How the News Will Come from Vancouver

New Zealand Listener, Volume 31, Issue 782, 16 July 1954, Page 7

How the News Will Come from Vancouver

HE NZBS is sending. two men to cover the Empire Games at Vancouver. They are Winston McCarthy, commentator, and Lance Cross, sports administrator. The latter will act as editor and producer of the Games programmes. Facilities for visiting broadcasters are. being provided by * the: Canan | roadcasting Corporation. The landers © will » have a» fully equipped studio in which to prepare

their programmes, portable tape-record-ers for the commentator, and at least 15 minutes of broadcast time daily on the CBC’s shortwave transmitter at Sackville. The coverage plan is as lows:Each evening during the Games all ZB and YZ stations and 2ZA will broadcast a quarter-hour programme of commentarie# eye-witness accounts, latest results, and interviews with outstanding competitors. Throughout each day, all stations will broadcast results as they come to hand, with summaries at set times. to be announced. Results up to

5.0 p.m. Vancouver time will be given in this way, the evening’s results being included in the programme mentioned above. The Empire Games begin with an opening ceremony on Friday, July 30 (Canadian time), and end on Saturday, August 7. The NZBS hopes to start broadcasting its quarter-hour evening programme five days in advance of the opening, to give listeners information about training, venues and competitors. The Service is also negotiating for extra shortwaves time so that fuller cover can be given to outstanding e®ents outside the range’.of the basic 15-minute programme. Listeners following the various Games events from a dated timetable should remember that Vancouver time is 19 hours behind New Zealand’s. It will, for instance, be Sunday in New Zealand before the events scheduled for Saturday in Canada take place. In addition to its own advance programmes, the NZBS will be broadcasting a Canadian programme entitled The British Empire and Commonwealth Games-Advance Report. This introduces listeners to Vancouver itself and to the preparations being made there. Vancouver is described as a "sprawling and beautiful city of half a million people." It is Canada’s third city, but until now it has had no. suitable stadium for track and field events on the Games scale. The organising committee had budgeted some 600,000 dollars for a stadium, not. nearly enough for what was required. So, a year ago last November the citizens of Van-

couver stepped in and -voted 750,000 dollars toward the erection of a 35,000 capacity arena. A new swimming pool has been built which the Canadians claim is rivalled only by the one at the University of Texas.~Among its refinements is a machine for "producing artificial ripples, which helps divers to judge their distances. The cycling track has been described by Lorne Atkinson, Canadian Olympic rider in London in 1948, as "the hottest track I’ve ever been on." It is an oval, 250-metre track banked to 45 degrees at the ends, and represents a compromise between European indoor six-day tracks and outdoor racing "bowls." The surface is of British Columbia ‘yellow cedar, a resilient soft. wood said to provide very fast going. This year the "little Olympics" will attract some 820 athletes from 25 nations, They will be housed at Empire Village, on the campus of the University of British Columbia. The place was originally called Arcadia Camp, and was used for housing Canadian returned servicemen who returned to university after the war. The women athletesabout 100 of them-will live in a modern residence for women students, and will eat at a student-built house named Brock Hall. It’s also at Brock Hall ‘that one of the most important meals of the Games will be served-a dinner with the athletes, requested by the Duke of Edinburgh, who will be in Vancouver for most of the time of the Games. The Canadians propose serving some of their famous British Columbia salmon, and possibly some venison from the northern woods. : The Empire Games Advance Report will be broadcast by all YA and YZ stations at 6.45 p.m. on Saturday, July 24, and by all ZBs and 2ZA at 7.45 = ‘~ Surndtay Toly 992° \ oO