Variety (Dec 1940)

Wedneadiiyt December 4, 1940 RADIO S9 Diicustioit Put Into Form of ^^^^ G Outline— ^ Becorties Public pdcument (TheioWoyjoi'no i« a copy ojf letter },i hirVohn Shcpord 3rd to^Jamcs Choirtnan _or thie Federal L Fly; ChoirnMin _p/ 5^ 27. V It i« reprinted bw Fly^s pgrmiision.) ' jly dear Mr. Chairman: , At the <>onclui^ioh of our eonfer- erice today* Mr, Jett suggested that we address this memorandum to you, outlining in a general way, tlie . subjects ryhiclj wenreonsidered. ; fore proceeding to* do so, I want to f^YJ^'f, express the thanks of FM Broadcastr ers Incorporiatedi as well as my perr son'al thanks for the courtesies which were shown us by yourself, Mr, Jett and Mr; Gross, and for the lht(?rest which you in in oXir problems. The siiggestioha which were .dis operatic jBtfter jantiary 1st on a riagu- lar comiiiercial basis. We feet that such action on the part of the.'Com-, mission : would . prevent - eurtailment of existing FM service diiring . the' period' required for completing coh- striictioh ih accoMance with the new cbhstruction perniits, .In making . this suggestion, we do not waht^^^ t^ b.e understood as indicating in iany way that oUr group is encouraging All of the efforts of the FM are directed towards eneour- aging the rapid and sound develop- nieht of FM broadcasting. ' 2. The second subject whicl> we discussed dealt With thie question of peirmitting new FM stations to coni mence operation bh a regular com- mercial basis : withOiit requiring, at the' beginning, 'that the. ultirnote SSra otDi^Cor^^or™ Broad, te,i°;y.,«S'^,5S^i-i: ISj casters; Incorporated, felt were hay- ing a tendency to slow Up the filing of tipplications :ifor FM staticins, atid, of' course^ oiir purpose; iii bringing them to your attentiort ^w to hiake suggestions toward speeding ujp, the whole tiituation. i. The first suggjestions \vhich we construction .aind , o per a t i 6 n of smaller stations than those contem- plated: by the regulations in a given area, construction . would be expe.- dited in many areas, and a very sub- stantial portion Of the ultimate area would ■ benefit from service which otherwise might be long delayed Slightly Tired Buffalo, Dec; 3, Belated gag going locail rounds concerns arinoimcer who, signed up for draft. ' 'Where do you work,' he was asked, •WEEN,' replied he., 'How do you speii it?' was next; query. fidelity, except at excessive cost.. •: ■ 5. ; We next discussed the notice to manufacturers of high-frequency broadcasting; equipment dated .Nov. 23, in regard to an informal - giiieering conference to be held Dec, 9; In this notice .It states: 'High- frequency broadcast stations '. - quired to submit proof of audio per- formance, during tests as a complete station, before a license will be issued by the Commission.' We sug- gested that to. require this proof be- fore a ..iicense is issued will.greatly delay ihe issuing of licenses, and inasmuch as the Commission is giv- ing licensees of FM stations one year to submit the results of field surveys, we suggest that permittees be given the sartie length of time to submit their proof of audio perform- ance. This matter was further dis- cussed with Mr. Jett jind Mr. Gross, who pointed- out that this matter would receive consideration at the time of the; Dec. 9 conference. 6, With respect to the assignment of special call signs for FM stations embodying, numerical reference to specific channels, Mr. Jett and Mr, Detcate Protocol Again Involves NBC's Diplomats Kids Show presented related to changing oyer making this suggestion, we were Groiss explained that the number of the present experimental FM sta tions to their new frequency assign- ments, assigning to them permanent call letters, atid permitting them to not criticizing .the Commissions re- [appropriate four-letter .c;all signs Is gulations with respect tb service definitely, lim areas. but rather, suggesting that in .,is increasing with the .growing ire- some cases the service .ai-eas fee m^^ licensing. " 'This, the ultimate, rather than the present | it was explained, was due to the fact Washington, Dec, 3. ■ Annual problem in protocol—be- coming increasingly difficult as the war abroad expands itself—is being faced once more by NBC. with prep- arations for its 9th. Annijal Inter- national Children's Christmas Party. With arrangements for the color- ful broadcast still in an embryonic stage, station representatives of. WRC-WMAL are scratching their heads over' whether moppets - from the German ■ and Russian Embassies shall be invited to participate in the 'round-ttiietwofld' ;; broadcast. . This embarrassing dilemma was. averted last year because there were no children living at either Embassy.