Empire Station Opened

Radio Record, Volume VI, Issue 24, 23 December 1932, Page 2

Empire Station Opened

Rebroadcast Successful TP HE | Empire broadcasting station. opened quite jnauspiciously on Monday evening. F¥ollowing an announcement at approximately 9.80 p.m. from the YA stations that, as condi"tions were fairly suitable, they would be passing over to the Dmpire station in a few minutes, listeners heard the half-hour chimes from Big Ben in Lon-don-"London Calling," ,the National Anthem, and the much-awaited event: "was in progress. Apart from slight surging and light atmospherics reception was good. and almost 100 per cent. readable. The announcer most distinctly announced the eall of the station, its wavelength and, frequency and other pertinent de tails. The first. speaker was Rt. Hon. John Whitley, chairman of the Board of Governors of the B.B.C., who in a very brief speech said that one of the funcsata a, tT

"tions of the station was to bring peace ‘to.the nations and that nothing mean or cheap would be associated with it. He introduced Sir John Reith, DirectorGeneral of British Broadcasting, as "the man to whom broadcasting owes n very great debt." Sir John spoke well. He possesses an excellent broadcasting voice-a sincere yet commanding manner, One could not but feel that Mmpire broadcasting must be a success with one such as him as director, "This." said Sir John. "is as significant as any event in the ten years of British broadcasting, probably as_ significant as any in. th» British Empire." "He went on to say that though difficulties had confronted and would confront the station, broadcasting generally was no longer in the experimental stage. The influence of broadcasting was felt in every sphere; it was to-day a connecting and co-ordinating link between the outposts of the Wmpire Its service as a whole was dedicated to the best influences of mankind to draw mankind together as one family. If their efforts succeeded in doing ‘this they would be well worth while. For four years experiments had been earried out, for two years schemes _ had been considered, the prestige of Great Britain was at stake, and last year it had

been decided te go ahead with the Empi » station. Sir John Reith _explained the zoning system and the principles upon which it was founded. and concluded with an earnest appeal for reports on both the transmissions and the programmes. The success of the station was -wholy dependent upon the.way.in which overseas listeners responded to this appeal, and he asked for co-operation. "Do not expect too much in the way of programmes." They must be simple, but must nevertheless appeal to listenersthose planned for the time being were neithér particularly interesting nor good. Mr. Noel Ashbridge. engineeri-n-chief of the B.B.C., briefly thanked those: who had sent reports, remarikng that 3800 cablegrams ‘had already been received. When .a few. minutes later, the Empire station went on to a recording of Bach, the YA stations returned to their normal programmes.

Kiwi Kitset Two Corrections -. In Jast month’s "Radio Times" appeared the description of the John’s Kiwi Kitset. In this con"nection two advertisement errors occurred. Messrs. Fear & Co. -advise that through a clerical error the price of their complete ‘kit should have been £9. Will readers please note that it is impossible to supply these kits at less than £9. Strangely enough, too, the price of ‘Messrs. John’s Lid.’s Kit was inadvertently omitted by our staff. The kitset, assembled, tested and described -by. our Technical Dept. was supplied by Messrs. John’s Lid. whose price for an identical Kit is £11, complete with Raytheon yalves and speaker. At the same time John’s Ltd. can supply a kit at £9, but prefer to recommend the one tested by the "Radio Times."