BRITISH BROADCASTING

Radio Record, Volume VIII, Issue 16, 26 October 1934, Page 5

BRITISH BROADCASTING

| ‘ EXT week the "Radio Record" will publish a special British Broadcasting Number, an issue that promises to be one of the most comprehensive in the paper’scareer. The British. Broadcasting Corporation, whose activities will figure largely in next week’s issue, will be twelve years old next month, and its list of achievements can scarcely be matched in the early history of other comparable public institutions. . "To count the successes of British broadcasting simply as the inevitable results of scientific progress and invention would be to neglect unjustly the enterprise, imagination and discretion of those who have been responsible for its direction," said ""The Times’" (London) in a recent editorial: "By 1922 broadcasting by ‘. wireless had sprung into considerably popularity, and, profiting no doubt from recent experience in America, where an excited movement in its favour had at first far outrun careful thought and planning, it was wisely decided to entrust’ broadcasting in this country to a single organization with an independent monopoly and with public service as its primary motive. It is not, perhaps, too much to claim this decision as one further instance of the singularly skilful way in which the British race seems to manage its own affairs and to develop the art of government. Fears of the: possible _abuse of such a monopoly have proved largely groundless, for the B.B.C, (to use initials which apply both to the British Broadcasting Company and to the Corporation which eventually succeeded it) has, throughout its existence, wisely maintained the clesest contact with its many clients by setting up advisory bodies on many subjects involving public’ taste and education, thereby constantly making itself acquainted with opinions and needs that should be consulted and represented. But equal with the B,B.C.’s vital and necessary concern in the public it entertains and instructs is the almost universal interest of the listener in the B.B.C. itself, in its constitution, its. management, its. _ personnel, and the ‘electrical. apparatus and.media it uses for the conveyance of its programmes. ~ "Television, however, still persists in its role as the most fugitive of all the electrical arts, but Professor Appleton reminds us that a full appreciation of the ‘great technical difficulties of its problems need not -blind us to the substantial progress‘ which has been ‘made in recent years. . The B.B.C. has wisely participated actively in the encouragement of broadcast ‘television, and at present there is: in operation an experimental series of transmissions from a special television studio -by the Baird 30-line process. Reception of this type of television has not, however, become universally popular, and it is believed that pictures of much’ greater detail and stability ‘will be necessary before there is any marked response from the public. Finally, there must be * mentioned Empire broadcasting, the most striking | and ‘imaginative project’ of all the © B.B.C.’s activities. Using the short wave-lengths which are most suitable for long-distance transmiss‘on, the Daventry experimental stations are providing programmes at con‘venient listening hours for the five zones into which, for broadcasting purposes, th> Empire is. divided. Appreciation of this service overseas is widespread and es. . . -- hd Many we are told; now write. enthus‘astically from all over the world stating that reception is often as: good as that experienced from local staticns. Two years ago his Majesty the King, in his Christmas-Dav messagz, broadcast throughout the Empire, said, ‘I take it asa good omen that wireless ‘should have. re&ched its present perfection at atime when the Empire has been linked in closer union, for offers ve im™ense possibilities to make that "union still." That the promotion of such a closer union has been advanced by the voluntary assumption °* of the resnonsibility for Empire broadcasting by the ‘B.B.C, is clear and unmistakable," me