Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1935-09-15
Rv the Radio Editor.

By the Radio Editor.
~ HADES of DR.. R. Brinkley, Nor
man F. Baker and the coterie
of patent medicine vendors,
~ astrologers, mystics and Seers
Uho have always followed in their
wake on the radio-all offering Spe-
Gifts or booklets or answers to ques-
lions for a price-continue to rise up
to plague the Federal Communlca-
tons Commission.
When the old. Radio Commission
ruled the Brinkley radio station In
Kansas and the Baker station IN
Iowa off the air about five years ago
for their questionable medical and
other programs, and then when the
new F. c. c. made it clear that it
intended to continue purglng the
wave lengths of this type OF broad
casting, it was thought that the ques-
ton of dubious broadcasts was well
In. hand.
But the objects of the Federal radio
authorities attacks are fighting back
on the legal front. Currently the
p. C. C. broadcast division has before
It three reports by Commissioner
Thad H. Brown, all designed to with
draw American support, official or
unofficial, from their broadcaSts. Pro-
testing Col. Browns findings, the OBJ
iects of the reports have demanded
and obtained hearings before the F.
c c. broadcast division.
All of the reports deal more or less
with the subterfuge employed by GER
tain broadcasterS who were persona
non grata in a radio way with their
own Government and so went to
Mexico to establish radio stations just
across the Rio Grande. Their pur-
pose openly was to continue appeal
ing to the American audience for
purchases of their products or serv-
ices. Barred from broadcasting from
American soil, they resorted to trans
hitting their talks or program from
American studios by telephone wire tc
Mexican stations, whence they were
broadcast.
7 TPON recommendation of the for
mer Radio Commission, Congress
in 1894 wrote into the new communi-
cations law section giving the new
F.. C. C. authority to regulate wire
services as we'll as wireless, and tt
rule upon such relays" across inter
national frontiers. When the Ameri'
can networks or stations ask for per
mission to send regular programs II
foreign countries for reboadcastins
there, permission is almost invariably
given. But not so when trans Rio
Grande broadcasts of this sort are
proposed.
Two of Col Browns reports con-
Germ the efforts of hotel IN Eagle
Pass. Tex, and an advertising
agency" in Laredo, Tex. to wire pro-
grams from their American studio:
to Mexican-l licensed radio station!
across the Texas-Mexico boundary
Both have been set for hearings be-
fore the three broadcast commission
ers October II, after which the COM
mission will decide whether to up
hold or reject the Brown findings
which were the result of hearings helc
by him in San Antonio last March.
The Eagle Pass Hotel wants to main
tain studios from which IS per cent O.
the programs carried over XEPN, a
Piedgras Negras, including transcript!
of talks by DR.. Brinkley, originate
The Mexican station is backed b!
American interests, Col. Brown found
and its programs, he insists, are o
the dubious" variety, even though
first censored by the Mexican author
tiles.
The Ell Paso "advertising agency
Col. Brown found to be operated b,
one Thelma Yount, formerly of tn
Norman Baker cancer hospital a
Muscatine, Iowa, and the Brown re
port indicates a strong suspicion tina
Baker is really the man behind it. II
any event, it seeks official permission
to continue sending programs by wir
across the river to KENT, Nuevo La
redo, which is managed and backed
by Mr.. Baker. Brown opposes thl
also.
The third case involves Col. Borwn'
IL.