From Sunday, September 14th to Thursday, September 18th of 1958, ISA, The Instrument Society of America (now called the Instrument Society of Automation) held its13th Annual Instrument Automation Conference and Exhibit at Convention Hall in Philadelphia. This convention hall isn't the one that is today in Center City Philadelphia. The one we're talking about was located at 34th and Spruce Streets in University City which was erected in 1931. The convention hall was officially The Municipal Auditorium and was the home of political conventions in 1936, 1940 and 1948. The one in 1900 was at the original exposition building, built in 1899, which later began known as "The Commercial Museum."
ISA started in the spring of 1945 in Pittsburgh with 18 instrument societies. Their mission at that time was "to advance the arts and sciences connected with the theory, design, manufacture and use of instruments in the various sciences."
At the time of this conference, the organization had over 7,000 members. Well, sometime during this conference, WCAU Radio did some broadcasts from the convention hall site. We only have a 3 minute excerpt. That's all we have. The audio ended just as the announcer (not yet identified) mentioned the name of the person he was interviewing, Robert Arm.... and the audio ended. We tend to believe that the name was Robert Armstrong. They are talking about the United States and Soviet Union's unmanned space programs. Can you help us ID the WCAU announcer?
From the official archives of the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia
Audio originally donated by Broadcast Pioneers member Michael Muderick
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