Evening star., 1931-12-20

- last March, educational interests
seeking to increase their broad
/ casting facilities already have
trained their legislative guns on
commercial radio with the objective OF
obtaining Is per cent Of the available
broadcastirg facilities for accredited
educational institutions.
One of the first bills to be introduced
when the Seventy-second Congress con-
the ALLEGATION to educational interests
of the equivalent of 1872 of the 90
broadcasting wave lengths available to
this country. 1t failed of enactment
last session and, while Senator Fess ad-
mitS it might be changed considerably
in committee, he declares an effort will
be made to have it passed.
Close on the heels of this action,
Armstrong Perry, Washington repre-
sentative of the National Committee on
Education by Radio, has issued a state
ment in which he fagrantly criticized
the American system of commercial
broadcasting as opposed to the Euro
peon method. Mr.. Perrys statement
followed a three month survey of Eu-
ropean radio.
Holds Profits Exaggerated.
About the same time Harry Shaw,
president of the National Association of
Broadcasters, which has led the fight
against the Fess bill, reported to the
Federal Radio Commission the results
of an inspection of radio stations
throughout the country. He said the
prosperity of broadcasting has been
widely misrepreSented" and that more
than half of the some 600 stations are
operating without profit, but are hope
ful that AS conditions improve they will
be rewarded"
Mr.. Perry declared that information
he gathered in interviews with radio
officials in all European countries led
him to the conclusion that Americans
pay much more for their radio pro-
grams than Europeans He said Eu-
ropean listeners pay their fees to their
governments in convenient INSTALL
ments' by taxes on their sets, and he
inferred that American listeners pay
indirectly for programs by taxes of
about $444, 900 a year, imposed to defray
the expense of maintaining the Federal
Radio Commission
Radio advertising is prohibited in IL
European countries and limited in II
! others, Mr.. Perry declared He said
/ that most of the continental broadcast
ers receive assured incomes through
tlelr governments, ana t4lat IN 10 COtln-
tries officials reported profits ranging
from satisfactory to Is per cent.
Classified as Commerce.
I'm the United States" said Perry
'broadcasting has been classified as in.
terstate commerce. In Europe broad.
casting is an educational and civic
function. In the United States com.
mercial broadcasters and radio officials
are trying to place all broadcastine
channels in the hands of concerns en-.
gagged in the advertising and amuse.
| ment business. In Europe this make!
| the United States a laughing-st
particularly when even the President O.
the United States, speaking to the
citizens over public radio channels, be.
! ccr1es an adjunct to an advertising
. campaign"
TIE vicws of Mr. Perry we're not ir
| harmony with tho-e of other American
officials who have inspected Europe II
recent months. Senator Dill Demo.
, craft. Washington. radio leader of the
Senate, for example, held that European
programs, with the exception of certain
educational features, were much infe.
rior to those offered over American sta
tions.
| (Copyright, 1917