Radio digest (1922)

71 and Olenn. Note there have been plenty of same ' showing those of WENR and WLW of late, but ' lot a one of WTAM. — W. G. Woodruff. Youngstown, Ohio. Well Have to Ask Marcella Have been taking the Radio Digest most a year ! now, and have enjoyed reading it very much. Has J jeen very interesting. Would be very glad to see (and hear more of WEAF artists whenever you [find space for them. Also their popular anInouncers, Pat. Kelly. Geo. Hicks, J. Young, KelI vin Keach, Ed. Thorgenson. Ford Bond. Alvin Bock, and may I ask, what has become of Frank Vallin and Kenneth Weir? I never hear them any more. Would like, too, to see a picture of "Cheerio" and all associated with his morning broadcast, also Major Bowes and his family. The Digest certainly has been very interesting, and would be more so if we could see and hear more of the artists we listen to.— Mrs. R. F. Jennings, Middletown, Conn. Marcella Says, "Thank You, Thank You" Just read the March issue of Radio Digest, and I certainly found it interesting. Marcella's department containing so much interesting information regarding the entertainers, was certainly appreciated by me, and I am sure by all others who have learned to know the different artists, and. although this is the first time I have ever read Radio Digest, I assure you I will be a constant reader from now on. I think that Everett Mitchell and Irma Glenn have more personality than any artist I have ever heard over the Radio, and will watch for any information regarding them with deep interest. Certainly would like to see pictures of them, and hope they will appear in an early issue. Can photographs of the WENR artists be secured by an individual, and, if so, how may they be obtained? [Ed.: Afraid not.] Want to again assure you of my appreciation of your interesting magazine, and of your department in particular.— Mrs. C. D. Rector, 4226 Sunset Ave., Indianapolis, Ind. I like the Radio Digest better than any magazine we take. Couldn't enjoy my Radio properly without it to tell me about the artists-, announcers, etc. With best wishes for your continued success. — (Miss) Sue Dickerson. Lexington, Ky. The Friend of the Farmer, WLS I can't tell you how much I enjoy the Radio Digest. It is the best Radio book on the newsstand. I can hardly wait each month for it to come. WLS is our favorite station. We live in town, but were once farmers. But that is not the reason why we like WLS. I have a grudge against WENR for taking WLS's time. I surely hope that they will get their time back. WLS has the best programs on the air— something different besides the same old jazz music. There is plenty of that anyhow. I wonder why WENR didn't attack WGN instead of WLS. Their programs aren't any good. WENR sure makes a poor station to help the farmer. Farmer Rusk ought to be put off the air. They are not interested in the farmer. Just trying to put WLS off the air. Well, if they do, I wish them all the ill luck any one can wish them. All our friends think just the same as we do.— Pete Lund, 321 22nd PI., Clinton, Iowa. For Five o'Clock Hawaiians I am writing to tell you how I enjoy your magazine. I like the stories and enjoy seeing pictures of the Radio artists. I wish you would print the picture of the Five o'Clock Hawaiians of WLW. I have often wondered what they were like. — Nellie Macy, Carthage, Indiana. Help to Working People I find most all the stations very good and a great help to us poor hard working people. We are generally too tired to go out of an evening, and have very little money to spend on pleasures. Yet we can sit at home in an easy chair and enjoy a good piece of music or a good story dramatized, and in the daytime, when we women folks are at work in our home we can tune in and have good music and keep on at our house work or mending, or whatever our duty may be, and there are lots of helps and hints given from different stations— Mr. and Mrs. J. W. Van Oasten, Des Moines, Iowa. Favorite Traced in the Digest I am a regular reader and almost a "student" of Radio Digest, and would like to commend you upon a marked improvement, with every issue lately, before I offer an adverse criticism. I have been a Radio fan for more than four years, and know all the important announcers and Radio stars by voice. It surprises me that you have never given us an article, and a good large picture of Jack Brinkley. According to both the New York World and the New York Sun, he is Radio's youngest announcer, and several other metropolitan papers have given him the place as youngest veteran announcer. I kept up with his work on WOR about two years ago, and later his more recent work, on WJZ, and every member of our family has always considered him a favorite. We wondered what had become of him, when he left the NBC several months ago, and were pleased that a mention in your current issue prompted us to tune in on WTIC of Hartford, where we found Mr. Brinkley. According to Harriet Menckin of the New York World, this young man's photograph should be worth a good space, and I am sure there are many others who would like to know more about him, including myself.