S.O.S.

Radio Record, Volume VIII, Issue 17, 2 November 1934, Page 11

S.O.S.

__e The B.B.C.’s Life and Death Service oe ee Nb of the B.B.C.’s activities which has most caught the public imagination is the $.O.S. service. -Perlaps this is because of its close relation to actual human experience; for these messages are chapters of real life-bints of tragedy, with this tantalising element for the listener that he does vot bear the ending. Now there are two main principles govern: ing the service. It is confined to cases of real urgency, matters of life and death; and it applies only when ordinary methods of reaching absent relatives are impossible. Thus the #2 B.C. cannot broadcast messages wnen the sick person is already dead. or when the address of the wanted person is known, And nothing can be broad cast about. lost property of. any kind. Since it is most important thut all such messages should be authentir, each one is carefully verified, by tele: phoning or telegraphing to the doctoi in .charge of the case In particular the doctor is asked to say that the illness is dangerous and.that che pre gence of the relative is desirable. Such

A precautions are ueeded, to guard against spurious "messages. Then. gain, it is often necessary to question the family at some length to get a the full facts, and avoid confusion between two people with the same name, There have been cases where an S.O.8, message has been answered by someone who turned out to have no connection with the patient; and it is

highly important to avoid needless alarm. For some years descriptions of missing persons were broadcast. But a full description- cannot easily be grasped at one hearing; awkward mis takes were sometimes made by zealous members of the listening public and the proportion of successes was rela tively low Hence this part of thx 8.0.8, service was dropped last year. and the only descriptions of missing

persons bow broadcast are those w hich the police require for public purposes. This leads on to the question of police messages, Which most commonly; seek to trace witnesses of accidents Messages of this kind have ofter brought evidence which has fixed the responsibility for accidents; and it is interesting to note that they are more consistently successful than 38.0O.%. messages. The proportion of successes in recent months has been about 70 per cent, as against 64 per cent, in cases of iliness. On at least two occasions the police have asked for broadcast messages in connection with murder inquiries. This line of development suffers from the same difficulty which ruled out the broadcasts for missing people, but it is certainly one of great popular interest. Space does not allow of any account here of the comedies and tragedies of the service. There are good stories of both sorts to be told-as, for instance, the case of the false teeth in the swim-ming-bath, of the burglars and the poisoned partridges, of the would-be suivide who came home when he heard that his mother was critically ill. But many of these have already been told elsewhere, The service goes on, saddened and: enlivened at times, often rather humdrum, but always yieiding. results which amply justify the time it occupies at the microphone.