Radio Round the World

Radio Record, Volume III, Issue 23, 20 December 1929, Page 5

Radio Round the World

VR ADIO advertising of the future was recently fully discussed in a Iecture delivered. in London recently by Mr. Compton Mackenzie, the famous novelist. Newspaper advertising would ‘not. be superseded, he said, but radio advertising would be complementary to it and have its own special appeal. It might be that the radio would give general publicity ‘to the name of any particular product and the detailed advertising would be made as_ before through the columns of the daily press. Mr, Mackenzie did not believe that the present method of radio advertising popular in. America (whereby the whole programme was arranged by a particular firm who were then announced as the donors of the programme) was the right way to use ‘ireless for advertising. "Radio adhas got to come whether we vke it or not," said Mr. Mackenzie, "and we must make the best of it." LANS are going forward for a new _ transmitting station near Buenos Ayres which will transmit programmes in Bnglish to the hundred thousand English-speaking people of the Argentine. It is estimated that the station will cost about £10,000. The British people in the Argentine are keenly interested in 5SW (the Chelmsford shortwave station), and look forward to the development of its service. VERY precaution has been taken at the Regional station in England to ensure against breakdowns of all descriptions. Practically every part of the equipment is duplicated, and in some cases, even triplicated. If one of the £75 transmitting valves, for instance, ceased to function another one can be brought into use in a second or two by moving a switch. The listener might hear a slight click, but that wou" be all. There is an elaborate system of bells and coloured lights to bring assistance immediately in case of trouble developing. If the engineer in charge is wanted the pressing of a button will ring a bell in every room in the building ,and also cause a red light to glow. Wherever the engineer

is he knows by the colour of the light that he is wanted urgently. Other of-ficials-can be summoned by using lights of green, blue, and so on. HE B.B.C. has under consideration the question of building a shortwave station for the purpose of broadcasting programmes to the far corners of the Empire. At present experiments are being conducted at OSW, the Chelmsford station of the Marconi Company, for short periods on five days of the week, It is not possible to obtain full use of the station, and it will be obvious that for Empire purposes, with times varying all over the world, full use is necessary. It is doubtful, however, whether the B.B.C. would be justified under its charter in using the money of British listeners in order to supply programmes to areas outside the United Kingdom. This is the difficulty confronting the Savoy Hill authorities, and it is with the object of seeing what is possible that certain negotiations, the nature of which are being kept secret, are going on. THERE are now over 2000 schools definitely known to be taking the wireless education courses of the B.B.C., and it is probable that others are taking them without officially notifying the fact. Varying degrees of enthusiasm exist in different parts of the country. It has been recommended that in building new schools classrooms should be figsed so that wireless sets could be plugged in and loudspeakers

carried about from room to room. The British system of wireless education is finding imitators all over the world, and visitors from foreign countries go to London with comparative frequency for investigation purposes. Wireless education systems similar to some extent to that at present in existence in England may be found in use in Spain,

Czecho-Slovakia, Hamburg, Sweden, and. Vienna, AN original idea indicating the possibilities of the sound amplifier field as a means of advertising was included in a display given by a canned milk company at an agricultural exhibition. recently held in America. In their display stall a model of a cow bearing the inscription "The Talking Cow" was set up. Visitors to the exposition could ask: the cow questions and would receive an immediate reply, ostensibly from the cow itself. The arrangement used was to mount a concealed microphone inside of the cow’s head behind the opening provided by one ear. This microphone was connected through an amplifier to a pair of headphones worn by a2 man who was concealed some distance away. He in turn was equipped with a microphone which fed into an amplifier, the output of which was connected to a speaker mounted within the cow.