Evening star., 1934-11-04
Electrical Transcription
Woe Haunts Commission
Broadcasters Ask That Announcement Ruling
Be Eliminated Observation-Disclosures
Want Whole Status Reviewed.

scribed, to distinguish it from code
wireless" Broadcasting had been
born some years before when it was
found that voice and music could be
transmitted and received via radio.
But it did not start to talk" intelli-
gibly to an appreciable audience until
the night of November 2, 1920, when
the Westinghouse company placed
Station KDKA on the air at Pitts
burgh to broadcast the Harding Cox
election returns.
This station, now embarked upon
it's 18th year Of existence, claims
to be the oldest In continuous opera
ton in the world, for it has been
on the air regularly since that day.
It had been antedated by various
experimental broadcasting stations.
notably those of DR.. De Forest and
by the amateur station of the Detroit
News, now known as WWJ. But KDKA
lays claim to being the pioneer by
virtue of its unbroken record OF
continuous operation since November
2, 1920.
Father" of KDKA was DR.. Frank
Conrad, Westinghouse scientist, who
had been building wireless apparatus
for the United States Army and be-
times had operated his experimental
voice station, 8XK, from a shed in
the rear of his Pittsburgh home. The
late H. P. Davis, Westinghouse vice
president in charge of wireless pro-
duction, encouraged him to erect
larger station and initiate regular
broadcast service. Mr.. Davis him.
self wrote later that he hardly en-
visioned what was to come in broad
casting until local department store
became swamped with orders for
crystal radios with which to hear the
Conrad broadcasts.
That started the veritable tidal wave
of radio interest and radio set buying
that swept the country until now there
are about 1900 broadcaSting stations
in the world, Of which 900 are in the
United States, and 40,000,000 receiv-
ing sets in use in the world, of which
100000 are in American homes and
100000 in American automobiles.
Nor did those pioneers ever calculate
that S100000,O00 would be invested
in American broadcasting stations and
four billion dollars or more spent on
radio sets and parts by Americans
alone in the last IA years.
CERIOUS business over some of Ed
- Wynn's Fire Chief buffoonery
has developed, with the result
that fundamental law affecting the
performances Of radio artists before
the microphone has been written.
The Uproar Co. of Boston had ar
ranged to publish in pamphlet form
the opera" broadcastS Of Wynn and
his radio stooge, Graham McNamee.
only to find itself confronted with
permanent injunction issued by the
Federal District Court of Boston re-
straining it from so doing on the
ground that the scripts were not
owned by Wynn but by the program
sponsor and the National Broadcast
ing Co. In substance, the court held
the rendering of performance before
the microphone cannot be held to
be an abandonment of ownership to
it by the proprietors or dedication
OF 1t to the public at large"
The court held the payment to
Wynn of $4,000 per broadcast by the
program sponsor also covered the pur-
chase of the continuity prepared by
or for Wynn. Acquisition of the serv-
ices Of McNamee from N. B. C. at a
fee of $3.50 per broadcast likewise was
held to give the sponsor title to his
portion of the script.
The opinion is regarded as most
significant because it establishes legal
precedent in field of broadcasting
performance likely to crop up re-
peatedly in the future.