An Unjustified Press Attack

Radio Record, Volume V, Issue 15, 23 October 1931, Page 5

An Unjustified Press Attack

Radio Writer’ s Charges Refuted by Managemen "Evening Post’? Adopts Peculiar Tactics

UITE « storm in a teacup developed in Wellington following 2YA’s transmission of the speech on Unemployment by the Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates on Tuesday evening last. ‘Grid Bias,’"’ the radio writer of the "Evening Post," condemned the transmission as "distorted," and claimed 3YA was better. Mr. A. R. Harris, who was in Wellington, promptly replied and revealed that, but for a few minutes at the start, 3YA was reproducing 2YA directly. He invited "Grid Bias" to explain that discrepancy and offered to give any set of reputable listeners a test at any time to demonstrate. thé accuracy of 2YA’s transmission. A feature of the later stages of the correspondence was that the "Evening Post’"’.deleted substantial passages from the statement by Mr. Harris, and also condensed a letter from a correspondent supporting his view, while giving in full in its correspondence columns a letter condemning the transmission-which letter, by the way, bore a suspicious resemblance to the style of "Grid Bias." The attitude’ of » "Grid Bias" on radio matters has been so partisan for some time past that it is plain a special objective is in view, rumoured, amongst other things, to include a seat for him on the Radio Board if and when established ! , wF: Arising out of the incident, a definite challenge to "Grid Bias" has beon issued by the "Radio Record."

HE original comment by "Grid Bias" in the "Eyening Post" of October 15 was :-. "As heard in the Wellington broadeast, Mr. Coates’s voice was quite unfamiliar in tone, and the

slibuants and ch sounds were nearly all violently. distorted. Some of the defects seemed to be due to faulty placing of the microphone, but the major part of the distortion probably occurred elsewhere, perhaps in the amplifier apparatus in the transmitter. This was indicated by the fact that the Christchurch and Auckland *broadcasts were far better, notwithstanding the intervening land-lines, and both gave a fair approximation to the actual timbre of the Minister’s voice. "The Wellington broadcast was almost a fiasco, for the speech transmission was so irritating as to distract attention from what Mr.. Coates was saying." Reply by Mr. Harris. To this comment Mr. A. R. Harris, general manager of the Radio Broadeasting Company. promptly replied. He said he desired to take strong exception to the statemeut that the speech was spoiled by bad transmission. , Mr. Harris said that the transmission was carefully checked, both locally and at various. points throughout the fominion. From the company’s own and from reports received ‘from official listeners, they knew that the address was received with the utmost clarity, not only locally, but all over the Dominion. It was impossible to get good recep- tion out of bad transmission, and if the majority of listeners throughout the country received the address clearly and satisfactorily, as they did, then the fault complained of did not lie in the transmission, as inferred by the "Post" contributor, "Grid Bias." He (Mr. Harris) was not, however, surprised to learn that distortion was . experienced in Wellington with some sets, as he had previously pointed out that multi-valve sets, particularly those of earlier types, were overloaded when used in close proximity to so strong a station as 2YA. In modern developments some sets were fitted with local switches to take care of this feature, and in. the..yery latest sets a special

hew type of valve was used, designed among other things to eliminate the necessity for the local switch, and also avoid overloading the detector valve. It was only natural that on a lowerpowered station transmissions would come through more clearly on sets that suffered by use near a high-powered TTC TUOTTTT Le THILO HTL eH Hel Tien

station, due to the weaker strength of the signals. Various statements to this effect had been made from time to time in the past by the company in reply to complaints similar to that made by "Grid Bias." The company had also made application to the Department for a license TUTE DETTE EE ELLE Le LEE ELE ED LLL EEE eH LEE Le ee

to operate a smaller 100-watt trans‘mitting set in conjunction with the larger transmission, so that users of large sets in Wellington would be able to work directly on the smaller station without having to disconnect their aerial or make special provision in their sets for handling the higher power of the main transmitter. That permission, however, had not been accorded. This overloading of sets was a point that had been stressed, not only by public statements but also, as a matter of fact, the company’s engineer, by means of actual demonstration at private residences in Wellington and locality, had proved the truth of this factor. It was therefore surprising, in view, of those statements and the demonstra» tions referred to, for "Grid Bias" to, persist in making the statements he does. 2YA’s transmission on the occasion referred to was absolutely sound and correct, and the fact that it was re ceived satisfactorily all over the Dominion, as well as locally, on all suit‘able types of receivers, proves the utter falsity of the statements made blaming the transmission for distertions experienced at the receiving end. Rejoinder by "Grid Bias." " ID BIAS" made the following rejoinder :-"As the broadcast speech is gone forever and cannot be called in evidence, its actual quality cannot be tested. I am not disturbed by the allegation that ‘the majority of lis teners throughout the country received the address clearly and satisfactorily" "The statement that the speech was badly distorted was not published, without corroborative complaints from other listeners than myself: and it is of interest to note that one of these listeners went out of his way this morning to praise the transmission of the symphony concert-which I myself was unfortunately unable to hear. — "What does disturb me, however, is the persistence of the company and its officials, when complaints are made rbout the defective transmissions, in blaming the listeners’ receivers,.I have been actively interested] in radio reception for many years-perhaps’ longer than Mr. Harris-and I can assure him that I know perfectly well when my " set ig overloading. OM

