MONOPOLY EXTENDED.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 143, 20 June 1927, Page 17

MONOPOLY EXTENDED.

FOR DOMINION BROADCASTING j DETAILS FROM CONFERENCE. ' SUPPLIED BY WELLINGTON ] DELEGATE. j Further interesting light upon the , fcroadcasting situation was thrown by . Mi. Leslie Jones, secretary of the Wellington Radio Society, during a long i conference which that gentleman had , during the week-end with the executive < of the Auckland Listeners , League. Mr. J Jones, in the course of a resume of the ' history of his society's negotiations | with the powers that be, stated that . the Acting-Postmaster-General (Mr. R. ] A. Wright) wrote that his i Department would insist as far ( as possible on the provision of j technical experts for broadcasting, but j that it was "not prepared to interfere , unduly with the Broadcasting Company j in its internal arrangements." , At a conference last week between j the Wellington executive and Messrs. ' Harris and Goodfellow, it was urged ' that there should be more publicity as * to the doings and objectives of the ' company, and that it should take more ] cognisance of the existence and- desires * of societies of listeners. The appoint-, } ment of a thoroughly capable musician ' as arranger of programmes at each of < the centres was asked for, and it was < understood that with the new Welling-; ' ton station at least this wish would be complied with, as would also one for ! the proper monitoring of stations. Then 1 the need of an expert radio engineer to ' supervise all stations was stressed, and it was suggested that Mr. K. Thow t at i present superintending the erection of ■ the new 2YA plant, might be secured, i Oα this question, however, the directors of the Broadcasting Company were most, < non-committal, and Mr. Harris would i Dot give any assurance at present re- ; parding the securing of an overseas : radio engineer, though it is known there . is no such person of experience in New ' Zealand. < According to Mr. Jones, Mr. Goodfel- i low explained that the Government had ; requested the company to erect a high- i powered station in Wellington, one of < the objectives of this being the boosting • of tourist traffic, and, in consequence, ] the Government had advanced money on < mortgage for the erection of thi« sta- t tion. So far all of the listeners' contri- < ■butions had been used for running ex- t penses of stations only, and all plant 1 had been provided for out of capital, i He had tried to sell shares in the com- i pany recently, in both Auckland and Christ church, but had been unsuccessful, so he had arranged with the bank for , an advance of £15,000. Mr. Goodfellow, ■however, was not prepared to put more of his own capital into the concern, which must now run on its own resources. He stated that the , Govern- ? ment had. early this year, given the company a lengthened option of control • of broadcasting in New Zealand, and that it now had this for a period of five Tears from. 19*27. It was not mentioned, i though, whether a hew agreement had I fceen entered into, and to what extent j< fhe> terms of the original agreement still j< .io&tfibod, J^

Mr. Harris had been very firm on the point that he could not disclose the policy of the company regarding a technical engineer. He said he wae not by any means averse to meeting organised listeners' societies and hearing their views, and had given Mr. Jones permission «ta address listeners from the Auckland station after the latter had submitted exactly what he was going to say. This action astounded the local representatives, whose recent request for a mere notice of a general meeting was turned down, and yet it allowed a member of a Southern society to discuss radio matters over the air from Auckland.

After many other aspects of the present situation had been discussed, during which Mr. Jones stated that his society, in ignorance of the real state of affairs, had taken up a perfectly neutral attitude regarding the resignation of Mr. Prentice, the Wellington delegate gave the assurance that his body would be quite in accord with the Auckland listeners on the following points:—They do not agree with the present monopoly in the hands of two men; they Would be in favour of broadcasting control on British lines; that listeners have lost all confidence in the Broadcasting Company's administration; the conference in Wellington with the company's directors had produced nothing but generalities, except as regards the appointment of Mr. Slade and the staffing of the Wellington station; there was no definite assurance of the appointment of a technical adviser; there was dissatisfaction at the company's refusal to disclose a fi"»uvi»l statement. Mr. Jones undertook that his society would interview all Wellington members of Parliament in support of State control, and that it would cooperate in the presentation of a petition to Parliament with this object in view. In the matter of forming a federation of all societies and leagues in the Dominion, he was assured of the hearty support of Auckland.

From the trend of Mr. Jones' remarks it would appear that, with the operation of the high-power plant in Wellington next month, there is a likelihood of the stations in Auckland and Christehurch becoming, for part of their operating time at least, mere relaying posts for the central station. Such a scheme has not been definitely announced, but many remarks at last week's conference seemed to point in that direction. Mr. Goodfellow himself had expressed the feeling that if the best programmes were pnt on in Wellington a feeling of parochialism would be engendered, so that it is likely that what Wellington gets Auckland will also have, through relay, so that crystal-set owners will be catered for. It seems strange that the announcement of the Government financial interest in 2YA, and the intimation of the extension of the present monopoly, should come from the Broadcasting Company itself, and not from the Government.