NAB reports (Mar-Dec 1933)

LAFOUNT PLANS COAST TRIP The Federal Radio Commission will carry on regular operations during the summer months although individual commissioners will be away from Washington from time to time on inspection tours and other official business. For the first time in three years, Commissioner Lafount will make an official inspection of his fifth zone, including the Pacific states and the Rocky Mountain area. Leaving Washington early in July, he plans to stop in the larger cities and to hold conferences with broadcasters on problems of mutual concern. He will be away from Washington about six weeks. Mr. Lafount’s proposed itinerary is as follows: Salt Lake City, July 6-7; Ogden, Utah, July 8; Pocatello, Ida., July 9; Idaho Falls, Ida., July 9; Butte, Mont., July 10; Great Falls, Mont., July 10; Spokane, Wash., July 12; Seattle, Wash., July 13-14; Tacoma, Wash., July 15; Portland, Ore., July 17; Sacramento, Cal., July 19; San Francisco, Cal., July 20-21; San Jose, Cal., July 22; Los Angeles, Cal., July 23-25; Long Beach, Cal., July 26 ; Santa Monica, Cal., July 26; Santa Ana, Cal., July 27 ; San Diego, Cal., July 28; El Centro, Cal., July 29; Phoenix, Ariz., July 30; Tucson, Ariz., July 31 ; El Paso, Tex., Aug. 1 ; Albuquerque, N. M.. Aug. 2; Pueblo, Colo., Aug. 3; Colorado Springs, Colo., Aug. 3; Denver, Colo., Aug. 4-5. Commissioner Starbuck contemplates an inspection of radio operations of leading airlines beginning late in the summer. His itinerary has not yet been arranged. Commissioner Hanley is scheduled to deliver the dedicatory ad¬ dress over KICK in connection with that station’s opening on June 19 at Carter Lake, Iowa, near Council Bluffs. COMMISSION APPROPRIATION APPROVED The Independent Offices Appropriation Bill, containing an appro¬ priation of $640,000 for the Federal Radio Commission for the fiscal year beginning on July 1, 1933, was approved by Congress on June 15, just prior to adjournment. This amount is $140,000 less than the sum allocated to the Com¬ mission for the fiscal year which ends on June 30, and although the Commission has already effected a number of economies, further reductions in expenses will have to be worked out to stay within the curtailed appropriation. Indications are that the Commission, dur¬ ing the coming week, will adopt either a system of furloughs for present employees or announce further dismissals from the service. COPIES OF SECURITIES ACT MAILED Within the next few days members of the NAB will receive copies of the Securities Act of 1933, which provides for the full and fair disclosure of the character of securities sold in interstate and foreign commerce and through the mails. An analysis of the bill was contained in NAB Reports, Vol. 1, No. 14, page 58. The copies of the law being sent to members will be punched to fit into the NAB Handbook binder. It is urged that all members read the act carefully and then insert it in the handbook for future reference. UIR AND NAB EXCHANGE PUBLICATIONS The first step in bringing together in closer collaboration the Union Internationale de Radiodiffusion and the NAB was taken when the Bureau of the Council of the UIR at Geneva recently approved a regular exchange of publications between the NAB and the UIR. The decision of the Bureau was communicated in a letter from A. R. Burrows, Secretary-General of the Union, to the Managing Director and expresses the hope that still closer collabora¬ tion may be possible in the future. The UIR is the fact-gathering body for broadcasting organizations in European countries and was active in behalf of broadcasting interests at the International Radio Conference held at Madrid last fall. AUSTRALIAN PRAISES NAB REPORTS J. Malone, chief inspector (wireless), Postmaster-General’s De¬ partment, Melbourne, C. 2, Australia, has included a word of praise for NAB Reports in his recent communication to the Managing Director. “I think the new form is a distinct improvement and the change is appreciated by us who are readers of all that you send out,” Mr. Malone writes. For more than a year the NAB has been exchanging information with Mr. Malone’s department which is responsible for radio broadcasting in Australia. 500,000-WATT STATION FOR MEXICO The Secretary of Communications at Mexico City has granted permission to Senor Gumaro Lazarraga, of Matamoros, to construct a 500,000-watt radio broadcasting station in Matamoros, which will be the most powerful in the world, according to a report from Vice Consul Henry G. Krausse, Matamoros, Mexico, made public by the Commerce Department. The owner of this concession is not known in Matamoros, and as yet plans regarding construction and operation of the station have not been made public, the report said. The station has been assigned the call letters WEM. ASCAP CAMPAIGN AGAINST RESTAURANTS Latest reports indicate that the campaign of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers against small restaurants has now spread to Michigan and Nebraska. So far there has been no indication that ASCAP intends to live up to the pledge it made a year ago to the House Committee on Patents. The victims of this campaign should communicate with their Congressmen and Senators, or directly with Hon. William I. Sirovich, Chairman of House Patents Committee, Washington, D. C., to whom the ASCAP pledges were made. McCOSKER NAMES NEW COMMITTEE President Alfred J. McCosker of the NAB this week named William S. Hedges, KDKA, Pittsburgh, Pa., Leo Fitzpatrick, WJR, Detroit, Mich., and Henry A. Bellows, vice president of the Colum¬ bia Broadcasting System, as a committee to cooperate with com¬ mittees of the Radio Manufacurers Association and the Institute of Radio Service Men in the development of a public relations campaign for the radio industry. MORE INDEPENDENT MUSIC AVAILABLE The American Music Corporation, 1619 Broadway, New York, Sam Wigler, manager, is sending copies of the following composi¬ tions to all member broadcasting stations: “Looking Forward” (title based on President Roosevelt’s book). “I’m Crooning A Love Song To Heaven” (ballad) . “Song Of The Legionnaire” (fox-trot). “Your Uncle’s Ankle” (comedy-novelty fast fox-trot). “Just Another Dream Gone Wrong” (fox-trot). The copies of this music sent to stations will bear this imprint: “By arrangement with the Radio Program Foundation all broad¬ casting stations are authorized publicly to perform the within composition for profit, without the payment of a copyright fee.” Because member broadcasting stations are assured of the un¬ restricted use of this music, it is suggested by Oswald F. Schuette, NAB copyright director, that, so far as it meets the musical stand¬ ards of their Program Departments, preference be given to this music over that published by members of ASCAP, whose music is subject to constant restriction. MILLS RETURNS FROM EUROPE E. C. Mills, general manager of the American Society of Com¬ posers, Authors and Publishers, returned from Europe on June 9 aboard the S. S. Aquitania. While abroad he attended the confer¬ ence of European performing rights societies which was held in Copenhagen. WIRED RADIO IN CLEVELAND Information from reliable sources is to the effect that the stage is set in Cleveland, Ohio, for a tryout there of wired radio. The latest information is to the effect that two sub-stations of the Bell Telephone Company have been especially equipped for the service. Apparently about all that is holding it back is the depression. There will have to be an improvement in general conditions, advices say, before the experiment is actually started, but it is said they are • Page 69 •