Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-07-29
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES z. TRACEWELL.

| Better, he goes on, II he meets the
SLIGHTEST hesitation on the part Of any
one TO accept his claims. The fact
that hundreds Of scientists have worked
for years and that manufacturers have
spent millions Of dollars building con-
SANITY better sets means nothing at
all to him.
II you win listen to him (and you
must, because he talks 50 loudly, all
that experimentation and all those dol
lection was reached In his model of
1921
Tone quality, so our hero continued
to reason with himself, is at once the
most elusive and tantalizing quality in
radio.
It was In the beginning, and It re-
mains 90. There Is much talk about
low frequencies and high frequencies,
about muffied tones and tones in a bar
rel, and clear, loud, brilliant and deep,
but in the last analysis every ear in
sists-or its owner insists for it-that
1t knows what It likes.
Taste Is tone, with the great majority,
and personal taste is willing to meet
and vanquish-science and money any
day or evening in the week.
The trouble comes in the lack Of
comparisons. II the owners Of old-style
sets were to have them going alongside
new set, Of the better type. thew
would wonder how in the world they
ever thought them good.
As long as they do no. make this
test, however, they are reasonably sure
Of preferring their own outfits. II at
any time they have O suspicion of the
faNn fyvsovttv Dc
the blame on the tubes.
Jones laughed quietly to himself at
two aspects OF radio-as-it-is. One of
these was the intense oratory of the
announcers. Several years ago several
famous persons announced over the air
that new eype Of oratory was coming
in as q result of radio. There were to
be no more high-powered perorations,
| no wild wavings Of the flag, no scream
| ing. but all was to be conducted on a
level plane Of appeal to the intelli-
gence.
"a pretty dream, sir" the wise man
might have replied, but you have for
gotten the announcers." Today the
sobbiest sob stuff in all the history of
public talking goes out daily in the in
terest Of things manufactured. An ordi-
narily good announcer can put more
pathos In his tone telling us about a
tooth paste or breakfast food than
Cicero did when he ran Catalina out
of the Roman Senate.
Whether the thing Is reduced to the
point of absurdity in the average mind
or not, 1t surely Is in such a mind as
that Of Templeton Jones. The very
thought Of it makes him turn of his
set in dismay.
II II
The second aspect Jones put as q
question at large:
Why won't the stations permit the
orchestras to finish their signatures?
Nine out Of ten Of them, Jones
Claimed. the announcers cut the or
chestras of with one note to complete,
the final note, which leaves the nearer
mentally satisfied.
This incompleteness Is all the more
discourteous, both to players and lis
teners, since the men who are respon-
sible for 1t are In charge Of musical
matters and ought to realize that moth
ing Is more painful to q unsteady SEN
s1tive person.
If there must be "fadeout," 1t should
be far enough ahead of the end to pre-
vent this s!ckening feeling which comes
when the orchestra gets right to the
final note, and Jones says, "Wait-they
will cut 'em of now"
And, sure enough, they do.