VAST AUDIENCE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 August 1938, Page 7

VAST AUDIENCE

WORLD RADIO LISTENERS. RECEIVERS TOTAL 87,500,000. There were 87,500,000 radio receivers throughout the world at the end of last year, representing an audience estimated at 350,000,000. Out of these numbers, 31,200,000 sets, representing 125,000,000 listeners, were in Europe, excluding Russia. The figures are contained in the annual report of the council of the International Radio Union, which has concluded its summer meetings at Ouchy, Lausanne. The meetings were attended by 63 delegates representing the broadcasting services of 23 European countries and three American networks, and also by the observers of 10 European postal telegraph administrations. The Spanish Republican broadcasting service was elected a member of the Union, and the broadcasting service of General Franco’s administration was admitted as a special member.

One purpose of the meeting was to discuss the wave bands allocated to broadcasting by the recent world conference in Cairo, and to take the first steps toward another wavelength reshuffle. The Union’s plan will be fur-' ther elaborated at a meeting in Brussels in October and confirmed at a conference of postal administrations in Switzerland next year. Canada is to supply material for a world concert which will be relayed in five continents and will consist of music characteristic of both the English and French-speaking peoples of the Dominion.