Newspaper of the Air

From time to time in its 25 years, radio has threatened, or seemed to threaten, the press as a competitor. Last week, a radio engineer gave the press new cause to consider its existence instead of its freedom.

In his Greenwich Village laboratory, John Vincent Lawless Hogan, founder and president of New York's WQXR* and a topflight inventor since 1910, demonstrated his new facsimile newspaper transmitter and receiver. Plugged to an FM radio, his recorder rolled out a 9 1/2-by-12-inch newspaper like a paper towel, 500 words a minute, 16 pages an hour. No linotype, press or delivery boy was needed; everything on the pages was broadcast free. It came in clear as an advertiser's tear sheet.

In November 1944 Inventor Hogan unloaded half his duties at WQXR to devote more time to facsimile research begun some twelve years ago (TIME, Feb. 14, 1944). He got 20 broadcasters (twelve of them publishers) to put up $250,000 for his experiments. Now his finished product looks so good that General Electric is tooling up for production, expects units on the market within a year.

Hogan facsimile recorders can be plugged into any FM radio. They can also be used on standard sets, with slower reception. The transmission is similar to wirephoto. Copy for broadcast is fastened to a revolving cylinder. An electric eye records the varying lightwaves reflected by the different shades of black, converts them into sound signals for broadcasting. Tuned to the proper frequency, receiving sets pick up these signals, reconvert them to electrical impulses which bombard a roll of paper. The result: the chemically treated paper develops an impression much as a photoprint reacts from light waves. Fine type, action pictures and advertisements come through with amazing clarity. (Another facsimile process, developed by Finch Telecommunications, Inc., will be demonstrated this week to newspapermen in Manhattan.)

Mindful of his publisher-sponsors, Hogan argues that facsimile could boost rather than bust the press. Smart newsmen, says he, will use it for spot bulletins and edition teasers. Yet many a skeptical publisher, with one eye on his costly presses and linotypes, noted that during the eight night hours, a facsimile recorder could be rolling out a 128-page morning newspaper, with news hours ahead of the standard press.

But since radio art is years behind radio science, no one could guess just how the new gadget would be used. One thing was certain: what with facsimile, television, AM, FM, shortwave and phonograph recording, the radio set of tomorrow would do everything but cook.

*Which is now owned by the New York Times.

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