Radio Broadcast (May 1929-Apr 1930)

OF RADIO 69 Stores in Radio's Largest Chain The New Grand Island Radio Station < standard radio receivers. But, if legitimate radio manufacturers cooperate in extending distribution through automotive outlets, they will hasten the day when there are no more radio dealers and when radio receives only the attention given to seasonal side lines. More Patent Difficulties on the Way The decision of Judge Hugh M. Morris, holding that the Radio Corporation of America has infringed U. S. patents 1,455,141 and 1,635,117, popularly known as the Lowell and Dunmore patents, threatens to present further serious difficulties to radio manufacturers. Substantially these patents describe methods of eliminating the hum induced in radio receivers by power-supply devices. Actually, there are a considerable number of patents not covered by the Radio Corporation license to set manufacturers which are as yet unadjudicated. Many of these concern such fundamental principles as shielding, by-passing, and gang condenser construction. In absence of adjudications, such patents receive scant attention from the industry. These patents are held largely by individual inventors and, if the license scales proposed are any criterion, their values are placed sufficiently high to discourage outright purchase in advance of litigation. It will be some years before we are at the end of infringement difficulties of this kind which, if favorably adjudicated, require that the entire industry make its terms with individual inventors. The New Monitoring Station The Monitoring station, to be erected by the Department of Commerce at Grand Island, Nebraska, will serve the field of radio communications throughout the world much as the British Observatory at Greenwich has influenced astronomy and navigation. We expect that the Grand become the criterion by which frequencies are judged and thereby present the solution of many of the problems of frequency stability. One of the great difficulties existing today is that we have no generally available yardstick by means of which frequency standards may be readily compared. Much heterodyning would be eliminated if stations adhered to their reveals many more places with a heterodyne than points of good reception. Were the public not accustomed to securing its radio entertainment from two or three nearby local stations the present conditions would be intolerable. Improved con ■RAD/O A/£l<JHBOJ?HC WO STOKE, Island station will assigned frequencies. The amount of deviation tolerated is positively amazing and goes a long way toward rendering the work of the Federal Radio Commission less effective. A tour of the dials with any sensitive receiver at almost any location ditions, brought about by accurate frequency adherence, would make radio more acceptable to the rural listener. Radio's Largest Chain Store The Atlas Stobes Corporation, of Philadelphia, has purchased City Radio Stories and Davega, Inc., through an exchange of stock. The consolidated earnings of the combined companies last year were $1,400,000. The Atlas Corporation will have 69 radio stores in operation when the merger is completed and will thus be the largest radio chain in existence. Although chain store methods are making tremendous inroads into many forms of retail merchandising, they threaten least goods of occasional turnover and infrequent renewal. Drug and grocery products can be effectively sold through chain store merchandising methods because a wide variety of items is handled and the purchaser is protected by standardized and labelled goods. The average grocery or drug purchase involves a small amount with the result that individual reputation and personality in selling, a factor submerged by chain distribution methods, is not of vital importance. Radio chain selling has been successful only in concentrated markets in major cities where bargain hunters and experimenters still flourish. Radio Commission Reorganized The Federal Radio Commission has been reorganized in accordance with recommendations of government efficiency experts. With the exception of the chairman, each member of the commission has been appointed to head a division of its activities, Commissioner Sykes being head of the legal division, Saltzman engineering, Lafount field investigation, and Starbuck liaison. Sub-committees have been established on hearings, courts and legislation, on budget and control, on planning and policies, and on procedure and publicity. Hearings will be taken by special examiners who will report the evidence to the full membership of the Commission. This form of organization should improve greatly the consistency of the policies adopted by the Commission. — E. H. F. • NOVEMBER 1929 L • 29