Broadcasting (Oct 1931-Dec 1932)

Furore Over Football, Boxing Edict? (Continued from page 12) A MODERN TRANSMITTER IS NO GUARANTEE OF A DISTORTION-FREE SIGNAL ▼ H Even well designed modern transmitters are capable of serious modulation distortion if some simple maladjustment— wrong value of grid bias, for instance — occurs. Modulation distortion becomes a particularly flagrant difficulty as the percentage of modulation is pushed closer and closer toward 100%. Asymmetry of the carrier modulation (i.e. unequal percentage modulation on positive and negative peaks) is only one of these troubles. m Protection against modulation troubles is best secured through a daily routine check on the transmitter with a General Radio modulation meter. This instrument not only measures percentage modulation on both positive and negative peaks, but it can show shifts of the average amplitude of the carrier during modulation and non-linearity of the modulation system. It operates from power picked up in the antenna circuit and its indications are, therefore, independent of conditions within the transmitter. ■ A useful auxiliary, the distortion-factor meter, makes it possible to measure the amount of distortion occurring in the entire transmitter from speech circuit to antenna. Write for more data on our method of checking transmitter distortion. OTHER INSTRUMENTS By General Radio Frequency Monitor Volume Indicator Volume Controls Audio Transformers Distortion Meter Piezo-Electric Quartz Crystals rjj f L r \ [ I T \ r~\ [. _J INSTRUMENTS OF PRECISION AND dictated to as to how it shall furnish sporting events to the public. NBC has a contract with the Madison Square Garden Corporation for the broadcasting of championship bouts, but it was intimated that it probably would forego that arrangement rather than accede to the censorship. CBS in a formal statement termed the ruling "a serious blow at the freedom of broadcasting," adding: "This arbitrary ruling undoubtedly will serve to handicap the broadcasters' service to the public. Radio Likened to Press "IT IS NO more logical for the Commission to choose or to approve broadcasters of fights than to choose or to approve those who cover fights for the press. Radio companies are fully qualified to select their own spokesmen, just as editors are qualified to select their own reporters. In the event that an announcer might prove unsatisfactory the expressions of public dissatisfaction quickly would bring about his elimination. "The ruling of the Commission that only broadcasters it has approved may use the microphone is a distinctly muzzling regulation calculated to keep the listening public from enjoying the full flavor of fights. We believe that radio audiences will greatly resent losing the privilege of hearing from the participants, their managers and others who have interesting things to say. Boxing might be better served by full and free publicity." Much editorial opinion in the sports press has been aroused by both restrictions on radio. Westbrook Pegler, noted syndicate writer of the Chicago Tribune, declared in an article July 5 that no such attempts would be made to bar newspapers from covering football games or prizefights in any manner they please, since such rulings would only revive the old mischievous daring and resourcefulness of the craft in going to any end to get the story. Radio Started Wrong "BUT, OF course, the broadcasters cannot do anything of the kind," Mr. Pegler wrote. "There are too many practical difficulties, and anyway, radio, as a news agency, for the public, started out wrong. Radio began by asking people's very kind permission to cover this or that event of news interest and. in many cases, paying heavily for the privilege. "Consequently, radio has been notoriously sweet to everybody, and it has no adjective but 'lovely' and its variants. Mr. Ted Husing used another word in describing a Harvard football game last fall, and you will remember what happened to Mr. Husing for that. * * * "The newspapers have established that it is not their privilege but their right to cover football games and certain other events with freedom to record them as their reporters see and interpret them. Radio neglected to establish this principle and that is why today the New York prizefight commission is able to impose an iron censorship on the broadcasts of big prizefights and certain col leges are able to bar the radio an get away with it. * * * Intent in Censorship "I CANNOT imagine any newspa per submitting to the humiliatm conditions that its news accounts o a large New York prize fight mus be edited to the complete satisfac tion of old Mr. Muldoon of the prize fight commission. But stealthily a first, and more boldly of late, th Commission has asserted a righ to pass on the qualifications o broadcasters assigned to cover th fights on the air. The chief quali fication for the assignment is tha the broadcaster be satisfactory t(|_ the commissioners. "The chief quality necessary t< 1 satisfy the commissioners is per fectly obvious. The broadcaste ] cannot deliver satisfactory to th' commissioners if he utters remark: tending to reflect discredit on th' | grand old game and, plainly, if hi: I remarks do not frequently revea. the sins of the grand old garni they cannot be any good from thi;j standpoint of fidelity and accuracy j * * * If Mr. Muldoon is able t< rule a man off the air for such rea sons, it follows that he can sup j press radio discussion of facts an<!! conditions which, in the newspa pers, will receive the most em ! phatic telling about. "That is the difference betweei radio and the newspapers and yoi; may be sure that no prizefigh commission will ever have the gal to undertake to tell the newspa pers that they may send to the ringside only those reporters whon he approves. Couldn't Stand Expose "IF ANY commissioner were to dc that, the newspapers naturally would suspect that he had something pretty bad that he was trying to cover up. And by the timt they got through working on hinin print and in the courts, there would be no further use for e prizefight commission. The prizefight racket could not live through an expose conducted by press energized by an attack on freedom. "But, of course, Mr. Muldoon is I a great hand to pick his spots when he goes censoring and domineering. He realizes that radio is not newspaper. Up to this time radio, although it purports tc serve as a source of news, has never developed a noted editor noi in fact any editors at all, but only fixers and contact men who do not fight for their rights but rathei plead for privileges. In fact, 1 would not say that radio has any such rights as the newspapers have because it has never assumed the responsibility for any opinion; or principles. You surrender youi rights as a news agency when you submit your broadcast to any rule than the rule of the news." New Business Branch A NEW BUSINESS departmenl has been established as a separate branch of the Chicago NBC sales; division, with Kenneth Carpentei assigned to handle new account; and "buildups." Don Bernard of the program department has been appointed program advisor of the new department. Page 24 BROADCASTING • July 15, 1932