Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1935-09-15
3 Force F. Gel Hearings
In Fights for Licenses
Radio Loses Picturesque Broadcaster in
Death of Long, Whose Fan Mail
Reached Peak Figures.

KanS,, be silenced. This Is the SCa-
ton which succeeded to Brinkley's
old wave length. 1t is charged with
continuing to permit Brinkley to
broadcast over its facilities even after
the ex-medico broadcaster had lost
his American radio license and had
gone to Mexico to build a powerful
station of his own.
AS A MAIL FULLER" Senator Huey
"A P. Longs speeches on the radio
networks drew more tangible reactions
than those of any other figure in
American public life, with the possible
exception of Father Coughlin. This is
the testimony of Washington repre-
sentatives of the big radio networks,
who Joined this week in mourning
the passing of the Louisianan, for
whom practically all of the studio at
taches expressed a warm personal al
lection. Inside the radio studios, they
assert, Senator Long was always con-
siderate of the exigencies of broad
casting and of the men at the con-
trolls.
Shortly before he left Washington
at the close of the last Congress Sena-
tor Long let it be known that he did
not intend to ask for any more time
! on the air" until the next session OF
Congress in January. During the last
session he spoke about half dozen
| times each on the major networks and
many times more on individual sta
| IN,
other cities where he had speaking en-
gagements. He usually alternated his
requests for time between the two big
networks.
So eager was he to eXpound his
share the-wealth scheme that he Of
fered to purchase regular periods on
the networks, but this request had to
be rejected for the reason that they
maintain a policy of selling time for
political talks during campaigns only,
but making it available free of cost to
Senators and Representatives when
they had important messages to de-
liver. Senator Longs requests for time
were more frequent than those of any
other member of Congress, or even of
President Roosevelt.
BEFORE the microphone he had a
style of delivery all his own.
Whether standing or sitting, he would
gesticulate freely, speaking from notes
rather than prepared texts. He would
start out by telling the audience that
This is Huey P. Long, United States
Senator from Louisiana, speaking" in
his we'll known Southern drawl, and
then urging his listeners to phone
and tell their friends he was on the
air and to tune him in because I'm
not going to say anything important
for a few minutes, anyhow"
He would interpolate his speech
every five minutes or so with an an
nouncement repeating that This is
Huey P. Long speaking, United States
Senator from Louisiana He didn't
want late tuners-in to miss any
guesses. He liked the late evening
periods and usually asked for half
hour, going on the theory that most
radio stations were carrying dance
music, and listeners who didn't care
about that would prefer to listen to
his speeches. He also knew that he
could get the widest national hookups
late at night when commercial time
was not much in demand.
One of his late night broadcasts
drew over 100000 letters and even
elected telephone call to the studios
from an admirer in California. Opin-
ions differed among the radio men
as to the effectiveness Of his share
the-wealth speeches. which were be-
coming rather stereotyped. and his
TRADES against President Roosevelt
but the fact remained that every one
of his talks drew SO many letters that
he had to maintain a special staff of
secretaries in his Office in the Senate
Office Building to handle his mail.