- This year,' however, the son and daughter of Wilhelm Tannenberg, First Secretary of the German Em- bassy, must be considered, together with the son of Ambassador Ounlan- isky/ who recently 'took over the So- yiet Embassy. Considerable : tongue-clucking was heard last year',, when youngsters representing various lands . involved in the European war were brought together on a single stage to broad- cast Christmas greetings in their na-■ tive languages. Many of the kids who then were . looked upon- with, suspicion by « pro-Finland, , pro- Ally audience now are definitely identified with the totalitarian have gone out and few answers .hav« yet been received, NBC party-giv-.. . ers already are feeling a bit J ittery over a prompt accejptance from th« Italian Embassy. Moppets who have been present on other occasions and who are expected to accept this yeiar include young sons and daughter* of high diplomatic officials frorri th» . following countries: - ; ,eahadai Australia, Czcheckoslo- vakia, Denmark, , Egypt, , Finland, . France,; Ireland, Italyi Japan, Chiija, '■; The' Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, ; Spain, Switzerland, Thailand <Siam)i . and Union of South Africa. Large delegation of youngsters >(• from the 21 American republics is expected, plus; children from^ Euro- pean nations which, so far, are stay- ing fairly demote from- the fracas. The United States . will be rcpre- : sented' by Martha Josejphinc Black, :■ 7-year-old daughter of Supreni* Court. Justice Hugo L. Black. -powers. ,••-» While not all WSAL 50,000 WATTS IN 1941 MORE THAN EVER BEFORE . . . WBAL or immediate objective 3. The third matter which we dis that ship licensing takes priority over all other licensing in the'.matter. cussed related to the necessity for of four-letter call signs. We dis- filing a large volurne of technical data .which, in many, cases, serves no very useful purpose in the Commis- sion's consideration of FM applica- tions. It wais our suggestion that the Commission dispense with the neces- sity for supplyiiig this great volume of technical data at the time of the cussed this matter at some length^ and it is still. iir opinion that four- letter call signs for FM stations are preferable to call signs embodying numerals^ because of the. faiinliarity and acceptability to the. listening public. In the light of existing conditions filing of the application, and th^t the as. explained to us by Mr. Jett and Commission proceed with the con- Mr. Gross,, however,' we made the sideratibn .of the financial, legal; and .foiipwing alternate su^^ public service qualifications of the That the- calls be,V for .example, applicantV and, in cases where ap- W55F, K33C, etc. In other words, plicants are found to be quali- the second letter should be at the fled to construct and. operate FM of the call and after the ntimer stations,, that the Comniission grant it was felt that this would such applications subject to con- sound better tfnd be a more easily dltions : under which" they would remembered call. ^It was also re be required to supply com- • quested that instead of assigning as pletely detailed engineermg Plah the second letter 'A* to. the- first sta- which would meet with the approval tioh on each frequency, the stations of the' Commission. .We recognize be allowed to request any second that this is a departure from the cus- tom which has heretofore been fol- lowed at the Commission; in connec- tion with. Its consideration of ampli- tude applications, but some recogni- tion of this plan has been given by the Commission in its