May-June 1932

CBS’ television logo is an eye. But it was CBS-TV’s mouth that was closed in May 1932.

For a pile of reasons—most of them involving money—the company cut an hour off its three-hour TV programming block that month, and shut off the microphones, deciding to go with silent shows.

That meant boxing with no announcers and fashion parades with no commentators. At least the programming remained live.

W2XBS had been on the air from 7 to 10 p.m. That was chopped to 7 to 9, weeknights only. There was one exception. Bill Schudt's weekly radio show was simulcast, and the sound portion could be heard on WABC.

The policy would be changed as the year wore on.

NBC in New York was continuing its tests as it tried to perfect the cathode ray tube. There were still no live broadcasts. It continued to insist television wasn't ready for home viewing. Philo Farnsworth said the same thing. So did Harry Lubcke.

In Los Angeles, Lubcke's W6XAO aired something other than lines—it screened part of a movie, broadcasting to a Western Airlines plane 3,000 above the city.

Here are some of the TV highlights for the month, including the highlights for the first week of the month from W2XAB, which a paper in Tennessee decided to print. The Washington Evening Star published the programming for W3XK, with the sound airing on an a.m. station, for a period then stopped. Whether the station ceased programming then, I don't know. W9XAO in Chicago was airing a short musical programme once a week and word of such appeared in several newspapers.

Sunday, May 1, 1932
The advent of spring has brought to the Columbia experimental television station W2XAB new talent and program features which will be visualized for the first time during the week beginning Sunday, May 1.
The diminutive “Dancing Marionettes” will be seen performing on a miniature stage on Thursday, May 5, at 10:00 p. m., E.D.S.T. This feature will be conducted by Mrs. Floyd Ackley, who furnishes the dialogue necessary for the background.
John Henry Weaver, the founder of the Artists Cooperative, will present the first of a series of programs entitled “Art For Everybody.” The purpose of these broadcasts is to encourage the study of art, and they are for the benefit of those who, though artistically inclined, are unable to attend art schools and lectures. Illustrations of varied types of work such as drawing, painting, and modeling will be transmitted on Wednesday, May 4, at 9:15 p. m., E.D.S.T.
Donald Sawyer, an accomplished and graceful exponent of modern dancing, will be co-featured with Jane Case, supervising instructor of the Donald Sawyer Dance Studio, in presenting a program of “Ballroom Dancing.” in which they will explain and demonstrate the simplicity of the most intricate steps, on Saturday May 7 at 8:30 p. m., P.D.S.T.
Wynn Hammer, pianist, singer and composer will make his visual debut in a new series known as “The One Man Television Show” starting Monday, May 2, at 10:45 p. m., E.D.S.T.
Georgia Simmons, television’s Miss Gypsy, will be seen and heard in another program of palm readings, revealing the characteristics of television and radio performers on Wednesday, May 4, from 10 to 10:15 p. m., E.D.S.T.
Alfred Dinsdale, who’s a member of the council of the Television society of London, and author of several books on visual broadcasting, will be featured in a 15-minute program of lectures entitled “Television Facts,” in which he will explain fundamental principles of the new industry on Monday, Mary 2, at 10:16 p. m., E.D.S.T.
Vincent “Blue” Mondi, the one man novelty jazz band may be seen and heard with his odd arrangements of musical contraptions on Tuesday, May 3, at 10:15 p. m., E.D.S.T.
Carrie Lillie, versatile comedienne of song who is heard over several local stations, is also pioneering in television, and her visual charcteristizations [sic] will be seen on Tuesday, May 3, at 10:30 p. m., E.D.S.T. (Knoxville Sunday Journal)

If you ever think that the radio downstairs is annoying you should get a job in Columbia’s master control room in New York and then you would have something to complain about.
Certainly the men who inhabit this mysterious room could have no use for radio, you will say, when I hasten to explain that these operators and engineers must spend hours on end listening to sometimes as many as five and six different programs blasting forth from powerful dynamic loud speakers.
For example, one loud speaker pours forth the program on WABC, another the broadcasts on the network, yet another the proceedings over the Dixie network, another the West Coast or Middle West special network features and one for the sound part of Columbia’s television station W2XAB.
Vincent Mullahy of the C. B. S. [page] corps watches over the eighteenth floor reception desk by day and studies music and voice by night.
The other afternoon Vincent managed to gather sufficient courage to approach the television studio and obtain an audition. His imitations were a sensation and he has already played two actual television dates. He quite ably imitates Tony Wons, Morton Downey, Will Osborn, Ted Husing, Norman Brokenshire, Bing Crosby, Rudy Vallee and others.
Alex Gray made his television debut last week in a special program with the Boswell Sisters and Norman Brokenshire. During all the time that they have appeared on C. B. S. as individual artists, it was the first occasion that the Boswells and Grey came together on the same program.
As part of his makeup for the visual program over W2XAB Gray covered his lips with black rouge. Although, as part of the gag on the air, Brokenshire cautioned him to be sure to remove the lipstick before he left the studio, Gray forgot all about it and casually strolled down Madison Ave. Take it from this writer, Gray attracted more attention than ever before.
“Gosh,” he thought to himself, “I must be becoming quite a star, yes, sir!” Then it occurred to him that the black rouge was still on his lips and did he run back to the studio? Well, it has happened to the best of them. (Bill Schudt column, Brooklyn Eagle, May 1)

Wednesday, May 4, 1932
John T. Tuthill Jr., publisher of the Patchogue, Long Island Advance, will appear on Bill Schudt’s “Going to Press” Hour at 5:15 p.m. over WABC and W2XAB, the television station. (Jo Ranson column, Brooklyn Eagle, May 4)

Friday, May 6, 1932
Effective Monday the time of W2XAB, CBS television station, to be reduced. Instead of afternoon and evening programs, the station will transmit only from 7 to 9 p. m. daily except Saturday and Sunday. Sound programs will be discontinued, with a concentration of sight alone. (C.E. Butterfield column)

Saturday, May 7, 1932
NEW YORK, May 7.—Due to economic pressure, a wave of letouts and cuts enveloped the Columbia Broadcasting System this week, and resulted in more than 100 people being discharged, while those remaining are to receive a 15 per cent reduction in salary. ...
Television department has been cut down to a staff of two, and in this connection the station will confine itself to sending out visual signals with no talk or music. During this time experiments will be made in order to perfect this improvement.
Reasons for the wholesale slashes are several, and include the fact that this summer’s seasonal drop in commercial sales is said to be 40 per cent above that of last year at this time...Wall street pressure bearing down on the CBS execs to make sure there is a good return on the $5,00,000 that was spent to buy back the 30 per cent of CBS from Paramount-Publix, is also set down as a contributing factor.
Taxation bills now being passed and already in the bag in Washington is expected to result in higher wire charges thru increased telephone rates on remote control and other cross-country connections. Still another factor is the coming increased license fee for the use of music which may stand the CBS outfit an extra million dollars annually. (Billboard, May 14)

Tuesday, May 10, 1932
CBS starting this week will limit its television broadcasts to pantomine acts and cut the broadcasting time from three hours nightly to two. The daytime sight and sound broadcasts, running to four hours, have been eliminated entirely over the summer.
WZXE, CBS 100 watt sound transmitter, which has been synchronized with W2XAB, television station, will be dropped. W2NAB, 500 watt sound transmitter, will be used hereafter for the television broadcasts.
Reason for the time cut is that CBS believes it has reached a satisfactory degree of success in synchronizing sound and sight and now desires to concentrate on sight transmission only. It will hereafter embark on an extensive program of experimentation with sight transmission and will move the figures at various distances from the scanning disc to discover the best effects. Heretofore it was unable to do this because the sound would be distorted if the acts were moved about. (Variety, May 10)

Inventions large and small, serious and frivolous, workable and non-workable, 5,000 in all, will be on public display from 10 o’clock this morning until 10 P. M. of May 28 at the Fourth International Patent Exposition, held for the first time in this city, at Grand Central Palace...
One of the features of the exhibit will be a television demonstration, with a continuous program, combining vision and sound, to be broadcast by station W2XAB and received by the latest type equipment, providing pictures visible to members of a large audience. (New York Times, May 10)

Thursday, May 12, 1932
The Kansas State college television broadcasting station will go on the air about July 1, and a regular schedule of television broadcasts will be carried on alter September 1, Dean R. A. Seaton of the engineering division at the college believes.
The call letters of the station will be W9XAK. The station will broadcast for experimental purposes, but a schedule will be compiled for amateurs in Kansas and nearby states. Radio station KSAC may be used for sound broadcasts in connection with some of the television broadcasts.
In connection with the new station, studies will be undertaken with the object of improving and simplifying television broadcasting and receiving equipment. The program will include experimentation with series modulation and other types of modulation, radio-frequency amplifiers with special emphasis on picture amplifiers and field strengths for different types of antennae.
The station will be operated by the electrical engineering department of the engineering experiment station. Pictures will be transmitted at the rate of 20 pictures per second, and it is expected that direct pick—up equipment will be built later for use with living subjects. The transmitter formerly used in radio station KSAC but displaced about it year ago when the power of the station was increased will be utilized in television broadcasting.
H. H. Higginbottom, graduate student, has been carrying on the television experiments at the college. He has been assisted by Eugene F. Peterson, W. R. Mitchell, M. L. Burgin, and A. W. Rucker, students in the electrical engineering department. (Manhattan Mercury, May 12)

Friday, May 13, 1932
FRC decisions:
W9XAO, Western Television Corp., Chicago, Ill.—Granted renewal of experimental visual broadcasting license, 2000-2100 kc., 500 w., and granted consent to voluntary assignment of license to Western Television research Co. (Broadcasting, May 15)

Sunday, May 15, 1932
WMAQ, Chicago, recently linked to NBC, moved May 7 into the Merchandise Mart quarters of NBC. The station, still half owned by the Daily News, will keep the same identity as in the past. The Daily News’ television station will remain on the 26th floor of the newspaper building. (Broadcasting, May 15)

Television experiments are to be inaugurated between the National Broadcasting Company’s image transmitter atop the Empire State Building and the R. C. A.-Victor laboratories at Camden, N. J., where Vladimir Zworykin and his staff are developing a cathode-ray tube receiver.
Five miles from Mount Holly, N. J., on Arney’s Mount, a 200-foot elevation, a steel mast, 165 feet high, and station are now being built to serve as a relay between the Camden “House of Magic” and the New York pinnacle. Mobile receivers in an automobile have toured the section and preliminary tests are said to indicate Arney’s Mount is an ideal site for the relay centre. It is planned to flash the images on ultra-short waves.
An engineer connected with the development work reports that the Zworykin receiving set is not ready for the home. There are a number of obstacles to be overcome. The picture of 120-line structure is said to be clear, but the merchandisers want a picture larger than four by six inches before they attempt to offer television entertainment to the public. (Orrin E. Dunlop, NY Times, May 15)

Monday, May 16, 1932
W3XK, Jenkins Laboratories, Washington
(Sound on W3XJ, 1,550 Kilocycles)
8:00—"Stump" Miller.
8:15—Miller Matter Trio.
8:30—Grace Jones, pianist.
8:45—Dorothy Skinner.
9:00—Unidentified singer.
9:15—Hazel Belote, pianist.
9:30—Check and Lee Wilkins.

