New Britain herald., 1925-01-06
Through The Static

Receiving conditions last night weren't what they might havo been as far as clarity and smoothness were concerned. All sorts of rattles and crashes penetrated the loud speaker, especially on the SG0 to AS0 meter wave band. Intermittent crashes of static intertered, but code was not noticeable as on the previous night.
 One of the best offerings Of the evening was that from WOS, Jcffer- son City, Missouri, where Harry NJ. snodgraSs, King of The Ivories," was doing his weekly turn, This young man, an inmate Of the Mis- souri state prison, Is probably one Of the most popular radio entertainers in the country, He fully warrants the title, He makes music out of any number, almost an impossibllty in some cases, 10 be sure. Harry's piano has It's work cut out for 1t every Monday night.
 
 Something new in programs of dance music was presented at WSAD, Posters at Providence, last night, when an orchestra rendered a group of numbers popular q year or more ago, excluding all selections in favor at the present tune. This WAS a well poo1n relIef from nIHO1i1u, rT,l,., S,,,,,.t low'' and other presont-day songs, which are being oYer-worked and even killed at the hands of dance or chestras. The announcer said this orchestra would be back next Mon day evening,
 The soIoist of Arthur Pryor's band. out of WQAM, Miami, Florida, did some acrobatc stunts with her voice which defy description. Personally we are fed up with these coloratura sopranos. This singer has pleasing voice, but the runs up and down the scale kill the whole proceedings, to our way of thinking.
 Charles Murray, on WTAM's pro- gram played cello in fine style. The announcer made it plain, in fact he repeated the statement several times, that the cello was made by Mr. Alurray's father. Whether or not he was drumming up trade we don't know. The cello sounded great 
 We did a lot Of scouting around on the lower wave lengths last night. that is, from 290 meters down to @26 meters. For our trouble we heard q dance orchestra out at WBBZ, In- dianapolis Indiana; dance orches- ira at Mattapoisett, Mass; an an- nouncer kidding himself at KFNF, Shenandoah, la, and several other hearing.
 One thing, at least, attracted us last night. We read in the program that somebody other was to per- form on the "Taropatch" at WAAM, Newark. Never having heard a "Taropatch," we rather wondered what 1t sounds like. We were not rewarded and still live in ignorance, as the "Tarapatch" performance had already been given when we tuned in on that station.
 We broke in on several lectures. but broke right out again. One of them on "Superfluous Hair" was from WHN, New York. There were others which might have been in- teresting, but which did not attract the writer last night. The static was too heavy.
 KFKX at Hastings, Nebraska, broke out with a dance orchestra last night, said orchestra being ex- cellent. We always get a thrill out of that station, alWay. The announcer adds greatly to it by keeping the lis tener in suspense, while out of the great silence come the letter, K F-+k-X, Westinghouse Electric at Hastings, Nebrah-ska," all this in a deep bass voice.
 We got back to WBZ at Spring. field just in time 10 hear the open- ing number by McEnellys Singing orchestra from Cooks Butterfly ball.. room. This band is one of the most attractive features on late programs and has almost as large a following as Ev. Jones and his orchestra at WTAM.
 The early program from WEE was not one to cause any great stir in the radio world, For one thing VIC don't like radio descriptions of hockey games. Like ginger ale, there's no kick. The Shrine band, which preceded the hockey game