Evening Star Newspaper, April 28, 1929, Page 71

23 ACTIVITY 15 SHOWN THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C. APRIL 28 1929—PART l._ B [ e .. CITY WITH FARM ting & number of keys to send the Gulf Separating Two Bridged proper dots and dashes. The machine continues to repeat ‘them until by Broadcast of Agricul- tural Programs. ped. small motor, powered either by dry e *RADID RIVALRY KEEN IN CAPITAL Two Big Stations Here Fac- ing Possible Invasion of Field by A. B. C. Radio Operator Takes Weather As Home Burns “Graham McNamee Speaking—" | By the Associated Press. i HAVANA, April 27.—An automatic radio tel key that sends “S O 8" and gives direction of & Q&in distress has been fected by Lieut. . Andux y Perez of the Cuban Naval Signal Corps. Attached to & radio transmitter aboard ship or ne, it will click out a call for help, give the position in longitude and latitude, and also send a “go-ahead” signal. RENO; Nev. (#.—The radio operator who can calmly receive ‘weather s a8 his home burns has found. He i . . Crarige Jenaioes, S0 :Un'expectod Spurt in Radio Kit Spring Business Keeps phoned ; Manufacturers Busy. i which was near enough to the truth to allay my conscience. Another speaker, about to go om, | who appeared at ‘a widely | confided to me that he hoped ‘“that advertised concert at the big Stiff Whoczis” was listening in. | Crystal Palace at London, gorgeously | He was going to tell him just what “lit up.” The huge auditorium was | kind of a thing that he was. We were packed with Great Britain's aris-| warned in time and managed to get tocracy. The organist appeared far|the speaker out quietly. He left in a tiny baicony. His tle was HEN I was young, a tale| which delighted me was that of the great organist | colls or storage battery, turms a series of disos en which the varieus characters g! no%. Each disc has an arm rid- g over it. The arm maXes or breaks an electrical contact, the length of the | break depending upon the number of | notches in the disc. ] On top of the sender are a series her husband at the local that - their house - was ablaze. At the time Jénnings was taking weather reports, so he passed the word along to the By the Associated Press. The race between the two big rival broadcasting companies to obtain the best in Washington programs promises 1o provide radio listeners a constant improving picture of national affairs. The success of the voters' service broadcast _sponsored by the League of Women Voters in arousing interest in political and economic questions laid the groundwork for expansion of the radlo service from the Capital. Then came the presidential campaign, which revealed the tremendous popu- larity of political broadcasts. Feature Talks by Officials. Interest was stimulated further by the record hook-ups of stations for the Hoover inaugurations. | About this time, Sam Pickard re- signed as member of the Federal Radlo Commission to become vice president of the Columbia Broadcasting System and to devote attention to development of the program ficld in Washington. A short time later it was announced that F. M. Russell had left his post as assistant to the Secretary of Agriculture to become vice president of the Na- tional Broadcasting Co. in charge of its affairs in the Capital. Both companies now are featuring talks by members of Congress and de- partmental executives in addition to| weekly summaries of developments in Congress and other governmental ac- tivities by trained observers. ‘The Columbia System recently made arrangements with the Pan-American Union for a chain broadcast of Latin American_concerts, supplementing the transmission of the program by NAA. Congress “Sold” on Radio. Bkeptical for a time, Congress is now “sold” on the value of radio as a me- dium of personal publicity as well as political enlightenment. There is pros- pect of an “official” station competin; with the chains in airing congression: activities, Senator Nye of North Dakota is wg- ing the establishment of a Government station here for the transmission of important debates in Congress and de- partmental news. ‘There is possibility of another net- work invading the Capital. The Ameri- can Bmldcastln! Co., & proposed chain, is negotiating for the use of WJSV, Mount Vernon Hills, Va., as & contact point with Washington. MUCH IS EXPECTED OF NEW RADIO TUBE Detector, It Also Serves as Grid and Space Charge Amplifier. askew and he put on some Charlie Chaplin antics before sitting down to the keyboard. Then he let loose the | most “appaling bellows, roars