NEW YORK, May 16 (A. P.)—Television, thought to be the basis from which will evolve radio pictures of the future, was shown to the country’s leading radio manufacturers here late today.
The private demonstration, conducted by the Radio Corporation of America, was attended by all of the company’s licensees, both receiving set and tube makers who hold licenses to manufacture under RCA patents.
They saw signals which came from the tower of the Empire State Building, a mile away, and which were re-produced by the latest device of the television laboratory, the cathode ray receiver as developed largely by Dr. Vladimar Zworykin [sic] at Camden, N. J.
This apparatus functions electronically and does not depend upon the scanning disk and motor to form a picture from a high-speed stream of radio imposes.
The demonstration was designed to show manufacturers just how far engineers have progressed in television development. It was emphasized that the sample receivers used did not represent a device yet considered commercially practical from the standpoint of the home user. That stage will not be reached for a year or more, the engineers said, since numerous receiver and transmitter problems remain unsolved.
The demonstration consisted of the sound and sight reception of both talking movies and living subjects. Transmission was on the short waves, five meters for sound and 6.9 meters for television. Some of the viewers described the pictures as “excellent,” the detail being on the order of 120 lines compared with 60 lines in other systems.

Tuesday, May 17, 1932
W3XK, Jenkins Laboratories, Washington
(Sound on W3XJ, 1,550 Kilocycles)
8:00—Gertrude Lyon Program.
8:30—Winnie Kinnebrew, blues singer.
8:45—Janet Coon.
9:00—Bonanno String Quartet.
9:30—Neapolitan Serenaders.
9:45 to 10:00—Melody Four.

Wednesday, May 18, 1932
W3XK, Jenkins Laboratories, Washington
(Sound on W3XJ, 1,550 Kilocycles)
8:00—Norman Slant, tenor.
8:15—Effie Collamore, pianist.
8:30—Wilford Hickerson.
8:45—to be announced.
9:00—Milton Jones, baritone.
9:30 to 10:00—Blue Jay Orchestra.

New York, May 18—(A.P.)—Another change radically affecting combined sound and sight experimental broadcasts has come in New York’s television activities.
Following not long after the announcement by W2XCR that it had closed down pending drastic changes in transmitter equipment, comes word that the CBS television station W2XAB would carry on its radio picture experiments with sight alone, at least for the summer months.
This move leaves Washington, Chicago and Boston as the only cities in the country which still have combined sound and sight broadcasts, with the sight on the waves between 100 and 200 meters.
Center On Ultra Waves
Apparently forecasting what could be considered as an ultimate abandonment of the channels above 100 meters for television, these changes also indicate that the centering of picture activity in the ultra short waves, around 7 meters, is going forward.
In connection with its change in plans, W2XAB and its staff plan to study reception conditions on its channel of 2,750 kilocycles to learn more definitely what happens to the emitted signals, particularly as respects the metropolitan area.
Most of the reports from unofficial listeners have been to the effect that outside of a small radius close to the station, reception is not so good until another zone, 100 or more miles away, is reached.
Concentrate On Pictures
The change in W2XAB’s policy also is to include a greater concentration on sight program possibilities, with pantomime to the fore. The new program setup will continue the weekly boxing bouts, and add several new features. Transmission time has been reduced to two hours a night, five nights a week.
In addition to the plan for concentration on sight alone, the CBS change in television policy is coupled, with the recent announcements of that chain looking toward a reduction in operating expenses.
It was felt, too, that in view of the fact that the formal introduction of television still is some time away, it was unnecessary to devote too much effort toward its studio development until there was a wider public interest. (C.E. Butterfield column)

Edection [sic] of radio television station and laboratories has begun at College Point Causeway and 28th Ave., College Point. The station is being built by the Knickerbocker Broadcasting Company which operates WMCA and WPCH.
A pile driver, necessary for borings for the aerial towers, is already at work on the station which will be the first of its kind in the country. It is designed for use in the development and perfection of commercial television. Three one-story brick buildings and two 300-foot steel towers are to be erected according to the plans filed with the Queens Building Bureau.
The radio station will be on a plot 70x26 feet with a garage building of the same size and a coupling house, adjoining the radio building will be 9x9 feet.
When completed, the new transmitting station will be used as all auxiliary broadcasting station for regular radio programs. The main radio transmitting station of the company will remain at. Hoboken, N. J. (Brooklyn Eagle, May 18)

Thursday, May 19, 1932
W3XK, Jenkins Laboratories, Washington
(Sound on W3XJ, 1,550 Kilocycles)
8:00—News Flashes.
8:15—Lawrence Thompson, readings.
8:30—Clinton Gill and his uke.
8:45—Mary Lehman, crooner.
9:00—Charles and Helen Scott.
9:30—Randall and Dorothy Loftis.
9:45 to 10:00—Jack and Jill.

Friday, May 20, 1932
W3XK, Jenkins Laboratories, Washington
(Sound on W3XJ, 1,550 Kilocycles)
8:00—Joe Koenig and May Carhart.
8:15—Mrs. Dayton, pianist.
8:30—Jessie Fanning, pianist.
8:45—Mrs. Maude C. Tate.
9:00—To be announced.
9:15—Sacred Hour.
9:45 to 10:00—John R. Clarke, "Singing Virginian."

Town costumes of cotton appeared in the Television Fashion Flashes of Virginia Chandler Hall given as a feature of National Cotton Week last evening [19] at the Columbia Television Station W[2]XAB. One of navy Swiss dotted in white was worn with a white braided organdie hat with jaunty navy blue felt trim. The shoes were also of white cotton with navy kid, the gloves of white cotton mesh and the bag of navy rib-cord. Dark brown eyelet embroidered cotton fashioned another street costume accompanied by a white waffle pique hat with brown mesh gloves. Printed dimity fashioned an original Chanel evening model. (Women’s Wear Daily, May 21)

Saturday, May 21, 1932
W3XK, Jenkins Laboratories, Washington
(Sound on W3XJ, 1,550 Kilocycles)
8:00—Studio Feature.
8:15—News Flashes.
8:30—Silver String Melody Boys.
9:00—Helen Evans O'Neill, dramatic readings.
9:30—Television Specialities.
9:45 to 10:00—Ronnie Ray.

For the first time in history a moving image was flashed by television on a screen in an airplane in flight yesterday [21], when a Western Air Express ship 3000 feet above United Airport, Burbank, received a motion picture transmitted by television from station W6XAO, operated by the Don Lee broadcasting system, which conducts radio station KHJ in Los Angeles. The image was reproduced on a screen eight inches in diameter in the plane for the experimenting engineers and others as observers.
The process by which the feat was made possible is called by television engineers the cathode-ray vacuum tube. It was developed by Harry R. Lubcke, director of television for the Don Lee broadcasting system.
Heretofore only telephoto pictures had been transmitted to planes, television requiring wires to be attached from transmitting to receiving sets, a power line supplying transmitter and receiver.
NO SCANNING DISK
The cathode ray tube, which requires no scanning disk on the receiver, automatically forms the broadcast image in the tube and automatically synchronizes it. It needs only to receive the broadcast impulses on ether waves of six and three-fourths meters or 44,500 kilocycles, engineers explained during the test.
A tri-motored ten-passenger plane of Western Air Express, which has for six months been developing the ray with KHJ and W6XAO’s engineers, took off from United Airport bearing, besides the receiving set, Lubcke, Dr. Gerhard Fisher, research engineer of Western Air Express, who with Herbert Hoover, Jr., invented the direction finder for airplanes, and a group of newspaper men. The ship was piloted by Allan Barrie.
Reaching a height of 3000 feet the engineers tuned in to station W6XAO and on a screen in the plane’s receiving set there appeared the image of Loretta Young in a recent film in which she had appeared. The film was shown approximately five minutes, which Lubcke and Fisher decided was test enough.
TEN MILES AWAY
The station where a staff of workers under Theodore Denton, transmitting engineer, had transmitted the film to the speeding plane, is situated at Seventh and Bixel streets, estimated by the engineers to be ten miles from the receiving set. A second flight was made by the plane, during which the experiment also was successful.
While no voice was broadcast with the images in the film, it would have required only a sound transmitter to have carried the voice of the actress to the ship.
The chief use for television of this type to airplanes, it was explained by Western Air Express officials, will be to enable the transmission of weather maps to planes in flight and the sending of pictures of airports being approached by pilots in fog.
A picture or the airport over which a pilot flies in fog, hesitating to land, can be transmitted to his plane above the fog, through the fog layer, enabling the pilot to orient himself and land without danger.
STILL TOO WEIGHTY
Necessity to cutting down the weight of the receiving apparatus will result in almost five years of further development before the invention is entirely practicable for every-day use it was stated by the engineers.
While the image of the actress was etched against the plane’s screen sufficiently clear for observers to distinguish the features and improvements of the subject, the speed of the ship. 120 miles per hour prevented an altogether clear delineation. The fact that the plan traveled so rapidly through the television signals prevented the lines composing the image from being held stationary by the receiver, Lubcke explained. (Los Angeles Times, May 22)

Monday, May 23, 1932
W3XK, Jenkins Laboratories, Washington
(Sound on W3XJ, 1,550 Kilocycles)
8:00—"Stump" Miller.
8:15—Miller Matter, trio.
8:30—Grace Jones, pianist.
8:45—Dorothy Skinner.
9:00—Unidentified singer.
9:15—Hazel Belote, pianist.
9:30—Lee Wilkins.
9:45 to 10:00—Check and Lee Wilkins.

Tuesday, May 24, 1932
W3XK, Jenkins Laboratories, Washington
(Sound on W3XJ, 1,550 Kilocycles)
8:00—Gertrude Lyons program.
8:30—Gertrude Dyer and her Kiddies.
8:45—Janet Coon.
9:00—Doug Porter's Orchestra.
9:45 to 10:00—Melody Four.

