RADIO NOTES

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 83, 2 January 1935, Page 6

RADIO NOTES

Empire Broadcasting

HISTORY OF SERVICE Second Anniversary

' (By

“Ether.”)

lu view of the recent Empire broadcast by H.M. the King it is interesting to point out that the 8.8. C. Empire Broadcasting Service as we know it today celebrated its second anniversary on December 19. The seeds of the present service, however, were sown many years ago.

On November 5, 1927, largely as the result of requests from many hundreds of listeners throughout the British Empire, the 8.8. C. inaugurated a series of daily transmissions from an experimental shortwave transmitter at Chelmsford (GSSW). By 1929 a considerable number of reports and data with reference to these transmissions had been received, which led to the conclusion that an immediate expansion of the existing facilities was desirable and .the need for a more adequate and comprehensive programme service to the Empire was becoming increasingly urgent. In 1931, therefore, the 8.8. C. decided that in view of the urgency of the problem, they must assume the financial responsibility of the venture and proceed with the establishment of an Empire broadcasting service along more concrete lines. Two high-power short-wave transmitters were, therefore, erected at Daventry, which were capable of transmission on a series of different wavelengths. Thus the reception of British programmes in all parts of the globe was ensured. On December 19, 1932, the new Empire broadcasting eervide was inaugurated. A separate Empire programme department was established, which was responsible for the creation and execution of programmes at all hours of the day and night to ensure reception at convenient hours for local listeners in all parts of the world. A daily service of five separate transmissions now provides reception in the following parts of the world during the evening hours (local time):—Transmission 1, Antipodes and Pacific Islands; transmission 2, Malaya and Far East; transmission 3, India and the East: transmission 4, African Continent and Near East; transmission 5, Canada and American Continent. This department of the 8.8. C. has grown beyond recognition. To-day a.n Empire programme director is responsible to the director of Empire and Foreign Services for the creation and execution of all programmes transmitted from Daventry. His staff includes an assistant, a producer, a music director, who controls the 8.8. C. Empire Orchestra, two news editors, and announcers, whose voices have been specially trained to insure their satisfactory transmission and reception on short-wavelengths. Another section of the department is responsible for handling the enormous overseas correspondence involved and an Empire information officer with an assistant and staff is responsible for the transmission of all information relative to the Empire broadcasting service, not .only to the Press throughout the world, but to all interested organisations. ■ ,' . Last, but not least, there is a staff of engineers who are constantly engaged not only in the operation of the two transmitters at Daventry and the studio facilities at Broadcasting House, but in the collection and collation of reports on reception from all parts of the world, which provides the basis for all expenmente toward the perfection of transmission and reception. Reports on reception and appreciations of the programmes have been received from almost every corner of the globe. During the past nine months alone, over nine thousand communications of this nature have been received.. The Empire programmes aye' distinct from those transmitted to British listeners, although the more important programmes broadcast in Great Britain are relayed to the Empire and, Where tne times of the Home broadcasts do not coincide with the Empire transmissions, recordings of them are reproduced at convenient times for overseas listeners. The Causes of War.

It is announced that an important series of talks entitled “The Causes of War,” in which the following eminent speakers will present their views on this prevailing problem, have been recorded by the 8.8. C. for distribution to broadcasting stations in the Empire:—Dean Inge, Sir Norman Angell, the Rt. Hon. Lord Beaverbrook, Aldous Huxley, the Rt. Hon. Winston Churchill, C.H., M.P., Professor G. D. H. Cole, Major C. H. Douglas, Sir Josiah Stamp, C.8.E., the Rt. Hon. Sir Austen Chamberlain, K.G., M.P., R. Money Kyrle, Ph.D. It may be recalled that each year a number of outstanding British programmes are recorded in their entirety and distributed on a subscription, basis to overseas broadcasting organisations for local rebroadcasting. Present subscribers to this service include the New Zealand Board, the Australian Broadcasting Commission, thn African Broadcasting Company, the Indian btate Broadcasting Service, the Posts and Telegraphs Department of Ceylon (Colombo), and the Postmaster-General, Southern Rhodesia (Salisbury).

Odd - .a Soviet Government .audit officers, going through the account books of station Dnepropetrovsk, found that royalty payments had been made to gentlemen of the name of Beethoven, Mozart, and Chopin, and that the receipts hud been duly signed. The station director expressed surprise that the three gentlemen were dead, and could not accordingly account for the strange fact that their signatures were on his file. State Sets.

France regards the supply of wireless sets to schools, hospitals, and barracks as a social necessity, but the difficulty is to find funds for the purpose. It is suggested that the responsibility should be undertaken by the State, and that the radio industry should offer special terms in return for, say, an order for 100,000 sets. This, jt is urged, would help to reduce unemployment aud give a badly-needed fillip lo the French radio trade.