HUMAN INTEREST.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 46, 23 February 1934, Page 8

HUMAN INTEREST.

RADIO DEVELOPMENT. J IMPRESSIONS FROM AMERICA. RECORDS FROM NOTED STUDIOS. "Radio has an amazing grip on the public, and several of the studios are among the show places of the United States," said Mr. A. E. Bennett, managing director of 2GB broadcasting station, Sydney, who is a through passenger by the Monterov. In New \ork in particular the studios were crowded with visitors eager to see the actual broadcasting of the "programmes, and to inspect the lavish appointments. They willingly paid for the privilege. The 2BC building in Rockefeller City was an example of magnificent design, carried out utterly regardless of expense. It was looked on as a monument to the financial magnate, and it was so elaborate that it could not be run at a profit, at least for some years to com?. Noted artists h..d designed the foyers and painted the murals. In broadcasting, too, there was the same artistic influence, traceable probably to the combination of the Teutonic, Latin and Jewish elements in the population. Electrical Transcriptions. Judicious use of the "American touch" in Australian and New Zealand broadcasting would bring a great improvement in the programmes, said Mr. Bennett. America contrived to get the human interest in broadcasting, and allowed the development of radio personalities. Music alone would never suffice as a popular appeal; it had to be centred around personalities. Though the cost of bringing great artists to the Dominions was prohibitive, it was possible to obtain at low cost special programmes for broadcasting. A great advance had been made in electrical transcription. Records of programmes were made in the big studios at a cost of hundreds of pounds, and sold throughout the States, and Mr. Bennett said that he was taking some of them back with him. He had persuaded the principals of the studios that, the initial coit of making these programmes having been recouped in America, there would be a market for them on this side of the Pacific, provided the cost was reasonable. In that way some of the performances of the best artists and bands could be broadcast here.

• The quality of sound production had been greatly improved in the last twelve months, Mr. Bennett remarked, and this would help the films as well as the radio. Reproduction was now so nearly perfect as to be natural. Until now radio music had always been recognisable as such because it was not possible to get the high and low frequencies, the true "registration of the high and low notes.' That had been overcome, and it was possible to reproduce over the air electrical records in which the car could hear the whole range of notes. The Western Electric Company had developed a wide range transmitter, through which it was difficult to detect the reproduction from the original. It had also been recognised that many listeners, were not getting the benefit of purity of tone in broadcasts, but that also was remedied through improvement to receiving sets.