Wednesday, May 25, 1932
W3XK, Jenkins Laboratories, Washington
(Sound on W3XJ, 1,550 Kilocycles)
8:00—Songs by Jean Woodson.
8:30—Wilford Hickerson.
8:45—The Hearth Program.
9:00—Milton Jones, baritone.
9:30 to 10:00—Maryland Ramblers.

NEW YORK, May 25 (AP)—Progress, described as “good,” is the word that comes from Philadelphia Laboratories where Philo T. Farnsworth, young San Francisco engineer, is working on cathode ray television.
His device, similar to that of Dr. Vladimir Zworkin of Camden, N. J., demonstrated recently to radio manufacturers in New York, has as its basis an electrical mean of scanning, both in the transmitter and the receiver, rather than the mechanical disk.
Works With Cathode Ray
Farnsworth, who is working in factory laboratories, “has made further good progress in the development of cathode ray receivers and tubes,” a statement said.
“However, we do not consider that the results are good enough as yet to warrant the introduction of commercial television receivers. Furthermore, the television broadcasting which must necessarily precede the introduction of commercial television receivers has not yet arrived and apparently is a big way in point of time from being ready.
“We do not believe that either good television broadcasting programs or satisfactory television receivers will be ready for the public before the summer of 1933.”
This statement, coupled with that issued after the private demonstration to radio manufacturers conducted in New York buy RCA indicates clearly that no effort will be made this year to consider television from a manufacturing standpoint, giving the laboratory another year in which to pursue research.
Still In Laboratory
“Although continued progress has been made with television, this development still is in the laboratory stage,” the RCA statement said.
“Much work remains to be done toward the improvement of receiving equipment and the creation of transmission facilities for practical television broadcasting.”
However, numerous favorable comments as to the quality of the pictures reproduced were heard after the New York test, lookers being particularly pleased with the transmission of sound movies direct from a film. (C.E. Butterfield column)

Thursday, May 26, 1932
W3XK, Jenkins Laboratories, Washington
(Sound on W3XJ, 1,550 Kilocycles)
8:00—Lawrence Thompson.
8:15—Readings.
8:30—Clinton Gill and his uke.
8:45—Mary Lehman, crooner.
9:00—The Rio Orchestra.
9:30—Studio feature.
9:45 to 10:00—Jack and Jill.

Friday, May 27, 1932
W3XK, Jenkins Laboratories, Washington
(Sound on W3XJ, 1,550 Kilocycles)
8:00—Joe Koenig and May Carhart.
8:15—Indian program.
8:30—Jessie Fanning, pianist.
8:45—Mrs. Maude C. Tate.
9:00—Rev. H.H. Brenner.
9:15—Sacred Hour.
9:45 to 10:00—John R. Clarke, "Singing Virginian."

Saturday, May 28, 1932
W3XK, Jenkins Laboratories, Washington
(Sound on W3XJ, 1,550 Kilocycles)
8:00—Contract Bridge.
8:15—News Flashes.
8:30—Silver String Melody Boys.
9:00—Helen Evans O'Neill, dramatic readings.
9:30—Mr. and Mrs. Royal A. Rice.
9:45 to 10:00—Ronnie Ray.

BAKERSFIELD, May 28. (Exclusive)—Establishing Bakersfield as a national center of pioneering in the television broadcasting field, permanent license and one or the choicest wave length channels available have been granted the Bakersfield television station of the Pioneer Mercantile Company, according to a special dispatch from the Federal Radio Commission in Washington, D. C.
Heretofore the station has held only a construction permit and experimental permit.
“License granted for 2000-2100 kilocycles, 1000-watt power. A-E and special television.” said the commission’s message to Frank Schamblin, head of the station, and R. D. Lemert, technician and radio engineer who installed the station.
It is the first license granted in the United States to use the type or transmission employed by the station and will result in coverage of the entire Pacific Coast with voice, sound and visual transmission in the immediate future, officials said. (Los Angeles Times, May 29)

Monday, May 30, 1932
W3XK, Jenkins Laboratories, Washington
(Sound on W3XJ, 1,550 Kilocycles)
Silent on holidays.

Tuesday, May 31, 1932
W3XK, Jenkins Laboratories, Washington
(Sound on W3XJ, 1,550 Kilocycles)
8:00—Gertrude Lyons program.
8:30—Gertrude Dyer and her Kiddies.
8:45—Janet Coon.
9:00—Neapolitan Serenader.
9:15—Effie A. Collamore, pianist.
9:45 to 10:00—Melody Four.

The Jenkins Television Corporation has leased through Brown, Wheelock, Harris & Co., Inc., agents, space at 655 Avenue for its broadcasting studio, and other space in the same building for its receiving and transmitting apparatus. (Herald Tribune)

Wednesday, June 1, 1932
W3XK, Jenkins Laboratories, Washington
(Sound on W3XJ, 1,550 Kilocycles)
8:00—Norman Slant, tenor.
8:30—Wilford Hickerson.
8:45—The Hearth Program.
9:00—Milton Jones, baritone.
9:30 to 10:00—Blue Jay Orchestra.

Thursday, June 2, 1932
W3XK, Jenkins Laboratories, Washington
(Sound on W3XJ, 1,550 Kilocycles)
8:00—Lawrence Thompson.
8:30—Clinton Gill and his uke.
8:45—Mary Lehman, contralto.
9:00—Shirley Ernst.
9:30—Claire Shea, whistler.
9:45 to 10:00—Jack and Jill.

New York, June 2 — (AP) — In his spare time Bill Schudt Jr. runs the television programs of W2XAB-CBS. He not only produces them but steps in as announcer.
He also conducts the chain’s “Going to Press” once a week and in addition has a number of other duties.
Now the word comes that Bill is to act as vacation relief announcer for a number of the network’s late night dance periods. (C.E. Butterfield column)

Friday, June 3, 1932
W3XK, Jenkins Laboratories, Washington
(Sound on W3XJ, 1,550 Kilocycles)
8:00—Joe Koenig and May Carhart.
8:15—Mrs. Dayton, pianist.
8:30—Jessie Fanning, pianist.
8:45—Mrs. Maude C. Tate.
9:00—Rev. H. B. Brenner.
9:15—Sacred Hour.
9:45 to 10:00—John R. Clarke, "Singing Virginian."

Saturday, June 4, 1932
W3XK, Jenkins Laboratories, Washington
(Sound on W3XJ, 1,550 Kilocycles)
8:00—Dramatic Readings by Helen Evans O'Neill.
8:30—The Melody Boys.
9:00—The Rustics.
9:30—"Contract Bridge," by Harry Clendening.
9:45 to 10:00—Ronnie Rae.

Monday, June 6, 1932
W3XK, Jenkins Laboratories, Washington
(Sound on W3XJ, 1,550 Kilocycles)
8:00—"Stump" Miller.
8:15—Miller Matter, trio.
8:30—Joe Holmead, tenor.
8:45—Studio feature.
9:00—Unidentified singer.
9:15—Caroline Miller, pianist.
9:30 to 10:00—Check Wilkins.

Tuesday, June 7, 1932
W3XK, Jenkins Laboratories, Washington
(Sound on W3XJ, 1,550 Kilocycles)
8:00—Gertrude Lyons program.
8:30—Gertrude Dyer and her Musical Marionettes.
8:45—Janet Coon.
9:00—Doug Porter’s Orchestra.
9:45 to 10:00—Melody Four.

NEW YORK, June 7. (AP)—Makeup needed by television artists still furnishes a problem.
Already much has been done toward its solution, but not enough to warrant laying down definite rules for performers before the eye of radio.
Aided by three attractive girls, one engineer conversant with requirements of photo-electrical cells is carrying on a two months’ series of tests.
Fans Cooperate
At the same time he is getting owners of television receivers to help him out with reports of reception with various styles of make up.
The engineer is Harry Spears, who runs the gadgets of W2XAB, New York. Each Friday night he conducts his tests in the studio as the “program” goes out on the air lanes for visual broadcasting.
The girls are of three types. Constance O’Neill is a light blond, Etheline Holt a darker blond and Toni Costello a burnet [sic].
As they face the radio camera, he applies various shades and types of makeup ranging through all the colors of the rainbow.
A record of the effects is being kept so that Spears will have enough data to formulate what he considers accurate conclusions as to the proper greasepaint to apply.
For The Titles
As an aid in making visual announcements, W2XAB has added a moving sign to its equipment. The apparatus used consists of a wide tape which can be wound or unwound on spools automatically.
White letters on a black background are used, this method giving the best reproduction. When in operation, several letters pass the screen at a time slowly enough to be read easily at the receiving end. (C.E. Butterfield column)

Wednesday, June 8, 1932
W3XK, Jenkins Laboratories, Washington
(Sound on W3XJ, 1,550 Kilocycles)
8:00—Hearth Hour.
8:30—Wilford Hickerson.
8:45—Grace Jones, pianist.
9:00—Milton Jones, baritone.
9:30 to 10:00—Maryland Ramblers.

