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WHAT'S ON THE AlR
THE MAGAZINE FOR THE RADIO LISTENER
VOLUME II.
NOVEMBER, 1930
No. 1
By
res of
enns
CAN you remember, 'way back when broadcasting first started, how people used to talk about the mystery of radio? It may be a giggle now. But, believe me, it wasn't then, because radio was plenty of a mystery. The awe-struck neighbors who'd never heard one would come in, gaze spellbound at the contraption on your living-room table, listen to the music (all tangled up with static and squeals) that blatted out of your horn speaker, and just sit there, dumbfounded. Then, after awhile, they'd say: "But how does it work, anyway? How can you hear music from away off there with nothing but that box and those batteries and a wire up on the roof?"
Maybe you were no too sure yourself. But you told them; about grid-leaks and regeneration and inductive coupling or anything else that sounded deep; and they said, "Oh, yes, I see," and went home, still thinking the whole thing was pretty spooky.
All that's changed now. These days there's no mystery about how radio works. Too many people know, and even those that can't tell a power pack from a voice coil have stopped thinking there's anything mysterious about the shiny piece of furniture that brings them programs from most anywhere. Just the same, there's still a lot of mysteries in radio, outside of how it works; all kinds of queer things that can't be explained even by the lads that know about screen-grid amplification and band-pass tuning. I may have an enlarged curiosity gland or something. But it seems to me it's time for the Charlie Chans and Philo Vances to get to the bottom of these mysteries before the tabloids begin spreading dark rumors that won't do radio any good.
OOEftN S1QN OFF
Grid-leaks.'
For instance, who signs what when a station signs off? Here's a fair sample of the unsolved cases I'm talking about.
You've heard them say, "We are now signing off," hundreds of times. But do you know who signs, and what? Neither does anybody else — on the outside.
The whole thing strikes me as needing plenty of explaining. The stations may have nothing to conceal. But till they know the truth, people are bound to talk, and nobody can blame them.
Next, why do so many of these broadcasting outfits dress up just to do their stuff in front of a mike?
You know what I mean. There's a quartet that always sings in spotless white bakers' clothes; an orchestra that plays in fur arctic suits, and three or four more that romp through their tunes in gleaming knights' armor. The announcers tell you all about them every time they're on the air.
Of course white bakers' clothes would be just the thing in summer, and fur arctic suits in winter. But these fellows wear 'em the year 'round, and if they're uncomfortable half the time, how must the fellows feel that have to do their stuff in stiff , steel armor? /■>-...;-.•<.•.;• •'■.■