— Mrs. M. P. Boyd, Richmond, Va. Help! Help! for DX Fans! I have perused the V. O. L. ever since its origin, and find many interesting letters, but, when I read Miss Canniff's letter in the March Radio Digest, my ire was somewhat aroused. I believe that Mr. Freeman's letter (January issue, folks) was interesting to the nth degree. What kind of a receiver can it be that cannot get a "dial full" of chain programs even on the poorest nights? If they MUST be had, why is it necessary to have so many of the country's most powerful stations all broadcasting the same thing, however good it may be. I also believe that Mr. Freeman's laments were well merited, and certainly his reminiscences of the long-to-be-remembered weekly R. D. are well founded. I have read every issue since early 1924, and owe considerable of my success (?) to R. D.'s accurate log of yesteryear, with its "new stations," "station changes" and all the other information so valuable to the DX'er. I wonder if Miss CannifT has considered the many and varied types of listeners, some of which we might class as Cadman adherers, fight fans. Damrosch supporters, jazz maniacs, chain and anti-chain addicts, etc., and last, but not least, the poor misguided DX fan, who sits up in the wee sma' hours combing the ether for "a new one." All these must be served, and the present R. D. serves every type well, with the exception of the last named. It is very informative regarding various station celebrities, Radio stations and their personnel. Who's Who. and, in brief, everything, except a darn good up-to-the-minute directory with all the information dear to the heart of the true DX hound. The magazine part of R. D. has been improved vastly, but at the expense of the previously mentioned section, and it is that section which is most important to a fair majority of the genuine Radio fans. How about it, folks? I have 772 verified receptions, including at least one from every state in the union, 58 Canadian, 56 Pacific Coast stations (including four 100 watters), and various other low powered DX receptions, etc. Four major reasons for a list like this are a fair location (for a GOOD location, move to Calif.), a good receiver, an accurate, dependable log and wave length directory, and infinite study and patience. I would not ever wish to change any part of R. D.'s magazine section and spoil some other fan's pleasure if the directory could be put back to its perfection of former years, or on par with one or two other Radio publications, in this respect. Going back to Miss Canniff's litter, I well remember WTAS at Elgin (and also WCEE, "We Cough Every Evening") and the "King of the Ivories." Charlie Erbstein and Harry Snodgrass were favorites of mine, but I'll bet that there were some fans who thought they were terrible, such is the somewhat varied consensus of opinion.— Henry T. Tyndall, Jr., Burlington, Vt. All of Them, in Good Time We purchased the February issue of the Radio Digest for the first time from a local dealer, and were very much pleased with it. We were particularly interested in the complete Radiologs and the pictures of Radio artists, especially those of Gene Arnold and Paul McClure and his wife. We would like to ask if it is possible to publish a picture of Marion and Jim Jordan of WENR. Little Joe Warner, Little Anne Pickard of the Pickard Family, and Coon-Sanders' Orchestra. In the March issue, I read about Mrs. Beech of Sterling asking for the pictures of the Smith Family, and I would like to second her request. —Miss Vineta Bloom. Freeport, 111. Are There 50,000 Watt Boors? May I have a wee corner of your listener's page on which to work off a little of the vitriol and vinegar which has been distilling in my system ever since the Federal Radio Commission assumed jurisdiction over Uncle Sam's broadcasting stations? Sixty years old, a Radio