Rian James, The Eagle's columnist, is on the air today.
To be exact, he'll be heard at 5:15 p.m. over WABC and the rest of the Columbia network speaking on matters journalistic and possibly discussing his latest contribution to the book world, "Crooner," a novel about a blond lad who sings through a megaphone into a microphone.
James will also face the photo-electric cells of Columbia's television facilities at the same time.
If your television set is working tune to W2XAB and catch him in person. (Jo Ranson column, Brooklyn Eagle)

NEW YORK, June 8. (AP)—The longer it takes to develop practical television, the less chance there will be for the development laboratories whose resources are at a low ebb.
This situation has been brought to fore in the current season with the lessening of activities from which the home experimenter derived considerable benefit through his ability to tune in pictures practically all afternoon and evening.
However, from the standpoint of the laboratory, there does not seem to be much of a letdown, particularly in the ultra short wave experiments. It is largely in the field of 60-line experimental broadcasts where there has been a lagging of concentrated interest.
One Station Closes
A year ago New York was looking in and hearing a combined sound-sight broadcast on at least one station, with another having just about made ready for an opening date. Since then the first station has closed down its television activities, at least for the summer, while the other has reduced its time considerably, confining programs to sight alone.
Two other New York stations have continued their 60-line transmission station without interruption, apparently on the premise that much remains to be done in this field before moving on to further experiments with the objective of providing greater picture detail and more reliable reception.
Cost Heavy Part of the decreased activity in television is attributable to the great cost involved. With little or no market for television receivers it has been largely all outgo. With this sort, of situation prevailing, only the strongest of the research organizations have been in a position to continue their work unhampered by outside considerations.
Large sums and much time already have been spent in bringing television to its present stage, with more money and long hours of tireless labor still to be disbursed before the half-finished dream can be. (C.E. Butterfield column)

Thursday, June 9, 1932
Lafayette, Ind., June 9 — The world’s news in pictures, as broadcast by Purdue University’s experimental television station, W9XG, have been successfully received at poínts as far north as Montreal, Canada, as far east as Long Island, as far west as Billings, Mont., and as far south as Georgia, according to reports which have been received on the first two months of a regular bi-weekly broadcast of pictorial programs.
The regular bi-weekly broadcasts were launched on Tuesday, March 29, and will be continued until further notice on Tuesday and Thursday of each week. The programs will be broadcast three times each day the station is on the air, from 2:00 to 2:45, from 7:00 to 7:45 and from 9:00 to 9:45. Each program will consist of standard motion picture film, including the regular news releases of Universal Films, with vocal announcements of the by subjects covered interspersed during the program over the same channel.
The station broadcasts on a frequency of 2800 kilocycles, with a maximum of 1500 watts, power, and is adjusted to send 60 lines per picture at the rate of 20 pictures per second.
Extensive experiments in determining the practical usage of television are being conducted by W9XG in cooperation with the Grigsby-Grunow Co., of Chicago. Under the direction of R. H. George, Rushville, chief engineer, a cathode ray vacuum tube type of receiver that will make it possible to automatically synchronize sending and receiving equipment is being developed.
W9XG is emphasizing the experimental side of the program, and all television set owners who tune in on the program are requested to send reports to the station on the quality of reception, including fading, ghosting and volume. (Rushville Republican)



Sunday, June 12, 1932
Television skeptics . . . there are hundreds of them . . . don’t believe that there is such a thing as television . . . scoff at it and all that . . . Roger White, Columbia conductor, believed that there was television but firmly believed no one ever bothered to look in on any broadcast . . . It was about a week ago that Roger entered the studio of W2XAB during an ev:ning experimental broadcast.
Looking around the studio he finally asked if he might stand before the flying spot so that a few friends might see him on the set three floors below . . . adjusting his collar and tie with great care he bravely stepped into the focus of the flying spot . . . minutes pass and he steps out laughing .. . I’ll buy your dinner, Bill, if any one outside of this building sees this old face of mine” . . . Nobody saw it because nobody called in or wrote . . . not until a week later . . . about the same time of night Roger White rushed up the stairs that lead [sic] from the main Columbia studios to the television rooms . . . “Look quick, Bill,” he yelled before he got to the top . . . ‘Look” . . . a letter . . . It was from a society woman in the South . . . Nashville, Tenn., it was . . . Roger White had played for her two years ago at a Newport party . . . She had remember his face . . . her son had built a television receiver and strangely W2XAB came in down there best . . . she happened to be looking that night ... thought the face was familiar . . . wondered 1f she could be correct . . . “Was it Roger White?” she mused . . . So she wrote . . . So television has added another who no longer scoffs!
. . .
Another instance . . . This was about three months ago and concerned a singer whose name I must withhold . . . he was down and out . . . had a fair voice . . . wanted a chance to sing on television because he thought it might put him in right with the Columbia network . . . sang over W2XE which then carried the sound part of Columbia’s television . . . sang for several weeks . . . every effort he put forth by not for the television audience . . . but for the people who might be in the corridors at Columbia . . . actually he was a disbeliever in television . . . imagined that no one either heard or saw beyond those flickering lights in that dark studio 23 floors above noisy Madison Ave. . . . Then one night a television looker-in in Long Island City wanted talent for a big party he was giving . . . one of the people he wanted was this singer . . . he not only came after him but paid him in the grand manner . . . later this same singer won a place with a big Broadway band through his work on television and is heard over one of the large networks.
Andre Baruch, Columbia announcer, was another . . . he didn’t believe that people more than five miles from Columbia could possibly see pictures through thin air . . . he laughed and kidded when we told him that pictures had been seen as far away as West Point, Neb. . . . Haw, Haw, Haw . . . he laughed and he laughed until one night while he was announcing a television broadcast an old friend in Detroit, Mich., saw him and called on the long-distance telephone . . . Now Andre is another who no longer laughs at television. (Bill Schudt’s column, Brooklyn Eagle, June 12)

Monday, June 13 1932
W9XAO, Western Television, Chicago (Sound on WIBO 560 kilocycles)
6:15—Vocalist, television.

Tuesday, June 14, 1932
NEW YORK, June 14—(AP)—The date for the formal introduction of practical television still is something for the future to decide.
David Sarnoff, president of RCA, whose company is conducting extensive research into the possibilities of sight transmission, indicated as much in a statement to the annual meeting of stockholders.
Part of this research has included the establishment of ultra short wave transmitting equipment for both sound and sight.
Seek Practical Service
“We have continued the intensive experimental work which has been carried on in order to make television a practical, worth-while service,” Sarnoff said. “Our experiments up to the present have confirmed the belief that practical television can best be accomplished on its own band of wavelengths, where it will be a service additional to the present system of sound broadcasting.
“Our engineers have done much research during the past year with television transmission on short waves and with various studio problems incident to television transmission. However, I am going to re-emphasize what I have said before—that while the public was quite willing to experiment with radio in the early stages of broadcast development, it will expect television apparatus of a more advanced type than the early crystal sets.”
Experiments To Continue
The statement gave no inkling of a date for the introduction of practical television, whether it would be this year or next, but said:
“To attempt to market television equipment prematurely would severely retard a development that has great promise, and which we expect to grow into a great and widely accepted service. . . . The experimental work we are undertaking will be continued energetically.
“As stated in the annual report, television receiving equipment will be offered to the public when this experimentation has shown that a system of sight transmission having practical value can be assured.” (C.E. Butterfield column)

Likable Billy Like, who we believe is most versatile youngster on the air, struts his stuff before the television camera of W2XAB each Tuesday nite at 8:15....Je does expert impersonations of stage, radio and screen luminaries and aspires to be a stick waver....Billy plays the saxophone and clarinet. (Murray Rosenberg, Brooklyn Citizen)

Friday, June 17, 1932
WASHINGTON, June 17—Application for a reconstruction permit for television service was denied the Shreveport Broadcast company today by the federal radio commission. The commission’s action sustained the report made by Examiner Pratt. (Shreveport Times)

Saturday, June 18, 1932
PHILADELPHIA, Pa., June 18. (AP)—Real television can be seen only in the laboratories today.
It is these quarters, closed to all but the initiated, where the newly developing art is being pushed ahead at a faster pace than was believed possible even a year ago.
Too Early to Forecast Date.
At the same time, the task of turning a laboratory accomplishment into a practicability is not an easy one, and it probably is too early to attempt a forecast of the date for the introduction of television in the home.
Two important problems remain to be solved—the supplying of adequate picture broadcasts at a reasonable cost and the design of a receiver that won’t require too much of an outlay.
Take it from a young man who has spent all of his days and many of his nights and week-ends for nine years crouching over apparatus too elaborate to describe.
Believes He’s Making Progress.
This engineer, Philo T. Farnsworth, whose penthouse workroom in the Philco laboratories here has been augmented by two short wave transmitters housed in a tower above an elevator shaft, believes that despite the handicaps, he has made worthwhile progress in the year that has elapsed since he came from San Francisco, Cal.
His particular task is the perfection of the cathode ray tube to provide electrical scanning both for transmitter and receiver, to replace the mechanically operated disk of holes or lenses.
And, he has at least two recent accomplishments that stand out. One is the design of a cathode receiver which will throw a picture on a screen.
Cathode Ray Scanner Used.
The other goes into the puzzle of a Cathode ray scanner, or television camera, that can be used for direct pickup, such as living images, in the studio and out.
In most cathode ray receivers, the picture is seen on the end of the tube, the size of the image being fixed by the diameter of the flat end of the tube. About six or seven inches square is the maximum that can be built up with this method.
But by projection it is possible to jump this up to at least a foot. Farnsworth has done just that, and at the same time has lowered the cost of the cathode tube considerably.
Lens, Screen, Mirror Used.
Enlargement is accomplished with a lens, a reflecting mirror and a ground-glass screen. With a smaller tube, enough concentrated light is available to get fairly satisfactory results.
The cathode ray direct vision camera looks much like a small wooden cask mounted on a swinging pedestal. It can be focused as an ordinary camera, and appears considerably simpler than a mechanical scanner.
Transmission experiments are being conducted at present on both 107 and seven meters, or thereabouts. (C.E. Butterfield column)

Sunday, June 19, 1932
Realism was injected into a Columbia television drama recently when John Hewitt, playing the part of a detective, reached for what he thought was a prop phone and asked for police headquarters.
By mistake he had picked up a phone on the main circuit and was actually connected with headquarters. He hung up in a hurry. (Los Angeles Times, July 19)

Monday, June 20, 1932
W9XAO, Western Television, Chicago (Sound on WIBO 560 kilocycles)
6:15—Vocalist, television. Miss Marion Carter, daughter of Dr. and Mrs. T. A. Carter of 505 Julian street, who broadcasts regularly over WRJN radio station, last evening [20] appeared in a program over WIBO, Chicago, and Associated Television station. Miss Carter is an accomplished musician and plays six different instruments. Over 8,000 viewed the television program last night. (Waukegan News-Sun)

Another television triumph was chalked up last night [20] by Bill Schudt and the Columbia Broadcasting System when W2XAB projected complete picture scenes of the replica of Mount Vernon erected in Prospect Park, by the New York City George Washington Bicentennial Commission. Mary Moss Wellborn, curator at the replica in Prospect Park, presented the still pictures, maps and original photographs from the Columbia studios in Manhattan. By presenting this series of programs we add another first to our television list of scoops,” Bill Schudt, television director of the station said. “We are proud of being able to participate in this worthy celebration and hope to present many similar features in the near future.” (Jo Ranson column, Brooklyn Eagle, Jun. 20)

