Evening star., 1933-08-27
RADIO STATIONS
IN MEXICO FEARED
U. S. and Canadian Chains
See Bombardment From
Across Border.

/ Perplexity and uncertainty hover over
the heads of broadcasting stations in
the United States and Canada by rea-
son of the failure of the North Ameri-
can Radio Conference, which abruptly
quit its deliberations in Mexico City
early this month when efforts to reach
! an agreement on a new deal In wave
! length distribution among North
! American nations proved futile.
| Fear of a radio bombardment from
across the Southern international bor-
| der of even greater potency than that
now existing and raising havoc with
the operation of many American and
Canadian stations is the primary reason
for these misgivings. The American
| lasted a month. demanded eXtermina-
! ton of so-called renegade border
stations in Mexico, usually American
! financed and designed to serve Aneri-
can listeners, before it would consider
division of wave lengths. Mexico
| refused to yield, and the conference
ended
! A half dozen big Americana backed
stations are strung along the inter-
national border at the present time,
operated for the most part by deposed
American broadcasters or other Amerl-
cans unable to secure licenses in their
own country.
Fear Increase in Stations.
Now, with the conference fiasco, the
fear is harbored that even more sta
tions will crop up in Mexico and aggra-
vate an already intolerable situation
There is nothing to stop that process,
whereas prior to the conference THIS
development was at a StandStlll be-
cause of the possibility of working out
an agreement by which Mexico and the
other Latin nations might have ac-
quired exclusive channels.
Further complicating this muddle
are several technical regulations which
finally were agreed to at the confer
ence and which would have been tre-
mendously beneficial had wave length
division been agreed upon. The most
important-and the most dangerous po-
tentially to American broadcasting-
that which specifies there shall be no
mid channel" operation and that the
United States ALLEGATION standards be
adhered to. Broadcast channels in this
country and in Canada are measured
off by 10 kilocycles each, and each
channel ends in multiples of 10.
Mexico, however. has so far assigned
stations in between those of Canada
and the United States. In other words,
it has used channels ending with the
numeral s. BY operating on these
mid-channels, interference has been
caused to stations on both sides of the
illegal wave.
Interference to Be Doubled.
Now, however, with Mexico agreeing
to use even rather than odd channels,
it would appear that its stations will
SQUAT directly on the channels used
by American and Canadian stations.
And the amount of interference caused
by the collision of signals will be
doubled.
Broadcasting stations in this coun-
try are also in quandry as to the next
move in this information controversy.
1t has been taken for granted that had
the Mexico City conference succeeded
in its mission, there would have been
reallocation in this country. Since
the conference has failed, it is rather
definite that any plans the commission
NAV have had to reshuffie the radio
station deck will be deferred, perhaps
even dropped. Instead, there are
rumblings of an impending limited
ALLEGATION" affecting only handful Q.
the 600 stations and designed mainly to
patch up the existing structure.
The blow-up of the conference does
not settle anything Of Importance.
There must be further deliberations or
action. Repercussions are almost GER
tain to come at the next session OF
Congress, which convenes in January,
as station operators complain to their
congressional delegations about condi-
tions. Moreover, there are faint indi-
, cations of a committee inquiry into the
conference. particularly with respect to
alleged propaganda activities in Mex
leo City of factions which opposed
commercial broadcasting and which
| worked at odds to the objectives of the
American delegation.