Broadcasting (Oct 1931-Dec 1932)

General Saltzman Points With Pride (Continued from Page 5) Danger Signals Ahead of Broadcasters (Continued from Page 9) many instances, he is powerless to remedy the service complained of because of the mandates of higher authority. In this respect he is not unlike the Federal Radio Commission as regards complaints submitted to it by broadcasters, applicants and the listening public. Sometimes the Commission, like the broadcaster, finds itself powerless to remedy the service complained of on account of the mandates of higher authority. The Commission must obey the orders of three powerful agencies, viz : the mandates of the Courts, the radio laws of Congress, and the radio laws of the Almighty, for the lastnamed authority has established a large number of natural laws for the control of this wonderful facility. It is possible that the mandates of the first two authorities may be amended or modified, but it is quite difficult to obtain an amendment to one of the radio laws of the Almighty. AT TIMES, some of the radio industry look askance at some of the orders and actions of the Radio Commission. The Commission, like the broadcasters, must obey orders issued by Congress and the Courts. The Radio Act of 1927 is an unusually good law dealing in important fundamentals. In many cases when the Commission's action is criticised, a careful analysis will reveal that the action was not simply arbitrary or capricious, but rather a compliance with a mandate imposed on that body. As an example, General Order No. 102 (regarding quota allocations), which has been the subject of comment, will be found by a little study to be simply a miniature of an amendment to the Radio Act approved March 28, 1928. The order simply expresses the law. The Radio Commission labors for the ultimate good of radio. It invites cooperation and not lawsuits. Probably the biggest and most satisfactory job performed by that body is the new reallocation of frequencies used in commercial radio by ship, point-to-point, aviation and coastal stations, contained in General Order No. 119. This plan of world-wide scope, concerning the use of approximately 3,000 frequencies and involving many technical problems and affecting the interests of many individuals, companies and corporations, was brought about without a hearing or a lawsuit. Cooperation between broadcasters as an industry and the Commission is similarly desirable. The Federal Radio Commission is naturally interested in all agencies or instrumentalities operating to advance or improve radio in this country. The Commission therefore welcomes the entrance of Broadcasting into the national radio field. It extends its well wishes to this new publication and hopes that it may be a means for great good in the development and advancement of the art. An ideal trade journal is not only a forum wherein the problems of the art may be discussed but also an agency which assumes a responsibility for asserting a leadership in advancing the art or profession in which it is interested. With radio in its present developing age, Broadcasting assumes a most interesting and important duty. Farnsworth is Working on Television for Philco IN A penthouse laboratory atop the plant of the Philadelphia Storage Battery Co., Philadelphia, manufacturers of Philco radios, Philo T. Farnsworth, young radio engineer of Salt Lake City and San Francisco, for the last few months has been conducting experiments with his new cathode ray system of television. Claims have been made for this system that it narrows the regulation frequency band for visual transmission from the regulation 100 kilocycles down to as low as 10 kilocycles and that, operating without mechanical parts, it builds up images of 40 to 400 lines. The Philco makers are now the exclusive licensees of the Farnsworth system. Though James M. Skinner, president of the company, and W. E. Holland, chief engineer, say they have no definite plans made yet for the manufacture of receivers, they have applied to the Federal Radio Commission for authority to erect an experimental transmitter at the Philadelphia plant, asking for 1,500 watts and the 1,500-3,000 and 2,750-2,850 kc. bands. The problem of how to meet the demands of North American countries outside of the United States for broadcasting facilities has yet to be solved. The Radio Commission's inexhaustible capacity for procrastination is a perpetual menace to the technical advance of the broadcasting art. The Davis Amendment and the mysterious form of higher mathematics known as the "Quota System" still obstruct the intelligent distribution of broadcasting facilities. These and many other questions will continue to perplex the broadcaster when he has nothing more serious to think about. The immediate and vital issues of the next few months, however, may be summarized under the five specific dangers which have here been listed. If our broadcasting structure is to endure at all, Congress must keep its political hands off the allocation of broadcasting facilities. State law-makers must learn that legislation affecting radio is of necessity highly technical in character, and that it is a hundred to one that any proposed state bill on the subject will do more harm than good. Something must be done to reduce the cost of making or opposing applications under the Radio Act, if the indus try is not to devote most of its revenue to the support of the legal fraternity. The broadcasting industry is due for a thorough housecleaning in the matter of its commercial practices, particularly as to rate cutting and extra commissions, in order not to destroy the faith of those whose money supports it in the value of radio time. Finally, and in many ways most important of all, broadcasting must put its commercial programs into the bathtub and give them a firstclass scrubbing. Most of these things can be accomplished by intelligent concerted action on the part of the broadcasters themselves. None of these five dangers would loom large if the broadcasters themselves clearly recognized them and saw the importance of vigorous cooperation in meeting them. Which leads to the suggestion of a sixth and final danger : lack of unified effort on the part of the industry itself. On practically every important point the interests of the broadcasters, large or small, east or west, are essentially the same. If they can avoid Danger No. 6 by sane and energetic cooperation, they can put the other five perils back in the class with the hungry ogres who used to scare little boys and girls in the nursery. Radio's Show Window Chicago Opera Program Scheduled 13 Saturdays BEGINNING Nov. 7, the overture and first acts of 13 successive Saturday night operatic performances of the Chicago Civic Opera Company will be carried over the NBC-WJZ network as a sustaining: feature under an arrangement completed between Herbert H. Witherspoon, director of the opera company, and M. H. Aylesworth, president of NBC. The first world-famous opera company to broadcast directly from the stage, the Chicago Opera has gone on the air each season for the last six years. Each year has been marked by improved technique and equipment for the pickup of the performances. Two or three of the new parabolic reflector microphones will be used this year. In the meantime, the Metropolitan Opera Company continues to be a holdout against radio. Though it has never gone on the air, Mr. Aylesworth recently declared at a Federal Radio Commission hearing that he was negotiating with Metropolitan officials and he believed the company's performance would soon be available to the radio audience also. During the Bi-centennial, the Nation's Capital will be host to an unprecedented influx of visitors. Already over 200 conventions are scheduled, including many groups that are potential users of sound equipment. Itineraries will include the National Radio Equipment Exhibition, in the National Press Building, where also is located the Federal Radio Commission. Visits from thousands of representatives of radio stations in this building are required each year. The exhibition management will arrange and conduct group and individual demonstrations to users and prospective buyers as a feature of its activity. C^tANUFACTURERSof transmitting, sound-recording and reproduction equipment and producers of transcriptions will permanently display their products in the real radio mart of the United States. Washington is the Mecca of 5800 station owners and operators, the spenders of more than seventy-five million dollars in the next twelve months. The display is remote from the factory but directly in the path of the buyer. Your exhibit will be unusually enhanced by surroundings of dignity and beauty, in settings typical of radiocraft, framed in pertinent motifs. Especially constructed studio, audition and control rooms with the highest degree of acoustical treatment insure faithful demonstration of sound reproducing apparatus. Experienced managers guarantee impartial operation, explanation and demonstration. Space diagrams, rates and full details on request. National Radio Equipment Exhibition CARL H. BUTMAN, President National Press Building Washington, D. C. Page 28 BROADCASTING • October 15, 1931