B.B.C.'s Engineer

Radio Record, Volume I, Issue 49, 22 June 1928, Page 5

B.B.C.'s Engineer

CAPTAIN ECKERSLEY UNHAPPY DISSATISFIED WITH B.B.C.

A WRITER in a London exchange states :- "IT understand that Captain Bekersley, the popular Chief Wngineer of the British Broadcasting Corporation, is cumulatively unhappy about the preposterous delay of the Post Office in sanctioning the whole new regional scheme of distribution.. Unless a more accommodating attitude is shown in official circles I should not be surprised to see Captain Eckersley leave the B.B.C. and join some concern in the trade, or start a commercial show on his own. ‘Tie is known to have received a number of most tempting offers in the past three years; but up to the present his hopes of the regional scheme were strong enough to resist the Inre of rapid wealth. But even Captain Eckersley’s patience is not unlimited, and if he receives many more buffets from officinidom, Y would not be at all surprised to discover him in the trade, where he would be royally welcomed. It would be an intriguing situation. The first set marketed with Captain Ickersley’s name and authority behind it might well reap a considerable fortune four all concerned."

Wm partly Government-controlled British Broadcasting Corporation has been the butt of a considerable amount of criticism in the Jlome journals. Instend of displaying virility and enterprise, the corporation has, it is urged, put the brake on the remarkable progress of broadcasting which was so characteristic of the company who formerly controlled broadcasting in Great Britain. To Captain Mckersley is due great praise not only for the summit reached by the technical perfection of broadcasting in Great Britain, but the general organisation of the service. . American radio men who yisit Great Britain from time to time freely admit that the transmission by the British stations is unequalled in the United States. Seeing that Captain Iickersley has been in charge of the technical side of broadcasting from its inception in Great Britain, and that he is still improving the service, it would be a severe loss to the listening public if he severed his con- . nection with the British Broadcasting Corporation, This is another instance of the disadvantage of Government interference with private enterprise, and the British Press has published many ‘letters condemning the taking over of the original brondeasting company by the Government.