Evening star., 1928-09-10
LEGAL ACTION DUE
IN REALL0CAT|0N
New Assignments Practically
Certain to Follow Commits
sion's Ruling Nov. II.
BY MARTIN CODEL.

On the eve of the announcement of
the broadcasting reallocation legal ac-
ton to test the validity of certain
phases of the radio law and some of
the orders of the Federal Radio Com
| mission looms as certainty.
| Several Chicago attorneys are here
preparing one test case and it is conf
IDENTIFY expected that several of the new
assignments will lead to the courts
soon after the station managements
learn that they have drawn inferior
channels or must suffer drastic curtail-
ment of their operating hours.
| The new ALLEGATION, now definitely
ordered into effect at 3 am. November
II, or Immediately after the general
| elections. changes the wave lengths of
nearly all of the broadcasting stations
in the United States, alters the powers
of many of them and requires scores of
time divisions between stations assigned
to identical channels.
| The Chicago station reported about to
enter the courts Is WMBB-WOK, the
5,000-watter of the American Bond &,
Mortgage Co., which was ordered to
quit the air as of September /. Its
counsel, it is understood. proposes to
have the station go back on the air
in defiance of the commissions order.
Row Over Wave Length.
| Under the new ALLEGATION, details of
which are not to be made public for
| "a more hours, the wave length to be
used by two Texas stations will be usurp-
ed If the Chicago station goes back to its
old assignment of 1.190 kilocycles (252
lead to criminal prosecution by the
commission and the Department of
Justice.
! The net effect of this and the others
w.lich will follow. with all their various
ramifications, will be to obtain from
the courts certain much-needed rulings
on the radio act itself and clear def
nitions of the commissions authority.
The commission is legally fortified to
meet any litigation and is anxious to
have the law and its orders tested
With regard to the reallocation plan.
about 60 stations with powers ranging
from 1000 to $4,000 watts have won
places on the 40 cleared channels. Time
divisions between two nearby stations
assigned to the same channel are gen.
orally required. most of these being in
the fourth zone and especially in the
| Chicago area.
More than 100 stations with powers
| ranging from $50 to 1000 watts have
been placed on the "a regional chan
nels. On these also there will be much
time sharing. especially in the fourth
zone, but the stations will be spaced
far enough apart to preclude interfer-
ence.
Limit Is $4,000 Watts.
Four channels at the extreme lower
| end of the broadcast band have had a
dozen stations of varying power and of
varying size and Importance assigned
to them. This is the part of the spec
trum generally regarded as difficult to
tune in on most receiving sets. The six
local channels have been crowded with
the bulk of the low-powered stations.
| The power maximum has been fixed
at $4,000 watts. but the commission may
authorize power up to $4,000 watts to
determine from this experiment whether
| interference will result. 1t is antici-
pated that such stations as WEAF,
WGY and KDKA, the present 50-kilo-
watt stations, and WIZ, using 10000
watts, will be permitted to continue op-
Grating with their present powers on an
experimental basis and be required to