Radio doings (Dec 1930-Jun1932)

Radio on the Seas [Continued from Page 15] of the Bolinas and Point Reyes short wave receiving and transmitting stations and those of the Koko Head and Kahuku short wave stations in Hawaii were placed at the disposal of the NBC by RCA Communications, Inc. A series of tests were undertaken and special modulating and diversity receiving equipment was installed at the various short wave stations. Meanwhile the Federal Radio Commission had granted a special experimental license. This license was obtained only after lengthy negotiations in Washington, at one stage of which the application was tabled, only to be reconsidered after persistent and repeated requests. The call letters WIOXAI were assigned to the ship's station for operation on frequencies of 9670 kc and 6020 kc. It was arranged to deliver the Malolo signal from the receiving station at Point Reyes over an equalized broadcast circuit to the NBC studios in San Francisco. Alfred H. Saxton, divisional engineer for NBC, assigned Joseph W. Baker, KGO station engineer, and George Greaves to make the cruise and supervise the technical operations. Baker made a preliminary trip and tested the equipment at sea for several days. The NBC men encountered many technical difficulties and their solution of these problems, by dint of careful application of their knowledge during long and tedious working hours, resulted in the perfection of the operations. Fourteen broadcasts, ten from the ship and four from Hawaii, were broadcast during the cruise. Three of the ship's broadcasts were heard in New York over NBC's blue network. In addition to the regular morning programs from the Islands, an evening program was broadcast on July 17 from the Ocean Court of the Royal Hawaiian Hotel. I believe these broadcasts will comprise an important link in the chain of developments whiich have only begun to reveal radio's potentialities. Many radio sponsors and chain executives have held that it is a mistake to permit radio artists to make personal appearances. Our experience has always been quite the opposite. Dobbsie's appearances in San Francisco. Seattle, Los Angeles, Salt Lake City and elsewhere have proved uniformly successful. Dobbsie's mainland listeners had been intrigued by the colorful cruise and visit in Hawaii, vividly described by the Happytimers during the return voyage. Receipt of numerous messages from fans and reports from the studios in San Francisco convinced us that many Happytime followers would en joy seeing the "Ship of Joy" crew and hearing about the trip. As a result, arrangements for a week's engagement were made with the Paramount Theater. Each of the three daily performances attracted thousands and the house was packed for the entire week. Dobbsie's description of the cruise and the new cruise songs, heard for the first time from the ship's studio, interested the crowds greatly. The general atmosphere of the Paramount appearances was that of a gathering of friends hearing a few of their number describe a recent adventure. Reviewing the cruise, the stay in Hawaii and the general result I fail to see how any phase of the venture could have met with more success. In addition to being a technical triumph, the undertaking attested the growing popularity of the program personality and his talented company and further established a belief I have expressed for some years — that the most successful radio programs are built around a personality. Needless to say, we were gratified by the success of the undertaking from a commercial standpoint. We were even more pleased by the enthusiasm of the public as reflected by the Honolulu Advertiser's editorial comment "its value to the Islands cannot be computed" and by numerous other tributes of that nature. Good Samaritan [Continued from Page 25] saw of him; at three in the afternoon he was stricken with apoplexy and died. Poverty came upon her, her mother and her brother, and the years that followed were years of suffering, she tells us. And all the time, she went her way alone — her family refusing to understand her. They left the old home and moved into a cheap rooming house in Excelsior Springs, Missouri. Her brother managed to find work shining shoes, and Ethel got a job as chambermaid in a hotel. She was thirteen then. When she grew older, she served as a nurse, all the time with the ambition to dedicate her life to God and build a church — a church without a creed. Nursing did not fulfill her desires to help humanity. She felt others could best heal sick bodies, and that her duty was to heal broken souls. She prepared for the ministry, and finally, two years ago, her first little church sprang into being. She named it the "First Church of the Apostles." Now she holds services in Trinity Auditorium, Los Angeles, and in a school auditorium in Long Beach. She receives no salary, and bears much of the expense of the church herself, from the money she receives from answering questions, and from donations. Ethel Duncan admitted that several times she has had to fight her way of opposition to her charitable work. A legal battle in Long Beach ended in letters of congratulation from the city prosecuting attorney, the Central Labor Council, the Police Department, and the deputy district attorney — letters of appreciation for her work. Recently the Social Service Commission refused her a permit to operate her Good Samaritan Relief Station in Los Angeles, unless she accounted to this body for its activities and expenses. This she firmly refused to do, ignored a warning sent her by commission authorities, and went on with her work. A few days ago the complaint was apparently dropped. Truly, Ethel Duncan is a most remarkable woman. Whether one agrees with her, believes in her not, there is a quality about her that instantly commands whole-hearted respect and admiration. She asks favors of none, nor attempts to glorify or explain the strange power she believes is a gift of God. She takes no credit for the work she does, nor looks for a pat on the back. Her business is helping the poor, and giving advice to those who ask it. She lays no claims to infallibility, but merely answers questions with "It is my opinion that." She is an enigma to the skeptic, a choice bit of gossip for the Doubting Toms, a thorn, perhaps, in the side of orthodoxy — but to the poor who ask help, she is The Good Samaritan and no puzzle at all. HOLLAND'S FAMOUS RICHLYFLOWERING DARWIN TULIPS Our Darwin tulips with extra long stems are remarkable for their long flowering period. Enormously large flowers on strong stems of about three feet in length. Magnificent for beds, edges and for cultivation in pots. BUY TULIPS NOW DIRECT FROM THE DUTCH GROWER Excellent Darwin tulips in 5 colors: ^ /^/^ pink red violet heliotrope yelloic £p l li I 100 of each color, and each color packed N\ 111 JVV separately POST and DUTY FREE UJ X. V delivered at your home, for only Please remit amount per money order: W. A. DE WINTER, Inc., Dutch Bulb Growers HEEMSTEDE (Holland), EUROPA Page Thirty-eight RADIO DOINGS