Evening star., 1935-02-24
|W[W NIGHT POWER
REDUCED BY COURT
Goliath of Radio Loses Bit
ter Fight Over r. c. C.
Ruling.

The worlds most powerful broad.
casting station, wLw, Cincinnati, has
been reduced to the status Of Just
another big station by mandate Of
the courts. Instead of soaring
through the ether with half a mil
lion watts during evening hours, the
station now uses only $4,000 watts
its regularly licensed power. In the
daytime, however. it still rates as the
Goliath of radio, transmitting with
energy of 100000 watts.
WLW was forced to curtail its
night power on February 1S, when
the Court of Appeals of the District
of Columbia dissolved temporary
injunction 1t had issued previously.
In so doing 1t sustained the ruling
of the Federal Communications Com
mission of last December ordering
WLW to cut down its high power
as Of February /, because Of COM
plants of undue interference filed
with the State Department by Can
ada. Station CFRB, Toronto, cper-
ating on a neighboring channel,
claimed that 1t was being blanketed
by the tremendous power during eve
ming hours, when radio reception Is
at its best.
Evening Power Ordered Cut.
1t was on this ground that the
F. c. c. gave notice to WLW that
it would have to cut down its eve
ming power, or else attempt dim.
cult technical experiment of so curb
ing its signals in the direction OF
Toronto with 100000 watts as to
simulate 50,000-watt station. WLW
engineers felt it was practically i'm
possible to accomplish this engineer.
ing expedient and elected to go to
the courts. On January 80, at the
eleventh hour, the court gave WLW
temporary injunction, largely on
| the ground that an investment OF
some S500,000 in the station would
be destroyed, and that there would
be a loss of service to millions IF lis
| teners who have been tuning WLW
since 1t began operating with the
| superpower last Spring.
On February II, after listening to
, further arguments, the court extend-
| ed this injunction until February 16
at which time it heard additional
arguments. 1t was following this last
hearing that the court decided to dis
solve the stay order, without divulglng
its reason. Apparently the F. c. c.
argumnt which had the most telling
effect was that international compl-
, cations might result if WLW contin-
ued to operate with superpower at
night and mar the reception by Ca
nadians of their own stations.
Appeal Still Pending.
Still pending before the court is
the appeal of WLW from the F. c. c.
decision ordering it to reduce its pow
er. While it now will be forced to
operate with the lower power indefl-
nitely, the station still has an outside
chance of overturning the decision on
the merits. Several months-possibly
a year-may pass before this decision
is forthcoming.
There is still the possibility that
WLW will attempt to install the di-
rectional antenna and experiment on
the objective of reducing its signal
| in the direction of Toronto so it will
not excessively blanket CFRB. Sew.
eral weeks would be required for the
installation and testing. Should 1t
work successfully, then it is presumed
that the F. c. C. will sanction WLW's
renewed operation with 100000 watts
| so that the signal emitted in every
dirttion except that toward Toronto
will be of that intensity. To COM
pensate for the reduced evening pow.
er. WLW Immediately reduced its
evening advertising rates to the level
quoted prior to the 500,00o-watt op-
Grafton,