Empire Programmes

Radio Record, Volume V, Issue 27, 15 January 1932, Page 8

Empire Programmes

Organisation in Britain AN interesting . development, of which news has just reached the Dominion, is the establishment in London, under the title of Colonial Radio Programmes, Limited, of an organisation with the specific object of recording British programmes and circulating them among overseas broadcasting stations. The managing-director of this new organisation is Mr. M. A. Frost, who was in the Dominion some few months ago in the course of a world tour. Mr. Frost, as a prominent radio playwriter and producer, had very close affiliations with the British Broadcast- , ing Corporation, and was engaged to proceed to America by one of the important national broadcasting chain: of that country to give advice and en-~;' gage in production. ~ Following on that engagement Mr. Frost .made a world and as a result has organised the business outlined.

The company is now circulating programmes devised on three main lines :-- : (a) Those sponsored. by: international advertisers; (hb) Those distributed by them designed to carry local publicity; and (c) Those for purely sustaining purposes. The latter class only will ‘carry a specifie appeal for New Zealand, and this class is to be circulated on the lines of syndicated Press articles. It is intended in the preparation of these recorded broadcast programmes to maintain 80 per cent. of British artists and music, and to keep the tone of the organisation distinctly Imperial. To that end a close liaison and ¢o- . operation with the British Broadcasting Corporation is being established. A sample of one of the new organisation’s recorded programmes is now in the Dominion, and may prove to be the forerunner of a development of distinct interest and value to New Zealand listeners. With the increasing attention being given in Britain to shortwave broadcasting for Hm. pire purposes, it is apparent. that the various ‘parts of the Empire will no longer be confined to Empire sources for ‘international programmes --