Radio Broadcast (May 1928-Apr 1929)

JUNE, 1928 BRITAIN WANTS PROOF OF TELEVISION 69 Present Distribution of Broadcast Stations THE following is an analysis of broadcasting stations licensed as of February 29, showing the inequitable distribution of stations by zones. Commissioner Sykes, representing the southern zone, has pointed out that every legitimate request for power increase and improved channels, made by southern stations, has been granted and that the inequalities are due rather to lack of progressiveness with respect to broadcasting in the South than to any discrimination. Population Popu A rea Area N I M B E R Total Per Sta lation (square (per of Sta station centage tions (per cent.) miles) cent) tions POWER IN of Sta with Watts tion Over Power 1000 Watts Zone (New England Sts. N. V. & 24,378,131 22.73 129,769 3.63 138 213.055 35-30 10 N.J.) Zone 2 ..Central West & Middle Atlantic) =4,337,341 22.69 247,517 6.93 115 1 16,805 19-34 8 Zone 3 (Southern) 24,826,050 23.14 761,895 21.33 102 47."": 7.80 4 Zone 4 Northwest) 24,492,986 22.83 658,148 18.42 215 164,870 27.31 30 Zone 5 Western & Pacific Coast) 9,213,720 8.59 1,774.447 49.68 131 61,785 10.24 8 Total 107,248.228 100 3.371,776 100 701 603.620 100 60 immediately articulate, and a powerful sweep of opinion champions the two or three hundred favorite stations, can the destructive effects of the selfish and uninformed propaganda of Congress against good broadcasting be overcome. Mergers in the Radio Industry THE proposed merger of the Radio Corporation and the Victor Talking Machine Company would be a vital step in bringing us that combined broadcast receiver, phonograph, home motion-picture projector and television receiver which we forecast in these editorials for January, 1928, as the ultimate home entertainment machine. The total assets of the Victor Company are about sixty million dollars; those of the Radio Corporation about sixty-five million dollars. The merger will make available to the combination the services of renowned artists, both for radio purposes and for talking movies. The announcement that negotiations for this merger were under way was greeted with the usual monopoly accusations in Congress. Unquestionably the merger would result in a still stronger company. The consolidation of these interests is, however, certain to enhance the entertainment value of broadcasting and hasten the further development of diverse visual and tonal amusement in the home. Another merger of vital importance to the American radio industry is the combination of the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of England with the Eastern Telegraph Company. This forms a one-hundred-million-dollar, worldwide communication corporation which may impose the pressure of severe competition upon the Radio Corporation of America. In spite of the comparative youth of the Radio Corooration. it has become a sufficiently vital factor in international communications to make this consolidation of British communications necessary. A third merger which will ultimately affect the radio communication business is that of the International Telephone & Telegraph Company with the Mackay interests. The former controls telephone properties in Cuba, Spain, and South America and has exclusive rights for foreign manufacture of Western Electric Company products. The Mackay interests have an ambition to set up an international radio telegraph network and may ultimately become serious rivals to the Radio Corporation of America. The Mackay radio patent rights are based on their acquisition of the Federal Telegraph Company and Federal" Brandes. More High Power Broadcasting IT IS understood that the Crosley Radio Corporation, operating wlw, has applied for a 50,000-watt assignment and that, likewise, kfi in Los Angeles is to have a similar increase. The only southern station to seek a substantial power increase is kwkh. It is unfortunate that some of the more reputable broadcasting stations in the South are not aiming at substantial power increases, because there are many good reasons why kwkh in particular should not be favored by the Federal Radio Commission. This station, in plain defiance of the Commission, increased its power surreptitiously and utilized its facilities for villification of members of the Commission. It has established little reputation for high-grade programs, although it is by no means at the bottom of the list in that respect. We regret to see this progressiveness for much needed substantial power increases in the South largely confined to a station which has virtually thumbed its nose at the Federal Radio Commission and defied the simplest precepts of law and order. British Skeptical 0/ Baird Television Accomplishments A PUBLICITY statement from the Baird company says that a picture of Miss Dora Selvey, transmitted by Baird television from London to the Berengaria, a thousand miles at sea, was considered recognizable by the radio operator. It must be realized that any Kind of a radio transmission, which is interpreted by any form of television machine, makes some kind of impressions on the screen. The photographs of long distance television reception, published in the newspapers, which we have examined, have all been faked, the image drawn on the screen being the work of a retoucher. Newspapers, with a nose for news, however, do not hesitate to fool the public. Popular Wireless, a British home constructor's magazine, offers to pay Mr. Baird £1000. if he will successfully televise by radio, over a distance of not less than twenty-five yards, certain items such as a series of three recognizable faces, five simple solid geometric models in slow motion, four animal toys, grouped and in slow motion, and a tray, containing dice and marbles to a number not exceeding twelve, all of these objects to be sufficiently clear that a committee of judges can recognize them and state their number. The same publication points out that the television sets being marketed in England, which are not true television but shadowgraph machines, require a high voltage supply of six or seven hundred volts, which is quite capable of giving a fatal shock. Dr. Herbert E. Ives of the Bell Laboratories, who demonstrated the first television apparatus between Washington and New York in April, 1927, stated recently that bringing into the home by radio an actual spectacle like a great athletic event is unthinkable because its cost would be simply enormous. Television is most effectively accomplished through wire lines and displayed in theatres and auditoriums so that large numbers of people will divide the cost of the presentation. \A / HEN the S. S. Robert E. Lee ran on the * v rocks while en route from Boston to New York on March 9, several broadcasting stations, tending to interfere with the handling of SOS traffic, were very slow in getting off the air. Among the stations named by the Federal Radio Supervisor, were wjz, wrny, and wgl. © Harris & Ewing THE FEDERAL RADIO COMMISSION IS COMPLETE After long delay, the vacancy on the Commission was filled by the President and all the members confirmed by the Senate. From lejt to right: Sam Pickard, C. H. Caldwell, Carl H. Butman (secretary), E. O. Sykes, H. A. Lafount, and !. E. Robinson, chairman