Broadcasting (Oct 1931-Dec 1932)

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Legislative Program Is Planned By NAB Executive Committee Fight on Luxury Tax and Fess Education Bill To be Made Before Congressional Groups MEANS of executing the score of resolutions unanimously adopted at the annual convention of the National Association of Broadcasters at Detroit in October were formulated by the executive committee of the association meeting in Washington Nov. 23 and 24. Harry Shaw, WMT, Waterloo, la., president, and Philip G. Loucks, managing director, met with the committee, which comprises Henry A. Bellows, vice-president of CBS, chairman; Frank M. Russell, vicepresident of NBC, and William S. Hedges, WMAQ, Chicago. The committee authorized Mr. Loucks to notify the committees of Congress charged with radio legislation that the NAB desires to be heard at any hearing during which bills affecting the industry are considered. A campaign of vigorous opposition to legislation which would further restrict the operations of stations or place ad• ditional burdens on the industry was outlined. Meeting behind closed doors, the committee discussed numerous radio problems. Means of combatting any attempt of Congress to allocate frequencies under any system other than that established by the radio act were considered. Particular attention was given the Fess bill which would allocate to education 15 per cent of the broadcasting facilities. The Vestal copyright bill, which failed at the last session, also occupied a share of the discussions. Cognizant of the seriousness of the North American broadcasting situation, the committee authorized a more intensive study of international broadcasting problems. It decided to request the board of directors at its next meeting to authorize a delegate from the association to attend the International Radio Telegraph Conference scheduled for Sept., 1932, in Madrid, at which efforts will be made to include certain of the long waves in the broadcast band. Any attempt by Congress to classify radio receiving sets as a luxury for the purposes of taxation will be resisted by the NAB on the ground that a set has not become a necessity in the average American home, the committee decided. As yet, however, no definite tax program has been evolved but Treasury officials and certain members of Congress have singled out radio as a possible source of substantial tax revenue. The opinion of the committee that a set is not a luxury was, by coincidence, upheld by the Supreme Court of New Jersey at the time the NAB meeting was in progress. This court sustained the declaration of Judge Walter A. Kipp of the second judicial district of Bergen County that a set is a necessity m the home of a family having an income of $30 per week. Frank Choma, of Hackensack, had refused to pay fo> a radio purchased by his wife on the ground that she had no right to use his credit in purchasing so expensive an article. The set cost $425. "The proofs tend to show," the court said, "that the article was suitable in view of the rank, position, fortune, earning capacity and mode of living of the husband." Topics Considered For Lisbon Parley Committee Named by Jolliffe To Draft Allocation Report TECHNICAL questions bearing on international radio were considered at a meeting at the Federal Radio Commission office Nov. 23, called by Chairman Charles McK. Saltzman to prepare for the next meeting of the International Technical Consultative Committee (C. C. I. R.) to be held in Lisbon in 1933. Representatives of the various communications companies, as well as of broadcasting interests, participated in the deliberations. Results of these studies will be considered also at the International Radio Telegraph Convention to be held in Madrid in September, 1932, General Saltzman said in his invitation. The request has been made that final results of these studies by the United States be filed by Feb. 1, at the latest. Technical aspects of frequency allocation, which involves to an extent the use of broadcasting waves, was singled out as a subject needing additional study. Dr. C. B. Jolliffe, chief engineer of the Commission, who presided, named a committee to draft a new report. Commander Joseph R. Redman, Navy, is chairman; others are Gerald C. Gross, Radio Commission; Loyd A. Briggs, RCA; John V. L. Hogan, chairman, engineering committee, National Association of Broadcasters; Dr. J. H. Dellinger, Bureau of Standards; H. J. Walls, Airways Division, Commerce Department; Lloyd Espenschied, A. T. & T., and Lieut W. T. Guest, Army. The question of group representation at the international conferences was raised during the discussion; and, while the proposal for widening of the broadcast band did not come up directly, it was inferred that it would be undesirable to have broadcasters, as well as other interests having "axes to grind," send delegates to these deliberations. Extension of the broadcast band into the long waves, now assigned to the military servies, was apparently purposely avoided. That this issue will be raised at the Madrid conference, however, is held to be inevitable, and broadcast interests of most nations are desirous of having the matter threshed out in advance. Those who attended the conference are: Loyd