Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-01-18
radio CHANGES
FOR 1881 LIMITED
Little Prospect of Enactment
of important Legislation
a at This Session.
BY MARTIN CODEL.

This year there will be no major
shakeup in American broadcasting.
Though there will be a few changes in
wave lengths and powers here and
there, with possibly more of the clear
channel stations going to $4,000 watts,
neither Congress nor the Federal Radio
Commission may be expected during
1881 to suffer the listening public to
90 through the throes of another wide
spread reallocation.
For one thing, there is no prospect
whatever of the enactment of any i'm
portant radio legislation during the
present session of Congress, and the
new Congress does not convene until
next December. Again, the commission
has met certain rebuffs in the courts in
its efforts to shift stations about, and
has itself enacted certain orders recent
ly, which make 1t more difficult than
ever to make organic changes in the
broadcast structure.
That is not to say that the American
broadcasting situation is frozen" Nor
does it mean that the broadcaSterS can
rest secure in their present privileges.
Certain other vital movements are
under foot which threaten the security
of existing broadcasting stations as they
have never been threatened in the 10
years Of broadcasting. Those move
mentS. ultimately, may shake broadcast
ing to its very foundations-but right
now they are only in the "incubating"
stage and they will take some years to
hatch.
Much Of SynchrOnizing.
Much has been written about syn
chronizing multiplicity OF broadcast
ing stations to operate simultaneously
on single wave length without inter-
fering with one another. Not many
years viii elapse before this great tech
nical advance will put national net
work broadcagting on . new basis.
While It's obvious trend is toward giving
the networks their own 24-hour nation
wide outlets, the probable effect OF
synchronization on local and regional
broadcasting and on the conservation OF
the scarce radio channels remains Q
matter of conjecture.
Not much attention has been paid,
however, to the demand of certain In
terests for better representation on the
wave lengths, demands which, II met,
must inevitably curtail the use of the
broadcasting channels by their present
occupants. Most of the highly over
crowded 80 channels are now used by
commercial enterprises. Additional
channels in the radio spectrum, made
AYHlIdDle Oy LcCIlIhCdl dQNdllSCoJ aP-
pear to be a remote possibility. How,
then, are the wave length demands of
the educators and organized labor, not
to forget the sovereign Canadians and
Mexicans, to be met?
Eight of the most important educa-
tional associations in the United States
have banded together for campaign
which has as its avowed purpose the
setting aside of Is per cent Of the 80
wave lengths-the equivalent OF 1914
clear channels-for the exclusive use by
48 autonomous State educational groups.
Jealous of their State autonomy over
education, they viii not agree that the
interstate character of radio waves gives
any Federal agency power to regulate
educational broadcasting by States.
Funds Not Assured.
Nor have their States insured them
appropriations for educational stations
which they insist they themselves chat
is, each State group must wholly con-
troll. They utterly refuse to consider
any compromise whereby all Federally
licensed stations shall be required to
reserve for them, collectively or singly,
nationally or locally, certain hours TO
be devoted to educational programs
staged by themselves.
They insist they must have exclu-
sively assigned wave lengths. They
have embarked on a f1ve-year cam
paign looking to the end that they get
is per cent of all the radio channels.
They were started on their way by
Secretary of the Interior Wilbur, him
self president of Leland Stanford; they
were more recently organized by United
States Commissioner of Education
Cooper; and their demand for 10 PEI
cent Of the radio channels has been
incorporated into a bill introduced IN
Congress January 8 by Senator Fess OF
Ohio, who is chairman of the Republi-
can National Committee.
Though President Hoover has prob
ably paid little attention to their cam
paign, its impetus and organization has
come from within administration ranks
and, to all appearances at least, has
borne and bears the Endorsement OF the
Republican administrators.
Even more insistent in their demands
are the labor interests, who appear
with better organized front than ever
with the prospective affiliation OF the
railroad brotherhoods with the Ameri-
can Federation of Labor. The labor
campaign, which has also taken the
form of bills introduced in the Senate
by Senator Glenn of Illinois, and in
the House by Representative Reed Of
Illinois, Is designed to obtain q clear
channel for VIGIL, Chicago. Chicago
being already overcrowded with sta
tons which are already using more
than their quota of channels, the Fed
eral Radio Commission has consistently
refused to meet that demand.
Glenn Reed Bill Pledges.
Not only has the American Fedora
ton of Labor Endorsed the campaign
for & clear channel. but those behind
the movement say they have pledged
80 per cent of the present Congress
and 80 per cent of the next Congress
to support the Glenn-Reed bills. Those
bills would also reserve clear channel
for education and another for agricul-
ture Labor, education and agriculture
would get their assignments to the
three clear channels thus reserved, not
from the Federal Radio Commission,
but from the Secretaries of Labor, In
terror and Agriculture, respectively.
The educators apparently are not
putting much faith in these bills, but
are throwing their strength behind the
Fess measure. The agriculturists have
been relatively quiet, but the conven-
ton of the Farmers Educational Co
operative Union in st. Paul Is on rec
ord as favoring the Reed resolution. |
Given a clear channel, the agriculture |
interests say they would build power |
full station on 1t through the combined |
efforts Of the Farm Bureau Federation, |
the National Grange and the National |
Farmers' Union.
All of these movements assume that |
one clear channel each, or even 1872
for education, would be sufficient for |
their nationwide needs. There are
many technical reasons to dispute this |
presumed sufflciency Each interest, |
with the possible exception Of the farm |
ers, who have been accorded generous |
treatment on the wave lengths by the |
two national networks and by individ- |
ual stations, intends to 60 to Congress |
vs,ifI, ffa A0bf The ov{efiro hrOadra Sf. |