recent actions upon FM applications. We feel that this would stimulate interest in FM of. the invitations WCAU Band Leads Parade Philadelphia, Dec. 3. WCAU snagged, loads of free pub- licity when the studio band, led by Joey . kearnsV accompanied the col- umn of first draftees in' a paradt through hiid-city en route to. th» Liberty Bell, where they were sworn in last Monday (25). KNX DOUBLED PLMTEIIS PEAHUT IN i 6 letter available. The first letter and the numerals, of course, would be automatic. This would not put on the air at the start such a large num- ber of stations all ending in the. same letter, and would be a means of establishing, ' In many cases, an identity where the letter might have a certain : sigiiificance tieing it up with the station ownership or the applications among smaller invest drs, and at the same time would not K^^'i.." require the outlay of large sums for ' the preparation of technical data , which may become useless in the WMC HelpS ReCOndltlOn light of a grant with revised cover- age area, or would become a totally useless expense If the applications were denied. The next suggestion made was that provision be made for control | movement stations to feed programs from studio to ■ FM transmitter, and from FM transmitter to FM transmitter This was discussed further with Mr Jett and Mr;; Gross after you found it necessary to leave. Mr, Jett and Radio for Hospitals Memphis, Dec. 3.. Midsouth Amateur Radio Associa- tion has tied up with WMC, in a to. distribute recondi- tioned radio sets among hospitals, charitable Institutions and . private shut-ins. Station asks for the 'worthless' sets over the air, aiid the members of the association repair them. They will - be distributed be Mr. Gross pointed out the allocation foj-g Christmas, difficulties which were involved,, and Parts are being supplied through we are studying the question with an arrangement worked out between a view to miaking further suggeS- Uv^ic.ian^ To tions; In the meantime, we request date over 200 sets have already been permission to use the present, bands picked; up. Memphis Light, Gas and above 100 megacycles assigned to "water Division has provided space relay stations for this purpose, in | f^j. the repair work and storing of order to expedite development of FM broadcasting, and Improved service 'to the public. -In this con nectlon, we explained to Mr. Jett and Mr. Gross the difficulties which have been encountered in , several Instances due to the, hipn-availability of t^lephonie lines of an adequate sets. Farnsworth Biz CALIFORNIA in only nine 4 m m coot YOUR BEST NATIONAL SPOT BUY ANEW APPROACH TO THE NEW YORK MARKET Fort Wayne, Ind., Dec, 3, Sales increase of 48.5% for the.first half of Its fiscal yeai: was reported I recently by the Farnsworth Tele- vision & Radio Corp., Fort Wayne, Ind;, : through Its president, E. A; Nicholas. Sales for the six months, ended Oct. 3i. were $2,234,783, as compared with $1,211,220 for the cor- responding period of last' year. tJn- filled orders total $2,500,000, an in- crease of more than ,300%. over the same time a year ago. Firm has received contracts for the production of special radiio equip- ment for the Civil Aeronautics Board ahd.the U,. S.'Signal Corps., and.has negotiations under way for additional I contracts in connection with the Na- tional Defense program. It didn^t take Planters long to find out why KNX is "first buy" in Lot Angeles. Nine months ago adagent Rayniond Morgan created "What's On Your Mind?" a smart half-hour program. He placed it on KNX once weekly for Planters Peanuts. Here's what happened: Sales in Southern California up 97^. Sales in San Diego up 181^1 An entire warehouse slock sold out. Forty more carloads of Planters Peanuts (filide • rule hounds can figure out how many nuts that is !) are now rolling Westward to relieve the shortage. P.S. The program is now on the Columbia Poci/ic Network! : What have you to sell? —lOS ANGELES 50,000 WATTS tmtWBM'i STATICS FOR SOVTHEBIt C.AUFOKSiA OWNED AND OPERATED BY THE COLUMBIA BHOADCASHN& SYSTEM iUpTi$jnuihy BApip SALES in New York, Chiccgo. DttroiU CharlolU, Son fVoncine •.