Indianapolis Times, Volume 36, Number 277, Indianapolis, Marion County, 2 April 1925 — Page 15

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ORIGINAL BROADCASTING STATION IN TOLEDO, OHIO

LONESOME-SO HEJUSTTOOKUP BROADCASTING Though Busy, Erbstein Finds Time for His Two Elgin Sations. Bv Times Special CHICAGO. 111.. April 2.—Loneeomdness. At home alone on a country estate, his wife and children away at a winter resort. Nobody to talk to. Wind whistling around the eaves. That is what started the Elgin broadcasting stations, WTAS and WCEE. Charles E. Erbstein, the lonesome ore, told it all the other day in answer to many queries that have been made as to how a man in professional life can find so much time to devote to radio. Undertaken at first as a means of "-short circuiting” lonesomeness, radio soon became a hobby till now the announcement Is made that Mr. Erbstein has leased the Bluekstone theater, where, starting Sunday night, April 5, nightly performances will be given and broadcast through Kimball Hall studio. It vias an Elgin telephone man, Mr. Etstain explains, who five years ago suggested radio as a cure for lonesomeness. Ilufs Radio Books "At this time,” Charlie said, "broadcasting stations were unknown, and the ‘Jack Bins’ type was all that was known to the amateur. I built a little outfit and put up a large antenna. Within twenty minutes after its completion around midnight, when the thermometer hovered around 15 below' five years ago, I listened in for the first time to the “dit-dlt-dar-dar” of the international code and the few remaining hairs on my head stood erect as I marveled at the uncanny method of taking these sounds from the air. “I listened in night after night until the wee sma' hours, as the email town reporter says, for about a week and then it suddenly dawned upon me that the code could be deciphered. I Immediately purchased all the books I could find on radio—bought myself a small telegraph buzzer set, secured a dry cell and an international code book and night after night with a head set attached to the buzzer I would study and send and receive code to myself. Kearns Morse Code “Gradually the little dots and dashes became language to me and within a few weeks and with great loss of sleep I finally was able to copy the code—ships came out of the night to me in my little radio room in the attic of my summer home.” "From the orderly neatness of the room left by Mrs. Erbstein upon her departure for Florida the room gradually was turned into a storeroom and such objects as dry cells, storage batteries, small motors, and wire were strewn about in great confusion. One night I was enabled to decipher a code message from F, L. (Eiffel Tower, Paris, France), and from that moment 1 was thoroughly inoculated with- the ‘bacillus radioitis.’ “An examination by the radio Inspector, an amateur license as an operator, and soon I began to have visions yf great discoveries in this new scientific field.” Builds Transmitter “Then my thoughts and studies turned to what is known as wireless telephony and the books I devoured told of instances where voices penetrated walls for a distance of half a mile from the sender. I secured the services of a friend who claimed

The Indianapolis Times

Pioneers of Air Senders

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Franlr E. Butler of Toledo, Ohio, and Dr. Lee De Forest, the two first broadcasters. Lower picture, the set with which they talked lo each other.

Attention Radio Fans “WHAT BROADCASTING STATION IS YOUR FAVORITE, AND WHY?” Write a letter from 50 to 200 words to the Radio Editor of The Indianapolis Times, telling “What Broadcasting Station Is Your Favorite, and Why.’j For the best letter on the above subject The Indianapolis Times will pay TEN DOLLARS. • This contest is open to every radio fan in Indianapolis and vicinity. Contest closes at midnight April 20. Winners will be announced in the Issue of April 23. You do not have to he a subscriber to The Indianapolis Times. The contest is open to all radio fans. Address your letters to the RADIO EUITOR, INDIANAPOLIS TIMES, INDIANAPOLIS, IND.

he knew all about radio. (There are millions who know it all now.) Wo built a one-tube telephone set and heard that it had gone thirty miles. Then I had built, encased in a panel, a 100-watt transmitter, took an o'.J phonograph, and one night we turned on tne motor. The tubes really lighted. A small hand microphone was used and we began to send out messages. “We gave our home telephone number and within a few moments we clogged the local telephone office with calls —then a flood of communications from all over the country und Canada. “From then on it was one experiment after another, until now two towers 200 feet high on the peak of the hill at the Villa Olivia rise majestically in air and the thin wires suspended from one to the other each night send out music and laughter and- song to those who care to here it." Radio Exports $784,619 Bw Times Special WASHINGTON, April 2 .—Exports of radio apparatus from the United States during January amounted to $784,619, compared to $1,080,168 for December.

INDIANAPOLIS, THURSDAY, APRIL 2,1925

SILVERTOWNS THURSDAY Orchottra Will Have Regular Broadcasting Night. Beginning tonight the Silvertown Coni Orchestra, which has won so much popularity through its weekly programs' from WEAF, and a number of other stations, will bo heard every Thursday evening from 9 to 10 instead of Tuesdays and alternate Thursdays as heretofore. In addition to WEAF their program of dance selections, introducing solos and vocal choruses by “The Man in the Silver Mask” is heard simultaneously through stations WEEI. Boston. Mass.; WOC, Davenport, Iowa; WCCO, St. Paul-Minne-apolis, Minn.; WGR, Buffalo, N. Y , WFI, Philadelphia. Pa.; WCAE. Pittsburgh, Pa.; WJAR, Providence, R. I.; WSAI, Cincinnati Ohio, and WWJ, Detroit. Mich. The B**t “Ground” High resistance is introduced into the circuit by heating system if a ground .wire is connected to the radiator. This will have considerable effect on the receiving set. The cold water pipe is best for ground connections.

