Education by radio (1931-)

AwiqiT •,'<»Mowj EDUCATION BY RADIO VOLUME 1. NUMBER 37. DECEMBER 10. 1931 How Does Your State Stand ? WHAT STATES havc educational broadcasting stations? How much time is assigned to sta- tion WCAC? These questions and many others can be answered by referring to the figures concerning educational radio stations to which this issue of the bul- letin is largely devoted. For purposes of classification, an edu- cational station is one administered by an institution whose primary purpose, as revealed in its program content, is in- struction, whether it be operated by the federal, state, or municipal government, or by private enterprise chartered there- under. On June 17, 1930, the Radio Com- mission issued general order number ninety-two, which, after many whereases came to a final Whereas, it has been found that, according to the broadcasting service rendered to the peo- ple of each zone and of the states within each zone by stations of various classes, both of transmission and of reception, each class of station is of the following value in units, to wit: Classes of Stations [A] For FuU-Time Stations Value in units [1] Stations of a power of S kilowatts' or more, 1 station only operating on the channel at night S [2] Stations of a power of 5 kilowatts or more, 2 stations operating simulta- neously on a common frequency and sepa- rated by 2000 miles or more 4 [3] Stations of a power of 5 kilowatts or more, 2 or more stations operating on a common frequency and stations sepa- rated by less than 2000 miles . 2 L4J Stations of a power of 1 kilowatt, 2 or more stations operating simultane- ously on a common frequency 1 [S] Stations with 500-watts power with more than 2 stations operating simultane- ously on a common frequency 6 [6] Stations with 250-watts power with more than 2 stations operating simultane- ously on a common frequency 4 [7] Stations with lOO-watts power or less with 2 or more stations per zone oper- ating simultaneously on a common fre- quency 2 IB] Day Stations \'alue in units [1] Stations of a power of 5 kilowatts operating during daylight hours only si- multaneously with stations of Class A [ 1 ] above 1.5 [2 J Stations of a power of 2.5 kilowatts operating during daylight hours only 75 l3] Stations of a power of 1 kilowatt operating during daylight hours only 5 14] 500, 250, or 100 watt stations oper- ating during daylight hours only, one-half values given for corresponding full-time stations above. Education Handicapped November 20, 1931 To- day station WJAR, from which we get the Damrosch lessons, encroached on Mr. Damrosch's time to advertise Buick cars. We lost Mr. Damrosch's intro- duction. Respectfully yours, [A Rhode Island school prin- cipal.] ' The watt is a unit used to measure power. A kilo- watt is 1,000 watts. ICl FuU-Time Stations Having Excess Day Power All stations shall have their values in units based on one-half the units for full-time sta- tions of same power as the stations have at night plus the value in units for a day station of the same power as the station has in day- time, as follows: Value in units 1 kilowatt night, 2J^ kilowatts day, equal 1-25 500 watts night, 1 kilowatt day, equal. . .8 250 watts night, 500 watts day, equal . .5 100 watts night, 250 watts day, equal . .3 [D] Limited-Time Stations For stations of more than 5 kilowatts the value of units will be the same for all powers. The units will be based on 5 units. The units for each station will therefore be 2.5 for day operation plus 2.5 times hours used between 6 p.m. and 12 p.m. local time, divided by 12. Stations over 5 kilowatts operating— 1 night hour 2.7 2 night hours 2.9 3 night hours 3.1 For stations of 5 kilowatts the basis shall be 1.5 units for day operation, the same as a 5- kilowatt day station given above, plus 2.5 units times hours used between 6 p.m. and 12 p.m., local time, divided by 12. Stations of S kilowatts operating— 1 night hour 1.7 2 night hours 1.9 3 night hours 2.1 For stations operating with power of 1 kilo- watt, 500 and 250 watts, the value in units shall be the same as for a day station plus the value in units of day station times number of night hours used between 6 p.m. and 12 p.m., local time, divided by 12. 1000-watt stations operating— 1 night hour .54 2 night hours 58 3 night hours 62 500-watt stations operating— 1 night hour 32 2 night hours 35 3 night hours 38 250-'watt stations operating— 1 night hour .22 2 night hours 23 3 night hours 25 For stations dividing time on the same fre- quency the value assigned will be in propor- tion to the time assigned. It is, therefore, ordered that the values of radiobroadcasting stations of the various classes, powers, and time of operation be, and they are hereby, fixed in units as above set forth; and It is further ordered that each of the five zones created by section 2 of the radio act of 1927 shall each have broadcasting stations the total value in units of which shall be equal and shall be fairly and equitably distributed among and allocated to the states within each of said zones in proportion to the population each of said states bears to the population of the zone, and that the quota of broadcasting facilities to which each state is entitled shall be determined and fixed as herein provided and in accordance with values in units for various classes of sta- tions above set out. The last column in the table which fol- lows gives the quota units for these edu- cational stations based on the above rules of the Federal Radio Commission. Note the amazing discrepancy between the total number of quota units assigned to educational and the number assigned to commercial stations. Only 26.10 units of the 430.46 now in use in the United .States—approximately six percent— have been assigned to educational sta- tions. Conversely, ninety-four percent have been given to operators whose pri- mary interest in the people is the num- ber of dollars it is possible to secure from them thru the purchase of goods advertised over their station. Can there be any question concerning who holds a monopoly of quota units? What is a quota unit? It is a measure of comparison of broadcasting stations in terms of class, power, and hours of operation. By assigning a numerical measure to each of these factors, an at- tempt is made to comply with the pro- visions of the Davis amendment to the radio act of 1927. Thus by comparing their total quota units, states may be compared with states, zones with zones, and the progress made by the commission in accordance with the amendment may be determined.