Australian Move

Radio Record, Volume I, Issue 49, 29 June 1928, Page 2

Australian Move

CO-ORDINATION OF STATIONS ----e TO COMBAT BOREDOM FURTHER stage in the co-ordina-tion (which involves financial "malgamation) of broadcasting services in Australia was reached on May 21, when the Broadcasting Company ef Australia Pty., Ltd. (3L0, Melbourne}, announced that arrangements had been made whereby that company obtained the controlling interest in the Adelaide station (5CL). It has taken some time for the companies concerned to come to an amicable agerement, as was requested by the Commonwealth Postmaster-Gener-al some months ago. ‘The effect of the co-ordination of the services of 8LO and 5CL is that it is now possible Zor artists to be engaged for a longer period than was the case formerly, when the companies were under different management. _ SCL, Adelaide, has at last agreed to join forces with 3LO, and the organisation will help further to bring about that cohesion in broadcasting from "A" Gass stations in Australia. Negotiations are still in progress with the Queensland Government station '(4QG), but, no difficulty is expected to arise in bringing an agreement to finality there. This done, broadcasting begins the second great phase of its career in Australia (states the Sydney "WireJess Weekly’). No invention in many decades has travelled so far or so fast as radio. Men have been forced to devise methods for its application as

the greatest entertainer in history in a space of time that has often been ' given to the organisation of a single theatrical company. This measure of suecess has been so great as to destroy the onlooker’s sense of proportion. So much has. been done that. it appears to the outsider that much more could have been accomplished. Radio has succeeded so smoothly to the throne of entertainment that it has become a commonplace. Greater obstacles, greater failures would still have kept it among the world’s wonders. Now it is a toy for schoolboys, they can so easily manipulate. Future Developments. WHat is to be the development in the future? ‘The co-ordination of "A" stations will allow of much more Cosely-knit programmes, There has been a great deal of loose critic,ism of the programmes of the big stations, often on the part of the officials. It has never been dealt with in detail. A little trouble in examining the basis of the criticism will serve to show its shallowness. As a type of fault-finder, let us take the recent utterances of Mr, Haldane, of the P.M.G.’s Department, who actu‘ally hinted that the Commonwealth ‘Government had the power to with- , hold revenue from stations that were ‘not up to the mark in the class of en}tertainment they supplied. He went ‘on to say that people were beginning ‘to prefer the "B" stations, which were ‘not in receipt of any revenue, and ‘which broadcast only gramophone sej ° ‘ | and eo weemey See -- a Meaning of the Criticism. CLOSELY examined, this criticism | boils down to the charge that ‘much is put on the air by "A" class ‘stations with which people are bored. Further, that no one who listens to a "B" station is bored. Stripped of verbiage, this is the plain meaning of the criticism which is only an echo of that voiced in letters to the Press, Let us consider it, and weigh its justice. In the first place, there is not a similar station in the world against , Which the same charge of boredom is | not levelled. And the charge can be 'sustained. Not a man lives, however, whatever his experience, or however wide his knowledge of psychology, who can devise a programme which is 10 last for about 18 hours and appeal to such divergent taste from that of the moron to that of the savant, and which will not bore at least portion of the immense audience. It is precisely because "A" stations have this big field to cover that they must necessarily contain boring details. When women’s work is being demonstrated, for example, how is it possible to avoid boring men who happen to be listening. As far as possible these sectional interests are catered for at times of the day when it is expected that the greatest proportion of listeners will be those specially interested. To make every item successful, however, is impossible. Later, market reports come on. course, thousands of city dwellers give an exasperated curse, shut off their instruments and take pen in hand ; to write to the daily papers or the | BALG. They don’t bother to give 'details of the part that bored them. They simply write: "The programmes are getting worse and worse." A Broadcasting Duty. — is the broadcasting of gramophone records was the criterion for successful entertainment, it would surely pay the big stations to dismiss their bands, throw out their singers, let. half their staff go into unemployment, and buy a good gramophone, But the opposite is their course. They are charged with the duty of broadeasiing public events, the views of distinguished visitors, explanations of live public questions, racing and sporting results, market and weather reports, and a score of other things that must necessarily be broadeast, though it is known beforehand that half of the customers will be bored, and another quarter will write to the papers. [= is through co-ordination that it is now possible for an Australian listener who feels bored by a talk from one station to tune over to another which is transmitting music, The co-ordination between 3LO, Melbourne, SAR, Melbourne, and 5Ch, Adelaide, commenced on Monday, the who have ceased to maryel at a thing |

_ 18th instant. Market reports are given at 8 o’clock by 3AR because farmers do not arrive home from the field until 7 pm. While these reports are being given, the other station, 310, Melbourne, puts on music. ,