Heinl Radio Business Letter

HEINL RADIO BUSINESS LETTER INSURANCE BUILDING WASHINGTON, D. C. 'ISSUED TWICE A WEEK AND CONTAINING THE LATEST INFOR MATION REGARDING THE RULINGS OF THE FEDERAL 6RADIO COM MISSION, RADIO LEGISLATION, DEPARTMENT OF COM MERCE REGULATIONS, CHANGES IN WAVELENGTH, f 'CALL LETTERS AND PO WER, PATENTS, EXPORTS, FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION RULINGS AND OTHER MATTERS OF INTEREST TO BROADCASTERS AND MANUFACTURERS. :: CONFIDENTIAL -NOT FOR PUBLICATION. :: National Broaecastinz Compnyi I GENERAL LIBRARY 711 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.. Y INDEX TO ISSUE OF January 5, 1931. Saltzman Notes Progress In Radio Field 2 Philco Plant Being Enlarged. 3 To Repeat Radio Advertising Course 3 WJZ Protests High Power Report 4 Sarnoff Looks Into New Year 4 Barbasol, Blackstone & Salade Start New Programs 5 Education Committee Organizes .5 Commission Explains Its Orders 6 KOMO Appeals From Denial 6 CBS And "All-American Ether Teamul 6 Business Letter Briefs 7 RCA Victor Plant To Reopen 9 New Yost Report Tied Up By Pacific Coast Hearings 9 Supreme Court Remands Priority Cases 10 Short Wave Ruling Delayed 10 WINJ Asks Maximum Power 10 WEVD Files Bill of Exceptions 10 Bureau of Standards Expands Service 11 Calls Radio Ad Audiences Small 11 Broadcast Applications Received 12 Applications Other Than Broadcasting Th 1931 No. 397. litaktz a-rot\IQ SUBSCRIPTION PRICE, $10. PER MONT H. NO CONTRACT REQUIRED. SALTZMAN NOTES PROGRESS IN RADIO FIELD. Despite the slump in the purely business realm of the radio industry, the past year was marked by advances in the technical, legislative, and judicial fields of broadcasting in the opinion of Maj. Gen. Charles McK. Saltzman, chairman of the Radio Commission. Many problems remain, however, he believes, and virtually all "are traceable to the law of supply and demand. In other words", he said, "the supply of frequencies throughout the spectrum does not meet the overwhelming demand for them. In broadcasting, closest to the hearts of the people, the pro- blem is most intense. "The Commission is endeavoring to clear up the rough spots in broadcasting while at the same time trying to stave off the same sort of situation in communications and other modes of radio contacts. During the past year it is my opinion that the commission has improved reception conditions and has made progress in the allocation and regulation of the other wave lengths." Recalling the entry of the two chains, the Na- tional Broadcasting Company and the Columbia Broadcasting Sys- tem, into television, Gen. Saltzman reiterated the belief of the commission that "it is too early to lift the experimental ban and permit commercial television stations to take the air It may be that television will not be introduced by radio at all, but will, enter homes -along wire lines." Declaring that synchronization was probably the most important technical advance in broadcasting, the Radio Commission chairman predicted that the adoption of the system on a national scale was still two or three years off. Many "baffling problems" remain to be solved, he said. Among other activities of the commission during 1930 mentioned by Gen. Saltzman were the allocation of certain channels for aviation, the establishment of num- erous police radio systems, and the opening of several international short wave circuits. X X X X X X X X PHILCO PLANT BEING ENLARGED. 0 Confident that 1931 is going to show an im- provement over 1930 for the sale of home radios and that in addition a great and virtually new market will be opened through the perfection of the automobile radio, the Philadelphia Storage Battery Company, makers of Philo° radios and Philco-Transitone automobile radios, is expanding its factory and laboratory facilities through the erection of a new five story building adjacent to its present plant in Philadelphia. "Sales of new radios for 1930 proved surpris- ingly good", James M. Skinner, vice president and general manager of Philco, said in announcing plans for 1931. "It looks now as though sales in 1931 would be, at least, a little better than those for the year 1930, for home sets, with an enormous additional market of 21,000,000 automobiles for automobile radios. There is also, an ever increasing demand for radios in offices alid factories. More and more the management of large staffs of workers are recognizing the importance of radio in speeding up work. "Our volume of business for 1930", Mr. Skinner continued, "is 100 per cent ahead of last year. Philco now ranks as the largest producer of radios in the world." The acquisition of the Holmes Mills and the erection of a new factory and office building will increase Philco's floor space by more than 200,000 square feet. These additions to the factory are made necessary, Mr. Skinner said, to take care of the company's