Tuesday, June 21, 1932
It is astonishing how little has been done with television in the west, particularly in Los Angeles, when you consider that nightly entertainment via television is fairly common in New York and New Jersey.
We have one television station here—W6XAO, owned by KHJ and operated by Harry R. Lubcke. When we say operated, we mean that W6XAO regularly broadcasts vertical and horizontal lines, the rudiments of making an image, to a handful of avid fans who build home-made receiving sets. But nobody is going to purchase a television set until he is sure of a program to receive. And there is nothing particularly romantic, or entertaining about vertical or horizontal lines.
But to Mr. Lubcke and his W6XAO goes ample credit for the only worthwhile television progress locally. He states he could broadcast television approximately as well as it is being done in the east. To Mr. Lubcke, however, even the latest thing in television is not good enough. “Every time we make a move,” he states, “we discover some new way of improving our equipment. And as long as we keep making these discoveries, we are not going into programming on a big scale.”
Mr. Lubcke believes his recent feat of receiving television images in an airplane through a set installed in an airplane is noteworthy accomplishment. Reason: Up until then, it was thought that television transmitters and receivers both had to be synchronized with the same power line before they could operate. Lubcke found that his receiving set worked from the power generated in the plane, and as far as he knows, his is the only set which will do this.
“For instance,” said Lubcke, “if television as it is practiced in the east were installed here, and the transmitters were using L. A. Gas and Electric power, listeners who used Southern California Edison could not receive the programs and vice versa. With my set they could receive either one, or they could even generate their own power, as the farmers do, and still receive the programs. (Keith Frogley column, Los Angeles Daily News, June 21)

Wednesday, June 22, 1932
Orrin E. Dunlap, radio editor for the New York Times, and author of five books on radio broadcasting and television, will speak to a nationwide radio audience when he faces WABC-Columbia microphones and W2XAB televisors as guest in “Bill Schudt’s Going to Press” from 5:25 to 5:30 p.m., EDST, Wednesday, June 22. Mr. Dunlap has just completed his fourth year as the radio editor of the New York Times. Likewise he has just published his fifth book on radio. It is entitled “The Outlook for Television” and it will be upon this same subject that he will speak on the air. Bill Schudt, Columbia television director, has again arranged for complete television and sound network synchronization for the Dunlap broadcast. Thus listeners equipped with televisors may see as well as hear the veteran radio editor. (Kingston Whig-Standard)

Saturday, June 25, 1932
WASHINGTON, June 25 (UP) – The Federal Radio Commission today granted the application of First National Television Corporation to construct and operate experimentally a 500-watt visual broadcasting station at Kansas City.
In granting the application, the commission reversed the recommendation of its examiner, R. H. Hyde.

Monday, June 27, 1932
W9XAO, Western Television, Chicago (Sound on WIBO 560 kilocycles)
6:15-6:45—Vocalist, television.

Wednesday, June 29, 1932
Louis Reid, radio editor for the New York American and also for a score of syndicated newspapers, will be the speaker on “Bill Schudt’s Going to Press” program this afternoon from 5:15 to 5:30 o’clock over the WABC-Columbia network. The talk will also be transmitted over experimental television station W2XAB at the same time. Mr. Reid's talk, orginally scheduled for a few weeks ago, was postponed due to the broadcast of the Republican National Convention.

A decidedly interesting experiment will be made for vacationists over the CBS television channel tonight [29], when two members of the Kittredge Foundation for Business Girls will demonstrate first aid measures as approved by the Red Cross and as used at their camp at Interstate Park, Bear Mountain, Miss Peggy Howells, Jersey City champion, will direct, The camp is a non-sectarian, non-commercial camp for business girls and is widely known. Incidentally, the CBS television unit is undergoing vast changes and will return to the air in about a month or so, at which time the regular network programs are expected to synchronize with the images. (David Bratton, Jr. column, Brooklyn Times Union)

March-April 1932

New York lost one of its major television stations in April 1932.

Quite suddenly, W2XCR went off the air. It was one of two stations that were broadcasting studio programming; the others aired either pictures or films.

Jenkins Television had been working on new technical developments and insisted it was going to return. It never did. The company was dealing with receivership and its assets were bought in 1933 by RCA.

The station turned off the camera four days after its license was renewed by the Federal Radio Commission.

This left CBS’ W2XAB as the only station in New York broadcasting live from a studio. John V.L. Hogan’s W2XR was airing films with sound.

(At this time, WCDA 1350 in New York was airing “The Television Hour” on Tuesday nights, but there’s nothing I’ve found to show this was connected with a TV station. Despite its name, the show was 15 minutes).

There had been warnings for months in the papers about stock scams involving television promoters. The FRC decided to act in the case of the owners of W1XAV in Boston.

Below is a selection of stories for March and April 1932. No newspapers available on line provide schedules for the New York stations. W2XAB seems to have operated from 8 to 11 p.m. on weekdays, and 8 to 10 p.m. on weekends. As of Saturday, March 11, it added an extra hour of programming on Saturday (until 11 p.m.). W2XCR was on the air daily from 6 to 7:45 with shows from WINS radio, and then silent pictures after that until 9 p.m. As of Monday, March 21, it added a half hour from WINS, broadcasting from 6 to 8:15 p.m. then silent pictures for the next 45 minutes. But, as a story below relates, the station hadn’t been airing live shows for some time before it closed.

There are a couple of items indicating what kind of programming was available from W6XAO in Los Angeles (lines) and W9XCI, the Purdue University station (actual film).

Thursday, March 3, 1932
Appeals for the kidnapers of the Lindbergh baby to give the child his proper diet and to communicate with the parents immediately were broadcast repeatedly last night [3] and are being repeated today.
Charles Francis Coe, criminologist, of the National Broadcasting Co., appealed to the kidnapers, “If there is a spark of decency in you, care for that baby.” Announcers read, at frequent intervals the following statement, authorised by Lindbergh.
“Colonel and Mrs. Lindbergh not only wish but hope that whoever is in possession of the child will make every effort to communicate with them.”
Every 15 minute, the Columbia Broadcasting Co.’s television station, W2XAB, broadcast a picture of the kidnaped child.
WOR, which claimed to have been first on the air Tuesday night [1], with news of the kidnaping, last night presented programs recalling incidents in Lindbergh’s life.
For the second successive night radio stations were manned all night, ready to inform the world instantly in the event the baby is found.
Newspapers in the East have been co-operating by printing descriptions of little Charles Augustus Lindbergh, jr., daily, also listing his diet. (Brooklyn Times, Mar. 4)

CBS reports that Joseph Rezac, 632 North Lincoln street, West Point, Neb., has been able to pick up and receive with good clarity the television programs broadcast by W2XAB, the CBS television transmitter . . . This is the greatest distance every [sic] received by television, CBS claims . . . It is probably the first time any television has been received in Nebraska. (Bill Wiseman column, Omaha Bee-News, March 3, 1932)

That television has become more than just a dream is told by the story of the two Rezac twins, John and Joseph, Sons of Frank Rezac of North Lincoln street in this city. These two boys have rigged up a television receiver out of parts that they bought and are now receiving picture programs from stations in New York, Maryland and New Jersey.
Strictly speaking the television outfit is a result of Joe’s efforts while John has taken a greater interest in operating his own short wave broadcasting station. These boys came deeply involved in radio about 2 years ago, when they started to play with a small one-tube outfit that was given to them.
They got hold of some old radios and a lot of old parts which they built and rebuilt into various radio sets until they became quite expert in this line.
About the middle of last February Joe put his television apparatus together from the parts which he ordered separately out of a radio catalogue. With nothing to go by, no one to instruct him, except a few brief directions that came with the parts, he experimented and tried various things until finally he was successful in receiving pictures.
It is rather difficult to tune in the station, and get a clear picture. The alternating current with which he operates the apparatus is not steady and therefore causes much interference. Static, local interference and the great distance from the broadcasting station are the most serious hindrances to uninterrupted television reception, but on some nights Joe has been successful in getting programs very clearly.
After his first few successful at attempts to tune in the pictures, he reported to the New York station, W2XAB, a part of a program and was credited with having been the most distant receiver of television pictures from that station. Joe can bring in most any of the stations in this country which broadcast in a range that his set will cover. Singing, talking, dancing and dancing lessons, piano lessons and a host of other things have been brought in. Although, the sound does not come in simultaneously with the picture, it could easily be made to do so. All that is required is the picture of the person talking or singing as in the silent movies. The sound is broadcast on another wave length and would require another receiver to pick it up.
In the few weeks that Joe has had his television outfit in operation he has noticed much improvement in the broadcasting. Pictures come in much clearer now than they used to. W3XK at Silver Springs, Maryland and W2XAP at Passaic, N. J., as well as the New York Station, are tuned in every night. Several other stations have been received, but their identity has not been verified. (West Point News, Mar. 10)

Sunday, March 6, 1932
The bureau of home economics at the New York Edison Co., in collaboration with the May Radio & Television Corp. of New York and New Jersey, presented three very novel programs of short television broadcasts at the Electrical Institute of the Electrical Association of New York, Grand Central palace, Manhattan, on Feb. 25 and 26.
Using Station WINS, the engineers of the May Radio & Television Corp. delighted three enthusiastic audiences with this novel presentation. Thursday, the television broadcast feature was an address by Ralph Neumiller, managing director of the Electrical Association of New York; while on Friday, Clarence L. Law, president of the association, spoke. Popular radio artists supplemented the program with songs and music.
The auditorium was crowded on all three occasions and it was necessary, at the final broadcast, for the doors to be closed long before the scheduled time for the television demonstration, so rapidly had the word been passed around concerning the success the May concern had achieved its demonstration. (Brooklyn Daily Times, Mar. 6)

