Radio Broadcast (May 1928-Apr 1929)

JANUARY, 1929 WITH THE BROADCASTING STATIONS 165 A RADIO STATION IN THE WILDERNESS This picture shows the forest camp at Red Lake, Ontario, Canada, which is one of the nine places in that district where short-wave radio stations have been installed to keep airplanes and forest rangers in the vicinity in touch with headquarters. The radio shack is in the building next to the tower, the latter being used to dry hose after a forest fire. The call letters of the station are VEpBD. A further and more serious ioss in the effectiveness of broadcasting is the remoteness of benefit to the sponsor who has presented an entertaining program. The art of capitalizing the broadcasting effort is the least developed phase of commercial broadcasting. As the ingenuity of the devices employed to bring actual consciousness of sponsorship relation to the program offered increases, it will place even greater valuations upon the possibilities of commercial broadcasting. Another research of great interest has been prepared by the Dartnell Corporation of Chicago, entitled "The Use and Limitations of Radio Advertising." After quoting a number of authorities on the scope and suitability of broadcasting to various classes of business, it summarizes for the first time the actual appropriations expended by most leading commercial sponsors over a period of years and classifies them according to the character of each sponsor's business. /~~\NE of the principal test cases before the Commission at this time, which will determine its jurisdiction, is that pending in Chicago. Wok-wmbb has advertised its intention of going on the air in spite of the fact that the Commission has denied it a license. The moot question of property rights with a 20,000-watt transmitter, representing a considerable investment, is squarely the issue of the case. The District Court for the Northern District of Illinois denied an application for an injunction against the District Attorney who was seeking to enforce the Federal Radio Commission's assignment under the new allocation plan on wcrw. The Court held that wcrw had not exhausted the avenues provided in the Radio Act for a consideration of its case before applying for an injunction restraining the Commission. The Radio Act was held constitutional in* this decision. THE Federal Radio Commission issued regulations for synchronizing experiments which are helpful in that they lay a definite basis for such work in the future. They are rather stringent, requiring several months of test before the results can be applied under average broadcasting conditions. In fact, the safeguards which the Commission has placed on these experiments are so complex that they will discourage any but the most advanced laboratories from even undertaking such work. However, the public should be protected against experiments undertaken principally to secure publicity rather than scientific results and, if the regulations prove too burdensome to promote progress, the Commission will, doubtless, modify them slightly. GENERAL Order No. 48, of the Commission permits stations, licensed to operate during daytime, only, on clear channels belonging to other zones, to take advantage of the silent evening hours of the major station. This is a wise regulation because many of the stations in the far west, assigned to cleared channels, begin operation at six or seven p. m. instead of directly at sunset, thereby leaving valuable hours available, under the new regulation, to the eastern stations assigned with them. AN INTERESTING sidelight on the comparative values of broadcasting and newspaper advertising appeal, under very special conditions, is revealed in the remarks of Scott Howe Bowen at the National Association of Broadcasters convention in October. He stated: "The Democratic National Committee spent §35,000 in a series of newspaper advertisements and received in return less than $2000 in contributions. It later employed a network of National Broadcasting Company stations at a cost of $4000, which brought in $70,000 in contributions. Another experiment, through the Columbia network, involving an expenditure of $2000, brought in §50,000 in contributions." Commercial Radio Telegraphy and Telephony THE latest addition to the international telephone service is the linking of the United States and Austria by the Bell System. THE Mackay System is beginning the construction of radio-telegraph stations to inaugurate commercial and press service between San Francisco, Honolulu and Manila. This duplicates the existing network of the Radio Corporation of America and is another step in the intensive competition rapidly developing in American world-wide communication. GENERAL Order No. 51 of the Commission requires discontinuance of the use of spark transmitters employing damped waves except in the case of ship stations. This is the formal embodiment of the final elimination of what was once a problem of great proportions, the interference created by commercial spark stations upon broadcast reception. THE African Broadcasting Company, Ltd., which has practical control of broadcasting in the South African Union, appears at last to be established on a sound commercial basis, fo llowing its many vicissitudes of previous years. The company reports some three thousand new subscribers and a decrease in the number of listeners in Johannesburg who have, in the past, been evading the payment of license fees. With the Radio Manufacturers THE Kolster Radio Corporation announces successful experiments with a beam antenna, the angle of which may be changed to compensate fading effects. Dr. Kolster also announces a small, directreading, radio compass for small vessels which can take bearings for distances up to approxi mately 25 miles. The over-all height of the instrument is^only three and a half feet. THE Radio Manufacturers' Association has apparently repudiated its agreement with the National Electrical Manufacturers' Association, which provided that R. M. A. would review NEMA standards and thus centralize standardization work in NEMA's hands. It has issued a 25-page leaflet of standards which differ in minor respects from the NEMA standards and are not as comprehensively or as satisfactorily compiled as the 150-page book which has heretofore been the sole standard authority of the industry. No explanation has been made by R. M. A. for its attempt to restore chaos in the standardization situation. THE details of the new Radio-Albee Orpheum combination have been announced. A holding company, to be known as RadioKeithOrpheum with David Sarnoff as Chairman of the Board, has been formed and two classes of stock issued, 3,500,000 shares being Class A and 500,000 Class B, the latter being assigned to the Radio Corporation for a photofilm license. Dividends will be divided in the ratio of 1,100,000 shares to Keith-Orpheum, 500,000 to R. C. A. and 200,000 to F. B. O. NEGOTIATIONS between Columbia Graphophone, Columbia Phonograph, Western Electric and Electric Research Products Corporation are said to be nearing completion. This makes a set-up quite similar to the R. C. A.'s association with Victor Talking Machine and requires only the addition of a film company to the Columbia group to round it out. THE R. C. A. has incorporated two export subsidiaries, the R. C. A. of Argentina, Ltd. and the R. C. A. of Brazil. THE bi-annual census of manufacturers shows a 32.3 per cent, gain in the value of radio B and C batteries manufactured in 1 927 as compared with 1925. The figures for the two years were respectively approximately $25,000,000 and $33,000,000. ATWATER KENT has broken ground for a new three-million-dollar factory which will double its output and make it the largest radio factory in the world. — E. H. F. D