Radio Broadcast (May 1928-Apr 1929)

NOVEMBER, 1928 WHAT IS PUBLIC INTEREST? 17 THE STAGE OF A TELEVISION DRAMA This picture shows how wgy broadcast the first television drama. " The Queen's Messenger." Three television cameras were used — one for each of the two players and the third for the "props" — and by a twist of the knob the director could bring the desired camera into the circuit. Also, a television receiver was installed in the studio to enable the director to check the image where and, by liberal use of time division and limited application of power cuts, the new structure will work a minimum hardship upon station owners. In spite of the dire predictions of opponents to a plan based upon engineering considerations, the plan supports the contention of engineers that allocation, based upon sound technical evaluation of the capacity of the broadcast band, does not require heavy mortality of stations. PLAN BETTER THAN HOPED COR two years, we have urged in these columns * that the number of stations on the air simultaneously be reduced to 200 or 225; the plan exceeds our fondest hopes because it places only 165 stations in simultaneous operation on 74 channels. The balance of the band is reserved for strictly local services. Receivers in good locations will bring in a parade of unheterodyned stations and good programs will again have almost nationwide audiences. The wall of local stations, in congested centers, will be partly levelled. Every section will profit by lessened heterodyning. The South and West are seriously restricted by enforced disuse of available channels. In the South, this is no immediate hardship, as there are fewer stations in operation but, on the Pacific Coast, a great many needless holes in the ether can be credited to the Davis Amendment. We predict one unexpected result of the new broadcasting structure: the restoration of popularity of long-distance listening. Radio reception has arrived at a respectable degree of quality of reproduction. Cleared channels will bring back a limited amount of dial twisting and, within a year or two, long distance will again be a desired quality in a radio receiver. Long distance is the magic of radio, just as speed is the zest of motoring. Beauty in appearance and tone will always predominate as a sales appeal, but the flash of distance will rise again as improved conditions make its enjoyment possible. This repeats in radio the cycle of automobile sales appeal: first, speed, then an era of emphasis on comfort and beauty and, finally, these characteristics combined, as they are in the products of to-day. What Is Public Interest? CJIS G. CALDWELL, as attorney for the Commission, on August 25, issued a detailed interpretation of the so-called publicinterest, convenience and necessity provisions of the Radio Act. Inasmuch as the Commission must, sooner or later, prove in the courts that the new allocation plan is justified by these considerations, that interpretation is virtually the Commission's plan of defense. The statement points out particularly that the Davis Amendment, although calling for equalization of powers and stations in each district, does not set aside the public interest, convenience, and necessity clause and that, therefore, all new stations, authorized in under-quota districts, must pass qualification standards imposed by these four, all-important words. It further points out that renewal of existing licenses is not incumbent upon the Federal Radio Commission, unless it finds that public interest, convenience, and necessity are served; that the issuance of a license is not to be regarded as a finding beyond the duration of the period covered by said license; relicensing in the past, indicating that the station has met the test of public convenience, does not, however, bind the Commission to continue past mistakes, should any have been made inadvertently; that public interest, convenience, and necessity cannot possibly be defined and must be judged by individual situations and condi tions; that there is demand for a variety of services, including high-power service, covering large territories, and low-power service for local interest; that the broadcasting of phonograph records as a considerable part of a station's service is not a public service unless special records are developed for broadcasting only; that advertising should be incidental to a real service rendered by a program; that stations of 500 watts power or more should not be located in thickly inhabited communities; that very low-power stations should not be permitted in very large cities; such channels being more usefully employed in smaller towns; that the character and financial responsibility of applicants for licenses are important considerations; that broadcasting time should not be used to air discussions of a private nature; that stations, not operating on a regular schedule, do not serve the public; that a broadcaster, who is not sufficiently concerned with public interest to equip his transmitter with adequate frequency control or check thereon, is not entitled to a broadcasting license. These considerations were the basis upon which the practical application of the broadcast allocation plan were founded when the Commissioners made their individual station assignments to national, regional, and local channels. The Race for Television Publicity THE race for television publicity continues. The latest to score is the Westinghouse Company, which demonstrated a sixty-line television scanner and reproducer. This is ten lines better than the television elephant which the Bell Laboratories built some years ago. Instead of scanning a living subject, light was passed tothe photo-electric cell through amotionpicture film. This was proclaimed in the newspapers as a radical invention, although the first broadcasting of radio movies, as we recall it, was demonstrated to members of Harding's cabinet seven years ago. by C. Francis Jenkins. With amazing ingenuousness, the Westinghouse publicity stated that Mr. Conrad began his television researches only three months ago. The uselessness of the device from a practical viewpoint could be gleaned from a single statement in the publicity to the effect that the fre quencies used to transmit the sixty-line picture lay between 500 and 60,000 cycles, so that a total of 1 50,000 cycles of ether space would be required to radiate the signal by the conventional, double-side-band method. An extra 5000-cycle wave was used for synchronizing purposes. The usual statement was made that the device would be marketed by the Radio Corporation of America when ready for public consumption. Mr. H. P. Davis, Vice-President of the Westinghouse Company, also stated to the press that the device would soon be ready for the home user. So are steam yachts! IVRNY Television Transmissions STATION wrny began its transmissions on August 21. Its television signal is now heard from the fifth to the tenth minute of each hour that the station is on the air. A 48-line picture is transmitted on the broadcast band, but its channel width is restricted by sending only 7.5 pictures a second instead of sixteen. This does not improve the quality of the transmission. A Milestone in Television THE first time that remote-control television broadcasting has ever been undertaken was the occasion of Governor Smith's acceptance speech on August 27. On this occasion, wgy installed its portable television transmitter, which makes a 24-line picture, at the State House in Albany. The television signal was transmitted through eighteen miles of wire and then radiated by wgy, the General Electric station at Schenectady. The television pick-up equipment, erected near the microphone, consisted of three units, two tripod-mounted, photo-electric cells in boxes, a light source, and a scanning device. The cells were placed at the left of the Governor, within three feet of his face, and the light source between the cells. A 1000-watt lamp was used to play on the Governor's face, the intensity of the light being broken up by a scanning disc. The General Electric people did not issue any applesauce publicity about milestones in history at the time. When they issue a statement that home television is practical, we will believe it.