A new method of radiovision which operates like a motion picture will be announced by Dr. Charles F. Jenkins, physicist, in “The Yale Scientific Magazine” to be published tomorrow. Dr. Jenkins has received the medal of the Franklin Institute, and is an authority in radio-photography and television. This system of radiovision, he says, is similar in erect to motion pictures, but instead of film moving to give motion, the pictures change on a stationary frame In response to radio signals. By the use of this system, any size screen can be used; while a small incandescent lamp, like an automobile headlight lamp, is sufficient for home television sets, synchronized with present home reproducers.
“In my laboratory we refer to distant revision as radiovision where radio is the carrier, and as television where wire is the carrier, just as we speak of a telephone as a wire instrument and a radiophone as a radio instrument,” Dr. Jenkins says. “However, the public has now accustomed itself to television and is not, at all likely to change.
“The mechanism, whether scanning disk or cathode ray, involves a rapid traversing of the picture area by a single spot of light in adjacent successive lines; we will assume sixty lines, with the spot diameter equal to one-sixtieth of the length of a line.
“Now, as this single spot-source supplies all the light for the entire picture area, obviously this illumination appears to the eye 3,600 times less bright than the intensity of the spot itself where the source is a crater, or 12,000,000 odd times less where the source is a plate glow.
“Obviously then, when a perforated scanning disk, or its equivalent, is employed, a well-lighted picture can be only small, for the illumination falls off as the square of the projection distance, when an enlargement of the picture is attempted.
“However, as each perforation of the disk is equivalent to a pinhole camera, it rather naturally occurred to me to substitute a lens-disk for a scanning disk, for the same reason that a lens was substituted for the pinhole in early cameras—namely, to gather more light for a brighter picture. So, with an intensely bright crater lamp and this lens-disk a rather acceptable size picture can be projected onto a suitable screen, for obviously, by this combination, the size of the picture and the brilliance have both benefited.
“Broadly, the new method consists in using the incoming radio signals to build up a picture in the path of a beam of light projected on a screen; that is, a picture slide in a magic lantern, the picture on the slide being formed thereon by electrical means instead of photographic means.
“This is the problem I put up to my laboratory staff. We soon found that one way to do it was to build up a picture on a gelatine-coated glass lantern plate with an extremely fine wire mesh imbedded therein, the gelatine being sensitized with a suitable electro-sensitive substance, potassium iodide.
“That did very well for a ‘still,’ and the picture could be made in the necessary one-fifteenth of a second. But if we are to receive radiomovies and television, obviously, the image must fade out quickly and be replaced by a like image arranged In a slightly different way, with the cycle repeated every fifteenth of a second.
“To do this we divided the picture area of the lantern slide into sixty Imaginary lines of sixty imaginary dots in each line. The chemicals coating the plate were also changed to attain the necessarily quick fading effect. This prepared lantern slide was put into a projecting lantern having a light source sufficiently Intense to brilliantly light the theater screen, which is the usual method.
“The projected picture on the screen is, therefore, exactly like the usual lantern slide picture except that it bas motion, or like a motion picture except that it is made up of changing picture elements instead of changing picture frames on a film. Incidentally, the elementary picture dots are so blended that they are as inconspicuous, on the theater screen as are the picture dots of a newspaper illustration.” (Herald Tribune, Mar. 6)

Monday, March 7, 1932
New York, March 7—(AP)—Parrot won’t talk when they’re being televised. Neither will “singing” dogs sing.
Bill Schudt, who runs the picture programs of W2XAB, New York, discovered that the minute he tried to put some animals before the flying spot of the television camera.
Apparently the animals get a real fright when they are forced into fairly immense beam of light, the only illumination in a darkened studio. (C.E. Butterfield column, Mar. 7)

Tuesday, March 8, 1932
NEW YORK, Mar. 8 (AP)—A New York hotel has decided to supply some of its guests with television entertainment.
Selecting about 15 of the suites in the 2,000 room holstelry, the management is making ready to install receivers which reproduce radio images on screens about eight inches square. Results of this experiment may determine whether a more elaborate installation is to be carried out.
The receivers are to be operated from a master antenna, picking up signals from the three stations in the downtown area.
As only direct current is available in the hotel, the problem of synchronization must be overcome.
Ousting the Ghosts
Because serious fading with accompanying ghost images is encountered in the local areas of television stations operating on 105 and 150 meters, the need for automatic volume control in the receiver to overcome at least some of the difficulty has long been felt by engineers.
Research workers of the Freed laboratories have attacked the problem by designing a 10-tube super heterodyne for television which incorporates automatic volume control.
The control, obtained through an extra tube in the detector circuit, tends to hold the signal level constant during fading swings if they are not too great.
It was necessary to use an intermediate amplifier which would not eliminate any of the picture signal and produce bad effects on the screen.
Better In Daytime
Television fading manifests itself in a way just the opposite to that in the broadcast wavelengths. There the signal always is better at night than in the daytime.
In the experimental picture channels, the day periods seem to produce a steadier signal with only slight fading, hardly serious enough, to give ghost images.
But about sunset the picture begins to break up and often reception remains poor throughout the evening. The poor reception also has been noticed 24 hours in advance of a change in weather conditions.
Peculiar effects sometimes are noticeable, such as a fleeting glimpse of a negative picture, with whites in place of blacks, blurred and indistinct images and ghosts that occasionally reproduce as many as six faint outlines.

Wednesday, March 9, 1932
LOS ANGELES, Mar. 9 (AP)—The first regular schedule of experimental broadcasting of television by electrical scanning has been inaugurated here.
It is being accompanied by a systemic attempt to map an area approximately 40 miles in diameter to determine the most advantageous points in which amateurs can participate in the tests.
The broadcast is as yet limited to checking the field as to receptibility through the results achieved by amateur experiments aided by information supplied by W6XAO, the Don Lee television station.
Intervening hills and tall buildings near the sending station have been found to weaken reception in certain localities.
Broadcasts Daily
The broadcasts consist only of vertical lines rather than an image. The wavelength is 6.75 meters or 44,500 kilocycles.
The system employed is that developed by Harry R. Lubcke, engineer formerly associated with the Farnsworth laboratories in San Francisco.
Synchronization is automatic and comes from the image pulse itself. The picture contains 80 lines and the receivers operate from a 110 volt alternating current. Fifteen pictures per second are transmitted.
The signals are sent out between 6 p. m. and 7 p. m. daily, coast time, with voice announcements every 15 minutes.
Reception is said to be possible on receivers using either scanning discs or cathode ray tubes.

Mrs. Virginia Chandler Hall will direct a television broadcast from Station W2XAB of the Columbia system at 9 o’clock tonight. The program will deal with fashion, and more specifically will touch on millinery and neck treatments.
The broadcast will be for the benefit of executives of the studio. Explanation was made that the program has a potential audience of about 1,000 persons.
Merchandise from a number of wholesalers will figure in the program. Hats have been supplied by G. Howard Hodge, Inc., and the Serge Hat Co., while Jean Adams, Inc., have provided the fabric scarfs and Zimmerman, the furs. (Women’s Wear Daily, Mar. 9)

Sunday, March 13, 1932
OBSERVERS who have visited the WMAL studios in Washington, D. C., report that the television demonstration of the newly added W2XAP was in every way as good as some of the widely discussed New York try-outs. The images were clear and recognizable. One performer received a telegram saying that his likeness had been picked up in New York.
Broadcasting of sight as well as sound caused a noticeable dressing up of the participants in the program. Men wore dinner coats, women evening dresses, and two performers, a man and a woman, appeared in bright-colored gypsy costumes. A curious effect was that all men televised looked as 1f they needed a shave and appeared to have sideburn whiskers.
The new televisor is said to have attracted more distinguished visitors to the studios of WMAL in one week than had visited the station in a year. Members of Congress were numerous, since this station afforded the first opportunity many of them have had to witness a television demonstration. (New York Times, March 13)

Monday, March 21, 1932
The Federal Radio Commission has denied the application of the Knickerbocker Broadcasting Company for permission to construct a television transmitter at Hoboken. Radio Pictures, Inc., of Long Island City, operating W2XR, a television experimental station, claimed that if the Commission had granted the Knickerbocker’s application it would have interfered with their (W2XR) programs. W2XR also charged that an English television corporation was behind the Knickerbocker move. (Brooklyn Daily Eagle, March 21)

Chicago, March 21. Television demonstration that RCA had slated for its radio licensees last week was suddenly and indefinitely postponed.
Set manufacturers had been invited to attend an exhibition of the latest progress made in the development of sight broadcasting and reception, but at the last minute everybody got word that the show, because of unforeseen reasons, had to be called off. Revised date was not given. (Variety, Mar. 21)

Tuesday, March 22, 1932
Clarence A. Chamberlin, the transatlantic flier, will be interviewed by H. Burt McElfresh of The Eagle over Columbia’s television station W2XAB tonight at 10:30. The sound portion of the program will be heard over W2XE.
In this, the 42d of a series of interviews with noted figures arranged by McElfresh, Chamberlin will be asked to tell more of his recent aeronautical enterprises.
Walter A. Fallon will offer several piano selections. (Eagle, Mar. 22, Jo Ranson column)

Wednesday, March 23, 1932
Another of the television “Fashion Flashes” was presented through station W2X[A]B of the Columbia Broadcasting System last evening [23]. These television broadcasts, under the direction of Virginia Chandler Hall, are now a regular Wednesday evening feature of this station, and last evening the program included shoes from A. Garside & Sons and from Bergdorf & Goodman Co., Inc.; hats from Vera Beresford: bags from Nat Lewis, and scarfs from Glensder Textiles and Best & Co.
Styles for active and spectator sportswear were selected as well as town accessories. Gay stripes in scarfs, a flexible braided silk for the straw beret, and color relation between the hat and the accessories were accented. Two felt hats were shown and the “ever increasing” interest in cotton was illustrated through a bag of cotton mesh lined in pique. Brown cotton mesh combined with kid was featured in an opera pump, while the ghillie type shoe was also shown in a mesh combination.
The detail of design and trimming is not clear in the television reproduction but with the running description the silhouette and general style aspect of the various fashion subjects displayed were discernible. (Women’s Wear Daily, Mar. 24)

Thursday, March 24, 1932
WASHINGTON, March 24 (A. P.)—The application of the Shortwave & Television Corporation, Boston, for renewal of experimental licenses for its four stations today was ordered set for hearing before the Radio Commission to determine whether the corporation has capitalized the licenses issued for the promotion of the sale of its stock.”
The commission, in announcing its action, said it also would seek to determine if the corporation was financially able to conduct experiments required by the radio regulations, if statements made in the application for constructtion permits, licenses and renewals were true in fact, and if stations W1XAV and W1XG were operated in public interest, convenience and necessity.
The commission said it also would seek to determine whether the transfer if stock of the Shortwave and Television Laboratories was a bona fide transaction or an evasion of the regulation to deny responsibility. It also said it would seek to determine if visual broadcasting station W1XAV was operated in public interest, convenience and necessity and if officers of the Shortwave Broadcasting Company had entered into a conspiracy with officers of the Shortwave and Television Corporation to capitalize licenses issued by the Radio Commission for stock-selling purposes and determine whether the operation of experimental station W1XAL, by the Shortwave and Television Corporation for the Shortwave Broadcasting Company was in public interest, convenience and necessity and if the Shortwave Broadcasting Company was financially able to conduct experiments as required by commission regulations.

