WEATHER REPORTS

Radio Record, Volume I, Issue 49, 29 June 1928, Page 5

WEATHER REPORTS

THE ARRANGEMENTS MADH, A COUNTRY reader recently wrote suggesting that the weather forecast be broadcast each evening at a definite period. It was stated that on some oceasions the hour of 9 o'clock was sometimes anticipated, and coun try listeners who were depending upon receiving the latest weather informa‘tion were disappointed. Following on this letter "we have inquired closely into the position, and for the sake of our country readers, would like to explain just what arrangements are possible in connection with the admittedly important distribution of the weather forecast. In the first place, it is necessary that the information broadcast be authentic. Arrangements are accordingly made with the Post and Telegraph Department, by which the Dominion report as prepared by the Government Meteoroligist is telegraphed to different stations at the earliest possible moment in the evening. Owing to the fact, however, that this official report is prepared from data collected from one end of the Dominion to the other, it is not always possible for the report to be telegraphed to the different stations in time for broadcasting through the news session. Ia point of fact, on the average the report generally comes to hand at stations, somewhere between 8 p.m. and 9 pm,

In response, however, to several requests that the official report be broadcast during the news session also, the Post and Telegraph recently arranged with the Broadcasting Company that the telegraphing of the reports should be speeded up so as to reach stations before the conclusion of the news session, and on such occasions as they do they are broadcast then in addition t) being announced once during the concert session.

It will be obvious to readers that in the circumstances, and having re-| gard to the necessity on occasion of the Meteorological Department ¢equiring more time than another foc the preparation of this forecast, and having regard also to the: possibility: of occasional delays in transmission, it is impossible for the Broadcasting Company to guarantee that the report will be available on every occasion during the news session. For that reason the standard time of 9 p.m. has beem fixed. Since writing the foregoing, the suggestion has reached us from one couw.try reader that one station might ‘broadcast at 9 p.m., and to provide for ‘the possibility of some listeners missing that particular station's broadeast, another station, say, 2¥A, should broadeast at a regular hour of, say, ten minutes past nine, so that country listeners to whom the report is of importance, might have the opportunity of a second string to their bow.