NAB reports (Jan-Dec 1934)

Many of them are in remote localities. The average expenditure per annum in “dance halls and night clubs” for the years 19281930 was $23,725,000. This group as well as those previously described are represented through powerful trade associations, and this group no less than the others has through the years shown a disposition to deliberately and willfully disregard the rights of musical copyright owners. No such individual copyright owner could hope to successfully ascertain infringements, and protect or license his rights to these establishments. Music enables these enterprises to be conducted by these groups at a substantial profit. It is imperative that the musical copyright owner have a means and method whereby he may protect his properties against un¬ lawful use by them, or license them to perform the same. As a result of these economic conditions, practically the onlyreward that thei writer receives for his labors, and that the publisher receives for the expenditure of time, labor, capital and organiza¬ tion on his part are the royalties received through the Society from the licensing of the right of public performance. If the Society should be dissolved, many writers will be deprived of their liveli¬ hood and will become unable to support their families. XVI. Deny each and every allegation contained in paragraph “28,” except that they admit that in 1932, the defendant Society notified all radio broadcasting stations throughout the United States, which had theretofore entered into license agreement with Society, that on and after June 1, 1932, the defendant Society would issue to such broadcasting stations general licenses covering all of the musical compositions of all members of the Society, upon the basis of a fixed sum, plus a percentage of the gross in¬ come derived by broadcasters from advertisers; and that after protracted negotiations, the broadcasters entered into agreements, respectively, with the Society, in the form annexed to the peti¬ tion, upon the basis of royalty payments, plus a graduated per¬ centage of the net receipts from advertisers, to wit, — three per cent for the first year, four per cent for the second year, and five per cent for the third year. XVII. Deny each and every allegation contained in paragraph “29,” except that they admit that with respect to radio broadcast¬ ing stations operated by newspapers, fifty-one per cent of the stock thereof being owned by such newspapers, the rates are lower than the rates paid by other radio broadcasters, and are in accord¬ ance with the exhibit attached to the petition ; that the defendants allege that this distinction in the rates is made for the reason that newspaper-owned radio broadcasting stations do not sell advertising time upon any substantial scale and are not operated primarily for the sole purpose of obtaining revenue from commer¬ cial advertisers, but, on the contrary, such broadcasting stations are operated as semi-public media for the dissemination of news and other matters of general interest. Further answering said paragraph “29” defendants aver that few musical compositions are withdrawn from radio broadcasting ; that such musical compositions are withdrawn only when the continued radio broadcasting of such numbers, if not restricted, would de¬ stroy the grand or stage or symphonic rights of the members in such works; that the defendant Society, by virtue of the per¬ forming rights obtained under its license agreements with its mem¬ bers, is bound in equity and good conscience, to do nothing that will destroy the value of the rights reserved to such members ; that one of the important rights reserved to such members is the grand performing right on the stage of the musical compositions composed and published, respectively, by them; that continued radio broadcasting of musical compositions has a tendency to surfeit the public and to destroy the popularity and value of musi¬ cal compositions within a few weeks after their publication; that dramatico-musical compositions currently successful upon the stage, are produced at a great investment, sometimes as high as $200,000.00 or $300,000.00; that if radio broadcasters were permitted, un¬ restrained and unrestricted, to perform the musical compositions which are part and parcel of such dramatico-musical works, the desire of the public to attend such productions in the theater would be extinguished, and the value of the rights in said musical com¬ positions and dramatico-musical works would be likewise de¬ stroyed ; and for that reason the Society, at the instance of in¬ dividual members thereof, restricts from indiscriminate broadcast¬ ing, from time to time, such musical compositions, in order to prevent destruction of the rights therein and the rights of the members of the Society therein. XVIII. Deny each and every allegation contained in para¬ graphs “30,” “31,” and “32.” XIX. Deny each and every allegation contained in paragraph “33,” except admit that the Society has adopted and maintains a system for the acquiring of information relative to the musical compositions used by broadcasting stations. XX. Deny each and every allegation contained in paragraphs “34,” “35,” “36,” “37,” “38” and “39.” WHEREFORE the said defendants respectfully pray that the petition be dismissed with costs. NATHAN BURKAN, Solicitor for Defendants, American Society of Composers, Authors and Pub¬ lishers et al. O. & P. O. Address, 1450 Broadway, Borough of Manhattan, City of New York. ENGINEERING DATA FURNISHED Mr. A. S. Clark, of the Radio Research Company, Washington, D. C., has furnished the NAB and its Engineering Committee with data accumulated during the past year on measured characteristics of broadcasting station apparatus. Publication of the data in these Reports is thought timely nd pertinent, in view of current discussion of high-fidelity transmission. Little data has heretofore been available on the standards of transmission maintained among broadcasting stations. There has been a general supposition on the part of broadcasters that the transmitted signal is usually of far better quality than the presentday receivers are capable of reproducing. This thought has been encouraged by data on transmitters furnished by manufacturers which invariably depict characteristics little short of perfection. When a transmitter is installed in the field, operated by average personnel, and perhaps connected to a none-too-good telephone line supplied by a miscellaneous assortment of speech input equip¬ ment, it is frequently found that the measured over-all characteris¬ tics depart somewhat from perfection regardless of whether the apparatus is home-made or made by prominent manufacturers. Mr. Clark’s measurements were made on 35 stations ranging in power from 100 to 5000 watts. Audio fidelity was measured at 50% modulation. A variable input was applied to the mixer system to maintain that degree of modulation at the various test frequencies. Audio harmonic content was measured at 400 cycles in each case. The value indicated in the data represents the r. m. s. value of combined harmonics, rather than the arithmetic sum as specified in the FCC Rules. The effective value is, of course, smaller than the arithmetic sum. The power and type of modulator employed by the various trans¬ mitters are shown in Table 1. The audio fidelity measurements are shown in Table 2. These measurements indicate the audio fidelity of the entire plant from the mixer to the antenna. The departure from the 1000-cyle zero level is indicated in decibels. While there is some difference of opinion regarding the specifica¬ tions for good quality transmission which makes a comparison with an empirical standard inadvisable, it can be seen from Table 2 that 47% of the composite installations and 43% of the so-called “standard” transmitters are decidedly deficient in the transmission of the lower frequencies to an extent that they would fail to meet any reasonable standard. Likewise, 71% of the composite trans¬ mitters and 54% of the standard transmitters have decidedly poor high frequency characteristics. Disregarding classification of a total of 35 transmitters measured, 52% of them are deficient on the “lows” and 66% of them are deficient on the “highs.” Many stations are dependent upon recorded program material. For lateral recording by far the majority of them use pickups of the general characteristic of curve A in Figure 2. This is a pickup regarded for years as the last word in quality, and was much sought after. Recently, there has been made available at compara¬ tively low cost a lateral pickup having characteristics, as tested in the field, similar to that of curve B, Figure 2. This curve is comparatively flat from 50 to 5000 cycles. With present-day re¬ cordings this pickup gives an over-all result in startling contrast to those obtained with old style pickups. Many of the stations using a considerable amount of lateral recordings could make a decided improvement in the quality of transmission through the use of a relatively inexpensive modernization of their pickup equip¬ ment. Both curves shown in Figure 2 are a combination of pickup characteristic with the characteristic of the cutter and recording amplifier used by one of the major recording companies, • Page 584