RADIO BROADCASTS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 January 1939, Page 6

RADIO BROADCASTS

CO-ORDINATION IN FRANCE. LISTENERS GIVEN WIDE CHOICE. The French P.T.T., the equivalent of the 8.8. C., has since November 1 put into force a new plan of which the aim is to enable French wireless listeners to have easy access to their favourite forms of radio entertainment. The organisers have endeavoured to make it possible for the possessor of a wireless set who prefers chamber music to listen to chamber music all day long, while the listener who prefers talks can listen to talks at any hour, and light music oi* opera can lie as easily listened to whenever the listener wishes.

To achieve this object the radio sta - tions in France controlled by the State have been arranged in groups, and while at certain hours of the day the entertainment is purely regional, organised entirely by the local broadcasting station, at other times it comes simultaneously from a group of stations controlled from Paris. There are three groups, controlled from Paris, and while the stations of one group are broadcasting talks, another is broadcasting dance music, another chamber music, etc. Thus it is possible for the listener to choose the kind of entertainment he prefers.

Like the 8.8. C., the French stations also broadcast brief news summaries in foreign languages. Three broadcasts a week in English, are, however, of a different character. During a quarter of an hour, beginning at 5.30 p.m., Lille and Rennes, on Monday broadcast a talk in English designed to acquaint English listeners with what France is attempting in the domain of social services, on Wednesday an idea of the Frenchman’s view on general questions, and on Saturday evening an English journalist describes towns and regions of France.

In addition to the talks in foreign languages, once a week a play is broadcast in Esperanto.