Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-12-28
ADVANCES IN RADIO
FOR 1880 MARKED.
Many of Greatest Contribu-
tons Await Succeeding
Years for Fruition.
BY MARTIN CoDEL.


BY MARTIN CODEL.
Many of the waning years GREATEST
contributions to radio broadcasttng
await the New Year and succeeding
years for their fruition.
Looking back over 1880, the tenth
milestone of American broadcasting,
one counts about dozen major de-
velopmentS or acknowledgements Most
Of them overlap into the next few
years, but all indicate the progress that
has been or will be made in an art,
science and industry whose future only
the imagination can conjure.
Advances Summarized.
The years most important advances
In radio broadcaSting as whole may
be summarized as follows:
l. Better receiving sets were offered
to the public at lower prices. The
Superheterodyne circuit embodying
screen-grid tubes entered to dominate
a market featuring tone control, re-
mote control, midget receivers, low
priced adio-phonograph combinations,
home recording and photograph
talking motion picture combinations.
2. TeleviSion progressed nearer to
energence from the laboratory. Many
claims and counter claims, technical
and otherwise, were made by the tele-
vision experimenters, but the Federal
Radio Commission and most of the
men doing research on television agreed
that "television is still in an expert
mental stage"
3. The trend toward higher powers
and wider listening ranges for broad
casting stations, both in this country
and abroad, became more and more
evident, although the Federal Radio
Commissions plans for increasing
powers of more clear channel stations
remained in doubt as the year drew to
a close. The commission authorized
KDKA, at Pittsburgh, to experiment in
the coming months with powers up to
100000 watts, the highest ever used
anywhere.
4. Synchronized broadcasting, look
ing toward the ultimate operation of
Nationwide networks on one wave
length or one group of waves was ac-
complished as a technical reality in a
notable series Of experiments, and will
be introduced to the listeners early in
1881 when Stations VITO, Hartford,
and VIDAL, Baltimore, begin operating
periodically on the wave lengths of
WEAF and WIZ, New York, respec-
lively. Succeeding regionally, a syn
chrontzed network will undoubtedly be
developed to cover the entire country
in time.1
BrOadcasting Begins to Pay.
.. The business of broadcasting
thrived as never before, weAthering the
economic depression as did few other
businesses. Broadcasting at last began
to earn substantial dividends for the
broadcasters, especially the networks.
Ihe latter, generally, are throwing their
pronts back into great new projects de-
signed to extend their aims and scope.
6. Work was begun in New York CITY
on magnificent new radio city"
covering three square blocks and in
Guiding radio and television studios.
tneaterS for opera, drama, musical
comedy, variety and sound pictures and
Office buildings for their adninistra-
ton. Designed as an architectural
backed by $3.50, Ooo, 900 of Rockefeller r
money and is projected for completion
by 1888. ''''-
Z; Motion picture interests, possibly
looking TO the day of television, broad
ened their control over or afiliation with
radio. Radio-Keith- Orpheum is part
IL the group owning the National Broad
caStlng Co. and its subsidiary music
published and artist bureau businesses.
paramount owns so per cent of the Co
~ A|AONANooIAIl6 SySLeIIl, WHICH a
Few weeks ago merged seven of the
largest concert bureaus in the country.
Warner Brothers acquired the Bruns-
WICK radio manufacturing plants and
otherWfse sought to widen its influence
in radio.
8. Canada and Mexico eyinced a
growing radio consciousness" with the
prospect that they will, probably early
II! IN 1881, make demand for more of
the broadcasting channels now used in
the United States. Mexico added 16
new stations in 1880, mostly on Ameri-
can-Canaolan channels, and increased
the powers Of many. The wave length
situation in this country became the
more aggravated by the conflicting de-
mandS OF existing broadcasters for bet
ter facilities and the demands of edu-
cat1onal and labor interests for more
recognition in the use of radio waves.
Relay BrOadcasting Refined.
9. International relay broadcasting.
or the exchange of programs with for
eign countries via the short waves, was
ref1ned to the point where the engineers
were enabled to predict, with 80 per
cent accuracy, whether program origi-
mating abroad could be received with
reasonable clarity, despite the vagaries
OF atmosphere. Since the remarkable
success of the Christmas day exchanges
of 1929, followed by the London con-
ference rebroadcastS early in 1880, for
eign programs were offered more and
more frequently and, in one case, on q
week-by-week schedule.
10. Many technical advances Nwere
demonstrated or claimed, whose actual
worth only the ensuing years will prove.
DR.. James Robinson, British inventor,
brought over his Stenode Radiostat,
with which he claims he can narrow
radio channel widths very substantially
and thus relieve wave length conges-
ton. Philo Farnsworth, youthful Cali
fornia experimenter, promised to DEM
onStrate within the next few months a
system of television which he says con-
siderably narrows the path of transmits
sion while producing clearer images.
IL. The networks and some indi-
vidual broadcasterS, concentrating on
program technique as well as on refine
mentS in their technical equipment,
turned their attention more than ever
to covering big news events through
their medium Of audible journalism"
and showed a decided tendency to Of
fer more dramatic presentations and
dialogue, both specially written and
drawn from the legitimate stage. In
the studios, engineers strove to perfect
transmitting equipment, including a
parabolic reflector microphone, designed
to make the range of radio equal to the
concert-hall range.
IL. The Federal Radio Commission,
well into its fourth year Of existence,
completed its internal reorganization,
took over the licensing Of amateurs
from the Radio Division of the De-
partment Of Commerce, prepared to IN
corporate into itself the radio division
as soon as Congress should decree, and
generally sought to maintain order in
broadcaSting as in other forms of radio
Agitation against the
0ro rJio +y1Iet0 died down considerably as