Radio Broadcast (May-Oct 1922)

RADIO BROADCAST 31 service. And he stated that the A. T. & T. is making plans to enter the broadcasting field, as a public service. L. R. Klum, representing the Westinghouse Company, cheerfully volunteered the information that his company had entered into the broadcasting business as a sales device. When Mr. Hoover asked him if he expected the sales of receiving equipment to continue and if there is not likely to be a "saturation point" Mr. Klum said, " 1 don't believe it. There is no saturation point on automobiles, for instance. We have found a steady increase in sales and we don't anticipate any drop if the quality of the broadcasting is maintained." He also said, "There is a limit to the number of broadcasting stations that can operate successfully. So there must be some regulation and possibly some limitation of the number of these stations. Fifteen could probably cover the country." The trend of the whole Conference looked to larger and larger public use of radio, and before the sessions had gone far the trend toward enlargement of the supreme rights of the public became apparent. Here, on one hand, you found representatives of city police departments emphasizing the necessity of certain waves being reserved for police use betw-een municipal police stations and patrolmen, motor boats, bicycle police, police automobiles and airplanes, and fire and other moving apparatus. Here, again, you found large city newspapers shown as supplementing their news columns with ether information, even entertainment. Next, emphasis was laid on the undesirability of ether advertising, by department stores or other agencies. Then, also, there were complaints against the selling of inadequate apparatus, such as receiving sets of insufficient range in wave length. Instrument makers had their pros and cons. The amateur repeatedly had his innings. The supreme importance of ship service was hammered home. The appetite of the public for broadcasting of health information, market information, all kinds of information, was dwelt upon at length. Also, often, you found allegations made that this or that company was trying to corner the sale of tubes or other facilities. There was talk, even, of censorship, of the necessity of competition between broadcasting stations in given areas, as between newspaper sending stations, for instance; and predictions, prophecies, and more and more stress on the needs and desires of our © Harris & Bwlng DR. S. W. STRATTON Chief of the Bureau of Standards, who was chairman of the technical committee of the Radio Conference which made recommendations for a national radio policy. old friend, the people. Withal, you got, from sitting in on the Conference, the picture of a great instrumentality coming of age — and as a matter of fact radio is just about twentyone years of age! It was as if everyone agreed, "Now here's a great big boy of great big stature rising up in our midst. We don't know all about him, yet, but we've got to make room for him. So it's a question of ways and means, to please the people and give us all a good square deal." Now, by contrast, the last committee appointed by the Secretary of Commerce, Mr. Alexander, to deal with radio and its problems, was inconsequential, from the point of view of public interest. And when one says that, one gambols ahead in apprehension of the next international conference. Because it's all too evident that no other country in the world has, in the nature of its areas and native problems, the needs and opportunities for radio that we have, and no other nation has even approached in develop