RUSSIAN RADIO

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 2, 24 March 1927, Page 15

RUSSIAN RADIO

GROWTH OF BROADCASTING SMALL CENTRES REACHED Recently the post and telegraph department at Moscow announced the decision of the Communist Party and the Soviet Government to introduce an important change or development of their “radio policy,” as a result of the broadcasting experience gained during 1926. The essential feature of the new “ policy ” is that expensive, multivalve receivers are to be made unnecessary, and the sending stations of the Soviet capitals are to be brought within reach of ordinary crystal sets, even in the remotest nooks of the U.S.S.R. Possibilities of the Radio With the vast territories and bad communications of Russia, it might have been expected that the Soviet Government would realise the possibilities of wireless telephony to keep in touch with outlying districts, but it was not until 1924 that a start was made to popularise broadcasting, and no really organised efforts worth mentioning were made until 1925. After waking up, however, to the fact that here was a powerful means for propaganda, the Bolsheviks lost no time in developing it. Broadcasting Station What the Bolsheviks regard as their mode? broadcasting centre at present is the Comintern Station at Moscow which is probably the hardest worked broadcasting station in Europe. The only long period during which it is silent is from 12.30 to S a.m. The programme is made up of speeches, lectures, home and foreign news, the “Workman’s Radio Newspaper,” the “ Peasants’ Radio Newspaper,” talks to the “pioneers,” organisation of little children, talks to the “komsomoltsi,” organisation of adolescent children, concerts, operas, theatrical performances and weather forecasts. Very few sections of the programme are free from propaganda. The lectures bear a great variety of titles, and some of them contain information or instruction that must be helpful to factory workers or peasants in their everyday life.