Saturday, March 26, 1932
WASHINGTON, D. C., March 26. – Introduction of the Baird system of television, developed by John Logie Baird, British Inventor, has been barred from the United States by a decision of the Federal Radio Commission. Reversing the recommendation of Examiner Ralph L. Walker, the commission has denied the application of Station WMCA, New York, to erect a 1,000-watt visual broadcasting station, proposing to use the Baird system and to operate in the 2,850 to 2,950 kilocycle band.
The commission held that, though the application was in the name of WMCA, an American company, the proposed station would be operated jointly with Baird Television Corporation, Ltd., a British concern. Mr. Baird himself was one of the witnesses at the hearing on the application, and it is understood that practically all of the equipment has already been delivered to WMCA in the confident expectation that the station would be authorized.
According to the commission, the granting of the license would in effect be the granting of authority to the British company, which has affiliations with the British Broadcasting Corporation, In violation of the section of the radio law prohibiting alien ownership or directorates of companies holding wave length privileges in the United States. The commission’s contention is that the entire project is really intended to exploit the Baird system in this country “rather than a bona fide program of research and experimentation in the visual broadcasting field.”
Relatively few television applications remain pending before the Radio Commission now, though nine stations are in process of erection which have been authorized by the commission. Twenty-three stations are in actual operation. The latest application for television is the U. S. Radio & Television Corp., of Marion, Ind., seeking authority to use the ultra-high frequencies with a 1,000-watt station. (Atlanta Journal, Mar. 27)

Sunday, March 27, 1932
The newest television stations on the log, which now lists 27 visual broadcasters in this country, are to be known as W8XAF, which will operate in conjunction with WJR, Detroit, and W8XL, which will operate with WGAR, Cleveland. The former will use intermediate as well as ultra-high frequencies, and the latter will operate with the Detroit station in a synchronized ultra-high wave set-up. (Washington Evening Star, Mar. 27)

Tuesday, March 29, 1932
New York, March 29—(A.P.)— Plans to circumvent the fading and double images encountered in nearby reception areas of the visual station, W2XAB, are to be put into effect this spring. This station, which puts on a nightly sight and sound experimental transmission in conjunction with W2XE, both operated by the CBS network under the supervision of Ed Cohan, technical director, and Edgar Wallace, television engineer, has received numerous reports of poor images.
These reports, in most instances, come from a radius of ten to twenty miles of the station, indicating that the wave pattern is considerably altered either by reflection or by other causes. At the receiving end the effect either makes itself evident through double images or slight to serious fading.
Plan Field Strength Test
Engineers believe that antenna design has a great deal to do with the type of signal that is delivered. In an effort to learn exactly what is taking place and to determine what can be done, Cohan is preparing to conduct a field strength test of W2XAB.
Information obtained, he said, will prove of value in ascertaining whether a change in the antenna system now used will alter the wave pattern enough to warrant redesign of the aerial. The situation that has developed in connection with W2XAE has strengthened the opinion that the wavelength used, approximately 107 meters, is not at all ideal for picture transmission. Particularly is this so in areas close to the station.
To Try Short Waves
Investigation of transmission of both sound and sight on the ultra waves also is to be made, Cohan reported. Channels in the band from three to seven meters are to be used, with the transmitter operating as W2XDV. (C.E. Butterfield column, Mar. 29)

Television receivers have been placed in the Deaf Institute of New York, and Alexander Pack of the institute, will appear before the flying spot at W2XAB on April 4 to broadcast a “talk” in sign language. Just an idea of how television may be used in educating deaf mutes. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Mar 29).

The Eagle’s editor, Cleveland Rogers, will face a Columbia microphone next Wednesday, April 6, at 5:15 p.m.
His subject, “Newspapers and Government,” will be broadcast over a nation-wide network and will also be projected to television observers from W2XAB.
Mr. Rodgers will speak on “Bill Schudt’s Going to Press” hour. (Brooklyn Eagle, Mar. 29).

Saturday, April 2, 1932
NEW YORK, April 2 (AP)—Television has decided to try its hand at an exhibition of paintings.
The society of independent artists will present five leading artists and an equal number of paintings in a Tuesday night [5] telecast on W2XAB, with the sound on W2XE. Each artist will explain his work as it is held before the television camera. (C.E. Butterfield column)

Sunday, April 3, 1932
Television dramatic experiments have their thrills on and off the air at Columbia headquarters in New York City.
During a recent melodrama which was bring enacted before the flying spot of W2XAR one of the actresses was supposed to fall dead and when below the line of vision creep over to the other side of the studio, put on the makeup of an elderly lady and reappear as the mother in the scene.
Hilda Cole, who played the part of the heroine, properly died and fell out of the picture, but when she attempted to crawl out of focus and get into her other costume, she was met in the dark studio by one of the actors, new to te1evis1on who collided with her, and both out of balance struggled for an instant within the line of vision. Lookers-in, however, reported the acting “swell.” never for a moment realizing that dead heroine came to life to struggle. They saw only the back of her head and everything went on as usual.
The Shadow has a competitor. Visitors who wander about the Columbia corridors are just as liable as not to run into either the heavy cloaked Shadow or the white sheeted Television Ghost [singer Artells Dickson]. Both take keen delight in passing by studio windows and past darkened yet much frequented passageways just to give the visitors a thrill.
Believe it or not, here is how Henry Grossman, chief audio engineer of the Columbia Broadcasting System, contracted a severe cold last week:
Grossman was at his hotel watching a television show and that was all. He got the cold. The explanation which followed was unique in the annals of radio history. It seems that the draft coming from beneath the televisor and caused by the twirling electric scanning disk was sufficient to give Henry a very, very bad cold. Indeed!
Not that it matters, but did you know that:
Announcer Louis Dean described his first fight last week when he gave television fans a description of the Madio-Butler affair from New York by sight and sound? (Eagle, Bill Schudt, Jr. column, Apr. 3)

Tuesday, April 5, 1932
NEW YORK, April 5.—(AP)—The first authoritative statement that the ultra short waves are to be the field of active future television experiments has come to light.
It is contained in a report made by the television committee of Radio Manufacturers’ association and says:
“With the development of the new short wave channels at frequencies higher than 35,000 kilocycles, reliable transmission of television can be predicted.”
This statement bears out the contention of engineers and experimenters that the wave band between five and seven meters has offered the most favorable ether territory yet found for radio picture transmission.
While no great distance of emitted signals la believed possible there, the engineers point out that they prefer the so-called local service that these waves provide with present equipment.
The engineers go further by explaining that it la their desire to be able to deliver a good reliable signal within a comparatively small area, says 80 miles from the transmitter in all directions, rather than do as sound broadcasting has done—send out a signal that often is picked up thousand3 of miles away. This condition heightens the chances of interstation interference something that it is hoped to avoid with television.
Now that the laboratory men are pretty well satisfied that they can handle the high frequencies or short waves without too much difficulty, they see no reason why these channels will not become as practical as the higher wavelengths.
At the present time the number of transmitters operating with test programs of the ultra waves is comparatively few, the most prominent of which are those in New York and Los Angeles.
The former is reported to be using 120 lines, 24 pictures per second, while the Los Angeles station sends 80 lines at 15 pictures per second.
Experiments on other wave lengths, in most instances, consist of 60 lines, 20 pictures per second.
The generally accepted waves for picture transmission lie close to seven meters. And where sound accompaniment is used, this is placed in the vicinity of five meters, the two companion stations being spread about 17,000 kilocycles apart in the wave spectrum. (C.E. Butterfield column)

Wednesday, April 6, 1932
Lafayette, Ind., April 13—Tune in your television set, settle down in your favorite easy chair, and get the latest world news in pictures!
Purdue university’s experimental television station, W9XG after several successful months of preliminary broadcasting, has established a regular bi–weekly broadcast of pictorial programs that will include the regular news releases of Universal Films, making it possible for the owners of televL1ou sets to watch the development of world events in their own homes.
The regular broadcasts were launched on Tuesday, March 29, and already reports of successful reception have been received from Montreal, Canada, and Brooklyn, N. Y.
Until further notice, W9XG will continue the regular broadcasts on Tuesday and Thursday of each week. The program will be broadcast three times each day, from 2:00 to 2:45, from 7:00 to 7:45, and from 10:00 to 10:45. Each program will consist of standard motion picture film, with voice announcements of the subjects covered.
The station broadcasts on a frequency of 2800 kilocycles, with a maximum of 1500 watts power. Purdue’s broadcasting equipment sends 60 lines to a picture and 20 pictures are completed per second.
Under the direction of R. H. George, chief engineer, the Purdue station, which is conducted in co-oeration [sic] with the Grigsby-Grunow Co., of Chicago, has been conducting intensive experiments in the development of a cathode ray vaccuum [sic] tube type of receiver that will make it possible to automatically synchronize settings and receiving equipment. Judging from early experiments, the Purdue engineers seem to be near the solution of the problem.
W9XCI is emphasizing experimental programs, rather than entertainment, and all who tune in on the pictures are requested to report on the quality of the visual reception. (Rushville Republican, from the Lafayette Journal and Courier, Apr. 6)

Saturday, April 9, 1932
JACKSON [Mich], April 9—Application has been made by the Sparks Withington Co. of this City to the Federal Radio Commission for a permit for an experimental television broadcasting station, it was learned today. Capt. William Sparks, head of the company, said company engineers had been conducting television experiments for some time and if the station is permitted, practical tests will be made. Mr. Sparks declined to go into what had been accomplished in the tests, but said the company would not undertake to manufacture television equipment at least until the completion of tests. (Detroit Free Press)

NEW YORK, April 9. (AP)—Television recently has settled itself into two camps, one comprising the group favoring mechanical scanning and the other advocating electrical or cathode ray scanning. Each side is able to put forth strong arguments in support of the favorite system, with the other contending that its method is the better.
Engineers favoring mechanical scanning point to the simplicity and low expense of their system as its most important assets. Mechanical scanning depends upon a neon lamp, either with a flat plate or a concentrated source of light, whose rays either are passed through a lens disk or an open hole disk so that they will be broken up in the proper sequence to reproduce a picture.
A means of turning the disk at a speed of 1,200 revolutions per minute for a 60-line picture usually is provided through the use of a synchronous motor.
System Has Limitations.
While this system enables the construction of apparatus at a comparatively low cost, it has numerous limitations from the standpoint of use in the average home.
In television detail is limited by the number of lines that can be used. Up to the present engineers have not felt that more than 60 lines can be employed with mechanical scanning outside of the laboratory, although they have increased the number to 72 for use in one two-way expert mental television system.
The electrical scanning group, which depends upon a special constructed cathode ray tube that moves a beam of light back and forth and up and down by the aid of coils and condensers and attendant equipment, hold that their method is more practical in that it provides noiseless operation without any more attention than would be required for the average broadcast receiver.
Lines Unlimited.
Electrical scanning lends itself to the use of an almost unlimited number of lines, one experimenter having tried out 400 to reproduce a picture of lifelike detail.
By employing a uniform synchronization system it is passable to increase the number of lines at the transmitter without the necessity of making changes in the receiver. (C.E. Butterfield column)

