Radio Broadcast (May-Oct 1925)

32 Radio Broadcast development of instruments." And, further on in a recent official statement, the Secretary stated that "it is absolutely necessary to maintain a wide kilocycle separation between stations so close together (geographically). Otherwise they will destroy each other." And as the Department well recognizes, they will destroy the listener's patience and interest even more promptly. THE SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST EVOLUTIONISTS explain that the advance from animal to man occurred by the survival and development of the fittest form of life. In radio, a similar evolution to the high-class station which all can anticipate for the future is now in progress. When one station makes great improvements, the neighboring stations have three choices: DAVID SARNOFF Vice-president and general manager of the Radio Corporation of America. At the third annual radio conference in Washington which met at the call of Secretary of Commerce Hoover in October, 1924, Mr. Sarnoff suggested that the way to solve some of the broadcasting problems would be to license several very high-powered stations of the order of fifty kilowatts which, located in various parts of the nation, would give dependable broadcast service over a large area. A high-powered broadcast station has recently been erected by the British Broadcasting Company in England 1. They may keep up by making similar improvement. 2. They may confess inferiority by continuing or the old superseded basis. 3. They may go out of business. The history of radio indicates that alternatives 1 and 3 are about the only possible ones. Judge Davis made this point very clear by a large radio map which hangs on his office wall. On that map blue pins show the Class B stations, green pins the Class A, and black pins the stations that have been, but are no more. At almost every point where blue pins appear they are surrounded by the black markers of discontinued stations, stations which could not stand the pace and therefore quit rather than confess permanent inferiority. The Department is wondering whether this is not a necessary and logical course to be followed. That station which is most progressive and gives the best service, judged always from the standpoint of the listener, will succeed. The neighboring stations which cannot do so well are not long in learning that their effort and expenditure is producing no advantageous result. It is well from all points of view, even their own, that they should go out of business; fortunately they do. CONCENTRATION WITHOUT MONOPOLY HpHE Class B stations, which now afford the * widest and most dependable class of service, offer the most serious problem in interference. Any DX fan in the center of the country can safely boast that his set will reach from Orono, Maine, to Los Angeles, and from Winnipeg to Cuba, but his boast is true only when he speaks of Class B stations, for those of Class A rarely have sufficient power to be heard more than occasionally beyond a hundred miles. In the Class B range there are built or building more than 100 stations, with only fortyseven wavelengths to be distributed among them. So now, on the average, there is less than one wavelength for each two stations, which means that many Class B stations must divide their time of operation. This division of time has led to much difficulty; but the Department, for the present at least, is allowing the problem to solve itself. uncle sam: hotel clerk '~pHE Department in radio takes much the * same attitude as the room clerk at a popular hotel. As evening approaches all of the rooms are engaged, yet there are numerous