Evening star., 1931-12-27
- VENTS taking place in the
4 juridical end of radio dur
ing the last few days have

IL AAS GAlC AdSI lew udyS nave
established new radio law
OF fundamental Importance. One
development erased from the rec
ords the case that bull1ed largest
In that it questioned the validity
of the more than 1,400 radio wave
licenses held by subsidiaries of
the Radio Corporation of America
Delivering a body blow to the
aspirations of many broadcasting
stations for increased facilities,
the Court of Appeals of the Dis
trlct in other cases last week
rendered decisions in which it
affirmed the validity of the Davis
equalization amendment to the
radio act, holding that the COM
mission acted properly in its
effort to effect IAN absolute
equality of broadcasting facili-
ties" among the States and the
zones into which the country is
divided.
Just prior to these decisions the
court was served with notice dis
missing appeals brought by
WTMJ, Milwaukee, which chal-
lenged the commissions decision
of last June giving the r. C. A.
a clean bill of health in the "Sec-
ton 13" anti-monopoly case, and
renewing the licenses covering
the whole broad radio field held
by National Broadcasting Co,
r. C. Accommodations, Inc,
and Radiomarine Corporation of
America. No reasons were as
signed for the dismissals, which
apparently came as a complete
surprise both to the commission
and to the R. C. A.
WTMJ was an applicant for the
clear channel of 870 kilocycles
occupied by WENR and WIS, both
Chicago. The former is owned
by N. B. c., and the latter has a
working arrangement with the
network. While in its appeal the
Milwaukee station questioned
only the continuance of the
licenses of these stations. the
whole matter of the validity of
renewing all R. c. A. licenses was
automatically raised. Dismissal
of this suit, as we'll as a subse-
uuent appeal filed by WTMJ from
the commissions decision deny
ing it this frequency with the
maximum power of $4,000 watts,
in lieu of it's present regional
channel assignment, now leaves
the commissions decision absolv-
ing the r. G. A. of infraction of
section 13 unquestioned. The
section 13 case grew out Of a de-
ciSion in the courts that the
R. c. A. had violated the Clayton
act by requiring receiving set
manufacturers using its patents
to equip their new sets with
R. G. A. tubes. Section 13 specifies
that any company found guilty of
violating the antitrust laws
shall be denied renewal of wave
length license, but the commission
found that this section did not
apply in this case.
The new radio law was written
by the court in the cases of
WPTF, Raleigh, N. c., and KECA,
Los Angeles, both of which sought
increases in daylight power,
which the commission denied on
the ground that the quota regu-
lationS thereby would be violated.
In the former case the commits
sion found that while North Car
olina was delinquent in facilities,
granting of the application would
place the State slightly over
quota. California, it held, already
is over-quota and therefore the
application for an increase in day.
time power from 1000 to $500
watts would violate the regula-
tions. The court sustained these
decisions, which were based on
the commissions efforts to equal
ize" under the Davis amendment.
A MERICA'S counterpart of the
IA Blattnerphone, the steel tape
recording device used by the
British Broadcasting Corporation
to record radio programs of a
permanent character for later
reproduction either in addition
rooms or on the air, remains the
simple phonograph record. But
more and more is being done
with photograph records in con-
nection with radio in this country.
Electrical transcriptions, as
programs recorded for broadcast
ing purposes only are called in
this country, must now either be