Evening star., 1935-04-07

aspirant in the entertainment
field, compete successfully
~ with the Sl00,OO0,000 industry
that is space radio" with
the latter's IS years head start?
That is the question being pondered
by those closely identified with radio
broadcasting, because of the recent
disclosure that the wired radio people,
nearly dozen years. are preparing
to crash into the national entertain
ment field and vie with the estab-
lished industry for public acceptance.
First, it should be explained. wired
radio is means of transmitting en-
tertainment over electric power or
telephone lines into the home, whereas
space radio" uses the ether as the
transmitting medium.
Already, it is learned, Wired Radio,
Inc, subsidiary of the North Amer
ican Co., giant public utility holding
company with electric power SubSidia-
ries throughout the East and Middle
West, has installed an experimental
service using the power lines in
Cleveland suburb. This is designed to
be the forerunner of Nationwide
service, presumably competitive with
the chains. Listeners would have
their choice of three or four different
types of programs, picked up on sets
rented from their local power COM
panies.
In the case of space radio, the list
ener pays no direct charge for service,
other than the purchase in the first
&c l.. i II Hae
the choice of the programs of any
station his set can pick up, and he
can listen or not as he chooses.
Conversations, pro and con, with
leading lights in both wired and space
radio, yield rather convincing argu-
mentS on both sides. Yet, when it is
all simmered down, it appears that
wired radio will have a tortuous road
to travel to achieve popular accep-
tance. The underlying reason seems
to be that it is getting started too late,
and that space radio now is so firmly
intrenched that it would take some
think so spectacular and something
surprising it to such an extent that
the public could not resist it. That
does not appear to be in the offing,
for, from what we gathter, wired radio
has in mind a repetition simply Of
what now goes on the air, with the
mechanical process the only differing
factor.
The wired radio folks harbor the
view that the public will be glad to
get away from commercialism, from
Jazz and from other forms of enter
tainment that they contend form the
biggest portion of the space radio
menu. They argue that the listener
would be glad to pay monthly rent
al, ranging from perhaps Sl.5O to
81 per month, for set which would
give them a choice of at least three
sustaining programs running II hours
day, withone channel offering
dance music, a second classical pro-
grams. and third educational periods
and request programs. BY the simple
expedient of Tipping switch they
could tune one program or the other.
But the space people come back
with the assertion that, after all, the
program is the thing, and that pro-
grams offered by the national net
works and by Independent stations
are those the listeners themselves have
selected through expressing their
preferences in fan mail and in other
ways. Moreover, say the broadcasters,
22,O00,000 radio families can't be
wrong, because that is the number
of homes already having radio sets.
This amounts to 10 per cent OF the
homes of the Nation.