RADIO SYSTEMS COMPARED

New Zealand Listener, Volume 16, Issue 410, 2 May 1947, Page 7

RADIO SYSTEMS COMPARED

"Corwin Looks Back on a Journey

; HEN Norman Corwin won ‘the Wendell Willkie Memorial Award-a round-the-world flight-it gave him an opportunity to compare the world’s radio systems. Of European radio, he said, Britain’s programming is adequate, effective, and sometimes dismal. France's is brave, but the equipment is extremely poor. Norway’s Oslo studios "make Radio City look like a garage," the Copenhagen studios make it look like a two-storey garage. Sweden’s radio bears a remarkable resemblance to KOIN (Portland, Ore.). Poland’s operated in a reconstructed mansion. Radio is one of Russia’s lesser arts, it is used functionally, not as an artistic medium. Russian radio is used well for its purposes, and is not cocky. Czech radio is good and substantial, Italy’s sad. In Asia and the Pacific, Corwin said India is proud that its radio jis all-Indian-built, designed and operated and is the third most attractive he saw anywhere in the world. Chinese radio reflects the piratical attitude of all Chinese media and is far from politically free. Japan Has introduced soap operas. Australia’s radio is "schizophrenic": it has three or four commercial systems beside ‘the government system. In New Zealand, commercial and government radio exist side by side, but commercial

radio kicks in all profits to the government. Nations making best use of radio within their objectives, Corwin said, are Russia, Britain, and New Zealand. As for U.S. radio it is "best over most of the distance," has most of the serious defects not found in. government radio instead of others, which it avoids, U.S. listeners have a wide option not ayailable in any other country.