Hastings Concert

Radio Record, Volume III, Issue 7, 30 August 1929, Page 10

Hastings Concert

A> Briiliant Success HE special concert organised by the Hastings Radio Society on Thursday evening last for transmission to 1YA was a notable success. Practieally the whole of New Zealand listeners were treated to a concert of outstanding merit, much talent not hitherto. heard on the air being made available by the enterprise of the Hastings Society. Considerable enterprise was shown, too, in relaying the Hastings performances to a Napier concert hall, where another large audience listened to it by means of amplifiers and-loud-speakers. By this means extra funds were secured for the objective, viz, the installation of radio in the Napier Hospital. In the latter- part of the programme, the Bishop of Aotearoa, who is‘ president of the Hastings Radio Society, outlined the objective of the concert, and invited contributions from his vast unseen audience of radio listeners, Such contributions cat be sent to the secretary, Radio Society, Hastings. ' Favourable: comment as to the suceess of the function has-appeared in a number of daily papers. We make the.following extracts from the Christehurch "Star" by "Aerial" :- If anyone had _ prophesied three. years ago that, in 1929, listeners all over New Zealand would hear a coneert performed in Hastings, relayed by land line to a concert hall in Napier, and put on the air for another audi-

ence there, by means of amplifiers and ‘loudspeakers; that the Hastings concert would, further, be relayed by land. line to Wellington, broadcast. from. there, be picked up and. rebroadcast in Christchurch, and, still further, be relayed from Christchurch to. Dunedin, and rebroadcast there-well, wa should have looked on him (or her) as being (to be polite) a very foolish person. Yet it was an accomplished fact last night-thanks to the Hawke’s Bay Radio Society, the Radio Broadcasting Company and the Post and Telegraph service. . . ‘The concert was quite well done and that listeners (in Christchurch at least) did not enjoy reception that way beyond reproach was no fault of either the performers or the broadcasters, There was a trifle of land line induc. tion audible-and .it was a wonder it was so slight. when the great distance covered by the-land line is, taken into consideration. It was a curious fact that, heard direct-on "Aerial’s" receiver at least -2YA, Wellington, suffered somewhat during the early portion of the broadeast from both fading and distortion, whereas 8YA’s rebroadcast of 2YA did not show these defects to the sathe extent. After 9.45, station 2YA was again tuned in and reception, in the main, was first-class. And that is not the whole of the story. Happened to tune in 1YA, Auckland, at 10.80, and discovered that that station was also rebroadcasting 2YA’s relay of the Hastings concert. And did it well, too. 1YA cut over: to their own programme for a time, but put the concluding portion of the Hastings concert on the air. After last night’s feat almost anything in the way of land line relays, simultaneous concerts in various towns (as with Napier last night) and rebroadcasts are possible of accomplishment by co-operation between towns, the Radio Broadcasting Company and the Post. and Telegraph Department,