Evening star., 1935-02-24

the burning issue IN au CIT
cles in which radio is dis
IL cussed, another entertainment
off-shoot in the radio realm,
apparently far more latent in its pos
sibilities, is being heralded as ready
to break through its shell. The pro-
jected service is wired radio, a method
of transmitting sound along power
or telephone lines entering the home,
and also declared to be capable OF
carving pictures too or wired tele-
vision"
Already, it is learned, an expert
mental wired radio service has been
set up in Cleveland. Upon the out
come of the experiments will depend
the future of this service, in so far
as the North American Co.'S giant
public utility holding organization is
concerned. Wired Radio, Inc, Is a
subsidiary Of that company, and has
been experimenting in this field vir-
tually since space radio" got under
way more than decade ago. 1t Is
understood that a definite decision
will be made this year as to whether
. wired radio will be introduced.
Sets Would Be Rented.
Plans considered in the past by the
North American Co. involved the
transmission of choice OF three OF
four programs over power lines into
homes. That would mean that resi-
dents of every home equipped with
electricity from local plants would
be potential listeners. A set would
be rented to listeners at nominal
fee of about $150 per month, with
the fee to be included in the electric
light bill.
Many years ago Maj Gen. George
C. Souier, former chief of the Army
Signal Corps, discovered that GER
: tain band of radio frequencies adhere
to power and to telephone lines. with
out absorbing interference. Through
experimentation, he discovered also
that music and speech could be trans
mitted along them into homes ano
fed into loudspeakers. He patented
this process and assigned the pat
ents to the North American Co. 8
half dozen years ago. Since then
North American Co. and its sub
sidiaries have been experimenting
with the system and it is now hele
to have attained technical feasibility
North American Co., with eyes tt
the future, created the Associated
Music Publishers, so as to have 6
supply of music readily available i
1t decided to invade the field of wiree
radio entertainment. This organiza.
ton has procured thousands of Euro.
pean copyrights and now is in the
publishing business. During thi!
time, economic conditions became
such that the introduction OF wiree
radio was delayed.
Program plans have included trans.
mission of purely cultural music or
one Of the three or four bands, popu-
lar music on second, speech on
third and possibly a diversity o1
acknowledgements programs or
a fourth. Thus it is felt the program
tastes of all listeners would be salts.
fed. A simple toggle switch woule
shift reception from one circuit tt
another. The plan, in its ultimate
degree, also included linking of cen.
tral transmitting stations in key cite!
by telephone wire, similar to tht
network method in space radio" fol
interchange and relay of programs.
without Interference.
The quality Of wired radio trans
mission is said to be far superior tc
that Of the space medium, since there
are no natural interferences, like
static, fading, cross-talk and hetero-
dyning. The reproduction of music
transmitted by wire has many ad-
vantages in fidelity over present-day
space radio, being capable of repro
ducing a frequency range embracing
the bass and treble notes alike.
Coupled with the wired radio sys-
tenn is an indicating measure which
would give the exact numerical count
of the number of sets tuned to the
particular circuits. Thus, it Is held
an accurate appraisal of the size oi
the wired radio audience could be pro-
cured. Moreover, the technical ar
rangement is such that the power
company can tell when bootleg
receiver other than that rented to the
consumer Is plugged into the wired
radio circuit.
The American Telephone & Tele-
graph Co. also is understood to have
a somewhat similar wired radio sys-
tenn set up experimentally, with tele.
phone circuits used for communica-
ton into the home, rather than power
lines. It apparently has kept it:
service locked within the confines o1
Its laboratories, however, perhaps be.