New Zealand will hear Special Recordings of OVERSEAS PROGRAMMES

Radio Record, Volume V, Issue 7, 29 August 1930, Page 1

New Zealand will hear Special Recordings of OVERSEAS PROGRAMMES

says

Mr.

A. R.

Harris

after a brief visit to the States.

‘ R. A. R. HARRIS, General ManaM ger of the Radio Broadcassting Company of N.Z., Limited, returned by the "‘Makura"’ on Monday from ‘a brief visit to the United States. Mr. Harris closely investigated all aspects of radio broadcasting, and has returned with a fund of information of value to the company and listeners. The most important pronouncement that Mr. Harris made in the course of a brief interview with the "Radio Record"? was that arrangements had been made for special recording of overseas programmes. . Harris; and others are on their way. of these have been brought back by I is intended that one night will be set aside at each of the stations on an early date, so that listeners will be given firsthand knowledge of the programmes being broadcast throughout the United States. Some of the recordings are in serial form, in which case a one-hour series will be given over a number of weeks. =| HERE is no doubt of the wonderful | progress that has been made in radio broadcasting in the United States,’ said Mr. Harris. "A diversity of entertainment and instruction equalling that offered by the combined theatres and public halls is now available nightly to listeners enjoying the privacy and comfort of their homes. "The broadeast of direct descriptions of events of public interest and talks by prominent persons as an initial introduction to the public generally or any particular section, whether in politics, art, science or sport, is taken for granted and accepted as the obvious thing for the broadcasting companies to do and the public to expect. As a result, in almost all events of public interest the co-operation of the radio service is -sought, and the date and time for the holding of such events are often arranged in conjunction with the broadcasting company, so that the fullest publicity is obtainable without clashing with some prior arrangement or counterattraction. Simultaneous Broadcasts. HE services of the National Broadcasting Company and the Columbia chain are preeminently superior to the others, and the programmes of these companies are often simul- _ taneously broadcast from a chain of forty or ore relay stations located throughout the Jnited States and Canada, and all connected . by land-line, in some instances over 3000 miles away from the main studios. To reach this standard of service, many obstacles have had to be surmounted; difficulties of far greater magnitude and of a different character to those contended with in New Zealand. No Dearth of Good Material. "PROGRAMME material is probably one of the least of their problems, that is as far as the larger companies located in New York are concerned. A great variety of talent from all parts of the world and embracing every + imaginable form of entertainment, types of individuals and all nationalities literally stream into the New York studios, all with something to sell. There is no end to the amount of broadcast matter offering, and wonderful material at'that. Every applicant is given consideration, and the programme staff is kept going night and day. The broadcasting companies do not, however, have'to organise the whole of the pro-~

gramme in the same way as is done in New Zealand, but only the sustaining items such as are required to fill in any available or broken time between the sponsored perfor-mances-that is, the time sold to concerns who purchase time for advertising purposes. The sponsored provrammes are arranged

for by the sponsors, and include some very fine talent, in some cases interlocked with a direct advertisement, or in other instances interwoven round the article to be sold. Recordings of Programmes. "RECOGNISING the wonderful asset New York and such places have in respect to this matter, a vast amount of research has been undertaken, with a view to developing a process for recording these programmes so that they would be available to other broadcasting concerns not so well placed for talent. This object has at last been accomplished, and it is now possible to make recordings with flat musical characteristics varying from 40 to 8000 frequencies per second, so that the finest talent and musical work heard in radio performances can be reproduced with fidelity equal to that presented from the best-known studios. "These recordings ‘and reproducing equipment, being of a special nature, are naturally too costly for the ordinary private user. "On the other hand, if makes it possible for the New Zealand Radio Broadcasting Company to give its listeners a diversity of entertainment as great as that of the broadcasting concerns in the big cities of the world, and a further statement regarding this will be made later. The Position in Canada. "yN respect to Canada, broadcasting is in a somewhat different condition to that existing in the United States. Some magnificent programmes are broadcast by the Canadian stations, but a substantial amount of the service is also provided from the United States. As many of the latter’s programmes are of the sponsored type and include a considerable amount of advertising, the effect is not altogether a desirable one from the Canadian point of view.. The condition of affairs is not due to any deliberate intention on the part of the southern stations, but to the natural outcome of a progressive broadcasting policy. I do not want to infer in any way that Canadian breadcasting companies are lacking in enterprise, as this is not so. As a matter of fact, one company at least that I know of is all ready, and has been for some time, to extend its broadcasting scheme and instal new and more powerful transmitting equipment just as soon as the licensing position is clarified. Apparently a previous government intimated its intention of providing a broadcasting service, but for’one reason or another it did not go ahead, with It. Now another government has been elected, and the new party has not had the time to define

