Phonograph Monthly Review, Vol. 4, No. 9 (1930-06)

June, 1930 The Phonograph Monthly Review 297 son (Victor 10s) and Edna Thomas (Columbia 10s). The later series also includes some inter- esting Creole songs. The Victor German list contains a very nice little record of Dvorak’s Songs My Mother Taught Me and the Red Sarafan sung by Ursula Van Diemen (10), versions that I prefer to any of the celebrity ones I have heard. In the same list are Lowe and Schubert lieder by Fritz Gabsch (10 and 12) that are very smoothly sung. The Victor Educational Catalogue is again to be com- mended for its excerpts from the early Floren- tine operas sung by Ralph Crane, and a number of simply effective versions of familiar tradi- tional songs by Crane, Dixon, and others. In the realm of lighter music one should not overlook the disks by Richard Tauber (Odeon and Columbia) or Jessica Dragonette (Bruns- wick), both of whom are widely and warmly ad- mired. I hope that my list has not been swollen to un- due proportions, but I have been collecting ma- terial for it for several years, and I have been as anxious to make it as complete as possible. The subject has long been in my mind, but it remained for “Observer” and Mr. Benedict to give me the incentive to get it down on paper. I hope that its publication will enable record buyers of limited means to build up their record libraries with works that come within the limits of their re- stricted budgets and yet which live up to the best standards of music, performance, and re- cording. Write for our list of UNIQUE PIANO RECORDS / ^ It includes LOUIS KENTNER of Budapest who plays Brahms, Debussy, Dohnanyi, Chopin, Kodaly on Superb Edison-Bell Records— MAURICE COLE on the long-playing, high quality, 10 in. Broadcast Twelves playing Concertos by Grieg and Tschaikowsky, and compositions of Liszt, Chopin, Chaminade, etc^— EMIL VON SAUER, the supreme artist, on Super- Pathe-Art Records, playing Chopin, Liszt, Men- delssohn and his own works. ELECTROCOLOR, the perfected needle for pickups. Sample Free. Write for it. INTERNATIONAL RECORDS AGENCY NOW AT Richmond Hill L. I., N. Y„ U.S.A. Records on the Air By DAVID L. PIPER Indiscriminate plugging of popular discs kills public interest: concerts of serious recordings stimulate sales /|TF it weren’t for radio, this store would have fifteen record booths instead of five, JL and there would be people waiting their turn.” The scene was the largest music store in the city; the speaker was the Pacific Coast sales manager for one of the largest manufacturers of records. The speaker referred not simply to the competition given the record industry by radio broadcasting, but specifically to the lamentable practice of filling the ether with the strains of new dance hits eighteen hours a day for seven days a week. “Take a specific example. We have just issued the records of the songs from A1 Jolson’s new picture The day after they were issued, I heard these records broadcast no less than fifty times by actual count. The broadcast- ers pay no attention to the publisher’s restric- tions, give no heed to our pleas not to work the songs to death before we can profit from the local showing of the picture.” This man’s argument is typical. The broad- caster’s attitude is that phonograph records en- able him to feature the most popular numbers played by the finest orchestras, or sung by the leading artists. And all this for almost no cost. The inevitable result is that record officials con- stantly talk of sponsoring legislation to prohibit broadcasting of records entirely. It cannot be gainsaid that records enable the small radio sta- tions to broadcast programs of a higher caliber than the larger stations can put out with their regularly employed artists. It is the abuse rather than the mere use of records by broadcasters that make phonograph men talk about imposing re- strictions. I have found that radio can be of incalculable value to the record industry, provided the broad- casters are willing to abolish the so-called “re- quest” program and deliberately limit the num- ber of times a given piece is sent out while the piece is the current “hit”. Radio can be used to demonstrate a record to the public, to whet the listener’s musical appetite, to elicit his en- thusiasm. Constant repetition wearies the listen- er and nullifies the saleable properties of a rec- ord. For almost a year now I have conducted rec- ord programs from KGW, Portland’s largest sta- tion and local outlet for the National Broadcast- ing company programs. KGW is a firmly estab- lished station, and a good money-maker. We broadcast records, then, not to fill dead spots on the daily schedule, or even for the sake of petty economy. We broadcast records because there