Evening star., 1925-01-19
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES L. TRACEEELL.

Will radio broadcasting be as dead
as the music box in five years? 1
hope not, but
The question is worrying me-a
rabid radio fan, but one who, unfer-
tunately, is not quite SO rabid as he
was Is months ago.
say unfortunately" because
something has happened to my radio
enthusiasm. The trouble lies partly
with me, partly with the broadcast
ing. And 1 am sorry about il.
My case must be that of thousands
of others. In that belief l am going
to set down here some honest, frank
opinions as to broadcasting, its merits
and dement's. as | see II.
When man first gets a radio set.
no matter how small. he finds it the
most fascinating thing in the world.
He sits up with it later than he ever
did with his best girl He listens en-
raptured to the blah- -bIah of the
dance orehestras, drumming out 10
tunes that sound for all the world
like variations on one.
He has "CatWhisk eritis." or, if he
owns a tube set, acute pains in his
pocket nerve as the A batteries are
worn out. Nothing, feazes him. how
ever. The wonder and mystery of
radio, as well as the entertainment
of it, holds him absolutely enthraIled.
He grabs the radio section Of the
paper in his left hand, his watch in
the right, waiting anxiously for 7:20,
when WCAP or WRC comes onto the
air.
Those were great nights. friends,
and they come but once TO the radio
fan. For radio. as everything else,
must and does suffer from the bore
dom which assails every human crea-
ture when he has too much OF a
good thing"
Listening to the radio is a habit
habit which, like that of cigarettes.
is so insidious because it is so easy.
Turn rheostat, "twirl a dial" as one
fan said, in she comes, as neat as you
please. .
Roam the ether from coast TO coast,
in the end you come back to the local
stations, which furnish as good pro-
grams as any broadcasters in the
United States, If not just a little bit
better. You can only listen to one
station at a time, anyway.
But now a glory has departed from
the scene, TO paraphrase Mr.. Words
worth's lines. Maybe il was that
Democratic convention, which was an
awful blow to broadcasting. Thou
sands of listen ers-in never got over
it, Hundreds of crystal sets have
never been the same since,
When the hard-working announcer
says, And now you will have the
pleasure of listening TO Representa-
tive Moomoo speak on the need Of
good roads in the great State of
Wahwah.' we carefully hang up the
headphones or turn off the loud
speaker, saying. NO, we will not
have the pleasure OF listening TO
Representative MoomoO.'
You have been speaking TO three
million persons" the announcer in
forms the Representative after his
Commute talk. But I wonder how
many hung up or tuned in another
station
IF the truth could be known, per-
haps representative Moomoo talk ed
TO a very slim audience indeed. Any
way, he never talks 70 me. Ever
since one radio speaker declared
The United-ah States-ah OF Ameri-
ca-ah" I am off radio speakers.
Maybe ] listen to the President OF
the United States and that man at
entertainingly of barn owls, but the
rank and file of speakers over the
ether lose my ears.
They talk too long and they hiss
their syIlsbles. or else put an "er''
after every other word. They are
like the after-ciinner speakers who
arise and say II have nothing to say,
but" and then talk for an hour
The trouble with radio broadcasting
today is that it is like a phonograph
with only seven records, and single
sided records at that.
The records are:
/. Band concert.
>. Song recital.
3. Piano recital.
4. Jazz dance music.
5. Addresses.
6. organ recitals.
:. Hawaiian music.
What would you? Well, ] do not