NAB reports (Mar-Dec 1933)

General Store. Silas Hicks and Joshuway Potts, proprietors of the store, are the characters involved. The individual episodes revolve about doings and discussions in the town containing a wealth of humor. The dialogue is so developed as to enable the insertion of hill-billy or bread-down music between its various parts, the intention of the program being primarily to dramatize this type of music. The program should be of considerable interest to stations possessing audiences liking this type of musical enter¬ tainment. A number of merchandising tie-ins are possible. The program is by the author of “Good Evenin’ Judge.” The price per thirty-minute program is $1.50. (D 3:3) “THE ALASKANS.” Thirty minutes. Eight char¬ acters. This can be cut to five if the introduction to the act, wherein the story of each episode is recounted prior to its drama¬ tization, is eliminated. The plot of the program revolves about events in the history of Alaska, beginning with the early days and continuing up until a few years ago. There are 19 episodes avail¬ able at the present time. HIGH FREQUENCIES FOR BROADCASTING The policy of the Federal Radio Commission during the past several years in regard to the allocation of ultra-high frequencies (frequencies in excess of 30,000 kilocycles) has been such as to promote experimental use of such frequencies to determine their suitability to the various public services. Numerous experimental grants have been made for point-to-point, police, aeronautical, television, and other uses. No commercial grants have as yet been made, although use of high frequencies for private purposes has been authorized experimentally in some instances. Much information has been obtained, through experimental ex¬ ploitation of the ultra-high frequencies, on the propagation char¬ acteristics, apparatus limitations, and adaptability to the several interested services. Based on the information at hand, and on additional information constantly being collected, it is not unreason¬ able to expect the Federal Radio Commission to establish a definite assignment of ultra-high frequencies to the various services to supersede the present experimntal grants. So far, no regularly licensed broadcasting station has taken ad¬ vantage of the opportunity to exploit the ultra-high frequencies for broadcasting service, other than for broadcast pick-up work. In view of the rather interesting possibilities in the use of these frequencies for local coverage, it would seem that broadcasting interests might investigate such possible use in order to have a firm basis for establishment of any claims to this portion of the spectrum that may be justifiable. A 100-watt ultra-high frequency broadcasting station, properly located, may have a local coverage or radius of 10 to 15 miles. High-quality transmission is readily accomplished; 15,000-cycle band widths may be used, and it is entirely possible that binaural transmission and reception may be experimentally utilized. SECURITIES ACT REGISTRATIONS The following companies have filed registration statements with the Federal Trade Commission under the Securities Act during the current week: Banta-Carbona Irrigation District Bondholders Protective Com¬ mittee, San Francisco, Calif. (2-150) “The Barnett Plan,” Ben G. Barnett, Trustee, Oklahoma City, Okla. (2-158) Bevier Drill Company Founders Syndicate, Duluth, Minn. (2-154) Buffalo Ankerite Gold Mines, Ltd., Buffalo, N. Y. (2-156) Carolina Mills, Cowpens, S. C. (2-153) Fresno Petroleum Company, Houston, Tex. (2-160) Lucky Wright Royalty Syndicate, Santa Fe, N. M. (2-152) Protective Committee for Holders of National Union Mortgage Company, Gold Bonds, Baltimore, Md. (2-161) R. B. C. Fund, Inc., Boston, Mass. (2-155) Southern Crude Corporation, Los Angeles, Calif. (2-157) Union Central Gold Mines, Inc., Seattle, Wash. (2-151) Van Cortlandt Recreation Corp., New York City. (2-149) W. R. Wallace, Inc., Syracuse, N. Y. (2-169) PETTEY AWAY H. L. Pettey, Secretary of the Federal Radio Commission, will go to Kansas City on August 30 to attend the rally of the Young Democratic Clubs of America. NEWMAN LEAVES COMMISSION Hobart A. Newman, an attorney of the Radio Commission dur¬ ing the past couple of years, resigned recently and has become associated with the legal staff of NRA. Andrew G. Haley, of Tacoma, Wash., has been appointed to suc¬ ceed Newman. He will take office September 1. WMCA APPLICATION CONSIDERED The Federal Radio Commission this week referred to its Legal Division for opinion the agreement entered into between the Knickerbocker Broadcasting Company and the Federal Broadcast¬ ing Corporation under which the latter corporation would acquire certain rights to the facilities of Station WMCA in New York. In connection with the decision to refer the agreement to its Legal Division, Judge Eugene O. Sykes, Chairman of the Commis¬ sion, addressed a letter to counsel for the station, which reads in part as follows: “It is noted from your letter that copies of the contract were forwarded so that the Commission may determine whether any action by the Commission is necessary or so that you may be advised whether the contract is in violation of the law, Commission regulations, or Commission policy. In view of this request the Commission has decided to consider the matters to which you ad¬ dress its attention. Under date of August 16, 1933, two letters were sent under the signature of the Secretary of the Commission, addressed to Messrs. Webster and Spearman, in reply to your letter of August 15, 1933. These two letters, prepared and sent prior to Commission consideration of the questions involved, should be disregarded by you. “When a determination is reached by the Commission relative to the request contained in your letter of August 15, you will be advised.” On August 29, Commissioner Harold A. Lafount issued a state¬ ment criticizing the agreement in which he said in part: “I am unwilling to assign to Knickerbocker Broadcasting Com¬ pany, Inc., or any other licensee, the obligation imposed upon us by Congress to decide who shall be charged with the responsibility of rendering that service. If this policy is adopted, any individual or corporation could control the character of program service to be rendered and price charged for time over any or all stations in a city, state, or even in the entire country. It would be possible for a former licensee whose application for renewal license had been denied, after a finding had been made that the continued operation of a station by him would not be in the public interest, thus to secure rights on the air otherwise denied him. I say such an in¬ dividual or corporation could, under the agreement here referred to, acquire complete control of a station’s time without the Com¬ mission’s knowledge that such a condition existed. “The licensee has an obligation to the public that in my opinion cannot be transferred. Licenses may be transferred with the con¬ sent of the Commission, but the Commission is without authority to grant licenses to individuals or corporations for nothing. The requirement for the valuable franchise is that the licensee (not his assignee) operate the station in the public interest. “I fully appreciate the fact that under our system, broadcasters must sell time to advertisers, etc. This, however, is done partly to provide revenue to supply programs beneficial to and in the interest of the community. The time is sold in short periods to numerous advertisers, and represents only a portion of the broadcast hours. But in the case here referred to, it is a complete sell-out, no time being left for the licensee to himself render a public service. There is no doubt in my mind that the licensee has under this agreement lost control, not of the operation of the equipment, but of the time, and since that is actually the only matter in which the public is inter¬ ested or may derive any benefit, I must and do conclude that the license should be held by the parties undertaking the public service.” BRITISH REGIONAL PLAN PROGRESSES The West Regional station of the British Broadcasting Corpora¬ tion was put into operation recently, it has just been announced. This station is one of five twin-wave transmitters provided for in the so-called Regional Plan of the B.B.C., by which it is ex¬ pected two programs will be made available to all of England. The plan was instituted in 1929 and since then has been progressing very slowly towards its realization. FULL MEMBERSHIP COMMISSION HERE Commissioners Brown and Starbuck are expected to return to Washington on September 5. At the meeting on that day, there¬ fore, all of the members of the Commission will be present for the first time since early in July. COMMISSIONER ZOOK TO BROADCAST The Hon. George F. Zook, newly appointed U. S. Commissioner of Education, will deliver a radio talk on Monday, September 11, at 7:30 oclock. Commissioner Zook will speak on “The Emer¬ gency in Education.” • Page 126*