London Calling!

Radio Record, Volume IV, Issue 6, 22 August 1930, Page 31

London Calling!

Test Cricket Broadcasts | N°? 2 few listeners have been mys tified to tune. in to an unknown station broadcasting what. is appatently an eye-witness description of the Test cricket matches ‘between Ause tralia and England. One’ optimistic correspondent in an excited letter claimed :.that he. had received Lendon direct! : ‘However, judging by the real» istic ¢ommentary, broadcast as though from the famous Oval, there is some justification for such a claim. . The descriptions heard by New Zea» land listeners are really broadcast by 2UW, Sydney, and are made possible by an ingenious system of communications. The following article from "Wireless Weekly," an Australian contemporary, explains in detail how these broadcasts are accomplished. "We have engaged Captain Ballans tyne, a famous Bnglish cricket-writer, to describe the matches from the field, At the end of every over, he puts an exact description of each ball through the cable. These messages are in the usual cable or beam-message form, and give the name of the bowler, the bats man taking strike, the disposition of the field, if it changes, the kind of delivery, if it is different, the stroke, and where the ball went, the runs, and anything else worth remark, All this, of course, may be conveyed in very few words. "The messages arrive in Sydney, either at the A.W.A. offices or at the Cable office, at each of which we have a man stationed at a telephone. He ‘phones the decoded messages to the outside table,- and there the nucleus of the story is arranged and discussed, TVinally it is brought in to Mr. Brown, the commentator, who puts it over just as though he were at the cricket ground. This is the most difficult part of the whole broadcast, and it is due to Mr. Brown’s knowledge of cricket and cricketers, and also to his ability to dramatise the simple facts, that we have succeeded so well, "One would scarcely credit what a great number of people think that these descriptions come from England, We have made no attempt to deceive them-in fact, some of our regular ane nouncements betray our methods ne mistakably; nevertheless, listeners seem to WISH to believe that the matches are described from England, and so long as they are satisfied... Really, it would be quite easy for us to put over the scores just as they come in; but this would break the cumulative effect of a ball-to-ball description, and would destroy interest in the game. As it is, thousands of listeners stay up with us till four in the morning, many have arranged listening parties for their friends, and dance to our music. We have received thousands of letters, congratulating us on the success of our arrangements."