Broadcasting (Jan - Dec 1935)

New Recording Firm TRANSIGRAM Sound Corp. was organized in California in December with offices and studios in the Alexander Studios at 6048 Sunset Blvd., Hollywood. Directors include Gordon D'A. Soule and H. S. Soule, formerly with the Imperial Sound Studios; Gene Grant, until lately on the KFI sales force; George W. Burst and Clive Johnson. The incorporators asked authorization to capitalize with 500 shares of preferred stock at $25 par and 1,000 common, no par. Permission was given in Sacramento to issue 200 preferred and 400 common. The firm will engage in the business of transcription producing and manufacture personal recordings and air checks. Prall to FCC as Congress Convenes (Continued from page 14) WHAT DETROIT STATION has increased its audience by 16%* since its affiliation with the AMERICAN BROADCASTING SYSTEM on October 14th? * Result of independent survey. WJBK DETROIT can, and former chief radio announcer of WJAG, Norfolk, Neb., has to do with the introduction of legislation to tax radio advertising. Indignant over his defeat, Mr. Howard is in Washington endeavoring to corral support for such a measure, and has predicted its passage. The tax, he has stated, would be in the nature of a license fee, and would be a percentage of station receipts which might be diverted for support of state, educational or municipal broadcasting enterprises. In addition to Representativeelect Stefan, the House will boast a second "practical broadcaster." He is Representative-elect Frank E. Hook, of Ironwood, Mich., who is listed as president of WJMS of that city. Neither Mr. Stefan nor Mr. Hook had reported to the secretary of the House at the time Broadcasting went to press. Class Allocations THE REAL RADIO activity is expected in connection with that portion of the FCC report, due Feb. 1, which will relate to allocation of broadcasting facilities to so-called non-profit groups. After a prodigious lobbying effort on the part of the Paulist Fathers of New York, the educational group favoring class allocation of facilities, and certain labor factions, had failed at the last session, Congress inserted in the Communications Act a provision calling WAR OR PEACE? Whatever comes in Europe or Asia TRANSRADIO PRESS Will be First on the Air with the News — ACCURATE AND IMPARTIAL! S 3 3 Effective January 1, 1935 WYTHE WILLIAMS Famous American War correspondent and writer for the New York Times, Philadelphia Public Ledger, Collier's and the Saturday Evening Post, becomes CHIEF EUROPEAN CORRESPONDENT of TRANSRADIO PRESS and RADIO NEWS ASSOCIATION With his headquarters at Paris and Geneva B S B You can keep your listeners fully and accurately informed of world events with Transradio News flashes, available around the clock by leased printer circuits, telegraph or short wave telegraphy. WIRE OR WRITE FOR RATES TRANSRADIO PRESS SERVICE, INC. "■Only What is Airworthy and Authentic" 342 Madison Ave. New York City for an investigation of proposals that fixed percentages of facilities be so allocated. The Broadcast Division conducted hearings from Oct. 1 to Nov. 12, invading every phase of broadcasting activity, and the evidence was overwhelmingly in favor of retention of the present system. The Paulist Fathers, headed by Father John B. Harney, superior of the Society of St. Paul the Apostle, operate WLWL, New York, a 5,000-watt station licensed for approximately 15 hours weekly on a clear channel. Repeated applications for increased time had failed before the former Radio Commission, and the legislative lobby was launched in the effort to acquire better facilities. While officials of the Society and the station, a commercial outlet, have been negotiating with the networks for a frequency shift which would give them full time with 5,000 watts, these conversations have not yet resulted in a tangible project. Renewal of Lobby AS A CONSEQUENCE, reports are current that this organization will renew its legislative lobby when Congress convenes, and aim it at the networks and at the FCC. There was the report also that it would attempt to block confirmation of certain members of the FCC. What was regarded as the opening gun in this new campaign was the brief filed by Father Harney with the FCC last month in connection with the "25 per cent" hearings. In it, the networks and the former Commission were flayed, and allegations were made of monopoly in the broadcasting field. The negotiations involving WLWL have centered upon a frequency shift for WCCO, Minneapolis CBS station, from the clear channel of 810 kc. to 850 kc, the clear channel occupied by WWL, New Orleans, operated by Loyola University, another Catholic institution. WWL and WLWL, under that plan, then would operate simultaneously on this wave with 10,000 watts and 5,000 watts, respectively. The hitch, however, has been the question of shifting WNYC, New York municipal station now operating on 810 kc. daytime only, or of closing the station altogether, together with the procurement of consent to the frequency exchange from other stations on adjacent channels which might be affected by interference due to lack of accepted frequency separation between the channels. NEW RATES FOR NEW YORK American Broadcasting System's Key Station— WMCA, New Yorkannounces new rate card effective January I, 1935. Send for copy today. See how cheaply you can "crash" America's richest market with this hard-hitting station! judge Sykes Tel Of Studies by FC Stresses Non-political Aspe< Of Commission Activities WITH THREE separate divisio each operating independently, f FCC is functioning these days &■ tri-partite body, with each divis having its "hands full," Chairm E. 0. Sykes, of the FCC, declai Dec. 28 in an interview over nationwide NBC-WEAF netwo He was interviewed by Mar Codel, publisher of Broadcastii in the last of a series of sev broadcasts, during which each the FCC members appeared befc the microphone to tell of the ; tivities of the FCC. Defining the scope of the FC( work and the reasons whi prompted the administration bringing about its creation, Jud Sykes declared in response to K Codel's questioning, that the ere tion of this new agency "was n dictated by any political consider tions." He asserted that it was natural sequel to the growth ai expansion of communications ser ices that the government shou regulate them in the interests the public whom both the FCC ai the companies serve." Commission Studies ■ ■ ifi JUDGE SYKES enumerated tl current investigations being co ducted by the three separate c visions. Apropos of the Broadca ! Division, he said: "The Broadcast Division, as ycI-: know, is expected to report to Co;i gress by Feb. 1 on the propos j that a fixed percentage of tlj broadcasting facilities be allocate to particular types of non-prof | activities. In addition to its rou ... tine work, the Broadcast Divisic^ has also begun a survey of tilwave lengths, with particular aiK tention to clear channels, to dffce termine whether our preseriT system of allocations is the mosSr efficient in the light of recent act); vances in radio engineering." Paying high tribute to the wor-tj of the FCC staff, Judge Sykes sail the "teamwork being displayed,", could be justly attributed to thjb leadership of the six other memL bers of the FCC, whom he de£; scribed as "public servants of thTvery highest calibre." The feeling' of the entire organization, he as L serted, is that "we will contribut something real and lasting to th American radio listener and th American user of the telephone am telegraph services." Judge Sykes also commended th value of the series of radio inter F? views with members of the FCCT; "I would like to say," he declared!; "that the clear expositions of theifr plans and purposes which my col j; leagues of the Commission havrP given in these broadcasts hav<F served to answer many of thf.r questions often put to us aboul 3; what the administration really hac * in mind in establishing the Communications Commission." a as a pe a « .? A NEW local station in Lewiston. Idaho, to operate on 1420 kc. with 100 watts, was authorized by the Broadcast Division of the FCC Dec. 18 upon application of H. E. Studebaker, of that city. The decision sustained the recommendation of Examiner Hill. Page 36 BROADCASTING • January J, 1935