BIRTH OF RADIO

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 422, 1 May 1937, Page 2

BIRTH OF RADIO

REPORTS SENT IN 1899 Use In Newspaper Work In 1899 Marchese Marconi, the Italian inventor, who is ths son of an Irishwoman, succeeded ini giving radio its first pracLiqa} >apipii!cat|i|on when he tent messages across the English Channel. Within the same year wireless was used to send reports to Dun Loaghaina Regatta to a Dublin daily paper, now defunct. This, it is claimed, was the first ‘time in history that radio was used for newspaper reporting, says lrish Times. When wireless became popular stations sprang up in very country ‘and the air became >as crowded as the roads to-day, one station cutting in on another without manners or mercy. The Big Powers took as many wave lengths as they could; Britain, for instance, taking a fresh wave length for every regional station. To clear up the confusion a Conference of European Governments, including the Saor.stat Government, met at Lucerne in 1933 and allocated wave lengths to each station. But as there were more stations than wave lengths many of the stations had to share. Ano'.her International Radio Oonis now being planned, this lime at Cairo in 1938, and the Saorstait Government, it is understood, intends to put forward at it a strong claim for a national wave-length. It will be based on the principle that no country is entitled to several wavelengths until every country has one of its own, secure and undivided. Many commercial stations on the Continent use far more power than ‘they are entitled to, and in the States there (are hundreds 1 of stations competing against each other. They are all commercialised, and advertising for tooth pastes and cosmetics is put over by highly paid entertainers. European baste in entertainment would appear ;to be about the same.

On every programme light music has the highest percentage, Holland and Great Britain leading. Though, on i the other hand, Holland seems to bo the only country that has no dance music. Serious music is popular everywhere except in Denmark and Norway. Opera and operetta are highest in France and Italy; lowest- in Great Britain, Holland and Norway. Drama and variety are not well served anywhere, while the children’s entertainment is about the same..