Broadcasting (Oct 1931-Dec 1932)

Senate Inquiry of Mexican-Cuban Issue Over Wave Lengths to be Urged by Dill Bill Proposed to Limit Clear Channels to Inland ; Cuba Plans to Use More U. S. Wave Lengths A SENATE INQUIRY into the North American broadcasting problem growing out of disclosures of current station-building activities in Mexico and Cuba, which threaten American and Canadian stations, will be proposed by Senator Dill, (D.) Washington, in a resolution shortly to be introduced in the Senate. The State Department will be requested to inquire into the wave length situation, with particular reference to new stations built or being built in the southern countries, apparently with American capital. Some of these stations already have "squatted" on American and Canadian channels and are causing serious interference. The resolution will ask for a Senate committee hearing on the whole question. Senator Dill launched a broadside in the Senate against the State Department on the Mexican-Cuban situation on Jan. 20, and he followed up the attack on two other occasions. He said he is convinced that a treaty must be written to supplant the so-called "gentlemen's agreement" between this country and Canada by which the 96 available wave lengths are now divided. He has conferred with officials of the State Department on the matter. Proposes Channel Limitations SENATOR DILL discussed the North American problem in connection with his bill proposing to amend the radio law by providing that there should be no clear channels on the two coasts. The measure provides that clear channels be limited to inland areas and that no frequency shall be reserved for the use of one station over a distance of more than 2,300 miles airline. He said his purpose was to stop the "waste of radio facilities, which he charges is occasioned by the refusal of the Radio Commission to allow a channel used by a radio station on one coast to be used by a radio station on the other coast." The amendment also provides that any new stations which may be established as a result of the provision will not be counted in the quota of that zone. Citing Commission records to show there are 37 stations in Mexico which use 23 wave lengths and 55 in Cuba which use 34 wave lengths, Senator Dill said interference conditions steadily are growing worse, since neither Mexico nor Cuba is a party to the "gentlemen's agreement." He said the State Department has been asked repeatedly to adjust the situation but "sits idle and does nothing." "The State Department," declared the Senator, "should have asked for a conference with Mexico and Canada and Cuba many months ago for the purpose of negotiating a treaty dividing up the use of the wave lengths for broadcasting on the North American continent. * * * "If it be argued that Mexico would ask for more stations than we might want her tu have, my answer is that she is taking stations she would not take under ordinary arrangements, for the reason that American capital is going into Mexico and building stations out of the line and operating them without any control from this government simply because they cannot get on the air in this country. Unless this is stopped by a treaty, large American investments there will cause Mexico to insist on far more than her share of these wave lengths, because she will be bound to protect the investments in radio stations made by citizens of the United States. Yet these stations will be for the purpose of serving the United States and not Mexico." Cuba Plans Shake-up NEW ADVICES reaching Broadcasting are that the Cuban Department of Communications is preparing a reallocation of existing stations to avoid present interference among locals, which are crammed on a few frequencies. "This means," says the report, "that more frequencies than are now used will be required to put the changes into effect." This portends more interference with stations in southeastern United States. A survey of listeners to determine which American stations are heard best and which of their programs is most desirable has been made by the Cuban Department of Communications. It is expected that from this expression of the listeners' sentiment, the government will be able to select approximately six American stations whose services will be protected in Cuba and whose channels will be kept clear of Cuban assignments. Most significant in Mexico was the reorganization, for the second time in two months, of the federal cabinet. Miguel Acosta, appointed as Minister of Communications, is a member of the Revolutionary Party, which operates its own 5 kw. station, XEO, at Mexico City, on 940 kc, a regional channel in this country. He is reported to be of more or less radical tendencies. The new cabinet is anti-clerical, and any attempt to use stations for disseminating religious propaganda would probably be promptly squelched under those provisions of the Mexican regulations which specifically prohibit the broadcasting of "personal, political or religious matters" and make it grounds for voiding a station's license. Four A's to Meet RADIO will be one of the topics considered at the fifteenth annual convention of the American Association of Advertising Agencies, which has been scheduled for April 14 and 15 at the Hotel Mayflower, Washington. ONE OF the newest stations on the air is WEEU, Reading, Pa., which had its inaugural Jan. 4. Licensed for daytime only on 830 kc, the station