Radio broadcast .. (1922-30)

Will Radio Replace the Phonograph? Or Will the Radio Concert Merely be Added to the Existing Sources of Musical Entertainment without Supplanting Any of Them? By WINSLOW A. DUERR A 'OTHER invention, rushed to a high state of perfection by the exigencies of the war, has entered our daily life and is this time disturbing the placid surface of our musical habits and traditions. According to some, it even threatens a revolution in musical entertainment. We have heard it predicted in speech and in writing, that with the radio telephone bringing music to every home, the faithful phonograph will soon be left to collect dust in the attic, symphony concerts will be attended only by impossible eccentrics who desire to have their names in the papers, and opera seats will go begging. Of course, we cannot agree altogether with these predictions. Self-appointed prophets areas plentiful in most communities as seeds in a watermelon — like which, they are ordinarily to be avoided, not swallowed. We used to hear that the airplane would supplant the automobile by 1924, yet to-day, even in the most modern cities, the few specimens still to be observed look good for two or three years more. Once, the telephone was counted on to give the death-blow to wire telegraphyhundreds of good-natured but erring folks had planned it so — yet the Western Union is still said to be eking out a precarious existence. And wasn't the movie to make the spoken drama a has-been? But — no further example is necessary. As a matter of fact, what is there to be said on this radio-vs. -phonograph controversy? Both instruments are able to reproduce music played There is evidence of a constantly growing feeling that the radio telephone is likely to supplant the phonograph as a means of entertainment. Many people will readily call to mind certain uses of radio which coincide with those heretofore served by the phonograph; and others can point out several important respects in which the functions of these two reproducing instruments are, and must always be, radically different. Perhaps, instead of a struggle for survival between the phonograph and radio, we shall find the newer instrument merely supplementing the older one. For example, the broadcasting of music may increase the sale of phonograph records throughout the country, as it has already done in the vicinity of some of the larger broadcasting stations. — THE EDITORS. by great artists and played at a distance from the "consumer"; both are more or less at the owner's beck and call, the phonograph, to be sure, to a somewhat greater degree than radio; and both furnish entertainment at a comparatively low cost after the original investment. Fifteen years ago the talking machine was still a fad. People would listen to the most horrible airs—appalling combinations of scratches and screeches — merely for the sake of hearing the human voice issue from a mechanical contrivance. But the rapid improvement in machines and records soon raised the phonograph a'bove the .plane of a curious toy. To-day, with an initial outlay of from forty to four hundred dollars, depending on the fineness of the machine and the class of records desired, one can furnish his own home with concerts, either classical or popular. The dance music is clear and loud enough to fill a good-sized room; the operatic stars are reproduced so faithfully that their voices can be readily recognized; piano and violin solos, string-quartet and even whole orchestra selections are rendered with almost the original fineness of tone and sometimes with greater clearness than is found in a concert hall. So fine is the reproduction, in fact, that great musicians and singers have often studied their records with a view to possible improvement :n their own technique. The greatest claim to popularity of the phonograph is, however, that you can have what you want when you want it. You can choose your favorite songs from your favorite