Evening star., 1932-07-24
Behind the Micr0phone
BY THE RADIO EDITOR.

A DJOURNMENT of Congress,
~ following close upon the
~ Chicago conventions, which
4 a demonstrated once more
the Importance of radio in poll
tics, found radio legislation liter
ally shunted aside as being Of
secondary Importance. Only a
handful of bills were enacted into
law out of nearly two score intro
duced in the House and Senate
during the first session of the
Seventy second Congress. Yet
radio found itself growing in
stature in the eyes of the men
who make the Nations laws.
Undoubtedly the most important
problem facing broadcasting today
is the proposed new scale of copy
right license fees which the
american Society of Composers,
Authors and Publishers wants to
levy as of September /. Where
stations now pay an aggregate OF
nearly S1.000,000 for 'the kind
permission of the copyright
owners, the society proposes to
keep that income and in addition
would impose a fee of per cent OF
gross on the income of all stations
using its copyrighted works.
Objecting StrenuouSly to this
tax, the broadcaSterS carried their
fight to Congress, where they
secured the sympathetic ear of
Chairman Sirovich of New York.
head of the House Committee on
Patents, in charge of copyright
legislation, as we'll as the support
of other legislators A bill de-
signed to curb the allegedly eX-
cessive demand of the composers
"a demand that would take up
to S5,OOO,OO0 a year out of radio
has been pending in Congress, but
has been held up by more pressing
legislation and by the illness OF
Representative Sirovich.
The mere existence OF this bill,
however, served to enable the
broadcasters to do some bargain
ing with the composers, and the
bill will still be alive when the
Congress reconvenes next Decem-
ber. In the meantime, the broad
casters are parleying with the
American Society through COM
mittees. Whether the 5 per cent
fee will actually become effective
next September l remains to be
decided at these pareys.
A DID to the neighborhood loud
"A speaker nuisance, cause of
that malady called radio in
somnia,' a new complication-the
police radio nuisance. Not that
any citizens are complaining
against the use of radio by police
in their eternal vigilance against
criminals, but some good people
are decidedly irked at having
police squad cars stop in front of
their homes or under their apart
ment windows in the wee hours
of the morning while their radios
are blaring forth their loud mas
culine monOtoneS.
At least one bitter complaint on
that score has been lodged with
the Federal Radio Commission.
But the commissions experts say
nothing can be done about it
except locally. AS in the case OF
squawking neighborhood radios,
it is a matter solely within the
local jurisdiction. Against the
ordinary loud speaker nuisance,
many cities have passed ordl-
nances. Police radios, it is sug-
gested, can be Silenced or toned
down upon appeals to the police
themselves.
On the whole, the system OF
police radio, now established IN
about 60 large and small cities OF
the United States, is working out
excellently. A Radio Commission
ouestionnaire circulated among
them recently, asking for reports
and comments on typical month,
April, 1882, elected some interest
ing responses.
Replies from so cities using
radio equipped police cars showed
that 1886 calls were answered
during that month, resulting In
1856 arrests. The amount OF
property recovered was reported
! valued at s386,953.
It took the police cars. getting
radio reports from headquarters,
an average of l minute and z
seconds to answer each call, ac-
cording to the survey. Some OF
the replies disclosed that, in order
to avoid listening-in by criminals
| on the short waves used by police,
code was used, but in most cases
, it was discarded as unnecessary. A
suggestion was made that the
cruising cars be equipped with
light transmitters to afford two
way communication so that the
policemen might talk back and
forth with headquarters.
| * X **
THE marked American trend
L toward linking groups of sta
tions as regional broadcasting
networks, for the purpose OF
serving the wants and Interests
of particular section of the
country. is evidenced again in the
formation of another New Eng
land network. 1t is scheduled to
be launched August l, and will
consist of the following stations:
VITO, Hartford; WEEI, Boston;