has a rated power of 1 kw. Installation was by RCA Victor Co. Kindly Tardiness KINDNESS made Senator James J. Davis, of Pennsylvania, late for a CBS broadcast from the Washington studio during the visit this month of Father James R. Cox, militant Catholic priest, who brought 12,000 Pennsylvania jobless to the national capital to plead for relief. Senator Davis was scheduled to introduce Father Cox over the network at 3:30 p. m. At 3 o'clock a delegation of the jobless called on him to ask assistance in obtaining gasoline for the return trip. The Pennsylvania Senator at once began ordering 35,000 gallons of gasoline. As a result Father Cox had started talking when he reached the CBS studio. By altering his manuscript, however, he was able to address the radio audience at the conclusion of the program. Senator Davis told friends after the broadcast that he would send the gasoline bill to Secretary of the Treasury Mellon, who controls the Gulf Oil Co., with which the big order was placed. "Arabesque" Continues YOLANDE LANGWORTHY and CBS announce that they have amicably resolved their differences with respect to the program known as "Arabesque." CBS intends to continue its radio presentation of that program indefinitely. Miss Langworthy, on the other hand, has recently published a second volume known as "Arabesque." Her book is published by Lewis Copeland, 570 Lexington Avenue, New York. Miss Langworthy is also engaged in preparing the "Arabesque" material for stage and moving picture use. Radio Phone Study Ordered byA.N.P. A ALL OF THE 465 daily newspapers that are members of the American Newspaper Publishers Association have been asked by the advertising bureau of that organization to cooperate in a telephone survey to determine the extent to which people listen to their radios. During January, members of the A.N.P.A. received a form letter asking them to call at least 100 residences picked at random from the telephone directory and to ask them the following questions: 1. Do you own a radio? 2. Are you listening to the radio this evening? 3. To what station are you listening? 4. What is the program supposed to advertise? The calls are supposed to be made between 8:30 and 9:30 p. m., which William A. Thomson, manager of the bureau, picks as the most popular hour for radio, and it is suggested that calls be made on a week-day evening. Mr. Thomson will compile the returns and make them available to A.N.P.A. members in their regular bulletins. Station Alteration Necessary to Mee1 50-Cycle Tolerance A SURVEY of licensed equipmei of broadcasting stations made 1 engineers of the Radio Commissic discloses that between 25 and I per cent of the 610 stations ui, doubtedly will find it necessary 1! make changes in their transmittei to conform with the new 50-cyc! tolerance regulation which becomtj effective June 22. This is entireli apart from the requirement thjj all stations install frequency mon j tors of the visual indicating tyjj to check their frequencies. These transmitter changes wi involve in the main the installatio of better crystal temperature cor trol ovens, heater circuits and theil mostats, and possibly will necess tate in some instances adding o buffer stages immediately follow ing the crystal oscillators. It appears from the study tha five per cent of the stations wi! have to install entirely new fre quency controls. No frequency monitor, it wa learned, has yet been approved, bu a number of manufacturers hav reported to the Commission tha they have designed and are manu facturing apparatus which the guarantee as suitable and of th type that subsequently will be ap proved officially. The Commission reiterated it. warning, published in the Nov. 1! issue of Broadcasting, that tmj period of leniency is getting shorte and that broadcasters should tab steps at once for the installation o: apparatus capable of maintaining the 50-cycle tolerance. Commissioi engineers urge that the apparatu: be installed as soon as possible s( ■ that station engineers can famil iarize themselves with the routint of maintaining the frequency with in the specified limit. It was pointed out further thai even with the new visual typi equipment some stations will fine that they will be unable to main tain their frequencies within 50 cycles because of discrepancies iij the transmitters. The 25 to 50 pei cent of the stations already men tioned, it was said, apparently wil not know about the limitations o|J their transmitters until the new 50cycle monitor reveals that the transmitter deviates beyond the; prescribed limits. A list of manufacturers and designers with whom the Commission has had correspondence respecting visual frequency monitors follows: Jenkins & Adair, Inc., Chicago; Doolittle & Falknor, Inc., Chicago; Radio Engineering Labs., Inc., Long Island City, N. Y.; Gates Radio & Supply Co., Quincy, 111.; Hilet Engineering Corp., Orange, N. J.; R.j C. Powell & Co., Inc., New York City; Graybar Electric Co., Graybar Building, New York City; RCA ! Victor Co., Camden, N. J.; DeForest Radio Co., Passaic, N. J.; General Radio Co., Cambridge, Mass.; American Piezo Supply Col Kansas City, Mo.; E. A. Beane, Chicago; Hallock & Watson Radio Corp., Portland, Ore.; American Instrument Co., Washington, D. C; Mariners Radio Service, Inc., New York City; Piezo Electric Laboratories, New Dorp, Staten Island, ; New York, and Radio Research Co., Washington, D. C. Page 8 BROADCASTING • February 1, 193