Radio Broadcast (May 1928-Apr 1929)

Record Details:

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WITH THE BROADCASTING STATIONS 93 THE RADIO OPERATOR OF THE COURTNEY FLIGHT AND HIS APPARATUS Hugh Gilmour, the radio operator who accompanied Captain Courtney on his attempt to fly the Atlantic, is shown in his London home with the apparatus which he removed from the Dornier Wal flying boat when he was rescued by a life boat from the " Minnewaska" after floating in the ocean for fifteen hours. share in the early days to introduce broadcasting to New York. /^\NE of the more ambitious of applicants for short waves is the newly formed Universal Wireless Communication Company which wants no less than 116 short-wave channels. To begin its proposed service, it asks for an experimental license to operate a New York-Chicago circuit, to be followed, upon its success, by stations in fifty leading cities. There is no indication of the competence of the organization involved or its financial resources in the press dispatches. Certainly, its sponsors are not overburdened with modesty because they have the courage to ask for frequency space worth many millions of dollars. A considerable number of non-communication companies have applied for short-wave channels. Perhaps one of the most interesting applications is that of the Montgomery-Ward Company, which wishes to link nine factory branches, three hundred existing stores, and ultimately 1500 stores by short-wave radio telegraphy. The means now used for communication purposes for this extensive group are the mails because telegraphy is too expensive for the purpose. If a rental had to be paid the Government for the use of a channel, proportionate to its worth, it is unlikely that many of the private services now contemplated would be undertaken. The situation with respect to short waves is exactly similar to what would occur if we could have free telegraph lines, the only expense to the user being to furnish key and operator. Perhaps many of the Government's problems could be solved by turning over the channels in each class of service to the highest bidder. Such a process would be a shocking one to those who consider radio a democratic Utopia, but it would eliminate a lot of the useless fighting now going on; limit the employment of radio to services in which it is truly superior and essential; avoid filling short-wave channels with private services, requiring discrimination against late but deserving applicants and, in addition, make radio a revenue producer for the Government. IN SUPPORT of the Radio Corporation of * America's application for 67 short wavelengths its representatives stated before the Commission that its principal purpose was to distribute 10,000 incoming transatlantic radiograms and 2000 transpacific radiograms daily. 95 per cent, of these messages are addressed to individuals and corporations in thirty leading cities, which it is proposed to link. The R.C.A.'s representative stated that Western Union, with its 25,000 offices, and Postal with its 2000, are unwilling to make satisfactory arrangements for handling these messages. The proposed radiogram forwarding business is not enormous and it seems unfortunate that a special system of communication must be set up in competition with existing nationwide systems of wire communication to handle such a reasonable amount of traffic. It is within the Commission's jurisdiction, in considering the merits of this application for short waves, to inquire why the wire facilities of the country are not available on satisfactory terms to handle the traffic involved. With the Broadcasting Stations ANEW departure in political programs was offered by the Democrats when they put on Irving Berlin, William Collierand Gene Buck on a coast-to-coast network, together with Fred Barrens' Democrat Orchestra. That political speeches require entertainment support has always been recognized, but this was the first political broadcasting accompanied by a goodwill, musical program. WALTER DAMROSCH, the dean of American orchestral conductors, has always found the education of children in music his happiest work. Under the sponsorship of the Radio Corporation of America, he is now enabled to carry this out on a more extensive scale than he dreamed possible ten years ago. He is directing forty-eight school concerts in four series, each series designed for a different group of school and high-school students. The first series is for children of the third and fourth grades; the second for the fifth and sixth grades; the third for seventh grade and junior high school; and the fourth for high schools and colleges. In this series, Mr. Damrosch takes up each instrument and describes its part in the spectrum of music. He also analyzes various musical themes in a carefully worked out curriculum. Schools are actively taking advantage of this meritorious educational use of broadcasting. THE Bureau of Standards is undertaking the calibration of crystal oscillators for broadcasting stations on a moderate schedule of fees. The tremendous volume of work entailed in preparing for the new allocation requirements is, no doubt, overwhelming the personnel of the Bureau. We can count on the customary faithfulness of Bureau of Standards employees to do the job with the utmost speed consistent with the standards of accuracy which they maintain. AN IMPORTANT addition to the Columbia chain is wbbm of Chicago which, for its power, has extremely good coverage in the central west. \ A / LS, the famous Sears-Roebuck station in * " Chicago, has been sold to the publication, The Prairie Farmer . E. L. Bill has been retained as its director. Inquiring persons point out that the Commission is not required to approve this sale and that it is not under obligation to grant a license to the station under the new ownership. DY INCREASING its power to 10,000 watts, kwkh becomes the South's most powerful station. \ A/LW of Cincinnati and wtic of Hartford, ' " Conn., officially have been granted 25,000watt construction permits and may use an additional 25,000 watts experimentally. THE Federal Radio Commission quickly yielded to the protest of Iowa, demanding an exclusive channel, to which it is entitled under the quota arrangement of the Davis Amendment. Because of congestion in Chicago, the Commission, in its original set-up, had borrowed a channel for that city from Iowa. This is the first, but not the last, example which will show how useless the borrowing clause will prove in practice. When there is a universal shortage of any commodity, it becomes impossible to find anyone who will loan freely to others. Certainly, nobody feels inclined to make any sacrifices so that Chicago may have additional stations. AN OPINION by Federal Judge James H. \V ilkerson confirmed the right of the Federal Radio Commission to regulate wavelengths and the power of broadcasting stations under the Radio Act of 1927. This decision was rendered in Chicago in the case of Stations wcrw and wedc, which stated that the Commission's power reduction, required under the new allocation plan, represented confiscation of property without due process of law. The effect of the decision is merely to change the scene of argument from a Chicago court to one in Washington where, under the Radio Act, such appeals must be brought. Progress in the Field oj Aircraft Radio THE first of a more powerful type of radio transmitter installations at an important aircraft junction point is to be completed at Cleveland, Ohio, in the near future. It is of 2000-watt power and promises to give reliable radio-telephone communication with aircraft in flight for a distance of a hundred miles and many times that distance by telegraphy. The standard aircraft frequency of 335 kc. will be employed. Eleven aircraft centers, other than Cleveland, are being installed at the present time, and all of them will be in operation within the next six months.