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Mexican Delegates at Madrid Open Wave Discussions With U. S. Group
Delegations May Lay Basis for Accord on Division of Channels to Supplement Canadian Agreement
THAT MEXICO'S delegation to the International Radio Conference at Madrid has been authorized to confer with the United States delegation regarding the division of North American broadcasting waves, was one of the first reports emanating from the conference, which was formally opened Sept. 3 by Premier Azana of Spain.
Reports of the progress of the conference so far have been meager. The report concerning Mexico's final willingness to discuss broadcast wave lengths aroused considerable interest in this country. Whereas the Canadian situation has been settled more or less satisfactorily, and entirely amicably, by the recent CanadianAmerican wave agreement, the Mexican problem still awaits solution. Mexico was not a party to that or any previous agreements, for the reason that it has failed to accept invitations to conferences regarding the division of North American channels.
With the recent change of government in Mexico, it was announced that Miguel Acosta, former Minister of Communications, has again been named to that cabinet post under the new President. Whether his appointment will affect the status of the American financed stations built or building in Mexico, is problematical.
With committees appointed in the early meetings, the deliberations of the Madrid conference are now under way and probably will last through October and possibly into November. One of the interesting developments at Madrid was the assignment of American delegates and experts to committees to which Russians have also been assigned. Soviet Russia, uninvited to the conference when it was held in Washington in 1927, is fully represented at Madrid.
'HAMS' AND JOLLIFFE
Chief Engineer at Madrid Sends Message to Washington
AMATEUR RADIO is doing a professional job for Dr. C. B. Jolliffe, chief engineer of the Radio Commission, now in Madrid as an American delegate to the International Radio Conference. He's using it to keep in touch with activities at his office in Washington. Through "ham" station EAB-96 at Madrid, Dr. Jolliffe on Sept. 4 addressed this communication to Acting Chief V. Ford Greaves: "Received letter. How are things going? Reply via amateur."
The message was picked up by C. M. Gilbert, 3rd, operator of amateur station W3BBD, Collingswood, N. J. Through Gilbert, who maintains a regular schedule with the Madrid station, Dr. Greaves sent this reply, two days later:
"Baldwin and I arrived from New Orleans Saturday morning, Sept. 3, just in time for Baldwin to welcome arrival baby girl. All well and everything satisfactory at office."
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF FAN MAIL
Will Durant, Answering Meyer Davis' Question, Holds Letters Unimportant, Advises Questionnaires
Authorized to Parley
EMILIO TORRES, heading the Mexican delegation, is reported to have told Judge E. O. Sykes, chairman of the American delegation, and the other American delegates, that his government had authorized him to lay plans for an agreement with the United States. What the Mexicans had to propose, and what the Americans replied, is not known. Neither group can make any final agreement without the sanction of the higher authorities in Washington and Mexico City.
The probabilities are that the American delegation of four, one of them a radio commissioner and another the chief engineer of the Radio Commission, will first ask for a definite understanding with Mexico regarding the licensing of American financed corporations to erect high power broadcasting stations on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande after they have been refused licenses in this country by the Radio Commission.
Cases in Point
THE CASE of Dr. John R. Brinkley, with his 75 kw. XER at Villa Acuna, opposite Del Rio, Texas, is one in point. At present Norman T. Baker is also completing a 150 kw. station to be known as XENT, at Nuevo Laredo, opposite Laredo' Texas. Both are former American broadcasters, whose licenses were revoked because they were held to be operating contrary to the public interest. Each formed Mexican corporations, to which licenses were issued by the Mexican government. It is understood the only proviso iw the license contracts aimed at restricting American radio operation in Mexico (where the law specifically forbids alien ownership and operation, as does the American radio law) is one that requires the emp'oyment of three Mexican citizens to every foreigner.
BY LOUIS REID*
A PHENOMENON of the radio, as it is of the movie, is the ceaseless flow of fan mail to artists from the four corners of the country.
Owing its origin to the screen, it has reached its richest glory in the broadcasting studios, for there it is considered the criterion of the success or failure of a program, whereas in Hollywood it is regarded merely as an expression of personal admiration having little or no significance at the box office.
