Variety radio directory (1937)

FEDERAL RADIO REGULATION— Continued under such regulations as he may prescribe, upon just compensation to the owners. A method for ascertaining what is just compensation is provided in the statute. The language of the statute justifies us in concluding that, under the circumstances which it specifies, there is virtually no right in a licensee as against the President even during the period of the license. XL INTERNATIONAL RADIO REGULATION At several points in this article mention has been made of international agreements having to do with radiocommunication, together with some reference to matters covered by these agreements. Let us now make a rapid survey of the nature of these agreements and of such international organization as has been established under them for the regulation of radio. The principal agreement now in force is the International Telecommunications Convention, signed at Madrid, Spain, on December 9, 1932, after a protracted conference of over three months. Some 73 nations signed this Convention, including the United States. This Convention represented a merger of two treaties, very much as the Communications Act of 1934 represented a merger of the functions of the Federal Radio Commission and certain functions of the Interstate Commerce Commission. Since 1875 there had been in force an International Telegraph Convention to which the United States had never been a party, largely because the Convention contained provisions based on government ownership of telegraph and telephone systems or on a degree of government control over them which our Federal Government did not have. Since 1906 (preceded by a preliminary agreement in 1903), there had been in force a series of International Radiotelegraph Conventions (Berlin, 1906; London, 1912, and Washington, 1927) to which the United States had been a party. These two Conventions were combined into one International Telecommunication Convention at Madrid. To the Convention are annexed three bulky sets of Regulations, and some other documents which need not concern us. These are the Radio Regulations, the Telegraph Regulations and the Telephone Regulations. The Convention contains provisions only of a rather general nature ; the details are in these three sets of Regulations. The Convention provides that a nation which signed it need sign only one of these sets. The United States signed only the Radio Regulations. The next major international conference takes place beginning February 1, 1938, at Cairo, Egypt. The Convention will not be revised at this conference; the three sets of regulations will undoubtedly be considerably amended. For the first time, the United States is seriously considering signing the Telegraph Regulations if they are satisfactorily revised. Some of the issues that will occupy the attention of the delegates, so far as radio is concerned, have already been mentioned. The chief issue is, as at past conferences, the allocation of bands of frequencies in the radio spectrum to the various kinds of radiocommunication. The administrative work under the Convention is performed by a bureau at Berne, Switzerland, known as the International Telecommunications Bureau. It publishes a monthly journal in French. During the interim between the major international conferences, there are minor conferences designed largely for the discussion and solution of technical problems. These are under organizations set up by the Convention, one under each set of Regulations. In radio, this organization is known as the Inter 302