N.Z. to Have a "Beam" of Its Own

Radio Record, Volume IX, Issue 2, 19 July 1935, Page 9

N.Z. to Have a "Beam" of Its Own

=~ B.B.C. Completes Plans for World’s Greatest Shortwave StationsLondon Newspaper Asks What Radio Fare the Empire Wants. This. page was written specially for the "New Zealand Radio Record" by: L. Marsland Gander, radio correspondent \ to the London "Daily Telegraph." London, June 24. Beswp the bald announcement that the B.B.C, has decided to build two new transmitters at Daventry for the Empire service lies the anost important decision yet taken regarding the shortwaye transmissions from this country. Britain is to have the most powerful shortwave broadeasting stations in the world. Like most B.B.C. engineering projects, the whole matter is treated like a State secret of paramount importance. I am able to lift the veil and reveil that the three transmitters which will in future serve the Empire will probably use as much as 75 kilowatts each, An illustration of the new distribution is that, whereas hitherto one "beam" has had to serve India, Malaya, New Zealand and Australia, in future there will be separate "beams" directed to the Kast, New Zealand and Australia. Whereas Africa is now covered by one "beam." in future it will have two, and possibly three, serving east, west and south. Twenty different directional xerial systems will not provide sufticient aerials to "shoot" direct at every part of the Empire, but one particular aerial may be used for two directional transmissions in adjoining sectors. The transmission can be swung electrically at different angles in exactly the same way as a searchlight beam. "THE gradual increase in.the hours of the Empire service goes on, and now a continuous 24-hour broadcast is within sight. . Recently the experimenfal Western Canadian transmission, ‘alled Transmission VI, given in the small hours of the morning, was made permanent. This transmission has served to demonstrate what an enormous xuudience the B.B.C. has in the United States. And illustrative of the immense diversity of that audience was the fact that at Broadcasting House many of the appreciative letters came from convicts in U.S. penitentiaries! Apparently there are many radio fans among the prisoners, and, extraordinary as it seems, they are allowed to soften the rigours of life in the Big House by tun-ing-in the world. QN2 of the leading personalities in the B.B.C. Empire Department is Mr. J. Beresford Clark, the programme director. Dark and slim, Mr. Clark is something of a mystery man. It is he who does the hard spade work of the big’ B.B.C, Empire hook-ups at: Christ~’

mas. It is he ‘who begins the task months ahead of writing to the Dominion broadcasting authorities .and arranging the myriad details of a round-the-world transmission. Yet his name is seldom mentioned. Mr. Clark is a worker rather than a talker, and if I think some of his ideas a-trifle dour, . I cannot deny him full credit for his grasp of detail and inherent enthusiasm... He is one of the few men who definitely set out to make a career-in. broadcasting, And he is one of the still fewer men who have succeeded. After leaving London University he joined the B.B.C. at Cardiff, Where his work ‘mainly concerned talks and religious broadcasting. Afterward he held an important executive post on the B.B.C.'s northern station. He. became Empire. programme ‘director in 1932 at the, start. of the service. He is married, has ‘no children and a queer hobby-carpentry. . "HERD is' broadcasting ‘most popu‘lar? ' In. America; it ‘seems, according to statistics recently ' made available in ‘London, The snag is, of course; that as’America has no licence system the figures are ‘only estimated. However, for what they are worth they give the United ‘States’ a"total of 20,750,000 wireless ‘sets’in. use,.or-an/average of

162.23 per thousand of the population. The next country on the list is, rather unexpectedly, Denmark, where the number of licences is 160 per thousand. Britain, which has the greatest number of licences of any European country, comes next, with an average of. 147.25 licences per thousand of the population. At the time these figures were worked out, the end of 1984, Britain had a total of 6,780.569. Since then the 7,000,000 total luis been passed, and still the figures are increasing ‘rapidly .month by month. Sweden, Holland and Germany are thie next in order among Buropean countries: In- France, despite the enormous popularity of radio in neighbourinz countries, the total number of listeners is only 1,760,000. The open-air cafe is ‘probably: the explanation of this. The Frenchman likes to look out on the passing pageant of the boulevardes as he quaffs his drink and. talks. He has no time for ‘broadcasting. At the bottom end of the scale are Yugoslavia, Portugal, Bulgaria and Greece. The popularity of broadcasting reaches its lowest ebb in‘ Greece, where there is only a fraction of a person in every thousand interested enough to have a receiver.80 of a person, to be precise. (Continued ‘on .Page-14),

Notes from London (Continued from page 9.) LONDON newspaper hag been criticising the Empire programmes, chiefly, it appears, on the ground that Empire listeners do not want talks or good music. As it is difficult to pick up the Daventry transmissions in this

country, it is correspondingly hard to form an opinion on the subject. I certainly get the impression at Broadcasting House, however, that the Hmpire service is regarded as an outlet for sec-ond-class material, which is rather a different story. An enthusiastic advocate of the Empire service of my acquaintanece declares that the programmes are merely wrong "on paper." Hie means that when you hear them

you think they are grand. However, it seems to me that a concert of contemporary music is a concert of contemporary music on paper or. on the air. It is all right "for them as likes it." As a matter of fact there are several schools of .theought at Broadcasting House. One school would like to dump the rubbish on the Empire. By that l mean the second-rate material, Another would humanise and lighten the .pro‘grammes; a third would leave them as they are-namely, a fairly good refiection of the Home programmes. At the moment there is sitting a committee which is deciding the fate of the empire programme. It is the committee under the chairmanship of Lord Ullswater which js inquiring into the renewal of the B.B.C.’s Charter. It is a thousand to one that they will put their collective finger on the weak spot in the Empire service-lack of money. Itis also heavy odds in favour of a decision to give the B.B.C. more money for the Hmpire, The B.B.C, would like the Empire to contribute something to these shortwave programmes, but whether the Empire puys il

PTTL or does not pay, the service will go on. The prestige of the B.B.C., of the Goyernment and of Britain is at stake. THE B.B.C. now have their own "military commentator." He is Major J. B. S. Bourne-May, late of the Coldstream Guards. This year he is describing the jubilee army review, the Aldershot tattoo, and will have already done the trooping of the colours by the time these notes are read. Squadron . Leader Helmore is describing the R.A.F. review and, as already mentioned, the nayy will be covering the nayal review. The B.B.C. are introducing the new principle into their radio reporting of letting the men who know tell their story. But I doubt whether it will really make for brightness, The fresh untrammelled mind is often best for such jobs, :