RADIO

Radio Record, Volume X, Issue 9, 11 September 1936, Page 17

RADIO

Vocal Whip Lash Making Russia Conscious of the Great God Sovietism

Russia, in common with Germany, Austria.and Hungary, has sentries on duty outside her chief broadcasting stations. On the left is a guard beside the huge entrance gates of the 500 kilowatt Comintern station in Moscow.

? HE scene is the Pool of London, that romantic, dirty reach between London and ‘Tower Bridges in which oddly-assorted _ little

ships of all flags become brothers under.the skin. Unusual interest seems to be attached to the departure of a 4000-ton vessel, called the Jan Rudzutak. The quayside is lined with animated men.and women. Some are in complete cloth of red, and nearly all wear red ribbons or rosettes. A newspaper vendor offers publications that. would spell imprisonment in New Zealand. A policeman strolls nonchalantly through the crowd. A woman perched precariously on the base of a erane screams, "Red Front, Red Front," in rather hysterical fashion. A crazy concertina grinds out the "Internationale.’ The tune is spiritedly taken up on ship and shore and startles even the phlegmatic wheeling seagulls. The Jan Rudzutak noses her way down the Thames; Tower Bridge unconcernedly lifts its massive arms; and another shipload of cosmopolitans-from North and South America, Europe and the Empire-is bound for Russia. Through the Kiel Canal, where the "comrades" on board stage a concert of revolutionary songs in several languages for the benefit of the Nazi’ dock workers, and through the ice-strewn Baltic to the winding estuary of the Neva. From Leningrad the Red Arrow express rushes us through timber and pastoral country, in which modern buildings and. old-world cottages lie incongruously cheek by jowl, to the city of two Cities, , . For here we ‘see a modern,, severely classical’ railway station making a striking contrast to the old ornate, rather fantastic station; porphyry-tinted Lenin mausoleum as neighbour to drab fifteenth-century Kremlin fortifications; Russians, in fur caps, loose blouses, and traditional boots, rubbing shoulders with others in customary European dress. aes n Moscow, pride of the Russians, capital of the U.S.S.R. Within the U.S.S.R. frontiers, embracing an area equal to one-sixth of the world, is a total population of more than 160,000,000, comprising over 180 ethnic groups speaking in all about 150 tongues and: dialects. What part does broadcast-

ing play-in the daily: life, national and. individual, of this great conglomeration | of states? How do the programmes broadcast cater for the many groups. of violently contrasting temperaments, tastes and customs?

‘And: how are -these vast distances-present-ing in their variety of terrain and geographical features considerable technical wireless prob-

lems-annihilated in order to ensure some degree of universally reliable reception? Let me describe how Russia, by a spider’s web of over 60 stations proper and thousands of "little fellows," by broadcasting in 54. tongues and by "collective" listening, already caters for 12,000,000. listeners, and how she will, I believe, eventually accomplish her Herculean task, . ; Coe _ Soviet broadcasting is paradoxical. ‘To a greater extent than in Germany, Austria and Italy, political tenets: are married to the ether. Thus broadcasting must achieve more than dissemination; it must by a taskmaster-like vocal whip lash those millions into expressed worship -of the Great God Sovietism, Russian radio never sleeps: Day and night Marxism, Leninism and "technical propaganda" relative to the "plans" are hammered into city workers, Middle Asia Republic toilers and peasants in Siberian wilds. Yet the artistic standard of the programmes is high. This artistic qualtiy is attained by the advantage-peculiar. of course, to Russia-of non-competition with theatres and "boards," by treating broadcasting as a highly-specialised art, and by co-operation of listeners. The famous operas of the Bolshoi. and other Moscow theatres are broadcast, State broadcasting schools exist, and conferences of listeners are regularly convened. Special departments are provided at: Soviet. technical and musical colleges for instructing potential radio artists, and the personnel of broadcasting choirs,.orchestras and announcers are selected’ by both written and practical’ examination. District radio correspondents forward local criticisms and programme suggestions to the: broadcasting committees, me, . _ Individual correspondence .,is further invited, and in Moscow I was shown 30,000 letters received from near and far-flung parts within three months. Massed listeners may also order definite types,of transmissions. The regional stations broadcast in the languages of the people served. Thus the all-Ukrainian committee presents 80 per cent, of its transmissions in‘ the’ Ukrainian’ tongue, and the remaining 20 per cent. in Russian,. German, Hebrew end Ozechoslovak; the White (Continued on page. 48,)

The tremendous experiment that is modern Russia depends largely for its success on the strength of. its broadcasting stations-hence the huge transmitting masts that

dot the countryside. Russia has fully realised the value of radio for propaganda purposes, and in this article, specially written for the "Radio Record," Cecil W. Lusty sets down his impressions of wireless in the United States of Soviet Russia.

Radio-The Whip Lash for Sovietism

(Continued from page 17.). Russian committee in White Russian, Polish and Esperanto; the Trans-Cau-casian committee in Georgian, Armenian and Tirk; and so on. Russian programmes a year or so ago were "high-brow," and, in. the cou-

centration on "culture" and "instruction,’ humour, "light" music, fashiou™ and sports were neglected.’ Under a recent programme reorganisation this "Reithian" spirit was exorcised. Much of the "technical propaganda’ was climinated, and political and "cultural’ talks shortened. More popular entertainment, with a pronounced musical bias, is now the thing. Soviet radio was started by Radio-

peredatcha (a special joint stock company) in 1924; the Narkomviaz, now the People’s Commissariat of Communications, took over: in 1928; and in 1933 was created the All-Union Radio Committee for Radiofication and Broadcasting with. the Council of People’s Commissars. This "brains trust" is split into three executive departments dealing respectively with the provision and maintenance of stations and the radio industry, the supervision of the 67 regional committees, and the construction of programmes, The number of employees, including permanent salaried artists, is about 1000. The network comprises about 66 transmitters ranging from the 500-k.w. Komintern "giant," -Mos-cow-the largest in Europe and built entirely of Soviet materialto stations of 5 k.w. and less. The total power of these stations proper is about 1,600 k.w., compared with the B.B.C.’s 600 k.w. The listening system is vastly different from curs. . Only about 1,000,000 listeners possess private receivers, anether 1,500,000 hear per medium of State-operated wireless exchanges, and the mass of the 12,000,000 is reached by "coilective" listening. "Sub-stations" of one- kilowatt and less are installed in "kolkhozes" (nonState collective farms), industrial centres and rural villages, and midget plants of about 380 watts are established in factories, State institutions, schools, army barracks, "correction houses" (prisons), and so on. ‘These "sub-stations"’ relay about 75 per cent. of the State’s programmes, and the other 25 per cent. is provided by the group listeners themselves who have their own choirg and orchestras. A special workers’ choir of 80 voices broadcasts from the Moscow stations in nov-factory hours. The inmates of "correction .houses"’-who . also have their own wall newspapers-have the right of five minutes before the microphone to ventilate complaints, advance suggestions, and so on. I found Russian radio to be very "oo-ahead" in television, two-way conmunication, and other experiments. Considerable success, in particular, has been made with aircraft radio, ‘The Radio .Committee told me that they hoped by the extension of sub-stations and exchanges to "cover" practically the whole of Russia. The world is loth to give credit to the Soviet Union; its failures may be many; nevertheless it bids fair to achieve something monumental in radio broadcasting.