WASHINGTON, April 9.—Stock promotion enterprises, attempting to capitalize upon the present nebulous foundations of television while holding out lurid pictures of the future of the visual art, are coming under the rigid scrutiny of the Federal Radio commission.
EXPERIMENTAL LICENSES
Still holding to its policy of issuing television wave length licenses only upon an experimental basis, the Commission is looking askance upon effeorts to persuade the public to invest in television companies simply because they hold such experimental licenses. In this view the Commission is putting new teeth in the campaign of the National Better Business bureau, started last year, urge the public to step warily into considering the purchase of television stock.
One Boston company has already been cited for a hearing before the Commission on “the questionable use of the licenses” issued to it to experiment with television. While no formal charges are made against the company, the Commission wants to know whether it has “capitalized the licence issued by the Federal Radio Commission for the promotion of the sale of its stock,” whether it is financially responsible to conduct experiments as required and whether its corporate setup is proper.
Someone has to foot the bill for the development of television, and it is not the Commission’s intention to curb the activities, technical and otherwise, of bona fide experimenters. It does, however, intend to stop companies from making exaggerated claims about the present or future of television on the basis of the franchise the companies may hold from the government.
GOOD FUTURE
That television will some day be practicable, the commission and the leading authorities in radio agree. But it has innumerable technical obstacles to overcome, and its economic status can only be determined with time. Investments in the future of this art cannot be stopped by the Commission or anyone else; what the Commission intends to stop are the sometimes fantastic and exaggerated claims made about the present status or future prospects of television.
In its determination to inquire into stock-selling schemes involving television, the Commission is revealing again its Intention of being “hard boiled” toward those who in one way or another misuse the radio franchises it gives them. In broadcasting, for example, the commission last year ordered a dozen stations off the air for failure to meet requirements of “public interest, convenience or necessity. It is the Commission’s policy, under the leadership of Chairman Charles McK. Saltzman, a hardened ex-Army general, to see that wave length licenses are held only by reputable and financially able citizens.
Carrying out this policy, the Commission has established an investigation bureau. With the citation of the Boston television company, there stepped into the picture, its new Sherlock Holmes. In the person of W. J. Clearman, chief investigator, it was on the basis of documentary evidence secured by Clearman that the Commission ordered the company to appear for a hearing. In the case of the Boaton company, as in other cases, the Commission issued the wave length l1cense only after satisfying itself that the applicant was financially and technically able to carry out its claims.
THIRTY TELEVISION STATIONS
Some 30 experimental television stations have been authorized by the Commission, of which more than 30 are operating. Nearly a dozen are adjuncts of regular broadcasting stations. For the most part, the experiments are conducted by bona fide companies. Some derive their funds from public stock offerings; others represent investments by individuals in the future toward which they themselves are technically and financially contributing.
But most of the more lurid stock offerings are being made by companies which do not even hold experimental licenses from the government. According to the Better Business Bureau, some stock is being sold by methods typical of those used by tipsters a few years ago in extracting millions of dollars from inexperienced investors.
“This,” the Better Business Bureau states, “involves the distribution of a printed publication with the general appearance of a newspaper or of a bulletin purporting to be impartial investment advice followed by long distance telephone and telegraph solicitation.” The Better Business Bureau makes no effort to define acceptable television or to predict when television will arrive but points out:
TUBE TRANSMISSION
“To estimate the approximate time when television will arrive requires an understanding of what is popularly understood as ‘television.’ It it [sic] is the transmitting by radio of pictures of people or objects in motion and capturing them by some equipment that will in turn reproduce them without great detail so that they can be seen on a small careen or through a peephole, then it has been an accomplished fact for some years. If the popular conception of television is the broadcasting of elaborate outdoor events such as ball games, so that continuous images can be observed at distant points in satisfactory detail and large size simultaneously with the action, then, judging from the problems which science must surmount before this is accomplished, television is years away.”
The Bureau urges all prospective investors in television to insist upon demonstrations, to marshal all salient facts regarding the known progress of television to date and to consider seriously just what it likely to be acceptable as popular and lasting television entertainment in the future. (Marin Codel, Honolulu Advertiser)

Saturday, April 16, 1932
NEW YORK, April 16 (AP)—Because its equipment has become antiquated, a pioneer New York television station suspends activities tonight [16] “to install new apparatus so that television program development can continue.” The station, W2XCR, began operation last April 26 in conjunction with the sound programs of WGBS, which later became WINS. (C.E. Butterfield column)

Wednesday, April 20, 1932
WASHINGTON, April 20.—The federal radio commission today denied the application of the First National Television Company of Kansas City for a permit to construct an experimental visual broadcasting station.
“The evidence relative to the character of the First National Tetevision Corporation is indefinite,” the radio commissioner’s report stated. “The company appears to be making a sufficient income to carry on so long as the organizers maintain their personal interests in the affairs of the company, but it still must be considered in the promotion stage.”
The application lists Sam Pickard, vice-president of the Columbia Broadcasting Company: Arthur B. Church, manager of station KMBC, Kansas City; S. Q. Noel and Gerald L. Taylor as promoters of the corporation.
S. Q. Noel, president of the corporation, said last night he had not heard of the denial of the application. The corporation had planned to operate the station in conjunction with the First National Television school, at Fairfax Airport.
The school has been in operation since September 1. There are thirty students and some have been graduated and are ready to operate television stations, Mr. Noel said.
The plan was to place the station at the top of the Power and Light building and to move the school into the building. he said. A 500-watt station was planned.
“In our experimental work, we would have broadcast programs which could have been picked up by anybody in Kansas City with a television set or attachment.” Mr. Noel said. “We will endeavor to convince the commission of the worth of our intentions.” (Kansas City Times, Apr. 21)

Friday, April 22, 1932
New York, April 22—(AP)—Red neckties are now taboo in W2XAB’s television studio.
The other night Harry Fries wearing a white shirt and flaming Cravat, was playing his musical saw before the television apparatus.
The phone rang. A spectator at the other end suggested radio artists would look better if they wore ties. Astonished, the announcer took a peep at Fries. The tie was in its correct position.
Photoelectric cells reproduce red a white, and naturally blended the red tie into the white shirt.
Plans being formulated by the networks for broadcasts of the Republican and Democratic conventions in Chicago call for several hours of transmission a day. (C.E. Butterfield column)

WASHINGTON, April 22. (Universal Press)—Nearly $15,000 will be invested in a new television station in Shreveport if the federal radio commission puts the stamp of its approval on the application of the Shreveport Broadcast Co., owned by P. L. and M. A. Carriger in partnership.
The comm1sion has scheduled a public hearing on the application of the Carrigers, to be held Friday morning. At that time testimony of representatives of the company, as well as of engineers in the employ of the radio commission, will be heard. The decision of the commissioners will be made in a few weeks, it is expected.
In applying for authority to erect the television station, the Carrigers state that they plan to spend $5,000 on the transmitter, $7,000 on the laboratory of the station and $2,000 on television receiving equipment. Work on the construction job would begin within 15 days and the station would be ready for us within 90 days from the start, it is claimed.
“The proposed station,” the application says, “will experiment and perfect the science and art of television, studying the various angles, and will provide interest for local fans who desire to experiment with this new type of radio transmission. This will contribute materially to the science and art of radio in this field.”
The station would be located within one mile of the general experimental station, W5XA. No operator has yet been engaged, so far as the radio commission is aware, but the chief engineer would be J. L. Miller. P. L. Carriger, who would manage the television station, also owns station W5CRU. E. D. and A. E. Stewart each own one-fourth interests in the Shreveport Broadcast Co., the same shares being held by the two Carrigers. (Shreveport Journal, Apr. 22)

Sunday, April 24, 1932
Television broadcasting, which with only a few exceptions has hitherto been confined to the East, gains one more outlet west of the Mississippi with the decision of Federal Radio Commission granting the Kansas State Agricultural College, Manhattan, Kans., authority to erect a 125-watt transmitter to operate on 2,100-2,200 kilocycles. This makes the thirty-fourth television station authorized by the commission, which reversed its examiners recommendation against the college grant on the ground that it had no definite television research program.
The only other college experimenting with television is Iowa State University, which holds a permit to build a 100-watt station to be known as W9XK, which will operate in the 2,000-2,100 kilocycle band in conjunction with the university’s broadcasting station. WSUI, Iowa City. (Washington Star, Apr. 24)

Tuesday, April 26, 1932
NEW YORK, Apr. 26 (AP)—Apparently forecasting a possible change that may come to general television experimentation before another year is out, W2XCR, first New York station to broadcast sight in conjunction with sound programs, has left the air.
Announcement of the closing said that program activities were being suspended to permit installation of new apparatus to replace that used since April 26, 1931. Although no reopening date was made public, it is expected to be in the fall.
This station has been operating on 147.5 meters, transmitting 60-line pictures at 20 frames a second. Checkups on reception made by experts and others indicated that while this wavelength is suitable for areas 100 miles or more from the station, it did not provide reliable coverage within the metropolitan area.
Fading and double images encountered within eight to 20 miles of the transmitter, while at greater distances reception was about all that could be expected.
Test Ultra Waves
Television-conditions prevailing on wavelengths from 100 meters upward caused engineers to probe the ultra short waves in the hope that they could find channels that would permit them to cover a given area with a good signal and without fading and double images.
This, they now believe, has been realized in a result of tests conducted in the vicinity of seven meters with antennae located on tall buildings.
Thus, most of the experimental television seems to be turning rather seriously toward the tiny wavelengths, where it is possible to obtain channels 2,000 kilocycles wide, compared with only 100 kilocycles allotted for the higher waves.
In television the wider the transmission channel the more detail that can be sent out per picture.
Hope For Greater Detail
Station W2XCR first started to televise the sound programs of WGBS on a regular schedule in the afternoon and evening. When the station changed ownership and became WINS this policy was continued.
However, within recent weeks most of the television transmission has been without sound and was mainly of a test nature with more attention being paid to its engineering than to its entertainment possibilities.
Upon reopening, the Jenkins laboratory, owner of the station, hopes to have equipment ready that make television program production more practicable from the studio standpoint. At the same time it hopes to have completed experiments which will make possible greater picture detail. (C.E. Butterfield column)