New Conditions

Radio Record, Volume II, Issue 52, 12 July 1929, Page 8

New Conditions

aqunemeasD Big Australian Contract THE successful tenderers for the providing of Australian programmes will be required to supply a national service from eight "A" . class station: in Australia. Local programmes will have to be supplied, but provision has to be made for’ inter-State programmes in the case of highly-paid artists and celebrities. Programmes are to be subject to the most rigid supervision, the PostmasterGeneral having the power to impose fines and penalties for breach of contract. From time to time, he is able to assess the value of the programme ascertaining whether all parties are getting value for their money. 3 Two new stations are to be provided. One will probably be located at Rockhampton, near Brisbane. From each license the successful tenderers will receive 12s., and the programme provided from this must be of general interest and of sufficient diversity to cater for the reasonable tastes of the community as a whole. A clause. of the agreement states that. monotony, tedious repetition of items, and the unduly prolonged. use of a particular artist in a State shall be avoided.

Already the stations in West Australia have been taken over by the Government, and negotiations are practically completed for taking over 4QG, 2FO, and 3Lo. Local: committees appointed by the Postmaster-General will endeavour to secure. co-operation towards development and maintenance of the service. They will also have to do all they, can in the education of the listeners. Local talent will have to be encouraged by the utilisation of the services of artists recommended by these committees. Announcers employed have to satisfy the Postmaster-General that they were of good education, style, and personality, and possessors of clear enunciation, and, as far as possible, free from characteristic dialect. Mr. Stuart F. Boyle, managing director of Union Theatres, Ltd., and chairman of the new company, said: "The Australian Broadcasting Company, Ltd., which will operate the ° various stations throughout Austra-. lia, is a combination of the whole organisation of Union Theatres, Ltd. We control jointly 54 orchestras in every State and every principal city in the Commonwealth, .nd with this as a nucleus, plus our huge personnel, we feel we will be in a position to give listeners-in a service that will tend to popularise broadcasting to a much greater extent than at present."