and ishriek& almost blasting the crystal dome with his wild uproar. This was | then the biggest organ in the world | and he almost deafened the audience. At first they thought it might be | ultra-modern technique, or the equiva- | | lent of the musical impressionism of the day, but when, in the blaze of light { he turned and made faces at the audi- | ence below, they knew what had hap- | pened. Some were angry and others | hilarious. From then on there was a mad bedlam of howling, snorting organ blasts and a yelling multitude, until the police gained the balcony and car- | ried away the jovial maestro. After 1 got into radio broadcasting I started to tell this story to some one, and then I suddenly realized that it didn’'t seem as funny as it used to. We had never been faced with the situ- atlon arising from a great artist ap- pearing with this kind of affatus, but, as we began to reach more and more millions we began to speak in whispers of the sickening results which would follow such an incident. Just sup one single rampant Jn, should get onto the air at the time of a big hook-up! Of course he could be obliterated mere- ly by throwing a switch, a much easie: task than the bobbies had in squelch- ing the organist, but the harm would be done. Dryest Spots in U. S. It is small wonder, then, that radio broadcasting stations are the dryest spots in America. Not only for artists, but for directors, technicians and all others concerned, there must be 100 per_cent sobriety. This dovetailing of technical and artistic operations be- comes so minute and sensitive that I :oubth:v;noe!ll;:r ndloti?‘l;d l}l\'e bean roug present stage of depend- ability in the pre-Volstead days. The whole process is so tightly geared up that just the slightest bit of fuzzy thinking or fumbling action could cause trouble, ‘The vast majority of artists who now appear before the microphone are self- :glned people who never need to be checked up on these matters. In the url{.ldlyl of broadcasting, when ting talent was more or less of a it-or-miss affair, we occasionally came to the edge of disaster, but not often. There was one time when a well known politician appeared for a microphone session in a rather too eestatic mood: “Lead me to that Httle tin can,” he shouted, Mwl. : might have made the grads that, but we weren't taking any chances. We told him the bazoozis had busted and we couldn’t broadcast any more that night. After we had eased him out, and sssigned a page to take him home in a taxicab, I explained that Mr. So-and-So had vented from broadcasting by LT.& T.ANDR. C. A. LINK TO BE FOUGHT 2 pre- llness— Vithout EERE R i 3 22508880 et TS i3 £ 400,000 ohms; amp! 420; mutual conductance, 1,080 microm- hos; heater voltage, 2.5 AC; heater am- peres, 1.75, with a sixth co 3 grid, coming out to & cap at the top Merger to Take Spotlight When Congress Tackles Regu- lation Again, B the Associated Press. ‘The radio spotlight has been shifted rger, should prevent “the existini ncnlogoly from becoming more pow- Repeal May Be Sought. A clause in, the radio law of 1927 pro. hibits any combination of wire and & Thonopoly. - Tis elaa "u‘r:wm" pirdsd s opoly. clause a prohibiting the I. T. & T. and R. C. A, merger, and its repeal h next December, Any% ::'mr. to_eliminate the section wil roposed affiliation of the two systems E expeeted to give impetus to m.:"move for creation of a Federal communica- tions commission regulating both. Claim Commission Necessary. sentative Davis of Tennesee, author of the Davis amendment to the radio act, have said that the crestion of such a commission will be necessary for suc- cessful regulation of the similar tions of wire and wireless. ‘The opening gun of interests o] a communications board has been fire by Gen. James G. Harbord, president {0 R, C. A, who declares that the Gov- {:gmnt‘ Hz Ntmmmn\muiom is c‘- achin n the ts | life and business. T o s nu:hmnvelhebtml‘“ t|any such I - | mate in modulatio; Senators Watson and Dill and Repre- | fune- | search of a telephone, so he could get d tell l.an his bete noir on the wire what he thought of him. But, as I say, these occurrences were few and far between, and in the earlier However, there is an occasional incident which days of radio broadcasting. reminds us sharply of the necessity keeping every suggestin of John B leycorn out of the studio. A dist guished singer, about to begin broad- casting, perfectly sober and entirely at ease before the microphone, suddenly seemed convulsed with horror, “Take that thing away,” he growled | through his clinched teeth. I thought he had seen a rattlesnake. He was | pointing toward an end table near the |- piano, on which there was a bottle of furniture polish, The bottle had a purely accidental resemblance to a cer- | tain well known pre-war container. It was quickly removed and the artist gave a splendid performance. After it was over he explained. . “Eleven years ago,” he said, “I wrecked a performance and almost wrecked my career by getting full of tanglefoot. I have never touched a drop since and that memory has stayed with me like the hang-over of a night- mare. The microphone always puts | me into a state of nerves anyway, and when I approach it I always think of what would happen if I should repeat here that earlier performance. | Good Behavior Self-Tmposed. | “It happened that the bottle was | just like the one I had been hitting on | the night of my big tatlspin, and it had | been on a table just like that. Hitting me just that tense second or two be- fore I was to click into the program, | it_literally blew me up. I was living | again that night of misery and dis- aster, couldn’'t have sung a note.” In the early days we were asked to include a special number in our pro- am in behalf of the “shut-ins” of an nstitution for inebriates, known under some other name, They had asked us | to procure a certain singer, who “had | once sung at their institution, and for whom they had great esteem. We got the singer and he sang beau- | | tifully, but I did not realize until he | was well under way that he was sing- ing “Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes.” This bit of ineptitude appar- ently had no serlous results, as we re- celved a nice letter from the “shut-ins" | with just a sly and mischievous allu- sion to the subject of the song. On the whole, I should say that good behavior in the radio industry, broad- casting and other branches, is self-im- d. It is full of ambitous young men ‘women who make their own liviny regimes and, of sourse, they know thal their careers would be jeopardized by pses as 1 have described. On the whole, John Barleycorn is just a8 popular around a radio broad studio as Mrs. EDa Boole would be at & brewers’ me'tl.ar. And it looks to me as if it would always bs like that, even if the eighteenth amendment should be repealed. (Copyright, 192 UNUSUAL PROBLEMS SOLVED IN PLANT New Transmitter for WTIC to Be Used as Model in Future. HARTFORD, Conn. (#).—Unusual engineering problems have been solved in the construction of the new 80-kilo- watt transmitter now nearing com- pletion on Avon Mountain, west of this eity, for WTIC. new plant includes a ures. tched with By this method it is hoped, in aplf tremendous power, to radiate only enough toward Hartford and other im- mediate points east to' permit pleasur- e O e expert on_broad .M. O'Nelll, an on - casting antennae who has been retained as plant engineer, will sy the erection of the antenna. He has been connected with broadesst transmission work for a number of years, It is the intention to attain the ulti- mitter, 1i: obtained depends on the of the | impression made by the music or voice frequencies on the earrier wave, while the tonal quality hmli is dependent upon the sharpness and fidelity of these impressions. By obtaining such medu- | lation, the new plant will be able to use | its 50 kilowatts of power to maximum | efficiency. | .- | 'B.C A Gives License Permit. | A license for the manufacture of re- | ceivers under its patents has been lssued by R. C. A. to the United Reproducers, which formerly made speakers only. Simultaneously Reproducers announced |' the purchase of the Consolidated Radio By the Associated Press. in alike, radio has won recognition as| a powerful factor in spanning the gulf which divided the farmer and the townsman. | Broadcasting has been very effective | nflnfim the same information and \tness j entertalnment to farm and clty d“""‘)‘fl.ulne use, its inventor said. He also explained that it would be a valuable |aid to small pleasure craft which car- ried radio but not an operator. The device weighs only seven and a pounds, having been haif | of contacs which can weight over an am‘:n::&u &?::rmv "ummm makes . machine tranamit. il Engineers who have examined the de- vice report that they have found it practical and that it operated satisfac-| tory when used in place of a radio tel- | egraph key. Its operation consists merely of set- in promoting better understanding and | co-operation between the city and the ' country on questions of lical and economic interest, says O. M. agricultural economist. WEATHER” IS CURTAILED | C. G. Keeler’s Family ok | “gang” around the room and con- tinued work. . The l'”\llhfl out as a been put rival. AMERICAN TO STUDY RADIO FIELD ABROAD BY C. E. BUTTERFIELD, Asociated Press Radio Bditor. ‘There is renewed activity in the kit and parts field of radio. What this portends is not exactly clear, but information from three | sources indicates there has been an un- expected spurt in the Spring business. Two of these sources concentrate on the better grade kits and the third de- rives its income from power and audio transformers. volunl.:“g: "r‘.