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Hokitika Guardian, 24 January 1927, Page 2

“The amazing development of wireless broadcasting which is now bringing music and entertainment, and even education, into the homes of tens of millions of people is only a taste ol' what may happen in the future.” In these words Sir At illiam Noble, a director of the British General Electric Company, and ol the British Broadcasting Company, expressed his enthusiasm concerning the potentialities of broadcasting. Sir William, who arrived in Sydney recently will spend several months in Australia on business. “Broadcasting has developed rapidly in England,’’ lie said. “It began just over four years ago, and the anticipation that there would be 1,000,000 listeners-in within a few years was pooh-poohed. Yet to-day there are more than 2,500,000 listeners-in. Although controlled by the PostmasterGeneral, broadcasting in England is vested in one company (the British Broadcasting Company), and of the license fee of 10s the Post Office takes 2s Od and the company the remainder. Fn England many of the mistakes made in America were avoided. In America there was no single authority, and broadcasting developed rapidly along quite uncontrolled lines until a state of chaos was reached, many stations seriously interfering with each other. The British Broadcasting Company set out to build a maximum of eight stations, but now has 21 stations, each having a different wave length. The probability now is that the power of the stations will be increased so as to give them a greater area of effectiveness. The part that broadcasting played during the general strike wifi never be forgotten. It was the salvation of the country. The emergency bulletins or newspapers could not be very widely distributed, but with the aid of the broadcasting stations information and instructions were given to millions of people, who otherwise would have been unaware of the steps being taken and the regulations enforced by the Government. The strike, more than anything that had previously occured. showed the advantage of wireless broadcasting. There are many factors that are making broadcasting so popular in England. Foremost is the fact that the services are good, and the listener-in is able to hear the world’s most famous people—artists and statesmen, writers and explorers. Indeed, the whole world is compressed into a receiving set. Then the experts employed by the various companies upon research work are continually devising improvements, and tlfese, with mass-production, make the sets more efficient and cheaper.”