"Pay the Air"

Radio listeners would like better programs. Some of them offer to help pay leading opera and concert singers who are under contracts which prohibit giving their "act" gratis.

Sponsors for a Radio Music Fund include Clarence H. Mackay, Felix M. Warburg, Frederic Juilliard, A. D. Wilt, Jr. The Central Union Trust Co., Manhattan, has been appointed to take care of the money. WEAF (American Telephone & Telegraph Co., Manhattan) is the chosen station.

In England and Australia, one must first own a license (cost $1) in order to own a radio set. The dealer attunes the receiver to the wave length of the station desired by the purchaser, who can pay an additional dollar for each additional station desired. Will American owners pay for concerts without compulsion?

Some opinions on the general subject follow.

Walter Damrosch: "Many persons must see the opera to enjoy it."

Mr. Evans, of Evans & Salter, concert managers: "We have always refused to allow our artists to broadcast because we do not believe the radio is as yet an instrument to do justice to great art."

Evelyn Hopper: "I think it is a wonderful move. You know there was a time when they said the phonograph would ruin the concert business. It hasn't."

David Sarnoff, Vice President of the Radio Corporation of America: "The real picture of a $15 or $25 set in the home of the slums, if you please, receiving the magnificent things in the air, is the picture we must preserve."

That is the picture which animates Mr. Mackay and colleagues.