Evening star., 1922-04-29
PLANS COMPLETE
FOR RADIO
Secretary Hoover Believes
Regulation Will Aid Many
Stations.
BY DAVID LAWRENCE.

Plans for government control or
radio have been completed. An ad-
ministration bill will be introduced
in the Senate next week by Mr.. hel-
logg of Minnesota and in the House
by Mr.. White of Maine. Briefly, the
bill when passed would authorize the
Department of Commerce to prevent
the growth of any monopoly in trans
mitting messages of any kind through
the air. 1t would encourage divi-
sion of the hours of the day among
the sending stations.
The legislation itself will be broad
ly phrased SO as TO give the widest
latitude possible to the administrative
agency of the Government-the De-
partment of Commerce.
Working Many Months.
Secretary Hoover. who has been
working on the matter for many
months. believes that the number of
sending stations will be materially
increased when as many as four or
hVe wave lengths can be used in a
city at the same time. UP till now
there nave been very few wave
lengths available for private uses, as
the Navy has reserved for it's own use
most of the wave lengths. This has
compelled stations in the same vi
cinity to use the same length, with
the result that they have drowned
each other out or interfered with each
otner SO seriously as to be ineffective.
Most OF the programs. especially con-
certs and entertaining features of
radio telephony, have had to be sent
on the same wave length-36O meters.
rms has made it impossible, for in
stance. to hear stations at great
distances, because the stations near
ny look precedence in the air.
May RevOlutionixe Radio,
The granting of more wave lengths
Tor private use may revolutionize
radio. 1t will then be possible for
each city to have as many as ten
stations. for instance. and each sta
tion would be able to use every other
hour of the day. If there were more
sending stations. the time could be
reduced to periods of half hour
each. and so on. Sending stations are
rather expensive to build and unless
private companies can, see a material
benefit in establishing them, officials
believe, the number of transmitting
stations will not grow too large for
convenience. AS for receiving sta
lions, they can grow to unlimited
numbers, because receiving outfit is
silent and cannot do anything to in
terfere either with somebody else s
sending or receiving apparatus. Ex-
pense and the necessity for a power
plant of dimensions too large to be
installed in private homes will al
ways keep down the number of trans
mitting stations, but everybody ex-
poets the number of receivers to grow
by tens OF thousands, as the expense
is being gradually reduced to rela-
lively small sums.
Say Novelty VIII Pass.
Most officials doubt whether the
radio will ever be more than a fad
for many people. They declare its
novelty will pass just as has been
the case with other inventions. The
photograph, 1t was thought at first.
would be affected, but the irregularity
of radio and the fact that a phono.
grrph can be turned on at any
ho.r without interference of any
kind will safeguard its place in the
scheme of things domestic. There is
an admitted use. however, for radio
other than entertainment which off,
Gals believe will tend to be developed.
They foresee wonderful opportunities
TO broadcast information to farmers
and suburban communities They
think 1t will be useful for public
speeches, sermons and the prevention
of disease by the spread of valuable
data, especially in times of epidemic.
Every business concern will have to
work out its. own problem in using
radio-the government will rely on
competition to solve the difficulties
of too many users. The best daily pro-
gram will win out just as the best
newspaper or magazine.
Copyright. 1927