BROADCASTING STOPS.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 224, 22 September 1925, Page 3

BROADCASTING STOPS.

I NO CONCERTS AT WELLINGTON". i • LISTENERS-!.. DISAPPOINTED. (By Telegraph.—Own Corrasnondent.) WELLINGTON, this day. Radio broadcasting from 2YK, the Wellington station, has ceased, and hundreds of listeners-in are keenly disappointed at th. sudden stoppage. There was no concert on. Thursday and on Friday night the owners of long range sets who tuned in on Christchurch. were informed that 2YK had shut down indefinitely. It is stated that a. good deal of dissatisfaction prevails owing to the high. j cost of the license fee which listeners-in i are required to pay—3o/ per year | instead of 5/ as formerly. The Postj master-General undertook that there would be no break in the service pending the erection and establishment of , stations at Auckland and Christchurch -to serve the whole Dominion. On account of several difficulties, the owners of 2YK gave up operating it. Then the Post and Telegraph Department assumed charge and ran the broadcasting for two weeks. However, the concerts ceased last week. The following statement was made by Mr. A- T. Markman, secretary of the Post Office: "The Postmaster-General's promise would have been carried out had he not been hampered by the action of the Dominion - Radio Company in refusing to allow the Department to continue broadcasting pending the completion of negotiations with the trustees of the broadcasting station as to the j price of the station 2YK. On Monday I morning, September 14, the secretary of ; the Dominion Radio Company requested that the keys of the station be handed over on the following morning. This prevented the Department from broadcasting to listeners the information that the service had ceased." As far as can be ascertained, Auckland is unaffected by the stoppage in Wellington. Broadcasting ia still proceeding here.