Evening star., 1928-12-31
PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN
WON AND LOST ON AIR
Facilities Realigned During Past Year.
Manufacturers Make Good Gains.
Television Developed.
BY ROBERT MACK.

-
- public demand and approval,
N radio has swept through another
4 year, leaving in its wake rec
ord of accomplishments little
short of magic. 1t Is entering 1929
in high gear, and with plenty of gas.
In every phase of the new art there
was the pace that its regulation failed
phenomenal progress, and it centered in
the United States. So rapid, in fact,
was the pace, that its regulation failed
to keep abreast of the scientific prog
ress. and there lie ahead problems of
administration and adjudication that
Court for decision.
A presidential campaign was won and
lost with radio major factor; the 600
odd broadcasting stations that remained
on the air we're juggled about and sifted
in a realignment of facilities that had
as its objective the equal distribution
among the people of the radio facilities
of the nation and the elimination of
interference; the listening audience
more than doubled and small ''look-
ing" audience made its debut by virtue
of the development of television; the
manufacturing industry enjoyed BAN
ner year; new vistas of communication
we're opened by the relentless attack
of science, and the first chapters were
written into the unmarked pages OF
radio law.
Two Sinister Shadows.
But as the year comes to an end
two sinister shadows hover over radio.
One is foreign. Canada has steadfastly
refused to negotiate with the United
States as to the distribuation of the
valuable continental short wave snec-
trum unless this country agrees to the
principle of $3.50 division. 1t has
been suggested that it is not Canada
but Great Britain that is endeavoring
to gather sufficient of these valuable
| short wave channels to make 1t possible
to rid herself of dependence upon the
| United States for the transoceanic
radio relay to South America and the
| Orient. With adequate facilities avail
able in Canada, she would be enabled
to forget the United States as link in
this vital communication.
| The other uncertain quantity is the
suit of the General Electric Co.'S
| Schenectady station, WGY, against the
recallocation order of the Federal Radio
Commission. Now pending before the
Court of Appeals of the District of CO.
lumbia, this case involves the principle
of property rights of stations. The con-
| tention was made by Charles Evans
Hughes before this court on December
that station WGY has vested prop
erty right to the 100 kilocycle channel,
which the commission, under the re-
callocation, had taken away from the
station on a full time basis. Should
the court rule that the station does
have vested property right, and that
the commission is acting in contraven-
ton of the Constitution by confiScating
property without compensation, 1t may
mean the return of radio broadcaSting
to the state of chaos that existed after
the breakdown of the law in 1926-or
worse.
It may mean, in the opinion of some
legal experts, that every station that
had its assignment changed by order OF
the commission will have the right to
claim vested property tight to the full
time channel upon which it operated
after the law broke down. 1t may mean
that the United States will have to COM
pensate each of these stations for con-
fiscation of its property, and, in the
final analysis, it may mean the diSrup-
ton of the entire present framework of
broadcasting.
= Science Centers on Television.
Scientific interest during 1928 CEN
tered around television development,
which moved out of the laboratory and
into the sunlight; but still remains pale
on the home horizon. Some 10 broad
casting stations began broadcaSting
television programs during the year
under experimental authorization and
Iff1ai for
audience.
Mans vision spanned the Atlantic for
the first time on February 8. On that
day the Baird TeleviSion Development
Co. of London transmitted images that
were picked up by the receiving set of
r. M. Hart at Hartsdale, N. Y. The
| images were crude, imperfect and
broken, but they were images, neverthe-
less. and they had crossed the Atlantic
without wires and almost instantly!
The worlds imagination was quick
his instruments on sale. He gave the
first public demonstration of the new
art at that time.
Meanwhile teIevision development
continued within the locked laboratories
of the American organization. On Feb
ruary 25, however, the Bell Telephone
laboratories at New York gave public
demonstration. and in July the Bell
scientists discarded the use of the
powerful glare of artificial light that
heretofore was needed to record moving
scenes and displayed televiSion in the
sunlight.
Dramatic Performance Broadcast.
DR.. E. F. w. Alexanderson, consulting
engineer of the General Electric Co.
and chief engineer of the Radio Cor
poration of America, made the next i'm
portant stride in visual broadcaSting.
On September IL at the General Elec-
trio Co.'S research laboratory at Sche-
nectady he, for the first time in history,
broadcast dramatic performance in
which the voices of the players were
Synchronized with their movements.
Forty minutes of this novel entertain
ment were seen and heard over a syn
chroniZed set miles away from the
research laboratory.
After this the prediction was made
that 1t would not be long before a chain
of radio thsaterS would be established
throughout Tie world.
Toward the end of the year several
manufacturing concerns began manu-
featuring television receiving and send
ing apparatus, confident that the public
will not have long to wait for its radio
movies and the other potentialities of
this new offshoot of radio
The year 1927 witnessed the budding
of transatlantic telephony and it was
hailed as the greatest radio accomplish
ment of the year. But 1923 saw 1t burst
forth IN, fiIlI hl0or1 vYifI1 about a rlozoy,