enthusiast of many years' standing as years are reckoned in Radio chronology, I had, up to the doleful date of that deplorable Radio cataclysm, derived more pleasure from my Radio equipment than from any other single toy I ever possessed. Now, so far as I am concerned, my reproducers are for the most part silent and my Radio investment is moribund. I have owned many receiving sets of different types during the past ten years In the good old pre-Commission days I was able to tune in, on almost any clear winter evening, any one of more than three hundred stations, with little or no interference between stations on adjacent wave-lengths. Now, although the total number of stations in operation is but slightly greater than in — say — 1925, I can bring in scarcely a single one of them without hearing those adjacent on both sides. Worse than that: I often have heard during an evening as many as four stations, successively, each for a moment or two at full volume to the exclusion of the others, without touching the dials; the etheric wave, magnetic disturbance, inductive vibration or whatever it is that bridges the gap between transmitter and receiver, seeming to weave back and forth in periodic surges so that now one, now the other frequency gains temporary ascendancy. . . . It is my belief that this condition is due to the enormously increased power of the wealthier stations during the past few years. . . Why should a few stations be permitted to stand up — exactly like drunken boors at a community social — and each endeavor to outshout the other without regard to the rights and privileges of more conservative stations and without respect for the preferences of the listening public? What profiteth it a super-power station whose sole purpose of existence is to sell peanuts, cigarettes or toothpaste to break in upon a program of real music, an educational lecture, or perhaps a religious service, to bruit the excellence of its wares in stentorian tones that carry to Australia, where all the people are at the moment asleep and by which all intermediate listeners are fflled with disgust? ... If contempt of Radio Commission were punishable by imprisonment, then I am due to spend the next million years of my life in penal servitude. — Don Quixote, New Britain. Conn. P. S. Like the Hibernian captain of the ferryboat, who had just finished berating a hated rival: "I have more thot I c'ld tell ye, on'y thot I hov ladies aboord." KFKB Gives Satisfaction I think KFKB is the best station on the air because of the tremendous good it does for humanity at all times. Dr. Brinkley's daily lectures, the Medical Question Box, that God-like spirit of "Loving and Giving." The Sunday talks that Dr. Brinkley gives each Sunday are certainly a great help to all who might listen. The music and song programs are always entertaining:. — Jessie M. Landon, Seward, Neb. Thanks to KSTP KSTP is the station from which I found out about Radio Digest. I have a few requests. First. I would like to see more pictures and sketches of popular KSTP, as Art White, the Beachcombers. Phil Bronson, premier sports announcer of that station. Corinne Jordan, Gayle Wood, SlatzRandall and his orchestra, and the others. I would also like to ask Marcella where Art Linick, alias Mr. Schlagenhauer, now hangs his hat.— Marcus Schiern, St. Paul, Minn. A Little Advice, Gratis I realize that Amos 'n' Andy do not need anyone to come to their rescue, but I am so "het up" because of their having been "beaten up and thrown in the gutter" that I am coming along with a few little "flowers" for their "grave," so "hereeeee theyyyyy areeee" : The writer of the article knocking Amos V Andy better stick her tongue out about eighteen inches and show it to some good physician who might diagnose her case. It looks like "KNOCKITIS" in its worse form. The only remedy for that is a self administered gun-podermic of bichloride of lead. A good antidote is a few more drinks of syrup and not so many of gall. There is only one reason why people knock and that is pure jealousy. The oftener I read that letter the plainer it seems that who ever calls himself "Lucy Barrett" is not one of the gentler sex, but a wretched piece of male humanity, hiding behind petticoats. Women do not feel that way about Amos 'n' Andy, we love them. Here's to you, "Lucy," let's hope somebody puts two big black snakes in your bed some night. —Mrs. R. A. Swanson, Galesburg, 111. Write a letter and become a member of the V. O. L. Correspondence Club.