South African Broadcasting

Radio Record, Volume IV, Issue 23, 19 December 1930, Page 3

South African Broadcasting

Increased Fees S a result of the financially bad times, states the South African correspondent of "World Radio," that .the African Broadcasting Company has experienced from the beginning, the Union Government has decided, as from September 1, to increase ‘the scale of license fees for listeners outside the 50-mile radius, Under the present zoning system the scale of fees per annum is as follows. Within 50 miles, £1/15/-; beyond 50 miles, but not exceeding 100 miles, £1 5/-; not exceeding 250 miles, 15/-; and beyond 250 miles, 7/6. 7 The new system abolishes the 50-mile radius and levies a fee of £1/15/- upon all listeners living within 100 miles of a broadcasting station. Between 100 miles and 250 miles the new fee will be £1/5/-, and outside the 250-mile radius listeners will have to pay £1 as against 7/6 at present. The revised fees have been prompted largely as a result of the disappointing response from listeners in the Transvaal following the erection of the new high-power JB station, of 25 kw., at Johannesburg, a few years ago. A radius of 100 miles around Johannesburg, with higher fees over half the area, should result in considerably more revenue, but at Cape ‘Town, where the vast. majority of listeners live within 40 miles of the broadcasting station, and where any ring drawn round the city covers water for threequarters of the distance, it is not expected that the increase in revenue will be nearly as great proportionately. And the position regarding the coastal town of Durban is similar. The manager of the African Broadcasting Company, Mr. H. D. Adler, states that the fees existing up to the present have not been commensurate with the value of the entertainment provided by the three stations of the company. They have also not been of a sufficient level to cover the expenditure incurred in maintaining the stations and providing daily programmes, He feels sure that listeners will appreciate the necessity for a slight increase in license fees. Mr. Adler expressed himself as "very sanguine" with regard to the future of broadcasting in South Africa.