Radio Broadcast (May 1928-Apr 1929)

12 RADIO BROADCAST MAY, 1928 on January 1, the number had fallen to 62,778. The total stock on hand averages but two per dealer, a number insufficient to cause uneasiness. Here and There THE Association of National Advertisers has appointed a committee to make a survey of broadcasting as an advertising medium. They will endeavor to ascertain the average audience listening to a radio program. Their task is equivalent to determining the number of cricketschirping at any given instant, in a swamp, on a foggy summer evening. LIEUTENANT Commander Craven has been assigned to the Federal Radio Commission by the Navy Department to grapple with the short-wave problem. ALTHOUGH it is definitely known that both the N. B. C. and the Columbia chains will have microphones at the political conventions, just how these events will be handled is not yet made clear. Both chains have commitments to commercial broadcasters and any alterations to their schedules are made at the price of commercial income. Mr. Aylesworth of the N. B. C. has pointed out these difficulties and issued a general hint through the press that the entire convention proceedings might be sponsored by one commercial broadcaster. It appears that there was no great rush of volunteers as a result. STATION woai, San Antonio, Texas, recently joined the N. B. C. network. It had been one of the few independent stations assigned a cleared channel by the Federal Radio Commission. The Commission has no control over the programs radiated by a station and is not in a position to require that an independent, assigned to a cleared channel, shall not use chain programs after receiving such an assignment. ASST. Secretary of Commerce for Aeronautics William C. McCracken, Jr., announced that, approval had been obtained for the erection of a radio control station at Key West to be operated by the Airways Division of the Lighthouse Service. It will provide and exchange weather information between terminal airports, radio communication to aircraft in flight, and a radio direction service. THE transatlantic telephone service has been subjected to a forty per cent, cut in rates, reducing the basic rate from New York to London to $45 for three minutes and $15 for each succeeding minute. The hours of service have been extended to from 7:30 a. m. to 8 p. m. Eastern Standard Time, corresponding to 12:30 p. m. to 1 a. M. in Great Britain. The service to Berlin, Hamburg, and Frankfort was inaugurated on February 10, and to Sweden on the 20th. THE Department of Agriculture is extending its broadcasting service through naa, Arlington, by issuing weather reports on several frequencies, both in telegraph and voice. The new schedule will benefit aviation and agriculture in particular. OFFICIAL reports of American exports of radio apparatus in November indicate their aggregate value to be about one and a quarter million dollars, with Canada, Argentine, Australia, and Uruguay the largest purchasers. I f I A Chinese broadcasting organization has been formed which will rent time from a radio telephone plant at Shanghai. A subscription of ten dollars a year is to be charged each member to meet the cost of providing programs and employing announcers, f f f The municipal authorities of Buenos Aires are planning to extend the service of their station, los, in the Colon Theatre, which has so far been used exclusively for broadcasting operas and concerts from the stage of the theatre, 'a \ ( The number, of licenses in the Australian broadcasting system has now reached 300,000. One highpower station has been erected in each capital city, and in Melbourne and Sidney there are two. Telephone lines for interchange of programs are frequently used, f f { A controversy rages as to radio concessions extended by various Chinese administrations. Japan has an agreement, negotiated by the Chinese Ministry of the Navy, which gives it a monopoly for thirty years. In 1921, the Federal Telegraph Company made a contract with the Chinese Ministry of Communications for five stations to be operated by the American company for twenty years. The British also obtained contracts on behalf of the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company. Apparently an exclusive license in China is non-exclusive. I f I In Europe, the International Radiophone Union regulates the frequencies and time assignments of broadcasting stations. The Hungarian Government has been barred from admission to this organization at the plea of Czecho-Slovakian delegates. The Hungarians have been accused of using their stations to spread propaganda, attacking the Treaty of Trianon, thereby, endangering the integrity of Czecho-Slovakia. f t f All existing telegraph records were broken during the Christmas season in England when the inter-empire beam radio telegraph system transmitted no less than 31,694 Christmas greetings from Great Britain to the dominions at a speed of 400 words per minute, without a single repetition being required. ? I J German police systems have adopted the Korn system of picture transmission which is built along lines which have become conventional. Korn is a pioneer in the field, having, as early as 1907, transmitted newspaper photographs between Paris and London. Synchronous motors and neon lights are used. THE PATENT SITUATION IN A decision released February 18, the District Court for Delaware held that Clause IX of the Radio Corporation of America license agreement with radio set manufacturers constituted an unfair method of competition in violation of the Clayton Act. Clause IX of the license agreement required that each set made under license be equipped with a complete complement of R. C. A. tubes, sufficient to make them initially operative. A suit for $10,000,000 damages was subsequently brought by a group of independent tube manufacturers who avowed that the operation of this clause virtually paralyzed their business. Section III of the Clayton Act specifically provides that its provisions shall apply whether the article, in behalf of which unfair methods are employed, is patented or not. In a suit brought by the Westinghouse Company, under the Armstrong patent, against the Tri-City Radio Company, the effect of continued acquiescence and acceptance of royalties on certain regenerative sets sold prevented the collection of damages. The Tri-City was. a licensee under the Armstrong patent prior to its acquisition by the Westinghouse Company. It appointed a sub-manufacturer to make the goods for it, although the original license did not permit such sub-manufacture — E. H. F. Estimated Number of Radio Receivers in Use United Stales, January 1, 1928 THROUGH the courtesy of the radio division, National Electrical Manufacturers' Association, the figures showing the number of radio sets now in use are presented. New York, California, and Illinois, are the leaders in order, according to this survey. Note the number of estimated sets in the southern states, figures which are interesting, in view of the efforts of some Congressmen, especially from southern states, to have an "equitable station-power distribution" clause made a part of the present radio act. STATE TOTAL SETS STATE ■ TOTAL SETS Alabama 45,000 Nebraska 118,000 Arizona 25,000 Nevada . 15,000 Arkansas 42,000 New Hampshire .... 25,000 California 704,000 New Jersey 209,000 Colorado 89,000 New Mexico 18,000 Connecticut 125,000 New Y'ork . .... 876,000 Delaware 15,000 North Carolina .... 48,000 District of Columbia . . . 44,000 North Dakota 35.000 Florida ...... 73,000 Ohio 464,000 Georgia . . • 64,000 Oklahoma 104,000 Idaho 26,000 Oregon 121,000 Illinois 539,000 Pennsylvania 501,000 Indiana 184,000 Rhode Island 53,000 Iowa 176,000 South Carolina 22,000 Kansas 104,000 South Dakota .... 41,000 Kentucky 46,000 Tennessee 52,000 Louisiana 74.000 Texas 188,000 Maine 39,000 Utah 33,000 Maryland 56,000 Vermont 19,000 Massachusetts 328,000 Virginia 56,000 Michigan 336,000 Washington 217,000 Minnesota 129,000 West Virgm'a 50,000 Mississippi 28,000 Wisconsin 169.000 Missouri 227,000 Wyoming 20,000 Montana 29,000 Total 7,000,000 fv '