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FM Network Programs * The most important recent event has to do with the inauguration of live-talent FM network service. There is a prevailing impression that if FM stations are going to broadcast network programs, they must come from one of the existing AM nets. If you heard the current series of Wednesday night Continental Network FM programs originating in Washington, and distributed to stations all the way to Buffalo and Mt. Washington, you know that FM can do very well without any AM net, and without much help from the Telephone Company. You also know that Bing Crosby, Toscanini, Kate Smith, or any of the big name bands have never delivered to any AM listeners the quality of music and entertainment that the AAF orchestra and its soloists furnish the FM audience, and that, compared to the way FM projects the personalities of the guest speakers on the AAF programs, Gabriel Heatter, Fulton Lewis, Jr., and the top announcers sound on AM nets like disembodied voices calling from the void. In fact, even a poor voice over FM sounds better than the best on AM, because it is the voice of a real human being.

Continental Network * The Continental Network, organized by Everett Dillard of WASH-FM and Major Armstrong, has expanded greatly in the course of a few weeks. Programs are carried by telephone line from Washington to Alpine, and from Alpine to Rochester and Buffalo. Transmission from all the other stations is a matter of rebroadcasting. That is, WBIB New Haven picks up Alpine signals, and rebroadcasts them on its own frequency. WDRC-FM at Meriden (Hartford) picks up WBIB or Alpine direct and rebroadcasts on its frequency. By a similar process, the program is furnished to W1XHR (Cambridge/Boston), WGTR (Paxton), and WMTW (Mt. Washington).

Conditions are slightly different on the New York leg. WBCA Schenectady can pick up W2XMN Alpine, even though the airline distance is about 140 miles. Then WIBX (Utica) can get WBCA signals and pass them on to WSYR-FM (Syracuse). However, WHFM (Rochester) and WBEN-FM (Buffalo) are at distances which require line service through Alpine, although WWHG (Hornell) can rebroadcast from WHFM.

Leonard Asch of WBCA told members of the FM Association at Albany that the cost of the equipment required for re-broadcasting was about $100. It consists merely of a receiver with the output connected to the speech input of the transmitter!

Later, if one or two stations between Washington and New York City are added to the net, and when WSYR-FM and WHFM get up to full power, the present telephone lines can be eliminated entirely, together with the cost of renting those lines.

Economic Advantage * Therein lies one of the economic advantages of Frequency Modulation. In an AM net, each station must have a wire line connection. It’s impossible to repeat AM signals because the effects of static and fading would be multiplied at each repeating point. That is why, when network stations carry a program originating abroad, the transoceanic signals are picked up at a special receiving point and then distributed over the Country by telephone lines.

Results on the Continental Network indicate that FM programs can be passed along from one station to another for a considerable distance. We don’t know what the limit of rebroadcasting repeats will be. However, it is clear that a nation-wide FM network operation would need only a skeleton of wire lines running to key stations, since each could serve as a distributing point for program distribution by rebroadcasting over a considerable area.

This saving in the number of miles of telephone lines required for a national network would probably offset the higher cost of 15,000 cycle facilities, compared to the 5,000 cycle lines now in use on all AM nets. In fact, FM network operation will probably be much cheaper than that of the low-fidelity AM nets.

So, when anyone says that. FM will never compete with AM because the stations can't get AM network programs don’t take that too seriously. Sponsors are complaining right now over the high cost of network advertising. Given a little more time for FM stations to get up to full power, and for the production of FM sets to reach 2 or 3 million, and you may see FM nets taking business away from AM on a dollar-for-dollar basis! That could start to happen in 1948.

FM Via AT & T * We must confess to being disappointed in AT & T’s contribution to the Continental Network. The Company has been talking about the availability of 15,000-cycle lines 2 for the past 6 years.

However, when Continental asked for a 15,000 cycle line from Washington to Alpine, the Company could only deliver 8,000-cycle facilities. Now the truth is that 15,000-cycle lines are available. Perhaps Company officials were caught off-base by being asked for them, because they came up with the old argument that listeners wouldn’t be able to hear the difference between 8,000 and 15,000 cycles.

And here is a curious thing: On March 26th, we listened at Great Barrington to the first network program as it came from Alpine. That night, the AAF orchestra, the soloist, and the guest speaker were received with fidelity and realism that were almost breath-taking. The second show, on April 2nd, was almost as good. We missed the third, but the fourth, on April 16th, was distinctly flat on both music and speech. and we heard a continuous background hiss that was not present in the preceding program originating at Alpine.

To be sure, the poorer FM reception on April 16th was infinitely better than the AM hash and fading we get at Great Barrington and the live-talent show was a tremendous improvement over recordings transmitted by FM.

GREATEST thrill to FM listeners in the east, and convincing evidence of FM’s superiority over AM, is the broadcast of the AAF Band on Wednesday nights from Washington by the Continental Network.

The broadcasts started an March 26th with an 8,000 cycle line from WASH-FM to WBAL-FM at Baltimore and to Major Armstrong’s W2XMN and W2XEA, with WDRC-FM, Hartford, rebroadcasting from W2XMN. By the second night, the system was extended through WBCA Schenectady to WIBX Utica. Subsequently, plans were being laid to extend the net to New York stations as far as Buffalo.

Anyone who thinks that FM can offer no advantages over AM in metropolitan areas should listen to the Continental FM net on Wednesdays, 8:30 to 10:00 P.M.