In 1942 the U.S. Army began production at the Astoria Studio and renamed it the Signal Corps Photographic Center (SCPC). In the months after Pearl Harbor the studio filled a major need for expanded production capability required to speed the training of millions of wartime inductees.

Basement recording stages were pressed into service during wartime blood drives and medical films became their specialty.

The Signal Corps continued to make films, training films and TV series throughout the Korean War and anti-communist years.

Before production halted in 1970, Army television engineers pioneered many broadcasting techniques later adopted by the commercial networks.