Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-12-11

NJ failed. months passed in the
4 hope that some universal pan
acea might crop up for radio
ills, the Federal Radio Commission
has trotted out the full weight of its
authority. unleashed the dogs or war
and announced fatty and without
equivocation that it intends to cut
nearly in half the number OF broad
casting stations.
Not only that, but in so many words
the commission decides arbitrarily to
nut it up to the broadcaster himself
to prove his right to radio existence.
If he doesn't like it he may go to the
courts for legal redress. Quite a
change in the hitherto ConCiliatory
policy of the Federal body, which has
set out to thrash the wheat from the
chaff and bring to the millions who
have invested many more millions In
radio equipment radio programs free
from interference and the squeals and
squawks that go with 1t. Yet there
it is in black and white under the sig
nature of the Radio Commission-a
determination to grasp the issue full
bodied and fight t out--in the courts
if necessary, but to fight it out at all
costs.
And in taking this radical step-of
cutting the 694 broadcasters at pres
ent on the air down to something like
394-the commission is only doing
what the radio industry told it to do
as long ago as last April. In other
words, it has taken eight months for
the commission to realize that the
only way to solve a cOngested air
problem is to eliminate some of the
trouble breeders.
Pickard Explains Policy.
Definite policies for the further
clearing of the broadcast band by the
further transfer of certain stations, as
we'll as by denial of broadcasting
licenses, have been determined upon,
in Commissioner Pickard'S words.
These denials and transfers become
effective with the expirationS of the
series of 60-day licenses on February
/. Individual members of the com.
mission have. from the very first.
realized that elimination of some 300
broadca sters was eventually the only
real solution for the present over
crowding of the air channels. approx
mately the total of those who came
on the air during the breakdown OF
the law of 1926"
With these words the big stick has
been thrust through the velvet glove
of Cancellation and the Radio Commits
sion, If it lives up to its announced
policy, is in for a merry little struggle
of it's own. From Congress and from
the constituency of members of Con
gress is to pour stream of protests
to add to the already prolific bundle
of kicks" about the heavy hand OF
Federal air authority.
If the commission lives up to its
announced program it will be a queer
and wonderful radio world which
comes into existence the night of Feb
ruapy /. That night will resemble
those great nights of T -ceptiOn back
in 1921 and 1922, when the rug manu-
facturers. the pickle makers and the
purveyors of garden tools had not yet
discovered the magical new means for
spreading propaganda into the very
heart of the American home. Nc
more heterodyning, no more squeaks
and squawks. Only the rumble of ma
ture-made static, and noisier rumble
far off in the distance the clarion
voice of the broadcasters who have
fallen in the battle for existence-the
emphatic voice of their attorneys as
| they plead in the Federal courts
through the land their right to be or
| the air.
Throwing Down Gauntlet.
For the commission intends to
throw down the gauntlet to the broad
casters who have not proven their
right to places in the select circle OF
the elect, their right to the purple by
virtue of proven public convenience
and necessity. They've decided-the
four remaining commissioners-to cut
'em out and let the legal chips fall
where they may.
Recognizing that important consti-
tutional questions are involved in
license denials and transfers, and that
court action might be expected in
many cases, the commission put back
in it's files the words of the radio wise
who told them back in April their job
was to eliminate and not to encourage
and have moved back on fundamental
principles, trotting out the old creed,
cut 'em out" To have undertaken
to deny licenses at the outset of the
work of the air control body might
have tied up the commission by in
junction and court orders, preventing
it from making progress in tackling
many of the big problems it confront
cd 6IIrincr tho Summer fhoco man