expanding tube manufacturing re- quirements, to house the production of the Philco-Transitone automobile radio, and to provide additional space for furniture manufacturing. TO REPEAT RADIO ADVERTISING COURSE On December 29, Frank A. Arnold, Director of Development of the National Broadcasting Company, Inc., com- pleted a series of thirteen lectures on Radio Broadcast Adver- tising before the students of City College, New York, there- by pioneering the first course on this subject to be given by any college in this country. Great interest was manifested in the subject and the student enrollment was the largest in the history of the college for a special lecture course. Requests are now coming to City College for a continuance of the lectures which will probably be repeated next fall as a part of the regular college course on advertising, x x x x x x -3- WJZ PROTESTS HIGH POWER REPORT Even before Chief Examiner Ellis A. Yost has made his secondary report designating a limited number of stations which would be permitted to use 50,000 watts, in ac- cordance with the Radio Commissionts instructions, one of the 24 original applicants for the maximum power has filed a bill of exceptions to the original report recommending 50,000 watts for all cleared channel stations. Station WJZ, of New York, through A. L. Ashby, vice president and general counsel of the National Broadcasting Company, lists nine exceptions to the findings regarding the key NBC station, which now operates with 30,000 watts. Briefly ; the exceptions are: (1) Failure of report to find WJZ is operated by NBC, (2) Failure to find that WJZ began operating in June, 19,1. : and has operated continuously since October, 1921, (3) to findings that WJZ began operation May 12, 1923, (4) that its annual operating cost is $4,750,000, (5) that its annual in- come is $5,000,000, (6) that it is harder to provide good reception for a sparsely settled section than for.a metropolitan area, (7) to the finding that there is one cleared channel assignment available in the first zone for use of power in excess of 25,000 watts under General Order 42, as amended, (8) to the failure of the examiner to find the contrary to item 7, (9) that WJZ is en:,Jitled to a construction permit for 50,000 watts regardless of the testimony introduced by other applicants from the first zone. SARNOFF LOOKS INTO NEW YEAR. Following is the forecast of David Sarnoff, president of the Radio Corporation of America, which appeared in a symposium of comments of industrial leaders in the New York Times last week: "The one inescapable fact of our experience is that, whenever and whatever the occasion of an industrial crisis, the country has come out at least one step ahead, always with higher standards of living, higher wages, and a new industrial prosperity, We have been going through the valley of depression, but it is the depth of the valley that makes the mountain so high. "The fact of greatest promise to renewed prosperity in many of our leading industries, I believe, is that for the past eighteen months, old Mother Necessity, with sleeves rolled up, has been busy in the leading laboratories of the nation. We have been going through an industrial phase where production and oonsumption, the forces of supply and demand, have constant- ly sought to outstrip each other, we are coming to see that true prosperity lies in the balancing of these forces." BARBASOL, BLACKSTONE & SALADA START NEW PROGRAMS. Barbasol begins a twice-a-week (Monday and Thurs- day at 8:15 p.m., EST); Commercial program schedule tonight, Jan. 5., over thirty stations of Columbia. The scene will be laid in a barber shop and the feature with Vernon Dalhart as Barbasol Ben and Adelyn Hood as Barbara, will be calculated to revive memories of the days when the barber shop was the chief meeting place of the townTs songsters and jokesters. The programs will be produced and staged by the Radio Department of Erwin, Wasey & Company. The new Blackstone Plantation program tomorrow night, 8 p.m., EST, will introduce Julia Sanderson and Frank Crummit, heretofore on Columbia, to a NBC-WEAF network. The Salada Tea Company of Boston will introduce "The Salada Salon Orchestra" over an NBC-WJZ network Thursday evening, January 8, at 8 30 oTclock, EST. Nat Shilkret will direct the orchestra and James Melton, of the Revelers Quartet, will be the soloist. EDUCATION COMMITTEE ORGANIZES. With the avowed intention of securing a minimum of 15 per cent of all radio broadcasting facilities allocated to this country for the permanent and exclusive use of educational institutions, the National Committee on Education by Radio has been appointed by Dr. William John Cooper, Commis- sioner of clucation, upon the request of the Conference on Radio Educational Problems which met recently in Chicago.

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