New Britain herald., 1930-08-20
THE FUTURE OF RADIO

THE FUTURk OF RADIO
 Dr. Lee De Forest, president ot the Institute Of Radio Engineers. continues to believe that radio is los, ing some of its hold on the public through excessive direct advertising over the ether. He is not alone in his estimate. At the annual convention Of the Institute held in Toronto he uttered another timely warning;' but as was the case last year, when he first brought the matter 10 the attention of his colleagues. nothing is likely 10 be done about it until what he terms the golden egg of hroadcasung" IS perfectly scrambled Dr De Forest points out that in virtually every other country except the United States methods have been deEised 70 tax radio set owners for funds with which 10 provide pro- grams devoid Of advertising, and ir many countries radio broadcasting . is 2 government enterprise. A Cana dian commission, assigned to thor oushly investigate American and British methods accepted the Brit ish system as being more conductive 10 real service 10 the public. And perhaps # will have been noticed be- fore this that the British broad casting system. which IS under the aeg,s Of the British post office, IS quite as cnterprising as anything We have to offer
 The weakness of the radio as an advertising medium IS that when people are in mood 10 listen 10 music they are not in a mood to listen 10 commercial appeals These ircessant appeals merely result in dial turning. and when there IS no possibility Of avoiding them the set in a goodly proportion Of instances is merely turned of Commercial ism over the radio IS in the same class with btlIboards along scenic roads.
 Dr. De Forest forecasts that the day of wired-radjo, which is free Of static. interference and advertising, is rapidly approaching
 There have bcen between six and seven hundred radio stations ln the tinted States. most of them small local stations operated by concerns which are In the business for profit rather than giving that type Of pub lie service which will command the maximum c. public interest. The system simply will not work. and it IS well known that q large propor- ton Of these radio stations have been losing money or barely break ing even. The capital that has been sunk in q large portion Of them ayentuaIy will have been lost.
 Although our system of radio broadcasting. relying upon program sponsors" to pay the bills, seems to he open 10 these criticisms, our de velopmont i1 improved sets and their distribution leads the world. The sets n general use in the United States are bettcr-and more eX- ponsive-than elsewhere in the world Canada possibly excepted. It is not right, therefore, that buyers Of expensive high-class sets such as are in general use in the United States should not receive as faultless a service from the broadcasters as is received from the set manufacturers.
 The chain broadcasters are fond of pointing out the excellence Of ] their programs. and how they broad ] cast q large percentage of exception ally good programs throughout each day. But an examination shows that the programs they boast about Us uallv take place during hours when there are likely to be the fe"cst . listeners. The critical-or desirable hours m broadcasting are between [ and I0 D. m. and it is these hours which are most in demand by the commercial broadcasters. II cannot he said that these hours are filled with 2. generally superior type of radio broadcasting in this country. The aim Of nearly all of the program sponsors IS to appeal to the largest number of people and in order to do so the programs must be composed of more or Ices buffoonery. either in music or other forms of "entertain- mcnt" There are exc ptions, Of course. but it is not the comparative ly few exceptions that cause the general complaints so well enunci- ated by Dr. De Forest.
 SHARES BIG TROUT