Radio Broadcast (May 1928-Apr 1929)

RADIO BROADCAST Dr. Walter G. Cady, head of the Department of Physics at Wesleyan University, has been awarded by the I. R. E. the 1928 Morris Liebmann Memorial prize for the year's outstanding accomplishment in radio THE latest edition of the annual list of amateur radio stations in the United States includes the call letters, names, and addresses of the operators of 16,928 amateur transmitting stations. W. D. Terrell, chief of the Radio Division of the Department of Commerce, reports that 2983 applicants for commercial operators' licenses and 5687 for amateur licenses were given examinations during the current year. With the Broadcasting Stations HARRY BELLOWS, Manager of wcco, Minneapolis, has announced his desire to utilize only those network programs he selects from the offerings of the N. B. C. and Columbia systems. While such freedom of choice is desirable from the standpoint of the local station manager, the widespread adoption of this attitude would make the economic position of the purveyors of wiresyndicated programs unstable. Wire networks cannot be conducted economically unless a reasonable number of hours are used by all the stations served. Furthermore, the commercial broadcasters, who make chain broadcasting possible, are not justified in excessively high talent cost unless a considerable number of stations distribute the programs. Nevertheless, Mr. Bellows is pointing the way to a trend which will ultimately gain headway. With the improvement in recording musical programs upon films and records, we may eventually see a lessened use of the wire method of distributing programs. If this trend is ever carried to the point that wire distribution of programs becomes uneconomic, however, it would be a great loss to broadcasting in that permanently set-up, nationwide networks could no longer be maintained. Then great broadcasting events, such as presidential speeches and sporting events, could no longer be broadcast on a nationwide scale simultaneously with their occurrence. Hence, this trend is acceptable only to the point that it does not affect the stability of wire-syndicated program service. T^OR the purpose of record, we present the following figures from the St. Louis PostDispatch, summarizing the now-forgotten, radio presidential campaign: Time used in nationwide hook-ups, 50 hours to a side. Stations broadcasting Smith's acceptance speech, 115, a record number. Stations broadcasting Hoover's acceptance speech, 107. Average price an hour, about $7500 Democratic appropriation for radio, $600,000; spent nearly $650,000. Bepublican appropriation for radio, $400,000; believed to have spent practically as much as the Democrats. Total radio expenditures of both parties, including local spot broadcasting, estimated at $2,000,000. Replies from listeners: Democratic, 250,000 letters, 10,000 telegrams, $600,000 in cash contributions. Republican, 100,000 letters and heavy contributions. Compare this with the very limited use of broadcasting in the previous campaign, amounting to forty or fifty thousand dollars for each party. CONGRESSMAN EMMANUEL CELLER, appearing for wnyc in its efforts to replace wmca, which shares its 570-kc. channel, stated that wnyc being a municipal station, operated by a government body, has superior rights over a commercial station. Were such a principle recognized, it would be unfortunate because municipal or state operation does not by any means insure su perior service to the listeners. It would not be difficult, were municipal and state stations held superior to commercial stations, to completely dominate the dials with municipal, political, chamber of commerce, and state university broadcasting stations. Many of these, no doubt, serve a useful purpose, but they are very far from representing a substantial part of the listener's service. rT,HE Department of Commerce has ordered special radio receivers, equipped with accurate means of measuring frequencies, to check broadcasting stations. No matter how perfectly allocation is worked out, if stations do not adhere closely to their assigned frequencies, serious heterodynes are bound to result. Some of the deviations of channel assignments are sufficiently great to be observable with an ordinary commercial receiver, if the owner takes the time to plot a dial settingfrequency curve. Captain Guy Hill, the Federal Radio Commission's engineer in charge of broadcasting, reported, among others, deviations of wkbq, 25,400 cycles high ; wnj, 18,000 cycles low; wevd, 8900 cycles high; wafd, 73,200 cycles low, and wsdtj 20,100 cycles high. Such extraordinary deviations are adequate evidence of total technical incompetence, sufficient to warrant cancellation of stations' licenses. With the imperfection of even the best kind of crystal control, moderate and occasional deviations are not entirely avoidable, but some of the deviations noted amount to from two to five degrees on the ordinary radio receiver dial and only the most moderate technical skill is required to avoid them. r I "'HE Federal Radio Commission's decision to revoke the 1000-watt construction permit granted wil, after kwk had successfully prosecuted a hearing for full time on the 1350-kc. channel which wil expected to share with it, is illustrative of the precarious character of the broadcasting business. Construction permits should not be granted on terms which involve curtailing the power or time of established stations without first obtaining a waiver from the stations involved. While we have little sympathy for anyone who constructs a broadcasting station in an area already receiving adequate service, we feel that those having the courage to invest in new broadcasting facilities should at least be given every reasonable protection. Wil will not even have the satisfaction of offering an opening program with its new 1000-watt transmitter, the construction of which was entered upon only after a proper permit had been obtained from the Commission. \ CCORDING to press reports of the evidence of Hugo Gernsback, appearing on behalf of his station, wrny, before the Commission, the Edison Hour has cost the New York Edison Company as much as $20,000 in a single week. This is the highest cost for talent ever reported for a single feature of that character. The Edison Orchestra is not at all unusual and it is amazing to learn that this feature costs twenty times the average of similar features of equal program merit. Progress in Short and Long-Wave Radio A COMPREHENSIVE report concerning high-frequency allocations, prepared for the Federal Radio Commission by T. A. M. Craven, emphasizes the importance of accurate maintenance of assigned frequen • february, 1929 . . . page 235 •