Broadcasting (July - Dec 1941)

Defense Shows Use 226 Hours of NBC, CBS Time NBC AND CBS have announced the total number of broadcasts they had devoted to national defense during the first six months of 1941. NBC-Blue and Red, from Jan. 1 to July 12, totalled 124 hours and 38 minutes devoted to defense programs, with an additional 49 hours and 6 minutes devoted to controversial programs dealing directly with that subject, the latter including roundtables, debates and speeches. These totals do not include spot announcements for Treasury Bonds, USO and similar projects. CBS reported that it carried 271 broadcasts dealing with national defense, or a total of 101 hours and 38 minutes. As in the case of NBC, the CBS figures do not include spot announcements for various defense service organizations. Accused A WOMAN'S SCREAM, not in the script, was heard coast to coast on a recent Famous 0. Henry Jury Trials broadcast, on NBC-Blue. The scroam pierced the air when a feminine member of the studio audience became so excited for fear the murderer would not be convicted, that she shrieked lustily, "He's the one! That's the man who did the murder!" 5,000 richly laden watts, night and day, serving the Magic Circle, the richest and most populous area in all the southeast! Columbia Broadcasting System affiliate. ^ EDNEY ^fi»> RIDGE ^. 56 DIRECTOR 'REVERBERATION SYNTHESIZER' Dr. Goldsmith's System Creates Illusion of Small Room Or Giant Auditorium By Mixing Sounds Dr. Goldsmith AN INVENTION which may save broadcasters the expense of studio duplication or auditorium rental has been under experiment for some time in New York. Able to s i m u 1 a t e any form of accoustical surroundings by the control of reverberations, the perfected system can give the illusion of a crowded small room or the empty hollowness of a tremendous cathedral. It adds a "third dimension" to broadcasting or receiving, according to its inventor. Dr. Alfred N. Goldsmith, New Yoi'k consulting engineer and onetime chief engineer of RCA. Working on the principle that reverberation puts the accoustical surroundings into all sounds — a small room sounds like a small room because there are more reverberations than in a large hall — Dr. Goldsmith states he has perfected a system for controlling the reverberations by capturing the sound as it is made and creating, electrically, echoes of those sounds. These echoes are then treated as synthetic reverberations, which can be controlled by a switch. If a large concei't hall were to be simulated the switch would be made to turn on fewer vibrations; if one wanted the illusion of a small, crowded room, the switch might be turned to throw on as many vibrations as possible (because of the closeness of the walls in a small room there are naturally more vibrations bouncing off them). Mixes the Sounds The system now in use is both uneconomical and inflexible, according to the inventor. In order to simulate a certain large concert hall, a replica studio having the same acoustical arrangements has to be found or built. For different sound effects different studios, auditoriums, or "reveberation chambers" have to be used. All this, he says, can be eliminated by the new system known as the "reverberation synthesizer". With a concert being played from a broadcasting studio, the push of a button will bring the illusion of a Carnegie Hall, a Constitution Hall or a Central Park Mall. Dr. Goldsmith calls his echomakers "recording heads". Actually they transform the sound wave into magnetic waves to produce a sound record. When the normal sounds are mixed with the controlled reverberations, the desired effect is obtained. "The implications of the invention are far-reaching," says Dr. Goldsmith. "Radio stations can have most urograms eminating from the same studio. Natural conditions can be more easily and expeditiously simulated. Suppose a character in a radio drama walks from a crowded room to the cellar of the house. The full sounds of the room to the hollow sound of the empty basement is a matter of a twist of the switch." In addition. Dr. Goldsmith looks to the day when all receiving sets in the home will have a "synthetic reverberator". In that way each listener could suit the surroundings of a program to his taste. He might want to feel that certain organ music is coming from a tremendous chapel or a musical program from a symphony hall. With the new attachment, the transformation would be easy. Examples could be increased a hundredfold, not forgetting the comic effects that might be obtained by such a procedure as making echoes come before the sound, and the like. Not only radio, but phonograph recording and reproductions as well as sound motion picture recording and reproduction could make benefi.cial use of the "reverberator" along these same lines, according to Dr. Goldsmith. Jap Raids Fail to Halt Chungking Shortwaving DESPITE frequent air raids and claims of the Japanese that the Chinese shortwave stations, XGOX and XGOY, have been destroyed, the two stations are still operating on a 16-hour schedule from China's war capital, Chungking, according to Chinese reports. XGOX is directed toward North America, while XGOY is beamed toward Europe and the Far East. The Chungking studio is housed in a building constructed of huge blocks of granite four feet thick, while transmission apparatus has been set up in dugouts blasted in side of the hill on which Chungking sits. Broadcasts are piped from the studio to the transmitter by telephone. Programs are in nine different languages and six Chinese dialects. XGOX operates on 15.2 mc. and XGOY on 11.9 mc. New Pillsbiiry Show WALTER PATTERSON, announcer of WSPD, Toledo, and former producer of The Musical Steelmakers has been signed to a 26week contract by Pillsbury Flour Mills to star in a new NBC-Blue show to feature Patterson's singing and patter. Also part of the program, which will be broadcast Thursday through Sunday from Chicago starting Sept. 11, will be the King's Jesters. Agency is McCann-Erickson. UIHBF AFFILIATE OF ROCK ISLAND, ILLINOIS ARfiOS . Basic Mutual Network Outlet TI WE mo K C THE 5000 WATT IfoUee^ike hi CUies ROCK ISLAND • DAVENPORT • MOLINE FCC Clarifies Nebraska Cases KONB Is Issued CP, KORN Given Authority to Transfer ISSUING a construction permit to KONB, Omaha, Neb., and granting consent to transfer control of 52% of KORN, Fremont, Neb., the FCC Aug. 5 finally cleared up a situation that previously had moved the Commission to withhold a construction permit from KONB and to order a hearing to determine whether the license of KORN should be renewed [Broadcasting, June 23]. KONB's construction permit, although first granted June 25, 1940, had become endangered when the 90% owners of the station — C. J. Malmsten, cattle rancher and Texas fruit grower; John K. Morrison and Arthur Baldwin, both in the insurance business, attempted to ' sell out to the Glassman brothers, of Ogden, Utah, even though the station had not yet gone on the air. As the FCC frowned upon this, the' would-be assignors sought to withdraw the application, a move granted with prejudice by the Commission, which in turn cited KONB. for hearing to investigate the matter. The transfer of control at ' KORN, which was granted simultaneously with the FCC renewing" its license, allowed Clark Standi ' ford, 52% stockholder of KORN to transfer his holdings to Mr. Malmsten, A. C. Sidner, S. S. Sid-,; ner, E. J. Lee and H. A. Gunderson. Difficulty in this case arose when the assignee group tried to re-transfer their holdings to a third j party, consisting of KORN Station! Manager John F. Palmquist andj Paul Boyer, merchandising direc-i tor, despite the fact that the original transfer had not yet been , approved. As in the other case, sensing FCC disapproval, the sec-' ond application was withdrawn, but not before the FCC ordered the t matter set for hearing. H. GEORGE SHEFLER, of PhoenLx,j Ariz., has been named sales representa-| tive for the Turner Co.. Cedar Rapids,' la.. Hue of microphones and mieroIjhone equipment in Arizona, Xew~| Mexico and El Paso, Tex. with CIRCUIT DESIGN WBIC CREENy-BORO, M.C. CEO.P.HOLLINCBERr ■ •O., NAT. RE R GENERAL (1) ELECTRIC 160-17 Page 44 • August 11, 1941 BROADCASTING • Broadcast Advertisim