The fan letter has become the single biggest factor in the de
termination of the appeal of a radio program. Entertainers, sponsors, radio officials alike wait for it, cherish it, give it importance out of all proportion to its value.
Still Only Gauge
BROADCASTERS in the past have attempted to minimize its importance, only to come back in the end to the view that upon it alone could they gauge the popularity of their offerings.
They might have taken their problem, as Meyer Davis did, to Will Durant, noted toiler in the vineyards of philosophy and psychology. As the mahout of more than forty radio orchestras and dozens of vocalists broadcasting in various parts of the country, Davis can count his fan mail in bushel baskets. So voluminous has it become that it troubles him by day, disturbs his sleep at night. What
to do ? What to do ? He remembered Durant contemplating the cosmos in distant Woodstock. To him he went, carrying samples of his mail.
Durant read the letters and as Davis tells me, came to a quick conclusion. It was that most of them came from invalids, lonely people, the very aged, the very youthful, hero worshipers and mischievous children. He saw none at all from the average man or woman. Whereupon, Davis asked if it were futile to judge the radio audience from the general run of fan mail. Ladies and gentlemen of the studios, the answer was "yes."
Questionnaire Advised
"IT IS a psychological fact," Davis quotes Durant as saying, "that nine of out of ten people will not write, yet will form strong opinions. Usually the tenth one is scatter-bi'ained."
Davis then asked Durant how he would regard the fan letter were he a radio executive.
Durant replied:
"I would not entirely ignore the letters, but I would only consider them as representing an unimportant part of the vast listening audience, I would get much more informative data by having someone in each of the key cities select at intervals about 500 names from the local phone directory. Then I would have each of these people called to answer a questionnaire in which pertinent problems would b? discussed and various viewpoints recorded."
"Inquiring Reporter" Plan
DURANT went on:
"Then I would adopt the 'Inquiring Reporter' plan. I'd have my men pick people at random in cities, towns and even along rural
Baker's Mexican Outlet Soon Ready
STARTING with 50 kw., but proj posing to increase gradually to 150 kw., Norman T. .baker's new station in Mexico, which will be known as XENT, expects to go on I the air "early in October" at Nueve Laredo, Mexico, just opposite Laredo, Tex. It will operate on 1115 kc, or mid-channel between the clear channel of 1110 used by WRVA, Richmond, and limited time by KSOO, Sioux Falls, S. D., and the Canadian-shared channel of 1120 kc, used by various American and Canadian regional stations.
When it goes to 150 kw., XENT will be the most powerful station in North America, exceeding even the 75 kw. XER, built by Dr. John R. Brinkley. Like Dr. Brinkley's former station at Milford, Kan., KFKB, Mr. Baker's KTNT at Muscatine, Iowa, was ordered silenced by the Radio Commission, the decision being later upheld by the courts, for broadcasts alleged to be inimical to the public health.
While Dr. Brinkley is running for the governorship of Kansas, Baker is reported to be running fori the governorship of Iowa. Hisl slogan for his new station in Mexi-I co is "Covers the Americas Like a Blanket."
World System Records Disks for the Visaphone
WASHINGTON studios of World Broadcasting System are recording a series of 12-inch, 33 1 /3 lateral disks for the Fairchild-Wood Visaphone Corp., of New York and Chicago, producers of Visaphone, an improvement on stereoptican slides used for lecture purposes. Still pictures, instead of being on slides, are on films which are run : through the projector and to which the disks are synchronized.
The Visaphone is designed primarily for industrial lectures, but is also tc be made available for' lectures on bridge, household subjects, etc., through the Western Union, which will install and operate the projector for private parties. The records of the World Broadcasting System were talks by cabinet officers and other Washington officials.
routes, ask them for their opinions about the various types of programs. In this way I would get a satisfactory chart of the appeal of every program on the air.
'The chart would be a tremen. dous aid. It would enable me to eliminate programs of little appeal , in favor of those the public wants. Evils of radio would automatically correct themselves and broadcasting in general would profit."
Some such system as Durant outlines may have to be adopted if the radio lords hope to hold their audience. After all, it's George W. Averageman they seek to reach. And George will be around when the simpering Sallies have gone the way of all flesh.
♦From Louis Reid's "Loudspeaker" column in The New York American-; Sept. 5.
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BROADCASTING • September 15, 1932