Radio Round the World

Radio Record, Volume V, Issue 30, 5 February 1932, Unnumbered Page

Radio Round the World

N view of the growing discontent among listeners in Holland over the chaotic conditions of broadcasting in tbat country, the Dutch Finance Minister, on behalf of the Government, has suggested a plan which provides for the erection of two powerful regional stations. The existing stations are run by political and religious associations. 2 * .- UCH trouble has been caused in Belgium by the Government decree forbidding the broadcasting of advertisements by private stations. © A mass meeting of protest was held in Brussels recently, while over 30,000 signatures have been obtained for a pro-adyvertisement petition. % ae Xe THE Vatican shortwave station at Rome is now accepting private and commercial messages for transmission. The station was originally intended solely for communication with priests and Catholic missionaries in various parts of the world. [THE 200 k.w. "commercial publicity" broadcasting station now under construction at Luxemburg is creating considerable alarm in the surrounding districts. The French Press has been particularly aggressive, contending that

the new transmitter will create a wipeout area in which listeners will hear nothing but advertisements. The owners have declared, however, that advertisements will not absorb more than "five minutes per broadcasting hour." The station is expected to begin its tests on the high waveband by the end of July. % * * A MICROPHONE was installed in the Palais de Justice, Paris. on December 5 for broadcasting the traditional opening discourse of the season, given by the leading advocate. French listeners are hoping that this represents "the thin end of the wedge," and that they will soon be able to listen from their armchairs to the more important murder trials.

OMMENTING on the effect of sunspots on radio reception, the "Indian Radio Times" frankly admits that: "We are afraid that we shall be unable to prevent the formation of sunspots, so that for the time being we slall probably have to put up with fading." " = E IIE newest arrival on the staf€ of the Turin broadcasting station is a physician whose task it is to diagnose listeners’ ills and to prescribe treatment over the microphone. It is reported that the service is highly popular, not only with the patients themselves, but with listeners who become bored with the ordinary programmes. "THR London postal authorities recently announced that the campaign against radio "pirates" in London, which lasted four weeks, netted £125,000 in license fees. Sir Kingsley Wood, ihe Postmaster-General, stated in the House of Commons recently that the number of prosecutions arising out of the campaign was 117. Wxcluding renews and deducting also. as representing normal growth, the number of new licenses issued during the corresponding period last year, the number of wdditional licenses issued during the campaign was 204,000, while the estimated coast of operations was £650. A significant feature is that 146,000 new licenses have been faken out in the provinces, although the G.P.O. "mystery" vans have not yet commenced operations there. ‘ bg ad 3 PRIZES are to be offered by the . Portuguese Post Office for desigus for a new broadcasting station operating on a wavelength of 456 metres. The studio will be situated in Lisbon, and the transmitter at Barcarema, LJ = bs] HAT harassed body, the American Federal Radio Commission, is at present rather perplexed over a request from the International Communications Laboratory, New Jersey, for permission to erect two transmitters operating on wavelengths between one and three centimetres. The company is ¢ branch of the International Telegraph and Telephone Company, which early last year conducted telephony tests on 1& centimetres across the Hnglish Channel. Such wavelengths have, apparently, never been heard of by the I’.R.C. s * * F the new French Government retains office, approximately £500,000 will be expended from the 1931-82 Budget for the development of broadcasting. One proposal calls for the erection of a series of 60 k.w. stations, so located as

a 2 --- ner to cover the entire country. French radio development, however, is still divided between two schools of thought one wauting a State monopoly, and the ether private enterprise with Govern- > ment regulation. s * ~ EH have already reported how a small church in England was fitted with loudspeakers which produced gramophone recordings of the St. Paul’s Cathedral chimes, and thus’ saved the cost of installing a church bell, The church of the Doroger coalmine in Hungary has now been fitted up with a similar installation. The chimes from six tuned steel rods, struck by clock-work-operated hammers, are amplified and fed through ten moving coil l6udspeakers, eight of which are suspénded in the tower and two in the church. The same installation serves also for reproducing sacred music by means pf gramophone records. ® * \ a RADIO "feeler" is to be addew&.to the equipment of the United States dirigible Akron, to enable her officers to determine the atmospheric conditions below them. The instrument was designed by Professor Moltschanov, a Russian scientist, for attachment to balloons. Data on the temperature, air pressure, and atmospheric moisture is secured by lowering the instrument from the airship, and the information is automatically transmitted to those above by radio and recorded on a revolving drum in the control car. = 2 = YHE LL. and N.E. Railways. recently decided that portable wireless sets may be carried as personal luggage, and that they may be operated in com-\. partments "as long as other passenger do not object." % * * DESPITE the recent decision of the Indian Government to suspend the present broadcasting service in that country, there is still hope of continuance, for the. Indian radio trade is making strenuous efforts to gain support for a scheme which would maintain the existing transmitters at Bombay and Calcutta. It is thought that possibly the system of radio programmes sponsored by advertisers may be finally decided on. For the present, however, the Government is continuing the service for a few weeks to enable the trade to complete its negotiations. * = s ur National Broadcasting Company of America, who inaugurated *he first network system of radio statipns in that country, celebrated its fth birthday during November last. jjts inaugural programme in 1926 was heard by an estimated audience of more than ten million people. ‘To-day, however, each of the N-.B.C.’s two coast-to-coast networks can reach a potential audience of 51 millions. Annually, the N.B.C. spend more than £2,000,000 in broadcast entertainment, while relays have been presented from no fewer than 21 foreign countries.* Thirty-seven thousand miles of special telephone lines link its eighty-two associated stations from coast to coast. In one month recently, 1997 programmes originated from the New York studios alone, in-,>"’ volving 23,657 individual appearanées before the microphones. Behind this is an N.B.C. personnel of executives, engineers, programme builders, and projectionists numbering 1200 persons.