‘.m‘ou.t‘l ‘be‘g.rem h:: If you hadn't taken it away I | with city listeners, Mr. Bill says. Radio Links Two Areas. “It has been a lamantable fact that the city has had a poor understanding of the country and the country a poor understanding of the city,” Mr. Kile sald. “This has led to many compli- cations in a legislative way and other- wise which, I think, the radio has been quite instrumental in straightening out. “One of the reasons for this is that agricultural speakers have tried to present their views in a broad way, with the result that the city listeners cannot help hearing interesting facts about farm life and its lems. On the other hand, the viewpeints of the city are presented in an intimate way by the radio to the people of the country.” Edgar L. Bill, director of WLS, Chi- cago, says that radio is so important to the farmer that “agriculture should have, not only one clear channel, but possibly a dozen clear channels, to carry on the necessary work in that field.” City Enjoys Farm Programs. Old folk songs and barn dance music broadcast by WLS E;hnlflly for rural audience have been very populg{ have thought that perhaps we ought to soft pedal these barn dances cause we might be getting in wrong with the commission or the public, but the people want them and we can't abandon them,” he said. “City people enjoy them as well as farm listeners. urday nights of the year that we playea the glm dances we received 300 tele- grams each night. They came from the cities.” Radio Coins Many Words. NEW YORK, (#).—Radio probably has coined more words in common usage than any other t| in recent years. It has produced another—‘radario,” to describe the adaptation of a talking ple- ture for radio. — A mystery drama, ‘“Blackjack,” is being broadcast by WGY. One episode is given each Monday evening. its | On the first four Sat- | | Lengthy Report Given Nightly Is‘ | | Shortened. | ‘To lessen interference with program reception, the Department of Agricul- | ture has curtailed the lengthy weather | report broadcast in the evening by | NAA, the Government station at Arl- ington. previously included forecasts for the entire United States, has been limited to the Atlantic S8eaboard, the District of Columbia and nearby States, and will last enly three or four minutes, Other stations serve various sectiona of the country. ‘There will be no ehange in the morning weather hroadcast of NAA. i S SRR BERLIN SEEKS DATA. j“Custumers" Asked to Tell of Re- ception of Programs. tomer” has been adopted as motto by the governmental broadcasting corpora- tion in Berlin. Tach owner | f The night broadcast of NAA, which | | Is Versatile, But Mother Only Cooks BERKELEY, Calif. (#).—The Keeler family is versatile, Charles G. Keeler, the father, who is a poet and world travel- er, writes radio plays produced by 0. GO. His son Leonard, Stanford sty- dent, ralses rattlesnakes for ex» perimentation, leetures over the radio and occasionally has his pets “rattle" into the micraphone. QOne daughter is a painter and seulptor at 8an mog;. and a sec- | ond was graduated from the radio drama to a Breadway musical comedy. “1 just cook and listen,” says | Mrs. Keeler. ROY ON KGW STAFF. BERLIN (#).—“Service to the cus- | 1927 Audition Winner Known as “Singing Blacksmith.” PORTLAND, Oreg., (/F).—Ted A. Ray, of a set receives a the “singing blacksmith,” who won at= | Bosten, C. W. Horn of N. B. C. Staff to Make Survey in Europe. BOSTON (#).