Radio broadcast .. (1922-30)

Who Owns Our Broadcasting Stations? 707 ship of broadcasting stations proves beyond ^juestion, if there were any question, that the vast majority of broadcasting stations are operated largely for advertising purposes: in other words, as a feeder for the broadcaster's real business interest, his radio store, his garage, his jewelry shop, his clothing store, or his dance hall. So there are many who claim that the radio broadcasting station has much in common with the old time, now almost historical patent medicine vendor's show. It is, basically, they say a bally-hoo. Obviously no bally-hoo can hope to approach the proportions of grand opera, a feature film, or a Broadway theatrical production. CASES IN POINT — WITHOUT NAMES pONSIDERaspe^ cific station, in a Southern state. In 10.22 an electrical store put in a line of radio supplies. To draw trade, the dealer installed a 500 watt transmitter and hired a local newspaper reporter on a part time salary of $20 a week as "director." This reporter is also the announcer, the publicity man, the scout for talent, and all the rest of the non-technical staff. One of the store clerks serves as the engineering department of the station. The "director" has long since made the rounds of such local talent as can be induced to sing, play, or talk. He has no fund to hire artists or even to buy them dinners and taxi rides. All things considered, he does fairly well; but he has no opportunity to give his radio audience anything better or bigger or newer or more impressive than as it he were directing a Sunday school social entertainment. The dealer who pays the small weekly bills for this station charges the expense to advertising and is content. At heart he is an electrical retailer. Even if he were willing to spend $2000 a night on talent, which he isn't and never will be, he wouldn't know how to do it. Anothercase. A chief executive in a metro What the Idea Is Many radio listeners have often asked themselves, or what is more to the point, others, who owns all the vast numbers of American broadcasting stations. Those who tune-in, night after night, to the more or less varied programs from every section of the nation, should be, and usually are, interested in knowing the ownership of the stations figuratively knocking at their antenna insulators each evening. Mr. Siddall has analyzed the ownership of our 550 stations and has included some interesting remarks of his own about the general problem of who is broadcasting, how they are doing the job, and what is likely to happen to broadcasting. According to the estimate of the writer, it takes roughly 11,000 separate features to supply American broadcasting programs for one day. Is there that much talent in the country to supply material for each of the 365 days? — THE EDITOR. politan city plays with radio as a hobby. His real job is selling building materials. He cheerfully writes out a small weekly check to support a broadcasting station just for the fun of the thing. Much the same sort of a motive is back of a station operated by a large service company. A high executive in the organization is a radio enthusiast. He is so high up that nobody questions his right louse company time, men, and money to build a transmitting station; nor to pay a part-time salary to a publicity expert to "direct" it. Ostensibly the station is run so "that employees maybe benefited." Thus the bills pass the auditing department under the general heading of welfare work. But those on the inside like to. call this station "the chief's toy." Newspapers, not knowing exactly what effect radio was going to have on their business, went into broadcasting on a fairly large scale to find out. Many of them did find out, and soon there was a lot of transmitting apparatus in newspaper storage roorns for sale cheap. A few papers, strategically located, have been able to make broadcasting pay by adding special radio sections to their Saturday or Sunday issues. Because the papers with broadcasting stations stand out as "radio mediums" they garner most of the radio advertising in their territories. These exceptions will stick to broadcasting as long as radio advertising volume holds up. Since the expense is usually charged to "promotion" it is certain that no radical artistic program innovations of an expensive nature will ever come from this source. Nor can the public expect anything very highly artistic or highly important from the municipal stations, of which WNYC, New York City, is a notable example. Whether or not a municipal station is, as has been charged, a bally-hoo for the politicians is of no importance. The fact remains that tax-payers