Ag it hag a dynamic speaker and a power valve with an output which can yeach four watts the neighbourhood is likely to know it too. It has been‘speeially arranged to avoid overloading by 2YA, filthough it is quite possible to overload it by reception of other New _Yealand and Australian stations. Moreover, I-have never been able, by overloading.a receiver with too powerful a earrier, to produce distortion of the kind of which I complained. The too frequent use of this stock reply to complaints is one of the many grievances held by listeners and traders against the company." ‘Mr. Harris Replies Further. Excisions by "Evening Post." To this Mr. Harris made further ‘ reply, but the "Hvening Post," for reasons ofits own, excised material points from his statement. JT ortunately a carbon copy is available, and in the following statement the parts excised or so drastically condensed as to lose point are set out in black type so that readers may follow the situation fully. Mr. A. R. Harris, general manager of the Radio Broadcasting Company, before sailing for the south ou Friday evening, said, in the course of an interview, that he would like to remind "Grid Bias,’ in relation to his continual complaints about the transmission of, 2YA, that onione oceasion the. chief engineer of the company, Mr, J. M. Bingham, after a previous complaint from him, attended at his own house with a set and demonstrated to "Grid Bias" that the transmission at 2YA was perfectly correct. The reception on that oceasion on the machine taken to the home of "Grid Bias" was perfectly correct and clear, but "Grid Bias" ‘yefused even then to admit the falsity of his own statements, and claimed that "something had been done" to the set which Mr. Bingham: brought in. The absurdity of that contention when it was a matter of merely receiving clearly the sounds put on ithe air will be apparent to all listeners, and a sufficient demonstration of the attitude of "Grid Bias" himself. [Omitted from statement appearing in the "Post.’’] Mr. Harris further stated that he would like "Grid Bias" to explain, out of the wealth of technical knowledge and experience which he claimed to possess, how it was that the transmission by 8YA of Mr. Coates’s speech was, on "Grid Bias’s" own confession, "far better than 2YA," when that transmission was merely 2YA’s original transmission, picked up and rebroadcast without, as "Grid Bias" suggested, the use of land-lines. The actual. fact was that a land-line was arranged for the transmission. It was used for the first ten minutes of the speech to Christchureh, but was unsatisfactory, and the land-line was then abandoned, 2YA picked up direct on the air, and rebroadcast by 3YA. Flow was it possible for 2YA to issue a distorted transmission for the benefit of Wellington residents, and at the game time send on to Christchurch a transmission which was picked up perfectly clearly and rebroadcast in a manner to satisfy the very critic who complained of the local receptio of the same original broadcast? To the unbiassed listener the abgurdity represented by suck a posi-

tion, would be at once apparent, but perhaps "Grid Bias’ would concentrate on the problem and give his explanation. [Omitted from statement appearing in the "Post.’"’] Mr. Harris continued that his company was perfectly prepared at any time to demonstrate the accuracy of the transmission of 2YA to any reputable body of interested listeners, organised or unorganised. At such a demonstration it would be possible to illustrate technically the perfection at-

tained in the regular transmission of 2YA as that transmission left the station. In conclusion, Mr. Harris said that the insistence of "Grid Bias" on his continual complaints about tramnsmission, in spite of all the proof and demonstration given him to the contrary, showed that'it was not a matter of ‘reason with him, but an absolute obsession, revealing bias of such a calibre that his name should be ' changed from "Grid Bias" to "All. Bias." ‘In season and out of sea-

son "Grid Bias" had complained of 2YA’s transmission and service generally. On occasions his statements had \been shown to be false and misleading, and corrections forced in his own columns upon, for instance, financia] matters. The "Post" had the reputation of being in general a fair paper, but the attitude adopted by "Grid Bias" on matters relating to the broadcasting service was seriously jeopardising that reputation, and leading the general public | hod assume that "Grid 'Bias" was wagin. a vendetta to further an 0 of his own. : ; [Omitted from statement appearing in the ‘Post.’’] Only One Check on Christchurch. RID BIAS" replied: "The explanation of the problem presented by Mr. Harris is neatly supplied by Mr. Harris. The check on the Christchurch transmission was made in the first few minutes of the speech, I was wel aware, when I wrote the original para’ graph, that the Christchurch transmission was only in part made. over the land-line. It will no doubt appear to most readers of Mr. Harris’s statements that he would have been in a stronger position if he had brought out his little problem yesterday, instead of the wornout device of blaming other people’s equipment, In regard to the second paragraph quoted; offering a demonstration of the technical perfection of 2YA’s- transmission, surely Mr. Harris realises that listeners are much more concerned with the transmissions as they are able to hear them than with "technical illustrations." The demonstration of perfection that is required is one that lasts all the time. Final Comment. "(GRID BIAS" originally wrote that 38YA was "far better" than 2YA. He now admits he tested 3YA only in the first few minutes of the transmission. But that transmission which he then found better than 2YA was not good enough for the company’s experts, and they abandoned the landline to give a direct re-broadecast. Evidently their standard of quality is higher than that of "Grid Bias." It is also to be noted that "Grid Bias" made his ‘sweeping statement regarding 3YA on the basis of only one test in the first few minutes of a long transmission. Secondly, his of 2YA could not have been so much of a "fiasco" as he claimed or he would surely have preferred to listen direct to 3YA which he says he found so much better! How?’ ever, "Grid Bias" apparently broaden his charge to include 2YA at all times, so he will have the less diffidence in accepting the challenge we have pleasure in making him in another column. -Ed.