Evening star., 1936-02-16
Broadcasting Reaches
All People, Says Heifetz
Famed Violinist Takes Stand That Millions
Who Love Art Can Tune In, but Can't
Pay for Concerts.


same but he had mentioned before.
But they only allow so much time"
IF YOU happen to hear Rudy Vallee,
Paul Whiteman. Guy Lombardo,
Ray Noble and few other famous
band leaders performing over your
favorite station, all in a half-hour
program. don't be surprised. 1t will
mean simply that the performance is
via the phonograph record rather than
the network transmission medium.
This is now possible because the
Federal Communications Commission
has seen f1t to relax its regulations
governing the performance of phono-
graph records. In the past the rules
required that each record be identified
before rendition. Now 1t is only neces-
sary to make the phonograph record
announcement at half hour intervals
The regulation change surprised
even the broadcasting industry itself
Stations had petitioned the commits
sion, along with some of the leading
electrical transcription manufacturers,
to clarity its regulations governing
the announcement of electrical tran
scriptions. They are brand of high
quality recordings made exclusively for
broadcast purposes and, unlike records,
cannot be purchased by the general
public.
WHEN hearings on the transcription
regulation change were held be-
fore the commission last year a group
of smaller stations came forward and
asked that they be permitted to an
nounce phonograph records in the
same way that transcriptions are pre-
sented. They poi lted out that in
many small towns local talent is not
available and the phonograph record
is the salvation of the station.
The commission looked into the
whole matter. 1t found, among other
things, that it was practically impos-
sible to enforce the phonograph record
announcement anyway. So it was
amended.
Now any station may perform either
series of transcriptionS or a series
VI dPLl 1CNOl dllu dIlAlOuLlNC
them only at the beginning and end of
the particular program If 1t runs not
more than a half hour. If it runs just
IS minutes, an announcement is re-
quired at the beginning and the end.
If the program is only five minutes or
less, then an announcement at the
beginning SufficeS.
There is only one requirement about
differentiating between electrical tran
scription and phonograph records.
The new commission regulation speci-
fieS that phonograph record must
be called a record" or a recording
and cannot be called a transcription.
And a transcription can be called
that or mechanical reproduction
to distinguish it from phonograph
records.
THE commissions decision culmin-
ates an effort of nearly two years
/ to have the regulations revised. World
| Broadcasting System, largest of the
transcription companies, introduced
what it called transcription library"
service more than year ago. 1t
supplied stations with large number
of Transcribed programs, with three
musical compositions, on an average,
! to each one of the giant records,
which are about four times as big
as ordinary phonograph records. Space
was left between each recorded COM
| position for the local announcer to
chime in with commercial announce
ment or any other kind of announce
ment.
Things went fine until the commits
sion ruled that each one of the mum.
bers on the disc represented a per-
formance" and that the announce
ment, this is an electrical transcript
tion," would have to be made World
protested that this meant constant
interruption Of the program to the
/ annoyance of the listeners and that
the old regulation surely did not mean
that.
About that time the American Fed
Grafton of Musicians injected itself
into the controversy. 1t called these
transcriptions canned music" and
said this mechanical means of radio
performance was causing unemploy-
ment among musicians.
PACED with knotty problem, the
commission called the hearing last
June. A few weeks ago it came forth
with the decision, granting in part
the World application and at the same
time granting the petition of the
phonograph record devotees to the
same kind of treatment.
| The commission said it felt the an
nouncement, differentiating between
recorded programs and live talent"
programs such as those presented by
the networks, was necessary to prevent
the preparation of a fraud upon
listeners. Consequently, it did not do
anything about the requests that have
been made from time to time for
elimination altogether Of the trans
cription announcement.