Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-09-21
EXPECTS CHANGES
TO STAND TESTS
Radio Commissioner Holds
ReaIIocations Bring Few
Hearing Appeals.
BY MARTIN CODEL.

Little or no likelihood of a break
down of the broadcast reallocation or
dered for next November ii is seen b.
Louis G. Caldwell, chief counsel fo
the Federal Radio Commission. Uncer'
tainty whether the new set-up will evel
go into effect, subject that is CAUSING
so much buzz and hum this week al
the Radio Worlds Fair in New York, Is
diSpelled by Caldwell.
He asserted today that the reas-
signmentS of wave lengths. powers ano
hours of operation, affecting nearly all
broadcaSting stations in the country
will undoubtedly go into effect as sched-
uled right after the general elections.
Litigation already started and the
court actions still in the threat" stage
will not disrupt the ALLEGATION plan as
a whole, nor will they affect the OPP
Grating conditions of any stations except
those on the channels involved.
Few Hearings Sought.
Caldwell said that surprisingly few
hearings have been sought for the pur-
: pose of lodging protests against indlvld-
ual assignments under the November
revision. There have been many in
formal protests, often backed by political
influence The commission, however, is
SldIiQlIlE
except where obvious wrongs are be-
ing revealed. Relatively few changes
in the assignments announced last week
may be expected before November II.
Meanwhile, Caldwell is busily engaged
on the legal tasks surrounding the court
cases which have been brought. Only
three actual suits are pending. All are
minor cases involving orders of the
commission issued prior to the reallo-
cation.
Two are injunction suits of an iden
teal nature, which have been brought
by two ''neighborhood' stations of Chi
cago, WCRW and WEDC, to restrain
the commission from enforcing its or
derS reducing their powers from 500 to
100 watts. The other is an appeal to
the Court of Appeals of the District of
Columbia being carried by WTRL, Mid
land Park N. j., which was ordered off
the air September /.
Joint Hearing Ordered.
Complaints and arguments in the
cases of the two Chicago stations are
so much alike that they have been
scheduled for joint hearing before
Judge WilkerSon in the United States
District Court at Chicago next WedneS-
day. September 26. The date, however,
probably will be changed to Friday,
September %, in order to enable Cald-
well to be present.
Judge Wilkerson is the same jurist
whose decision in the famous Zenith
case of two years ago was upheld by
the Attorney General and precipitated
the breakdown of the outworn comr11u-
nications act of 1912, leading Congress
to enact the radio act of 1927.
The only other court action involving
hr0a dca STING that ie cti11 ftiY1 thn if's lie
the proposed suit of WMBB@WOK, also
of Chicago, ordered by the commits
sion to shut down on September /. The
station was expected to go on the air
in defiance Of the order, thus inviting
criminal action by the Government as
the first step in friendly suit" to test
various phases of the radio law and the
commissions powers.
This case mas not yet materialized,
although the owners of the station are
said to be baking at the prospect of
scrapping their apparatus. The station
was the largest among the 164 involved
in the July hearings, out of which 81
were deleted either as a result of the
commissions orders refusing license re-
newalS, default or voluntary surrenderS
of licenses.
Investment is Large.
The station is said to be an expensive
property with a capacity of 10000 watts.
It was using 5000 at the time the COM
mission rendered decision to the effect
that it was not operating in the over
crowded Chicago area in the public In
terest, convenience or necessity"
Two Short-wave cases have gone to
the courts on the eve of the hearing,
scheduled by the commission next Tues
day, to give short-wave interests an op-
portunity to elucidate their proposals
regarding the use of channels in the
high-frequency spectrum for domestic
radio telegraph services.
The International Quotations Co.,
New York corporation formed to trans
NIT Stock Exchange quotations to Euro
pean subscribers, is appealing from the
commissions decision denying a license
for a transoceanic short wave.
The Bull Insular Lines, steamship
concern seeking short waves for radio
telegraph services between New York,
Baltimore and Palm Beach and points
in Porto Rico and Santa Domingo, is
making a similar appeal from a similar
decision.
copyright. 1928. by North American News
paper Alliancel