Radio Broadcast (May-Oct 1922)

i8 RADIO BROADCAST radio station, and a man prominent in sporting circles engaged to render a round-by-round version of the progress of the fight. So KDKA was the first broadcasting station ever to send out fight returns. Afterward, the DempseyCarpentier bout in Jersey City was broadcasted by a Radio Corporation station round by round. One by one other features were added, such as the news of the day, weather forecasts, agricultural reports, bedtime stories, addresses by prominent citizens, and so on, making the radiophone service of value as well as a means of entertainment. Naturally enough, the success of the Pittsburgh station created such a demand for radio receiving equipment that the Westinghouse organization as well as other firms engaged in manufacturing radio equipment were virtually buried under an avalanche of orders; and they remain buried even to this day. The Westinghouse organization decided to open up other broadcasting stations so as to extend the territory supplied with their radio-phone service. To this end a station was opened on Oct. 3, 1 92 1, at Newark, N. J., known as WJZ. Another station was opened about the same time at Springfield, Mass., WBZ, and still another at Chicago, known as KWY. It is said that more than 300,000 persons hear the Newark programme every evening, and the number is increasing by leaps and bounds. This Newark station has had the very great cooperation of the Newark Evening Call, the first newspaper in the country to have a radio section. Mr. William F. B. McNeary the Radio editor of the Call arranged to broadcast the election returns, the results of the football games, etc. He also is the famous " Man in the Moon" who twice a week talks to the children from WJZ. In the meantime the American Radio & Research Corporation, of Medford Hillside, Mass., which had done experimental broadcasting in 191 5, entered the field in the spring of 1921 with a daily schedule for the general public, and from that time on the development of broadcasting has been swift. Newspapers, wireless companies, department stores, private individuals, and others have begun broadcasting activities. Several broadcasting services issue a printed programme for each week, the programme being mailed to all interested persons. It is estimated that nearly eighty broadcasting stations are now in operation through out the country, and anywhere from 500,000 to 750,000 receiving sets are in use. At a time when most lines of business are badly in want of trade to keep their wheels barely turning over, the radio business is working night and day and yet cannot catch up with the demand. A recent report has it that one radio manufacturer alone will do a business in excess of $50,000,000 for the current year! BUT WHAT OF THE FUTURE? AT THIS point we come face to face with the future. We know that the broadcasting service is a success; that the public is buying all kinds of receiving sets, ranging from the little $15 sets for receiving radio-phone service from near-by stations, to the sets worth $300 or more which enable the operator" to choose the programme of any one of half a dozen or more broadcasting stations, located within a range of 500 miles or over. The receiving set is readily installed, a simple, single wire antenna of 50 to 1 50 feet in length, as well as a ground connection to water, steam, or gas pipe, representing all the work required. But what the laity does not appreciate is the fact that the air, like any highway, can stand just so much traffic and no more. With our present system of transmission and receiving, we can accommodate only a few transmitting stations in the same general vicinity, working simultaneously. To permit more stations to operate is only to cause a hopeless confusion in which one station cannot be heard above the indescribable din. If everyone who wants to operate a transmitter were to be granted a license, no one would have any results and all efforts would be nil. It is as though there were but a single narrow highway throughout the width of these United States, and everyone insisted on buying an automobile. Then we would have so many automobiles for the road space available that practically no one would move and every automobile would become useless. So it has come to pass that for the safety of radio it is necessary that the issuance of transmitting licenses be limited from now on. The majority of the public want good broadcasting service of the kind that is now being supplied. And since the majority must rule, there must not be hundreds and thousands of radio telephones at work in any one territory messing up the work of the radio-phone broadcasting stations and ruining the art for every