Evening star., 1933-01-01
NEW LAURELS WON
IN BROADCAST|NG.
Other Branches of Radio In
duStry Feel Effects of
Depression.
BY ROBERT MACK.

~ Ado broadcasting won new ac-
- claim for program excellence in
1882, but other branches of the
Il y industry suffered a dishearten-
ing year, along with the mer-
camille world generally.
Even the business Of broadcasting,
which heretofore knew no depression,
felt the effects of curtailed budgets of
program sponsors during the Summer,
but the Fall and Winter brought an
lnf1ux OF new programs and talent that
more than made up for it.
commercial program technique, in
| volving the agitated question of how to
handle the advertising message in spon-
sored programs, remains big problem,
with opponents Of commercial broad
casting heaping criticism upon stations.
To meet this and other attacks upon the
industry, the broadcasters girded them
selves for action during the year
through Strengthening of their indus
trial organization. They promise to hire
an overload to guide the destinies of the
industry.
Programs Shortened.
Heeding listener reaction, there were
notable changes in types of programs
| during the year. The trend toward
shorter programs, which began In 1881,
became reality. More of the spoken
word, as distinguished from musical
programs, was offered. Drama and
detective stories became popular. as the
crooner began to wane in favor. The
comedian of the stage scored and there
Is hardly a star of the opera, concert
or dramatic stage who has not done his
turn before the microphone Only
Kreisler, the violinist, and Paderewsk
and Rachmaninoff, pianists, have thus
far withstood the spell of the micro
phone. Even their appearances are
promised during 1888 by the ether
impresarios.
The affinity Of radio to the stage was
Strikingly reflected in the opening
| toward the end of the year of Radio
City, in the heart of New York's down
town area. Embraced in this remarka-
BILE entertainment center are the Met
ropolitan Opera. theaters, concert halls
broadcasting studios. and even tele-
vision studios. National Broadcastine
Co moves its entire program plant intC
the center. Radio outlets, such a:
microphone and television connections
| have been installed in every one oi
the maze of concert halls and theaters
The manufacturing industry strug.
gled through depressing year with
little in the way of new development;
given the public. While the volume Of
| set sales continued good, manufac.
turers report that price levels perforct
| were reduced to the point where there
was little profit-making. Engineers re-
doubled their efforts in producing set:
of greater tonal fidelity, forgetting
revolutionary" developments of former
years, which resulted in large turnoverI
| of sets.
Trust Decision Helps.
Expected to have a salutary effect or
| the manufacturing business Is the re-
| cent dissolution of the group owner.
| ship of the Radio Corporation of Amer.
| lea, which places that giant of tht
radio realm on its own by separating
| it from the General Electric Co. and
| Westinghouse Electric g. Manufacturing
Co. This development, brought about
| through q consent decree which ended
| the Government antitrust suit against
these and other companies, according
to industry leaders, should clear tht
atmosphere of radio patent strife anc
pave the way for healthy growth.
Vying for listener favor, the two
major networks-National Broadcastine
Co. and Columbia BroadcaSting Sys-
tem-continued closely competitive dur
| ing the year. An effort to match pro-
grams on the two chains for practically
every hour Of the day to win over the
bulk of the audience was detected. Both
networks added to their station tota
! during the year, in outright ownership
| of outlets and in numbers Of Sub
| scribing" stations, which take chair
| programs much in the fashion that
newspapers purchase press association
news.
Television. the thought of which q
few years ago Quickened the public (
imagination, still remains a subject OF
the laboratory. Destined to be radios
next big contribution to mankind, the
progress of the visual art has been
disappointing. While advances were
made in technique, and some Of the
mist which blurred the experimental
images has been lifted, practical in
troducton of television on basis COM
parable with broadcasting seems as far
away as ever. Television today, accord
ing to unbiased engineers, is compare
bic with the crystal set and cats-whis-
ker days of broadcasting in 1924
IS Stations Licensed.
There are about IS experimental tel
evision stations licensed by the Federal
Radio Commission to conduct nom
commercial experiments on the air in
the hope of fastening the arrival OF
practical picture transmission. One OF
the retarding factors has been lack OF
available space in the radio spectrum
to accommodate transmission Of pic
lures In the necessary detail. Use of
the high frequencies in the range
beyond 10000 kilocycles, which only
months ago was regarded as radios
mo mans land" however, gives prom
ise ultimately of accommodating tele-
vision Engineers are constantly pur-
suing their studies, hoping to harness
these frequencieS which are so high
that they simulate light waves.
In other fields of radio science there
was the notable progress that has char
acterized this youngster of industries
since its advent, with most of it CEN
tering in the United States. The globe
girdling radio telephone and telegraph
services were augmented so that more
than 30 per cent of the world tele-
phones can be interconnected by radio,
while direct lines of radio code contact
reach over the entire world. A dozen
of the oceangoing passenger liners now
provide ship-to-shore telephone service,
SO that direct radio contacts can be
made from every point in the United
States and many cehters OF Europe, to
passengers on these vessels as they
plow across the Atlantic. Even the
transmission of pictures and weather
maps, called facsimile transmission, now