantly, the price of television is not affordable. Compared with the radio, the price is cheaper, the signal is clear, the program content is rich, there are many channels that can be searched, and even the sound quality is much better than that of the TV. In front of the radio, the television set is completely uncompetitive.

David Shanoff's company sells radios as well as television sets, and he is also a radio tycoon, the most professional in the industry, but even he does not dare to say that television will surpass radio. Chen Qiang, on the other hand, looked confident on this issue, which made David Shanoff feel a little overwhelmed.

"I really didn't expect Mr. Chen to be so confident in the TV, if all Americans had the same idea as you, my TV would not be sold." David Shanoff paused, then continued: "Actually, three years ago, we did a televised sports match. ”

"I know, it's the NFL finals." Chen Qiang said.

"Yes, but it didn't work out very well on television. We used a lot of human and material resources, and we put more than a dozen cameras alone, but judging from the feedback from the audience, it was a failed TV broadcast. According to our audience surveys, they feel that there is a big difference between watching a rugby game on TV and going to a live game, which is why they don't like it. David Shanoff continued.

"You mean that watching a football game on TV is a much worse experience?" Chen Qiang asked.

David Shanoff nodded: "It's no exaggeration to say that watching a rugby game on TV is not an experience at all. ”

"The football field is too big and it's more difficult to televise, but the basketball court is much smaller and it's much less difficult to televise." Chen Qiang opened his mouth to explain.

"Mr. Chen, I agree with you. But we've already had a failure, and we don't want to repeat that bad experience, so we're sorry that NBC has no interest in televising sports games. David Shanoff refused.

David Shanoff will open his mouth to decide, Chen Qiang is not surprised, after all, it takes a lot of money to broadcast sports games, set up multiple cameras, professional cameramen, professional directors, and signal transmission. For broadcasters, they don't want to pay that much cost. Compared with some programs that have been recorded for a long time, such as old movies, news broadcasts, etc., the cost is much lower than broadcasting sports games.

Moreover, the main reason why the American broadcasting company in this era broadcasts TV programs is to help David Shanoff sell TV sets, people don't care about ratings, as long as they can sell TV sets, how to save money. From the point of view of saving money, broadcasters are certainly not willing to increase the cost of broadcasting sports games.

"Sure enough, there is no such thing as a free lunch, and you still have to spend money to get things done." Chen Qiang sighed helplessly, and then said: "Mr. Shanoff, I am very interested in the advertising business of the NBC, if the NBC is willing to broadcast my basketball All-Star Game, I will put 100,000 US dollars in advertising money to your company." ”

Hearing about the advertising fee, David Shanoff was immediately interested.

David Shanoff's assets are also in the tens of millions, and $100,000 is just a drizzle for him. But he is also the chairman of NBC, which needs results, and David Shanoff needs to be accountable to shareholders. The advertising cost of 100,000 US dollars is also a good revenue for NBC, and he will certainly not let it go easily.

The $100,000 advertising fee in exchange for the TV broadcast of the All-Star Game, David Shanoff thought about it in his heart and felt that the deal was still a good deal.

David Shanoff immediately said: "Thank you very much for your generosity, Mr. Chen, we at NBC are very happy to cooperate with Mr. Chen, so I will immediately arrange for someone to contact you to discuss the TV broadcast and advertising in detail." ”

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