RADIO Round the World

Radio Record, Volume VI, Issue 29, 27 January 1933, Unnumbered Page

RADIO Round the World

PPHE broadeasting station at Bagdad has no ¢all-sign. It announces itself Simply as "Bagdad." » ; Fc) we b Tif Bombay police, it is reported, have discovered an illicit. broadeasting station operated by the Bombay’ Congress, A % * ROADCAST licenses in Western Australia haye increased by more than 380 per cent. in less than three years,

A JEST APRICA must be one of the largest areas in the British Empire which have not a broadcasting service. _ Post. office engineers tried to run a programme for some time, but did not receive much encouragement. a um at . A’ R: NOEL ASHBRIDGE, chief engineer of the B.B.C., and Mr. R. H, Eckersley, the director of pr6grammes, have intimated that they intend to’go to the United States in the’ spring on-2a special mission. . me % * ULLETINS for babies? "People liying in outlying places where no kind of news reaches them until, they’ are at least twenty-four hours old, found in radio news broadcasting a blessing Which they can ill afford to lose,"--"Indian Wireless Magazine." m 2 bd A. DANISH bootmaker is said to have * discovered how to drive a half horse-power motor by electric energy derived from the air by an ordinary radio nerial As the energy in a yveceiving nerial is infinitesimally small, the discovery if genuine is an epochmarking one. YH number of houses in Great Bri- _ tain is computed to be 11,197,620, Of these GSST.S9L have no electrie light. Of the remaining «homes: 1,068,340 are said to be electrically fed by d.c. supply. From these figures it would appear that there is a large fick. still remaining for batteryoperated sets in Great Britain: te % Fg : AN unprecedented boom in radio in Ulster recently followed a broadcast by IDR. the Prince of Wales _from the Belfast station. The speech, Which was made on’ the last day of the Prince's visit to Northern Irelind, was followed with the greatest. énthusiasm by all Ulster disteners. Some iden of the importance attached to the event may be gauged from.the fact that most of the oflices closed at an earlier hour than usual to allow. employees adequate time in which to get home and hear the broadcast, Not for years has such genuine enthusiasin. been aroused, and in consequence ‘all s@ctions of the radio industry have been: infused by i new enthusiasm,

HIE ‘five millionth license -fee in Great Britain was spectacularly arranged and received its full share of prominent publicity. Officials of the Post Office andthe B.B.C. with a whole phalanx of Press photographers were awaiting the arrival of the listener at exactly the moment when -he yielded to the impulse to take out a license for a wireless set.

TA\FIE manager of the Minsk and Saratoff (tussia) broadcasting stations recently aHowed some Hungarian dance musie to be broadcast instead of the usunl ‘Communist propaganda, and for so doing he has been senteneed to ten yeurs’ imprisonment. Fy * * NOTHING could condemn the present American broadeasting plan more than the following outspoken extract from the "Chicago. Herald and Exam-iner’:-"The public wants the great music of the masters. And it wants it not only regularly. but «skilfully presented. The commercial sponsors are not ih a position to pay the broadcast: ing freight of such bands, even were they ‘disposed to back such a venture. The hroadcasters themselves, obviously. cannot foot the bill and stay on the bluck side of the ledger. Therefore, if ridio is to advance musically it wonld seem the only step is for broadcasting to evolve some plan by which the public world support ‘with cold eash consist: ent airings of the best orchestras." —

JBROADCASTING in’ Lithuania is / curiously organised. The only broadcasting transmitter, which is used also for commercial telegraphy at certnin times of the day, belongs to. and is operated by, the Ministry of Posts. he studio and the broadcasting organisation form part of the Ministry of Education. x * TX France the proposed tax on reeeiyers is meeting with virile opposition, as the authorities have not definitely outlived the benefits that will accrue with the enactment of a prdadeasting Bill. © It is thought that if a Bill were passed giving.some authority power to take steps against all forms of electrical’ disturbance, most , ‘of the opposition would cease. 4Manmade static in several parts of Friuie is particularly virulent. te mi WHEN Lithuanian broadcasting became organised in 1926 there were only 323 listeners in the country. By June, 1932, this number had increased to 14,128. The fee varies according as to whether the holder possesses 2 valve or crystal set, and whether the location is in the town or country. It is thought by the authorities that the number ot pirates greatly exceeds the licensed listeners in Lithuania. * Bd ¥ . HE English Postmaster-General in a recent broadeast talk revealed that when the link with India is completed it will be possible for anyone in Britain to telephone anyone throughout the Empire, and for 95 per cent. of telephone users throughout the world London will become the switchboard of the world. The record long-distance eall is held by an American film star, who telephoned London from Australia and thence connected with Los Angeles. When the air mail service is extended via Singapore to Australia letters would reach the latter in 14 days. t

Ld ? THE question of the use of Africaans, the second official language of the Union, by South African broadcasting statious is exercising official concern. It is stated that Johannesburg station broadcast 240 hours in one recent month, and only fifteen hours were deyoted to Africaans. The position. in Cape Town was stated to be worse. The policy of the National Government has heen an attempt to make Afrieaans the chief language of South Africa, but Without ‘the co-operation of the broad‘asting’ stations it would appens Africaans will remain the sece"y tongue, even if- it does not evens die out completely, , & JrAcED with the undeniable fact that the corporation tramways interfere with broadcast reception, the purliamentary committee of the Sheffield City Council recommend that "it would not be wise for the council at present to make regulations." The engineer computes that it would cost £3000 to equip cars With interference eliminating coils, but the committee disclaims responsibility upon the argument that the tramways were first-comers, The contention that the council were morally responsible for eliminating the interference carried no weight, and the decision places on record that some bodies apparently believe that a "firstcomer" has unbounded opportunities to create a nuisance in perpetuity,