Broadcasting (Oct 1931-Dec 1932)

i I&® ADC ASTD IN € THE NEWS MAGAZINE of THE FIFTH ESTATE Published Semi Monthly by BROADCASTING PUBLICATIONS, Inc. National Press Building Washington, D. C« Metropolitan 1022 MARTIN CODEL, Editor SOL TAISHOFF, Managing Editor F. GAITHER TAYLOR, Advertising Manager • Executive and Editorial Offices: National Press Building, Washington, D. C. Subscription Price : $3.00 a Year 15c a Copy Copyright, 1932, by Broadcasting Publications, Inc. Eastern Representative: The Spencer Young Co-, 299 Madison Ave-, Murray Hill 2-5279, New York City Western Representative: Warwick S Carpenter, 29 E. de la Guerra, Santa Barbara, Cal. One Year of Age EXACTLY one year ago, Broadcasting made its bow as the first periodical of its kind in the radio field. Within that year, it has achieved a reader interest and advertising influence among stations, advertising agencies, radio advertisers and equipment manufacturers that has exceeded the fondest expectations of its owners, who are also its publishers and editors. The editorial, advertising and moral support given it by the industry has been gratifying in the extreme. Broadcasting, after only one year, has established itself as a fixture in the radio field — the trade journal of a fast maturing industry. It is with mixed feelings of pride and gratitude that we embark upon our second year. We are determined to follow the same policies that have guided us during the last year; policies that were established after consulting representative groups in the industry, large and small alike, and moulding their views into what we believed would be a solid foundation for a publication that aspired to become a vital factor in the industry. Fancy covers, color frills and arty furbelows did not fit into that scheme. In our maiden issue of Oct. 15, 1931, we wrote editorially that we would play nobody's "game" but that of the industry as a whole. Broadcasting was not conceived as the spokesman for any particular group against any other group. It was designed to be a journal of news and information, and the forum of all the elements engaged in the business of broadcasting. It has adhered to that idea. Our news columns and our advertising columns bespeak the success we have achieved. With almost every issue, we have offered our readers news features and news "scoops" that must be proof sufficient of the editorial capacity of the men who are publishing and editing this magazine. We might have cluttered our columns with the hundreds of laudatory letters received from our readers; we might have filled our pages with all sorts of publicity pap that reaches us in every mail. Instead, we devoted ourselves to a presentation of articles and items and departments conveying suggestions, business ideas, pertinent news, to the people who are the broadcasting industry. Our constant effort has been to give the stations, the agencies and the advertisers the news that we know they want to help them in their own jobs. Our theory was that station, agency and advertising executives have a common interest in the news of broadcasting generally and in maintaining the integrity of the American Plan in particular. Editorially, we have striven to answer the critics of broadcasting, and to espouse the progress of the industry along healthy lines. We have secured our news not only by our own reportorial efforts, but through the successful cooperation of stations, agencies and advertisers. Our budget has been limited — in fact, dire predictions were made when we started that this venture could not survive the depressed times — yet our news always came first. That is why, from the start, we have had our own correspondents at key cities, correspondents who will continue to function for us in contacting stations and agencies and advertisers for their legitimate news. We think it is our readers' right to know that this publication is absolutely self-supporting, has no endowment or subsidy of any nature, and, except for its initial small capital outlay, has depended entirely upon its advertisers and subscribers for support. Its policies, like its corporate organization, are controlled by none but the publishers and the editors— Martin Codel and Sol Taishoff Most gratifying of all, it has proved its efficacy as an advertising medium. Its station advertisers have gained business, identity and prestige through its columns. Its equipment advertisers have written us consistently telling of the sales results they have secured through its columns. The fact that we have so many of the leading stations advertising with us, and practically all of the leading equipment manufacturers, and the fact that they have advertised consistently and repeatedly, tells its own story. To the industry, we pledge ourselves anew to a continuance of our policy of playing fair with all elements in broadcasting while presenting the news of the industry as clearly and attractively as it is within our power to do. We have many plans for future development and expansion, which await only the growth we feel confident is ahead of the radio industry and, therefore, of this magazine. To Lester Douglas, art director of Nation's Business, the editors of this magazine owe a lasting debt of gratitude for suggesting and directing the format and makeup of this magazine at its inception. Its type and makeup, designed for easy readability with maximum utilization of space, has won wide acclaim from our readers. Mexican Menace MEXICO is running wild again in broadcasting. Its latest move, authorizing XER, the Brinkley-controlled station at Villa Acuna, across the border from Del Rio, Texas, to boost its power to the level of 500 kw. and to operate in between two U. S. channels, is the The RADIO BOOK SHELF EVERY conceivable angle of the advertising business, with due attention to radio, is dis° cussed by an outstanding figure in the advertising and allied fields in "Careers in Advertising," edited by Alden James, eastern manager of the Atlantic Monthly in New York, which has just been published (The MacMillan Co., New York, $5). It is a 677-page symposium, designed originally perhaps to serve as a guide to those who would enter the advertising field but containing enough "postgraduate" material to be worthy of a place on the bookshelf of any advertising man or radio executive. Sixty-two important executives are contributors of the various chapters, which are marshalled under four headings: I, The Advertiser; II, The Advertising Agency; III, Media, and IV, Correlative Advertising Services. The chapter on radio in Part II is the work of Arthur Pryor, Jr., manager of the Radio Bureau of Batten, Barton, Durstine & Osborn. Part III includes eight radio chapters as follows: Radio's Place in the Advertising Career, by M. H. Aylesworth, president of NBC and RKO; Radio— The Network, Its Organization and Departments, the Sales Staff and Its Functions, by Hugh K. Boice, vicepresident in charge of sales, CBS; Radio — The Network: Research and Sales Promotion, by Paul W. Kesten, director of sales promotion, CBS; Radio — The Network: Program Production, John F. Royal, vice president, NBC; Radio — Electrical Transcriptions, by E. B. Foote, vice president, World Broadcasting System; Radio — The Broadcasting Station: Management, by William S. Hedges, manager of WMAQ; Radio — The Broadcasting Station: Sales, by William S. Hedges; Radio — The Broadcasting Station: Program Production, by John Gihon, director of production, WMAQ. most dangerous threat to American broadcasting yet made. Happily, the ruinous effects of this project may be nipped in the bud through the immediate protest filed with the State Department. It unquestionably will result in diplomatic discussions with the Mexican authorities. The American delegation to the International Radio Conference at Madrid, where efforts now are being made to adjust world broadcasting wave length disputes, has been apprised of it also. Had it not been for the disclosure by Broadcasting of Mexico's action, the plan might have gone forward quietly and without protest until the deed was done. Although Mexico's communications minister, Miguel Acosta, signed the order granting XER the right to increase its power from 75 kw. to 500 kw., and to use the mid-channels of 735 and 655 kilocycles, on Aug. 18, the action was not generally made known. It was on Oct. 7 that this publication uncovered the dispatch to the State Department from Ambassador Reuben Clark, at Mexico City, telling of the action. The information immediately was communicated to the half-dozen stations on neighboring channels which stand to suffer most. Things began to happen. The very next day, the NAB filed its letter of protest with Secretary of State Stimson, and arranged for a conference with State Department officials. With Mexico preempting channels indiscriminately for assignment to any individual who has the price (like Brinkley and Baker) the need for some definite North American agreement, committing that nation to orderly use of the wave lengths, becomes imperative. Page 16 BROADCASTING • October 15, 1932