A SERVICE FOR WELLINGTON?

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 104, 29 October 1925, Page 14

A SERVICE FOR WELLINGTON?

"Grid-Bias" has reason to expect that a statement which will be welcome news to Wellington wii'eless enthusiasts will shortly bo issued in connection with the local broadcasting position. Though no' official information on the point is yet available, it seems as if there is litths or no prospect of the former Dominion Radio Company's station (2YK) being sold to the Broadcasting Company. Owing to the hopeless discrepi'.ancy between the Valuation put on the I station by the 'owners and the company, the Chief Telegraph Engineer was called in to give a valuation. This did not improve the position, his figure being very nearly the same as the amount offered by the company. , As the writer has previously pointed out,-the situation which has arisen in Wellington is not covered by any provision in tho broadcasting agresment, pand the company is not obliged to do anything. However, it seems that tho company does not intend to stick to the letter of the bond, and' will take steps to provide at the earliest opportunity a broadcast service for Wellington, with - a set of apparatus for which the necessary material is immediately available.

, \ ln the meantime some' people have been, asking what the company is doing .with the £15. a week which the Government Was paying for the maintenance ■of 2YK while it was running. Tho position is that-while the station is not 1 cunning there is no subsidy. Under the broadcasting agreement, 255. out of each 30s license fee,. and 90 per cent. o£ the license fees paid by dealers in wireless apparatus, are-paid by. the Government into a special fuhd,.wh"ich is drawn upon for payments to the Broadcasting Company, to be used for the purposes of broadcasting generally. There is no stipulation in the agreement as to how tho company shall allocate its expenditure of tho money; and assuming that there were only two stations in operation, the company would presumably be within its. rights in spending all its money on those two stations. The amount of money paid ';out ■of the. fund, however;- is under- the -control of ;the Postmaster-General. As the total revenue available at present is far below the reasonable requirements of even iv partial service, we may as- 1 -sunie- th;tt.~Wellington's- old -subsidy is. .being -used up in. the,"general, system, and that there is no fear of it being "pocketed" by the company, as some correspondents have suggested. Whether e.ny return in the way of a quid pro <iuo.can be made,to Wellington later is another matter.