A. Briggs, RCA; Want Romace SONGS of romance and sentiment would fill the ether if women had their way about it, according to Larry Wolters, radio editor of the Chicago Tribune, which operates WGN. A call for preferences during the station's School of Cookery program brought an avalanche of appeals for love ballads and songs of the heart, he said. The current smash, "Goodnight, Sweetheart" led "Liebestraum" and "Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life," which tied for second place, two to one, he declared. "The Rosary" and "Bell of St. Mary's" tied for third place. Weekly is Scooped In WBSO Flashes WHEN the Wellesley (Mass.) Townsman, a weekly, declined an offer of WBSO, Needham, Mass., to present news items each morning, Winslow Webber, manager of the station, engaged a young reporter to broadcast every morning at 8.15 o'clock for 15 minutes. The reporter is Clarence L. Stapleton, and his news flashes now consistently scoop the weekly newspaper, according to Mr. Webber. Moreover, three Wellesley advertisers are sponsoring the news features with highly satisfactory results. The news items consist of precisely the sort of material that would otherwise go into a weekly newspaper. Covering the Wellesley community, the reporter gathers news from courts, police, clubs and athletic fields. Some items are devoted to personals, including marriages, births and deaths. Mr. Webber is planning to extend the reportorial activities to cover nearby communities. L. G. Caldwell, attorney; E. V. Cogley, NAB; A. J. Costigan and T. M. Stevens, Radiomarine Corporation of America ; Lieut. Comdr. T. A. M. -Craven, Consulting Engineer; Dr. J. H. Dellinger, Bureau of Standards; Edwin H. Duff, American Steamship Owners Assn.; Lloyd Espenschied, A. T. & T.; W. H. Floyd, Shipping Board; John Goodell, De Forest Radio Co. ; S. D. Gregory, Westinghouse Electric Co.; Gerald C. Gross, Federal Radio Commission; F. P. Guthrie, RCA; William S. Halstead Army Signal Corps; Capt. S. C. Hooper, Director of Naval Communications; C. B. Jolliffe, Federal Radio Commission; C. M. Koon, Bureau of Education, Interior Department; Dr. C. G. Mcllwraith, Bureau of Standards; H. C. Moore, Shipping Board; Delmas B. Newlin, Coast and Geodetic Survey; Haraden Pratt, Mackay; Comdr. J. R. Redman, Navy; Dr. Irvin Stewart, Department of State; W. D. Terrell, Radio Division; Howard Vesey, Attorney; K. B. Warner, American Radio Relay League; H. J. Walls, Airways Division, Department of Commerce; Lt. Comdr. E. M. Webster, Coast Guard; L. E. Whittemore, A. T. & T.; and Dr. William Wilson, Bell Telephone Laboratories. NBC to Broadcast The Metropolitan WHILE negotiations are in progress to include construction of the long-talked-of new Metropolitan Opera House in Radio City, National Broadcasting Company engineers are at work on the problem of placing microphones and a control and observation booth in the present opera house for broadcasts of Metropolitan Opera productions that will start about Jan. 1. Experimental broadcasts may be presented by NBC within the next week or two, though the contract calls for regular performances to begin the first of the year. Deems Taylor, the composer and music critic, will act as narrator of the librettos. Meanwhile, spokesmen for the Metropolitan Square Corporation, which is in charge of the $250,000,000 John D. Rockefeller, Jr., development, said that one of the most valuable sites in Radio City is being held pending a decision of the opera company as to whether it shall join the project. The location of microphones in the present Metropolitan Opera House offers one of the most serious obstacles to the present NBC plans. O. B. Hanson, manager of plant operations, and Gerard Chatfield, technical art director, made a technical study of broadcasting conditions at the Metropolitan. NBC engineers at first wanted a place in the "Golden Horseshoe," but they learned that no holder of the famous boxes would relinquish one for the broadcasting equipment. Some of the problems to be solved are the placement of the parabolic microphones so as not to obscure the view of the stage and so as to pick up the voice of singers moving about the stage. Officials of NBC have made it clear that the Metropolitan Opera will be presented to listeners as the company's own contribution rather than as a sponsored program. While declining to discuss the terms of the contract, they denied that "a fortune" is being spent to make possible the broadcasts. Winchell Sponsor Sued WALTER WINCHELL, columnist for the American Tobacco Company, which sponsors him in the Lucky Strike Hour, and NBC were sued for slander in separate bills filed Nov. 24 in the New York Supreme Court by Prince Georges Matchabelli and his wife, Princess Norine Matchabelli, and the Prince Matchabelli Perfumery, Inc. The suit was based on broadcasts Nov. 19 in which certain references were made to the three plaintiffs. Log Changes Available CHANGES in the official log of broadcasting stations as published Feb. 2, 1931, have been issued by the Federal Radio Commission as of Nov. 2. Thirty stations are changed either as to call letters, assignments or ownership. The list may be procured by writing to the Secretary of the Commission, for mimeograph No. 5663. Page 16 BROADCASTING • December 1, 1931