its policy in the matter, so that somewhat of a stalemate exists and the future of broadcasting in Canada is still one for conjecture. Position in United "MEANWHILE, with assured protection of proprietary rights, the broadcasting service in the United

States 1s moving fast. Powerful and improved transmitting equipments are being installed, and ever-increasing areas are being more and more efficiently served. These broadcast services know no man-made barriers, no tariff laws, but simply and effectively disseminate all over the continent, and listeners, whether American or Canadian, Mexican or otherwise, automatically tune in to the service according them the results suited to their tastes. What applies to Canada in this respect also applies to other countries adjacent to each other and creates problems to be solved which are just as much international in character as they are domestic.

-- "Wortunately perhaps for this state of affairs, the high-grade range of a broadcasting station is somewhat limited, and while it is possible to increase this range by the erection of more: powerful stations, local stations are more effective, and must listeners prefer them once the novelty of listening-in has worn off. Local Stations Preferred. "FD question of a local station and the power of the stations therefore becomes a vital factor in problems of this kind, and although the transmissions of broadcasting stations of other eountries may cross the border, this is not necessarily the case with the transmitting equipment. Much of the same thing applies to the regulation of the local broadcasting service. Certain restrictions may be. desirable in every way from a local point of view, but their enforcement is of little practical value if an adjacent country, whose broadcast service covers the some ground, but does not recoghise the same restrictions. For instance, so long as powerful stations in the United States feature radio advertising it would not be equitablé to refuse. the Canadian business concérns the.sameé privilege in réspect to the Canadian stations, as this would be tantamount to allowing a free field in Canada for foreign commercial propaganda,

High Power Popular. "Du to the tendency in many cduntries to increase the power of their broadcasting stations, the conditions existing in Canada may possibly reoccur in other countries, if they are not already in existence, and although there is much to be said in favour of international broadcasting as a medium for better understanding between the various nations, care should be taken to make sure that a proper balance is maintained, particularly so if it. is found that one country is using the air for one or more of the various forms of propaganda while an adjacent country is denied the same privilege. Although the matter of advertising propaganda does not apply in all countries to the same degree as in Canada owing to the difference in languages, or to New Zealand owing to the distances involved, no one can foretell what factors may subsequently apply, and the question of local relaying stations and more powerful stations should be kept steadily in mind if the governments of the countries concerned desire to retain their power of regulating the broadcast seérvices disseminated within its borders: New Zealand System Good. $6 AS far as the system of broadcasting adopted for New Zealand is concerned, there is no gainsaying its many advantages in comparison with the syster, or rather lack of system, in the

initial development of broadcasting in some other countries, and the more one realises the problems that will have to be met sooner of later as an outcome of that omission, the more one appreciates the wonderful foresight and sound judgment of the Government and its officials responsible for its inauguration here. Had matters been otherwise it is very evident that instead of being in a position to advance the service much time would have been lost and expense involved in overcoming the trouble, and complications that would have followed. Let us hope, therefore, that those seeking modification of the general principles upon which the New Zealand broadcasting service has been built will first of all see for themselves and study some of the conditions existing in other countries, New Models for 1931. "REGARDING broadcast reception I had opportunity of inspecting a number of new 1981 models now going into production, and while no radical change from that of the better class of 1930 model had taken place a number of novel features have been introduced, "The sensitivity of sets will be about the same as those makes of last year that were already down to the noise level on certain wave lengths with the additional improvement of more uniformity on all lengths. Cross talk and

