Broadcasting (Oct - Dec 1950)

Our Advertisement in . . . Vol. 1, No. 1 of BROADCASTING Stated ... PROGRAMS build AUDIENCE! • WMBD has assumed a vital part iu the life of Central Illinois. Our summer programs have included such outstanding local features as these : Broadcast of the Outboard Motor Boat races from the judges barge in the middle of the Illinois River. State Convention of the American Legion. Stroke by stroke account of the City Amateur Golf Championship match. Play by play of Peoria Ill-League baseball games. Matinee performance of Ringling Brothers Circus, direct from the "big top." News flashes three times daily; two daily sport reviews. 107 speakers of State and National prominence and leaders of 30 local organizations. Outside programs cannot compete with us for listener interest. One of our advertisers received ,'5400 replies to one sponsored broadcast. Let vis give vou the details. ''front the heart of lllinois^^ Oicned and operated by PEORIA BROADCASTING COMPANY Edgar L. BUI, Pren. and Manager PEORIA ILLINOIS . . . We Have Fulfilled Our Promise! Reproduced above is our "pledge" as it appeared in the FIRST issue of BROADCASTING, October 15, 1931. And, today, the status of WMBD more than bears out every promise therein stated. WMBD continues to provide exclusive service to its Central Illinois territory. This audience tunes to WMBD for more than 25 hours of Columbia Network programs weekly, in addition to a very large schedule of national transcribed and locally produced live talent shows. During 1939 this audience was served with more than 500 broadcasts of Civic events and talks of local organizations. Stronger reasons than ever why outside programs can not compete with us for listener interest! 5000 W. Day • 1000 W. Mght National Representatives: FREE and PETERS, Inc. JAEMBER CBS MET WO AM PEORIA, ILLINOIS October 15, 1940 • Page 51 1934 (Continued from page 86) deci-eased 9.8 and its weekly pay had gone up 21.1% with similar changes presumable for other radio employes. The Authority also noted that radical changes advocated would oppress if not eliminate small broadcasting companies and increase the threat of monopoly. After a year of code operation, the Authority proposed that discounts on radio time sold in combination with other media (normally newspapers) and "run of schedule" discounts be prohibited as unfair practices. Despite Ed Wynn's failure the year before, the "third network" theme was a dominant industry motif throughout 1934. George Storer, WSPD Toledo, WWVA Wheeling, CKLW Detroit, who had purchased a majority interest in Federal Broadcasting Co., operating WMCA New York under lease, and become its president, organized American Broadcasting System and began sending WMCA programs to other East Coast stations. Planning further expansion, the embryo network persuaded Fred Weber to leave NBC and join ABC as vice president in charge of station relations and in October inaugurated 16-hour-a-day program service to a 14-station hookup extending as far west as St. Louis. Adam Hat Stores in November became ABC's first sponsor. WOR New York, WLW Cincinnati, WGN Chicago and WJR Detroit had on several occasions been hooked up for special commei'cial broadcasts and in the summer these stations discussed a permanent hookup as the Quality Group, which, in August, began operations with WOR, WLW and WGN as regular members and WXYZ Detroit (replacing WJR) as optional. At the outset only commercial programs were carried by the Quality Group but in October the member stations decided to exchange sustaining programs as well and to rename their hookup the Mutual Broadcasting System. Mutual Outlines Its Operation Plans That name "clearly describes our plan of operation" under which "each station will remain independent and make its own decision in accepting programs," W. E. Macfarlane, WGN vice president and first president of MBS, explained. "Each station will receive its card rates for time, less agency commission, making no additional charge to the advertiser for transmission lines. Thus, we believe, we have established a truly mutual arrangement between a group of independently owned stations." Alfred J. McCosker, president of WOR, was elected board chairman of Mutual, which by Nov. 1 was broadcasting dance band pickups and variety shows sustaining in Mr. Chambers Page 88 • October 16, 1950 addition to commercial programs for Horlick's Malted Milk, Baume Bengue and Wasey Products. WLW was also involved in a project even more experimental than a third network and the whole industry watched closely as the station began testing its new 500 kw transmitter, installed at a cost of more than $400,000. In January W8XA0 — experimental call — was on between 1 and 6 a.m. In February it began daytime tests between 6:. 30 a.m. and .5 p.m., using the regular WLW call and rebroadcasting the regular WLW program schedule. Joseph A . Chambers, WLW technical supervisor, reported these tests as highly successful, the increased power boosting the station's signal strength by 32.5 and its secondary coverage area by 1,000% without causing interference with other stations. In April, WLW's night time programs were added to the experimental superpower schedule and in May, when President Roosevelt formally opened the 500 kw transmitter by pressing a key in Washington, WLW was advertising itself as "the world's most powerful conunercial broadcasting station." 'High Fidelity' Broadcasting Begins 1934 also marked the beginning of so-called "high fidelity" broadcasting in the United States. After the North American Radio Conference had agreed that the 15001600 kc band could be used for standard broadcasting, the Radio Commission had opened thi'ee new channels — 1530 kc, 1550 kc and 1570 kc — for assignment to not more than a dozen stations which in exchange for getting bands 20 kc wide in place of the usual 10 kc were to be required to install equipment capable of 10,000-cycle audio transmission, compared to the 3,000 to 4,000-cycle audio output of most stations at that time. The licensees of these new stations would be permitted to broadcast commercial programs, the Commission said, but their operation must be supervised by a research engineer qualified to carry on a full-scale experimental program including a study of antenna design, field intensity surveys and an analysis of listener response. Licenses for high fidelity stations were issued to the American-Republican, Waterbury, Conn.; First National Television, Kansas City (controlled by Arthur Church, operator of KMBC) ; John V. L. Hogan, New York (who had been experimenting with telecasting) ; Pioneer Mercantile Co., Bakersfield, Calif. Mr. Hogan's station, W2XR (now WQXR) began broadcasting a two-hour daily schedule in June BROADCASTING • Telecasting