Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1935-01-06
BY THE RADIO EDITOR.


M manner is not one of the
. wv required qualifications fol
4 ' Il membership on the Fed
eral Communications Com
mission, which succeeded the Federal
Radio Commission last Summer as the
regulator of radio wave lengths.
To say, however, that the seven
men who comprise the commission
lack certain accomplishments as ra-
dio speakers would be misleading.
Martin Codel. prominent radio
writer, who recently completed series
of broadcast interviews with each OF
the seven commissioners, says he
would rank them on par with the
average Government official who is
heard more or less regularly over the
networks-all but President Roose-
welt, of course, for he is generally
regarded in and out of radio circles
as having the most sparkling radio
personality" of any man in public
life.
"Mike" Mystifies Speakers.
Having been asked several times to
describe studio impressions of the
men in whose hands the United States
has placed the guidance of American
radio and wire communications, Codel
said the reply must be that the
microphone seems to get" them no
less than it does almost any person.
whether speaking before it the first
or the twenty-first time. Radio, he
1lr1daY1io h1Q 70 c.
cination for those speaking, and the
realization that the message is going
to countless persons in all walks OF
life, often accounts for the tension,
nervousness and lack of naturalness
sometimes perceived by listeners.
The purpose of the interviews was
to acquaint the public, 100000 OF
whose homes have radios and almost
as many of whom have telephones
With the purposes, activities and plans
OF President RooSevelt's new agency Of
control over the country's wire ano
wireless systems.
Three of the seven interviewed were
on the air for the first time from q
network studio. One had never be-
fore spoken on the radio at all. With
d lev CASCPI4OA1os OLA az IA ~ "C2S e1S
nervous as their interviewer, who felt
each time the same qualms before
the microphone that he felt in ANA
teaur theatrical appearance as a high
school lad.
Four Prove Veterans.
Among the speakers, Chairman E
o. Sykes and Commissioners Thad H
Henry Payne revealed the fruits OF
long public speechmaking experience
Judge Sykes was as calm and unruf-
fled as he is in his everyday admin
istrative routine. in which his quiet
spoken and mild-mannered demeanor
cloaks a certain intensity and vigor
which a situation can quickly arouse
He was as conversational on the air
as he is in ordinary Office discussion
Commissioners Brown and Case, the
latter one-time Governor of Rhode
Island, displayed the aplomb of eX-
perienced speakers, following their
scripts fuently and with no trace OF
nervousness. Col. Brown, particular
ly, discoursed on subject close to
his thoughts, the distribution OF
broadcast wave lengths for widest pos
sible listenership, and he spoke as one
who had a message he wanted put
across.
Commissioner Payne, an orator
was inclined to be oratorical rather
than conversational. Hi fair for the
spectacular, born of his long news
paper experience. wa reflected in the
opening and closing of the discussion
which was featured by the sound OF
a telegraph ticker, sending and receiv-
ing messages via wire and wireless
biography from across the continent
and across the seas to illustrate the
several telegraph services his divi-
sion regulates.
1t was Commissioner HampSon