local interference.is provided against by. preselector tuned circuits an fidelity improved by the introductio of a band-pass audio frequency sys: tem, giving greater prominence on the higher and lower notes. Tone control © will also constitute a sales feature, although of no actual musical value except that it might be used to some extent for reducing static when this is bad on the higher frequency. In addition some sets will make provision for adjusting the tone control to natural tone when preferred. "Alternating current hum in the late ter class of sets is entirely inaudible, and the use of five tuned circuits rene der oscillation impossible. Probably the: most marked improvement, however, in 1931 models is in the selectivity of sets, and while this is not go important in New Zealand: the is most essential in those couni#ies where the wave lengths of the many broadcasting stations are very close to one’ another. By provision of two band-pass: filters and four tuned circuits heterodyne whistling and noise interference is reduced, and extremely high-and’ uniform selectivity combined with -réproduction of the harmonic overtones contained in the broadcast channel is effected. — "In general, however, the nature of the improvements introduced in the models now in production for the 1931 season demonstrates more definitely that radio receiving set development (Continued on page 29.)

American Broadcasting --e

(Concluded from page 2.) has already become stabilized, and no radical change need be expected from those of the better class of sets now beirs marketed by reputable concerns. Short-Wave Progress. "(CONSIDERABLE progress has also been made in short wave reception, and many fine rebroadcasts are accomplished by the National Broadcasting Company of the British Broadcasting Comporation’s programmes. Interference, surging and fading have been reduced to a minimum by a system of diversity antennaes spaced about 1000 feet apart. Under this system I was assured it would be possible to guarantee to receive short wave programmes from England and America with sufficient clarity to guarantee satisfactory rebroadcasts from the Nev Zealand stations for 250 days of the year out of 365. This type of station, owing to the costly nature of aerial network and the special receiving equipment employed, is somewhat expensive, and is obviously not a matter for individual installation. However, more about these details later. Meanwhile listeners will be interested to‘learn that during the round-the-‘world broadcast made on June 18 last, this particular receiving station was used at the American end. First of all the Presidents of the National Dléctric Light Association and th. National Broadcasting Company spoke from the Conference Hall of the National Electric Light Convention at San Francisco, then the President of the Berlin Conference in Germany, had something to say. Then Lord Derby and Marconi from London, followed by Edison from his laboratory, West Orange, New York. Being in Mr. Edison’s laboratory at the time, one could not help being impressed with the clearness and wonderful results obtained particularly when realising that the transmission in some cases was travelling half-way round the world. "By the way Mr. Hdison, although 83 years of age, is still hale and hearty, and when he was speaking into the microphone I noticed some of that wonderful power of concentration he is gifted with. A number of extremely powerful lights were being played on him by some of the moving picture camera men, but there was not the slightest sign of any distraction from the work he had in hand. After he had completed his talk, however, he quickly said, ‘That’s enough,’ and it was. Everything shut down immediately. What About Television? "TN respect to television, there did not appear to have been very much progress made, and from what I saw in the laboratory there is yet little of

any practical value to market. As @ novelty, development to date is cet tainly very interesting, but many difficulties have still to be overcome before television becomes a commercial factor, and then it is more than likely that it. will be marketed as an adjunct only to the sound transmission and receiving equipment already on the market. "In reply to an enquiry Mr. Harris also stated that he had spent some time investigating ways and means of reducing interference, but that the subject was too big a one to deal with in the course of an interview. He would like to say, howev-r, that he found that the matter was being successfully combated in the United States, and there was no reason why the same could not be done in this country. He found that the most serious forms of man-made interference could be done away with, but it was impracticable to expect any department or company te undertake it alone. He would say no more on this until his report and recommendations had been considered hy the directors,"