:: Over the Aerial ::

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 39, 15 February 1929, Page 16

:: Over the Aerial ::

(By "PHONOS.")

WIRELESS NEWS FROM FAR AND NEAR.

Miss Hilda Stausficld. cuntralto, will make a first appearance at IYA on Satur-

day evening

The programme from -V( on Tuesday evening should be of more than usual interest. Several of the "discoveries" of the Radio Eistedfodd will render items.

Radio licenses have now passed the 4.5,000 mark for the Dominion. It is noteworthy that a third of the total licenses is held in the Auckland postal district.

Condition* for overseas reception are improving lately, and on at least two evenings this week Australian programmes have been tunable at most satisfactory volume.

An extended Sunday evening programme, with the engagement of more artists, would do much to populari*e New Zealand radio at this most important juncture in its development.

During the harvest season 3YA is sending out a special midday weather forecast for the benefit of fanners. This innovation has been made at the suggestion of the Government Meteorologist, who supplies the requisite data.

American papers are now featuring sets designed for automatic tuning. You just push a button and the station comes in, that is, if it is on the air. The new type of set should have a big popularity among such a "pushing" people as those of U.S.A.

The president of the National Broadrasting Company of America announced a few days ago that during 192S his company had expended over one million sterling" upon performing talent, and £200.000 upon lines for chain broadcasting and relays.

Broadeasting has played it* part in attempting f 0 restore the fortunes of Amaniillah nf Afghanistan. Pacifying speeches were broadcast to influence public opinion in favour of the monarch who abdicated, and were reproduced from loud speakers in prominent parta of Kabul.

IYA contemplates presenting what is styled a '"Topsy-turvy" evening shortly. On this night regular artists will contribute items outside their usual sphere. One. wonders ju*t where one or two performers will find themselves. An endeavour is also being made to arrange a Maori programme on the lines of the one which was such a success at 2YA.

Announcing is a man's job. in th" opinion of the 8.8.C. which employs -ix full-time announcers at Savoy* Hill. Women are employed only upon special part-time work, it having been found that they do not possess in the same degree a* the sterner *ex all those peculiar qualities of adaptability which go to make the successful announcer. The two New South Wales broadcasting stations employ between them five announcers, alt males.

Writing of his impressions in Europe. an Australian prominently interested in radio development says: "The trouble here is that the various Continental broadcasting stations are trying to shout each other down with greater and greater powers, until one wonders where it is all going to end. Our SKW stations in Australia shrink very much when one looks round and sees what is going on here. Thirty-five k.w. is not considered out of the "way. 50 k.w. sets are being built in Germany, and now Rome, not to lie outdone, is arranging for a station of 100 k.w.; so is the Irish Free State, and I hear that Sweden contemplates the erection of a 100 k.w. station at Stockholm."

Inquiries are often made regarding the likelihood of sudden revolutionary developments in radio receivers. In this connection those who pin their faith upon their present sets will find consolation in the announcement of a recognised authority. He writes: "Radio has become standardised to such an extent and the conditions under which radio must operate have become fo firmlv fixed that the chances of outstanding change in receiver design are exceedingly remote. There are always those wh\ wait for the ultimate receiver; who expect revolutionary changes are just around the corner. There are some! no doubt, who expert this in radio. However, if one looks back over the developments of the last four years, he finds scarcely any outstanding change in circuit design, the only great improvement being made in the matter of power supply."