—Radio conditions and systems in the British Isles and on the European continent are to be studied by an American engineer long identi- fied with the radio broadcast field. Charles W. Horn, former superin- tendent of radio operations for the Westinghouse company, has jolned the N. B. C. engineering staff with the title of general engineer. His new duties will include mechani- cal development and experimentation in the radio fleld. In pursuance of these duties he has sailed for Europe to_study broadeasting there. Mr, Horn's association with wireless and radio transmission work dates back many xflm As chief of radio opera- tiona he sypervised the transmission of the Westinghouse radio system, ine cluding WBZ, Bpringfield, and WBZA, KDKA in Pittsburgh, KYW and printed form with the request to state | tention as a winner of the 1927 national | KFKX in Chie |ing the programs, whether there were any disturbances, and if so, of what | nature. The purpose is to get data about general receiving conditions in | satisfactory broadcasting system. . City Changing Tts Job. ‘The Oity of Lowell, once the cente of the cotton-weaving industry, has adapted itself to the new order of | things and is changing over to artificial | allk. There are several large establish- | ménts which were once engaged in the manufacture of cotton goods that are now turning out rayon in large quan- titles. A study of the basic principles result- that many its young people were familiar with the manufacture of rayon when they left sehool what experience he incurred in receiv- | ragic audition, ! of rayon treatment was started in the | wil public schools many years ago, with the } ernment May 20. The is a stafl member or{‘ KGW. 1 Roy is a senior at the Oregon Agricul- | | tural College. He broadcasts daily at Ameriea greater Berlin in order to bulld Up 2| pGw. During the Summer he earns | 10 money by working at his father's forge in Pilot Rock. Although gaining fame in the musical world, last Summer saw im back at the anvil where his father ad shod horses for 35 years. Havana Station Opens May 20. | HAVANA, (#).—One of Latin Ameris | ea's greatest radio broadcasting and re- eelving atations, eapable of communicat- R e inauguraf n l'imiul mco“ | program will be that of Gen. Gerardo | Machado y Morales' acceptance speech | at the presidential inauguration. ' He served m:gfimd States Navy and the United Pruit Co., and installatiens | the in many eountries in Central America. He also traveled considerably in Seuth and in the West Indies, io always had been Mr, Horn's hobby and in 1909, foreseeing in new seience of communication, he d termined to pursue it intensively as & vocation. During the war he was a lieutenant in the Na and served as a radio ex- pert and also acted as assistant ta the distriet chief of the third naval dis~ trict with headquarters in New Yerk, While in the naval service he set up some of the first radio compasses. Convicts Prefer Classical Music. s;m ur‘i.zlmicuo{:. w(l).—cunvilc‘t: prefer ol music to modern jazz, acears 8an Quentin Prison of to & letter from cials to KGO, Final Week of It is in the power and amplifier de- vices where the greatest increase has been noted, indicating that the home builder has been paying much atten- tion to this end of radio reproduction. Short Wave Sets Gain. Riding along with the broadcast kits, mostly AC, are the unassembled shorte wave sets. In some instances more in- terest has been shown in outfits to work under 200 me than the higher wave receivers. | One factor which may have a bea:~ | ing is that the parts and kits business | each year is being concentrated into the | hands of a fewer number of manufac- turers. Publie demand for individual parts | gradually has been decreasing, until complete kits have surpassed the sales | of the various reeeiver units. Announcer Has “DX” Bug. This radio distance “bug” gets them all—even announcers. There’s Charles Park, talker at KPO, Oakland, whose wife tells a few of her husband's secrets, now that he has a radio set. She says he sits up “every morning until 2 or 3 o'clock, fishing for distance.” Park admitted that he has been bug- | bitten fairly and squarely. Then he | eha the subject by commenting on k of announcements by some stations. “Listeners have just complaint about radio stations not giving their call letters at least every 15 minutes,” he said, adding that he never again ould be guilty of failing to announce. New Program Introduced. WAAM, Newark N. J., has been giving its listeners something different. It has been running tests of recorded pro- | grams obtained from a record which 1 rmvldes an hour’s entertainment on the | two sides of a 12.ineh disk, with an in- | terruption every 15 minutes for station | announcements, The idea behind this type of broadcasting is an effort to pro- vide synchronized programs by widely | separated stations without wires. | o IcO, Bridgeport, is giving a seres [Gus"tows 1 that picinry, - >) e “Learn-the-Difference.” MONTH In the