The Washington times., 1924-02-28
PHONECOMPANY
DENIES GOUCE
. CHARGE
Explains Failure to Transmit
Washingtcn's Birthday
Talk TO Chicago.

cago broadcasters. and listeners-in
that Chicago fans were prohibited
from hearing President Coolidge 9
Washington Birthday address be-
cause OF the prohibitive price named
by the American Telephone and
Telegraph Company to transmit the
speech to Chicago. William E.
Hardness, in charge Of the radio
division Of the telephone company
has explained that the price quoted
to Chicago was fixed on q cost and
not q profit basis. ...
The whole story IL this" said
Mr.. Hardness. Several weeks ago
the Chicago Rotary Club announced
to all its members that on February
22 II they listened at receiving
sets they could hear the speech Of
the President broadcast all oyer the
world. They then came to us and
asked, IL we could arrange It.
, I'VE informed their representative
ri believe 1t was Mr.. Treadwell-
that It would be- a physical impos-
gtbiitty to make the necessary con.
nectionS to enable President Cool.
idge's talk to be heard In every
part Of the world. We did explain.
however, that we had already ar.
ranged to broadcast the Presidents
speech over practically. all the States
east Of the Mississippi through three
broadcasting station s-those at
Washington, New York and Provi.
dence.
Repeat Request
;sLater they came back and said
they wanted us to broadcast the
Presidents speech also through
Chicago. They asked us to quote
them q price. Our figure was
$1,000. That was a cost proposi.
ton, not profit-making rate.
I'VE did not demand an EXCESSIVE
rate from any other city that de.
sired to broadcast the Presidents
talk. We received an inquiry from
st. Paul. Mimi, desiring to know
whether we could make them a low
figure for broadcastlng President
CoolldgeIS speech. We advised them
the cost of linking st. Paul to the
broadcasting circuit would be Dro.
hibitive. That's all there was to
it,"
I'VE have to disrupt all our nor.
NAL conditions and set up an en-
tirely new service to broadcast.
That can be done only when the
normal service Of the company is
interrupted. We have to take Ger.
tain circuits and disrupt them and
set new circuits.
Special Equipment
Now, to establish those circuits.
special equipment has to he used.
The installation must be done by
special men. Special forces must be
kept at all the repeating stations,
In making the installations we have
to wait until the lowest point of
traffic of the day, which means
after midnight. In turn, that means
that we have to pay our special
men, who are high-price workers,
for overtime.
In undertaking to broadcast an
important program we set I'D the
circuits the day before. We must
then take them out To make way
for normal telephone service. When
the time comes to broadcast, we
must put the circuits ON again, and
after the br0adcasting is completed.
we must disrupt the special cir
cults"
CHICAGO, Feb. %. - The an.
nouncement made from WJAZ, the
Zentth-Edgewater Beach Hotel
broadcasting station, was in mart
as follows:
"The American Telephone and
Telegraph Company wanted $4,000
for telephone wires to connect lust
one Chicago station with the East.
Yet the regular long distance
charges for the use Of ordinary
calls from Chicago to Washington
Is only $3.50 for the first three min.
utes and $3.50 Tor each additional
minute.
The original plan was for the
President to talk ten minutes. At
regular rates the cost Of these wires
would therefore be S14.SO. Because
or the necessity OF having we'll.
balanced wires and other possible
special care one Chicago station
ottered the American Telephone and
telegraph Company $1,000 for this
service from Washington. Service
even at that figure was refused to
the Chicago station.
our own personal opinion. for
which we probably will be made to
pay Tor having expressed. ia that
this great public service corporation
should have contributed its wire
service to every broadcastine sta
tion In the United States desiring to
brOadcQ af tho p~o.s-Sz.IC-