Indianapolis Times, Volume 37, Number 137, Indianapolis, Marion County, 8 October 1925 — Page 18

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Germany Taxes Ail Sets; Plans to Link Its Stations With Telephones

Nation Now Has Nine Broadcasting Companies in Principal Cities. This is thr fourth of a series of articles by Fred Smith. He has been referred to as ttie ill-fit ' 1 Radio Ambassador,” and visited all of the important broadcasting stations abroad. These articles are appearing in The Times, exclusively. Back in Cincinnati a good friend of ours, Bela Bardos, violinist with thfe Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, upon hearing that we intended making this trip to Europe, told us of his brother, Stephen, who had an electrical business in Berlin, and said he would tell Stephen to, take care of us when we reached the German capital. And so it turned out that young Bardos, in Berlin, not only met us at the station and found us a h tel but arranged for me to meet several people of importance as well. My days in Berlin were crowded with appointments: Herr Glesecke, vice president of the International Broadcast Bureau, talked vith me for half an hour just Lefore leaving for Geneva, where the first important conference was to be held. The man I wanted most to see was Count Arco, the best advertised man in the European radio industry. He received me one morning at 11 in his office at Telefunken headquarters. He is a little man with an immense forehead, a childish smile and a charming manner. The Count calls radio “a school for grown ups.” After we had talked for a few minutes he asked me if I had seen Herr Bredow. Upon my replying in the negative, he did a bit of phoning, and in a few minutes there came an answering call. Count Arco put down the receiver and said. ‘‘We can go right over." As we walked out into the hall his manner changed; previously he had been sitting easily in his chair. As we walked the tense alertness of a German offjper came over him. He called sharply: ‘‘Hullo!" Three doors flew open. An offide boy cracked his heels togetner and saluted. An elevator boy stood at attention. A secretary bowed. Hen 1 Bredow The Mini.:!'"’ in Germany corresponding to our Postmaster General has four important phases of communication under his supervision. One of these is wireless. The boss of all wireless in Germany is Herr Hans Bredow. He and Arco are

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great friends, since he was formerly associated with Telefunken. The count has five automobiles. Machinery is a passion with him. He had the first car in Berlin twen-ty-five years ago. He runs about in a little red French car, blowing his born and scaring everybody off the street. He is a man of 50 w-ith the enthusiasm of a boy of 18. It gave him lots of pleasure to send the shivers up my spine as we shot through the traffic. He told me there are only 30,000 cars in Berlin, a city of 4,000,000 people. One reason, the tax. For example, a six cylinder car is taxed about $400.00 a year. When we returned to his office he gave me his photograph with the inscription: "In remembrance of our auto trip.” He and Secretary Bredow believe that radio will do much for the broadening of culture of humanity at large. Their ambition is to have an interchange of programs with America and to that end are constructing both high power receiving sets to pick up stations in the United States and high power broadcasting stations to send to America. The first of these latter should be ready by fall, a Iwnty kilowatter. In reply to my question: "What is the finest influence of radio," Herr Bredow replied: "I think radio will become the best member of the family.” German Broadcasting Plan The German broadcasting plan is not a parallel to the British one. Instead of one company, a monopoly, there are nine broadcasting companies with a probability of another entering soon to make ten. It naturally turns out that there is but one station in a city, however. There are three kinds of stations. Principal stations are located at Berlin. Breslau, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Konigsberg, Leipzig, Munich, Munster and Stuttgart. Each of these principal stations has a secondary station, and this in turn has another. For example, has as a secondary city, Dresden. Dresden has Chemnitz. B.ut Chemnitz has only a studio. Whenever it has programs they are sent by telephone line to Dresden to be broadcast, as well as Leipzig. Naturally, in such a group, only one city can be sending r.t a time since they have a mutual wave length. The next step will be to bind all the principal cities together by means of telephone lines. And now comes the greatest difficulty in German broadcasting: long distance line transmission. The government owns the lines, the government had

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a war recently and has an empty pocket at present. It will cost a great deal of money to equip the lines in modern fashion. First Station The one station in Germany which is operated privately is Konigswusterhausen. One Sunday morning a friend of Herr Bardos took up in his car to this little town some twenty miles from Berlin. Konigswusterhausen is the grand wireless center for German sending to European news bureaus. Fourteen towers support the multiplicity of aerials in the fields about the three main buildings wherein are operated the several stations ranging in power from two to fifty kilowatts. The only concert given during the week was going on as we entered the main building—an orchestra was playing French music—“ Samson and Delilah.” The wireless ‘director and his assistant, both young men, met us and the former showed us around while the latter managed the program. To these two gentlemen— Herr Gerlach and Herr Schwartzkopf, belongs the honor, so far as I have been fable to discover, of being the world’s first regular broadcasters of music. Early in 1920 they made a small transmitter from spare parts and broadcast phonograph music. On the evening of June 19, 1920, this station was connected by telephone line with the State Opera House in Berlin, and the lovely music of "Madame Butterfly" went out upon the infinite waves as the first complete opera broadcast to the world. These two young men have con tinued thtdr work of construction, devoting their spare time to the development of Konigswusterhausen. They receive no compensation for these extra efforts. They and their families occupy adjoining houses, and the broadcasting station is their grand hobby. On the day we were

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there, they were just initiating an increase of power—working on 10 kilowatts. An excellent small orchestra donates its services every Sunday midday for a couple of hours. The program concluded with a lesson in Esperanto. Walther Fitze I have made a most excellent acquaintance in V l ** person of Walther Fitze, editor of Germany’s most popular radio magazine, "Der Deutsche Rundfunk." He has asked me to write a series of articles for him on American broadcasting. A number of the photos of American stations which I brought with me are to be published in his weekly also. Heyr Fitze told me that the general opinion ! n Germany concerning American broadcasting is that our programs consist of a little music and much advertising! When I heard this I exploded. After I had gone on for a few minutes excitedly telling him of the magnificent work done by our biggest and best stations, he interrupted me with: “That’s it. Write it for me.” And believe me, I will! Herr Fitze invited us to come to his home to listen to the State Opera Sunday evening, as broadcast by Voxhaus. We discovered that he was a thorough musician, with a passion for Beethoven and four-hand piano playing. Between acts of the opera, "Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg,” he and my wife played Beethoven symphonies. During the war Fitze was in the front lines as a wireless expert. Upon the wall of the living room of his home hung his two helmets, his sword, his bayonet, dagger and gas mask. He showed us photos of the trenches w'here he was working close up to Verdun. I mention these things because radio is the enemy of war. Fitze is a radio man and wants to know about radio in other lands. He has heard iVLW and other American stations. He wants to know more about Amer-

ica, and will go to the exposition in New York in September. Everywhere I find it so: those who are interested in radio over here believe that it will help bring all nations into a closer understanding. AH Taxed The license fee in Germany is high. Every owner of a receiving set must pay two marks a month, six dollars a year. Os this money, for every two marks, one mark ten goes to the broadcasting companies and the remainder to the Postal Department. With this money the operating companies pay their expenses. There are now in Germany nearly one million owners of sets paying. This makes about a quarter of a million dollars yearly to each of the broadcasting companies. The national culmination of the broadcasting plan in Germany will be the permanent connecting of all stations by telephone lines. Before this can be done two problems must be solved; first, a centralization plan which will enable the nine or ten companies to work amicably and advantageously together, and, second, funds to put the telephone lines into first-class condition. (To Be Continued) BROADCASTING LEGAL Missouri has legalized by means of State action the broadcasting by radio of news of markets, weather, agricultural information, lecturers, lessons on agriculture and home economics, educational and enter* tainment programs.

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