Radio Broadcast (May 1928-Apr 1929)

256 RADIO BROADCAST SEPTEMBER, 1928 able expressions; kyw, wgn-wlib, wmaq-wqj, WLS, WBBM-WJBT, WENR, WEBH-WJJD and WCFL. STATIONS whas and wlac, both in the southern district, are installing 5,000-watt transmitters. THE Van Sweringen interests and the Cleveland Electrical Illuminating Company are taking over the operation of wtam-wear, according to a local news item. STATIONS webj and wlbm, in the first district, have done the most graceful courtesy to the radio audience by voluntarily surrendering their licenses. Hundreds of less considerate and less experienced organizations are quite ready to take their places as broadcasters. THE Independent Broadcasters' Association has been formed in Chicago with the executives of stations wcrw, wpep, wcbs, whbl and wkbb represented among its officers. In its initial statement, the Association says "the right of communities to have local broadcasting stations, as they have local newspapers, is at stake. No one would suggest that 50 smaller newspapers should be destroyed to make room for a single national magazine." If the nation's available supply of printing presses were limited to 89, there is no question that the limited facilities would be doled out among the greatest and best possible newspapers. It begins to look like intentional stupidity when self-styled defenders of special groups proclaim their alleged right to frequency space which should serve millions. Broadcasting is wholly unsuited to take the place of a local meeting hall or a local newspaper. It is a national and regional medium and the sooner it ceases to be chamber of commerce ballyhoo, the sooner radio will grow to its true force. A TEN per cent reduction in the rate applying to radiograms between the United States and Australia is the result of linking Rocky Point with the short-wave beam service between Montreal and Melbourne. THE Dollar Lines are erecting twenty i-kw. shore stations in New York, San Francisco, Manila, Honolulu and Shanghai, at a total cost of a million dollars, utilizing the new channels assigned them in the 20-meter band. They announce a combination radio and mail service to China at low rates, consisting of radio direct to ships en route to China and thence by mail on arrival at Shanghai. REPRESENTATIVES of the Canadian Government are making another plea for additional inroads into our overburdened frequency allocations in order to extend still further their broadcasting services. Canada now has six exclusive channels and twelve shared channels, as compared with 77 exclusive channels and twelve shared channels for the United States. It has only 5.5 stations per channel as compared with 7.7 in the United States. Our frequency space is approximately five times as extensive as that assigned to Canada, but our population is twelve times as large and the number of radio sets twenty-five times as large. The total power of our broadcasting stations per channel is somewhat over three times that of the Canadian channels. When the Canadian commissioners visited the United States, shortly after the appointment of the Federal Radio Commission a year and a half ago, we urged that they be given a just A PICTURE WIRING DIAGRAM FOR THE BLIND The large sheet of paper which the blind man holds is a receiver constructional data sheet printed in the Braille system for the blind, with a wiring diagram in relief dots. It was printed by the American Braille Press, in cooperation with French radio corporations, which furnished the skeleton framework m the blind man s left hand. The framework is furnished with tuning dials marked with raised characters. share of the broadcast band, particularly in view of the miserable pirating by American stations then current. They were dealt with generously and are not loading their channels nearly as heavily as we are. Hence their present plea is made without full appreciation of the justice of the situation. THE Chairman of the Federal Radio Commission, Judge Robinson, during a visit of inspection in New York early in June with Commissioner Caldwell, issued a forceful statement to the effect that "on all hands it is conceded that, for the general public interest, there must be fewer stations. . . . The fulfillment of the law implies more than mere local interests, likes and dislikes. In major consideration, the problem is a national one. For the good of the whole country, not so many stations as formerly will be licensed in certain sections of the Union. The Federal Radio Commission knows exactly what it is doing and that it is acting within its definite powers." Rumors reach us that this decisive opinion, expressed by the newest Commissioner, will be crystalized in a definite plan of allocation to be put in effect on September 1. Judge Robinson is to be congratulated upon the speed with which he has grasped the crux of the radio problem and for his definiteness in stating, in no uncertain terms, what course the Commission proposes to follow. The first public statements of most of the Commissioners have been farcical statements of optimism to the effect that radio is not as bad as it sounds. ANEW 3 5,000-watt broadcasting station, operating on 1525 meters, has been placed in operation at Lahtis, Finland. /^OMMANDER HOOPER, in a memoran^ dum to the Federal Radio Commission on short-wave allocations, stated that the increase in foreign short-wave stations since March 20 has been fifty per cent as compared with two per cent in the United States. It must be realized, however, that the numerous American services established before that date serve to give us a predominant position in the short-wave field. THE opening of direct radio telephone communication between Holland and the Dutch East Indies was staged at the International Press Exhibit at Cologne on May 28. The dispatch was so garbled that the exact locations of the stations in Holland and Java involved cannot be given. RADIO was honored by a place in the Republican platform, drafted at Kansas City, with an innocuous platitude to the effect that the Republican party is in favor of radio broadcasting. The election of Candidate Hoover, however, would be a great blessing to radio because he understands its problems thoroughly by intimate contact therewith and has had actual experience with broadcasting problems. Governor Smith, the Democratic nominee, also appreciates the value of radio as a medium of political expression, although we would not like to see his private method of pronouncing the word "radio" become the generally accepted usage. THE United States Customs Court sustained the protest filed by H. Scott Martin that the duty assessed on radio tubes should be 30 per cent, instead of 40 per cent, because they should be classified as "machines and parts thereof not specifically provided for" rather than "manufactures of metal, not specifically provided for" as they have been classified by customs collectors in the past. THE Zenith Radio Corporation, in its annual report, covering the operations of the last ten months, reports net earnings of $727,995.29, after deducting depreciation, commissions, bonuses, royalties and taxes. Inventory amounts to about a quarter of a million. npHOMAS A EDISON will build combiI nation electric phonographs and radio receivers in cooperation with Splitdorf. Presumably these sets will be for listening to sporting events which, according to Mr. Edison's statement some months ago, is the only useful service so unmusical a device as radio can render. J. D. R. FREED was recently issued patent No. 1,671,959, describing the use of bypass condensers as a means of eliminating reactive coupling in radio circuits. If this patent is sustained in the courts, practically every receiving set manufactured will fall within the scope of its claims. It looks like a great opportunity for a lot of lawyers to make a lot of money. . . . Judge J. Brewster of the U. S. District Court in Massachusetts held, in a decision favorable to the Hiler Audio Company and unfavorable to the General Radio Company, based on patent 1,589,692, that the patent is basic for all forms of doubleimpedance audio frequency when plate and grid impedance are located within one can or housing. The decision ought to please the can manufacturers. ... A recent list of licensees under John V. L. Hogan's patent No. 1,014,002 reveals that over 90 per cent, of the radio sets manufactured this year are licensed under that single control patent. . . . The Lektophone Corporation has completed negotiations with Standard Telephones & Cables, Ltd., London, to represent the corporation in Europe. — E. H. F.