Lee De Forest, Inventor of Wireless Telephone, Sent First Aerial Messages One Block in July, 1907 — Used Talking Machine. TOLEDO, April 2.—The first radio sending station in the orld. where music and the voice were broadcast by wireless telephono, was established in a room in the Nicholas Building, this city, in July, 1907. I.ce De Forest, Inventor of the wireless telephone and father of the present wxtensive radio broadcasting, was at the sending station. His co-worker, Frank E. Butler, received in a room a block away in the Ohio Building. Butler in Toledo Butler is now in charge of sporting goods and radio sets in a Toledo department store. He had been associated with De Forest since they met at the St. Louis Fair in 1994 when Butler, then a train dispatcher, visited the exposition. In the summer of 1906 Butler, from the station he had erected at Manhattan Beach. L. 1., in conjunction with De Forest, sent the first wireless telegraph message across the Atlantic. De Forest in 1907 perfected, in the old Parker Bldg., New York City, the first audion bulb, the instrument that foreshadowed the dawn of the wireless telephone. He and Butler designed two crude sending and receiving sets and went to Put-in-Bay, in Lake Erie, where during the yacht races the wireless telephone proved its worth. De Forest had his set on the Yacht Thelma and sent to Butler, on shore, verbal accounts of the races on the lake. Ate at Home Neither had funds. Toledo being near by. Butler induced De Forest to come here where they at least could eat at Butler’s father-in-law's table. Setting up their crude sets in the Nicholas and Ohio Buildings they caried on their experiments, using an old talking machine for music when not discussing the results orally by ’Wireless. Butler says De Forest got his real financial start when he was ordered In 1908 to build forty wireless telephone sets for Admiral Bob Evans’ fleet about to sail around the world. Butlsr left the inventor about this time and organized the American Wireless Institute, the first of Its kind in the world. For Terminal Board Use phone-tip jacks Instead of binding posts to lessen chances of tube “blowouts” when connecting batteries to the set. A terminal board using these jacks can be made for about $2.50. Phone tips are soldered on the ends of the battery leads and inserted in the jacks when the set is to be hooked up.

Seven Class A Stations Licensed liU Times Special WASHINGTON, D. C., April 2.—Following are new class A broadcasting stations licensed this week by the department of commerce: Station, Keys. Met. Wat. WIIBU—B. JL,. Bing’s Sons, Anderson, Ind 1370 218.8 10 WIBA—The Capital Times studio, Madison. W 15.... 1.270 236 100 WTIIS —Flint Senior High-School, Flint, Mich -1,370 218.8 250 WHBW—D. It. Kienzle, Philadelphia, Pa -.1.390 215.7 100 WADC—Allen T. Simmons (Allen theater), Akron 0.1,160 253 100 WHBT—T. W. Tizzard, Jr., Downen Grove. 111... --1.450 206.8 10 KFVH—Whan Radio shop (Herbert Whan, Manhattan, Kas 1.370 218.8 10 Transfers from Class “A” to “It.” KSL—The Radio Service corporation of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah 1,000 -299.8 1,000 KJS—Bible institute of Los Angeles, Inc., Los Angeles, Cal 1,020 293.9 750 Transfers from Class "C” to “B.” KTW—First Presbyterian Church. Seattle, Was.... 660 434.3 750

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WILL SEEK TO MAKE STATIONS PAY THEIR WAY Chas. E. Erbstein Will Put Entertainers on the Stage. Ru SKA Service ELGIN, 111., April 2.—A new way to pay for broadcasting is to be tested by stations WTAS and WCEE here. It consists of putting radio entertainers on the stage to perform befor a paying audience. For this purpose Charles E. Erbstein. noted Chicago attorney, who own both WTAS and WCEE, has leased the Blackatone Theater, in Chicago, for nightly radio and publi; entertainments. It is the first time this stunt has ever been attempted. Low Admission WTAS arista and the WTAS orchestra will broadcast nightly from the Blaekstone stage. A low admission fee will be charged to defray the expenses. Nearly 1.500 people will have this opportunity of watching the nightly radio broadcasting program. Stars of the vaudeville, theatrical and concert world are also exacted to appear on Elgin programs, facing their audience nightly on the Blaekstone stage and at the, same time broadcasting their entertain ment by microphone through WTAS and WCEE. A remote control line connects the Blaekstone stage with the operat ing rooms at Elgin, forty miles away. Already Tested The Blaekstone experiment will be a step farther in the line of broadcasting before an audience. Erbstein lias been staging his stu dio entertainments for the past year every Montlay night before audi ences of 500 persons in Kimball Hall here. His success at this small ven ture reassures Erbstein in his bigger experiment. “I am sure the venture will be successful,” he says. “We have consistently turned away thousands of people at Kimball Hall on our public broadcasting' nights. “At the Blaekstone Theater there will be plenty of room for every one. If the public wants it, we will continue indefinitely to broadcast from the Blaekstone Theater. 1! is an experiment and we will give it a thorough trial.'’ Canada Buys Most Farts Canada bought the majority of radio exports from the United States in recent months, the depart ment of commerce reports. Aus traiia was second in these purchases