Radio and Board Keep Crowd Posted

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 512, 15 November 1928, Page 1

Radio and Board Keep Crowd Posted

RAPID, COMPLETE SERVICE By radio loud-speaker, result ! board, and a special edition giving ' returns complete up till 10.30 p.m., THE SUN told the story of the 1928 electrons to a crowd that packed the generous space at the Wyndham and Albert Streets intersection and blocked each converging roadway. Authentic results from all parts of New Zealand were given to excited Aucklanders at the moment each came to hand in Wellington, and the names of victorious candidates were posted boldly and clearly on the big Sun board a few moments after each wireless advice was received. Public approval was manifest at an early hour, a big crowd having formed long before the first results became known. As the evening wore on people moved up from Queen Street in steadily increasing numbers until the bril-liantly-lighted Sun building stood as a massive beacon above a sea of upturned faces. Radio, combined with the special loud-speakers, proved an ideal medium for the rapid broadcast of information, and the satisfaction of the huge audience fully repaid The Sun for the cdreful preparation given to its system. The results transmitted by the loudspeakers were heard without difficulty at the fartljest edges of the crowd, and the bold black lettering on a whit© result board outlined with a powerful spotlight, could be read with ease from a distance of several hundreds of yards. Shortly after 10.30 p.m. the ranks of those who faced The Sun building wero swelled to still greater dimensions, thousands more being attracted from Queen Street and the lower part of th© city by the undiminished flow of up-to-the-minute results from the loudspeakers. Throughout the evening, returns from North Auckland to Awarua had been announced in record time, and on occasions The Sun’s audience was in possession of results as long as ten minutes before they were made known to people in other parts of the city. This had the obvious effect and when, shortly before 11 o’clock, it was announced through the loud-speakers that a special edition, complete to thd last minute, would soon be issued, th© crowd had reached its maximum size, and there was a salvo of cheers. Unprecedented scenes were witnessed in the publishing room when the roar of the speeding press sent its welcome message to the crowd. People rushed the doorway and dispatch oonc'nes, and clamoured for copies. A small armv of vendors found their bundles of papers melting with amazing rapidity and. so great was the demand that th© high-speed press was taxed up to and beyond its fullest production capacity*