TOO SMALL

Radio Record, Volume VIII, Issue 20, 30 November 1934, Page 6

TOO SMALL

B.B.C. Overflowing from Broadcasting House With the opening of. the new British station at Droitwich the. ’ B.B.C. announced that many changes were to be made it the arrangement and presentation of the programmes. This new system has called for a great deal more rehearsing of programmes than was necessary before, and. this, with the handling of new orchestras and increasing numbers of artists, is mak‘ing . Broadcasting House feel very small--literally, that is, for. there are not enough studios available for the various presentations now arranged. _ , Already, the B.B.C. makes use of St. George’s Hall, an offshoot of the parent building, where many orchestral programmes are presented, and now the engineers are working on the conversion of a building ‘in Maida Vale, where a former skating rink is to be made into the largest studio in England, It will be 125 feet long and 72 feet wide, with a gallery seating 150 people; the stage will accommodate the B.B.C. orchestra, with its 119 musicians, and the B.B.C. Chorus, of 260 voices. In addition, the new studio boasts vestibules, for artists waiting to perform, comfortable waiting rooms, and all the B.B.C. recording units, by which programmes can be recorded as they are broadcast, and then played over immediately afterwards for the benefit of the producersand, of course, they can be used again from other stations, or sent to various parts of the Empire. If -at any time anything should happeti to destroy Broadcasting House-which certainly is not, a very likely eventuality-the B.B.C. would be able to carry on from this new studio in Maida Vale.