Radio Broadcast (May 1929-Apr 1930)

OF RADIO The Radio Commission's Vacation Federal Court Upholds the Radio Act < nically trained specialist of such a high order that he cannot be expected to possess other special knowledge. Nor is the day far distant when no installation of any kind will be required to make the radio set function other than plugging it into the tight socket. Antenna and ground will not require separate connections because both of these will be obtained through the power b'ne or otherwise. Service is already a decreasing problem and, compared with the day that storage batteries had to be charged and "B" batteries renewed, it has become negligible. Aside from reducing cost of manufacture, the most effective attack on reducing cost to the consumer is by making the lot of the dealer more profitable and more stable. The present position of the industry, with its large dealer discount, is peculiarly unsatisfactory to all parties. The solution does not lie in larger discounts but in an improvement in retail distribution to insure greater profits with smaller discounts. The function of the radio dealer as a whole is uneconomic because he works at full efficiency only a small fraction of the year. It is needless to say that there are numerous exceptions and that many dealers are making substantial and regular profits. The exceptions do not alter the facts. The important point is that the general level of prosperity of the radio dealer must be improved by making him work efficiently at all seasons and turn in a profit at the end of every month. A Medal for Commissioner Lqfount While vacationing at Grafton, W. Va., Judge Ira E. Robinson, Chairman of the Federal Radio Commission, statsd in an address before the Grafton Rotary Club that he had fought a hard battle in order "that radio will always be preserved for the common use and not for the gain of powerful combines. . . I have fought all along for the people's rights as against the demands of the R. C. A. and other companies that would take complete charge of the nation's air channels for commercial uses." Even when he is resting, the doughty commissioner has his hatchet ready! The only question which is unanswered is whether, in opposing the Radio Corporation, the commissioner is not taking a stand against the ultimate welfare of the nation. Decentralized and competitive communications are bound to be inefficient and costly. The attempt to make communications highly competitive means nothing less than a complete surrender of American solidarity in the spirited international competition for independent worldwide systems of communication. But it is not hard to understand the commissioner's hesitation in trusting the future of communications to a single group of capital. Our legislators, however, have been able to permit monopolistic operation of other quasi-public functions, such as railroads, telephones, and power systems, by establishing suitable regulation. Would it not be more to the interests of the people at large to permit the continued growth and building up of an efficient and unified interna tional communications system and, by suitable regulation, to prevent the monopolistic communication organization, built up under its control, from misapplying its great powers? While Commissioner Robinson was thus theorizing at home, Harry A. Lafount visited every corner of his extensive fifth zone. He conferred with 276 individuals representing broadcasting stations, 46 desiring construction permits for 31 new stations, 29 representatives of chambers of commerce, 118 spokesmen for listeners' clubs from 19 cities, 172 persons pleading for public or private companies using radio for communication purposes, 27 who want to use radio for private message transmission, 16 amateurs, and the representatives of air transport companies at 16 airports. Through this active and conscientious study on the ground of conditions within his zone, Commissioner Lafount is thoroughly conversant with the problems as they exist among broadcast listeners and the various fields of communication, including the newest and potentially one of the greatest, aircraft communications. Commissioner Starbuck spent considerable time on aircraft allocations, held conferences in Washington with shortwave experts and representatives of the air transport companies, and prepared reports and conclusions. Commissioner Saltzman and Commissioner Sykes were not heard from, presumably because they did not address the chambers of commerce in their home cities. They, doubtless, did not dismiss radio from their considerations during the months of relief from Washington hearings. We take this occasion to pin an imaginary, but none the less genuine, medal upon the breast of Commissioner Lafount for his conspicuous and outstanding conscientiousness which is only too little appreciated by the radio public and the radio industry which it supports. There is no more thankless job than that of being Federal Radio Commissioner and Commissioner Lafount's devotion to his task is worthy of the utmost public commendation. We have no hesitation in saying that we greatly admire and appreciate his efforts. The Courts Strengthen Commission s Position although it has not received much attention in the i\ press, the decision of Federal Judge Wilkerson, of _L A_ Chicago, granting an injunction against the American Bond & Mortgage Company, applied for by the Federal Government to restrain that company from operating station wok without a license, is a broad and substantial upholding of the Radio Act. The decision not only affirms the Federal Radio Commission's control over broadcasting and its powers to close down stations without violation of the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution, regarding property rights, but it is a most scholarly and studied opinion. Judge Wilkerson fully understood the problem and set forth all the important points bearing on the situation of federal regulation of broadcasting in this masterly decision. — E. H. F. • OCTOBER 1929 • • 335