lead in engineering! The difference between Chryslerand all other cars is conelusive, Come in Come In—See—Hear .. —Learn! Drive a ny Clealer in the Group Listed Below Will gladly give you a thorough demonstration—you at the wheel, if you wish—to prove to you that there is en amazing difference in Chrysler performance snd sll other performance. and let us explain these differences to you one by one! In the lead in performance! The actual difference between Chrysler smoothness, speed, pick-up, flexi- bility, power, is easy to see and feel, Corporation of Ann Arbor, Mich. of the bulb. The tube is 814 inches 8. | Meanwhile Oswald Schuetf V Used in conjunction with other 3.5 | secretary of the Radix Prosutire hens | Zol hitae. such 89 the 2'1;‘-;\: M clation, 15 demanding that Congress | Timen e opers! . make an immediate D24 In n fvestube 6t with & single AC diate invest filament feed. Besides the features of the valve itself, considerable interest attaches to the fact that it is being presented at the Jowest introductory price of any pre- vious new model. It will be ready May 1. TEMPERAMENT SHOWS. - | Stars of Radio Now Affect Artistic Demands. CHRYSLER Only a few days left to learn the high-points of Chrysler “Learn- the-Difference’’ Month. Here is your chance to find out for yourself what you've heard and often wanted to confirm—the de- cided difference that exists between the Chrysler and any other car in your experience. Chrysler is the one car in the world today that completely knocks the bottom out of the oldargument, ‘‘All cars today are pretty much the same.” igation of the | I-n'exe,& ;wnt;:l AM wireless telophone | patents by t! meris | | Telegraph Co, Rk | WFJC, Akron, Ohio, has been added | to the NBC chatn. i Instruments for the interpretation of | American folk music are to be sed by | the Pickard family Saturday afternoon, May Jhen I sppears from Wiz, | ow canl speed up RECEPTION SAN FRANCISCO () —-A’nl:huc "f,',“ | A T LAS T { \) ‘) Studios, declare program directors and | A Nationally Known station managers, who point out that | the stars of the air want their favorite|N ALL-ELECTRIC shades about the broadoasting room or s have their pets at hand. i ET LICENSED oY Creasy Ferra is one of the first to de- | clare that the drapery of a studio affects | Complete with her art. Miss Perra avers she can play | SPEAKER AND TUBES the blues better when the furnis| | about her are red and her favorite cos- No Eliminators or Batterles “Just Plug It In” tumes are of similar hue. She is blonde COMPLETE Chrysler has never been similar to other cars. Today, the Chrysler difference is more astounding than ever before —astounding because other cars have all made a gallant attempt to overtake Chrysler, but Chrysler—constantly and surely— has kept in the lead. Inthelead in style! A single glance will reveal the artistic difference be- tween Chryslerandall other beauty! One of our demonstrators is ready for you, eager to prove the differ- ence between Chrysler and other ° cars. Remember—this is the last week you can take advantage of “Learn- the-Difference’’ Month. Make it a special point to see us NOW-before the big eventisover. MMl R Yol 0 0 H. B. LEARY, JR., & BROS. DISTRIBUTORS Salesrooms—1612-22 You St. N.W.—Connecticu t Ave. and Que St. N.W, and 10th and H Sts, N.E. Skinker Motor Co., 1216 20th St. N.W. Frank H. Rowe, 3309 M St. N.W. Benjamin April, 10th & K Sts. N.W, Chevy Chase Motors, 6701 Wisc. Ave, N.W, Fort Strong Motor Service, Clarendon, Va. OTHER DEALERS and a pianist | ARy A new personality is appearing on the radio from WOR and stations. He is | “Doc” West, who says he ‘“scatters words of wisdom and startling truths.” WABC, New York, reports & 20 per cent improvement in signal strength as | a result of the recent improvements | made on its transmitter. Other changes | are_planned. H .~ HAWKINS NASH “Convenlently Located o 14th Street” 1529 14th St. NW. Dec. 3320 Executive Offices and Service 1612:22 You Street N.W, Used Car Salesrooms 1321-23 Fourteenth Street N.W. Distributors: Chas. Rubel & Co. 812 Ninth St. N.W. Washington, D. C. DPOWN OKAY RADIO CO.} 417 11th St. N.W. 1625 H St. N.W. Baker Motor Compeny.....,....Alexandris, Va. swell Motor Company.. .Mount Rainier, Md. Boyee Garage .......Boyes, Va. Brown Motor Company indy Sp Cashell Motor Company. Newton Motor Company Newton Mator Car Comp Pumphrey Motor Company Quantico Motor Company. Richard Wallach, ..Strasburg, Va. Lovettsville, Va. arrisonburg, Va, ..Leesburg, Va. ARCTURUS RADIO TUBE CO, Newark, N, J.