RADIO IN FRANCE

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 148, 19 December 1935, Page 30

RADIO IN FRANCE

NOT YET ÜBIQUITOUS

VISITOR'S OBSERVATIONS

It is hard to escape the radio. It blares out at one from store entrances,! in restaurants, cafes, roadside stands, from automobiles, in homes. But not in France, This is shown by the fact that one listener, at least, has noticed the difference when returning to England from France. Hilda Matheson, returning to England from a holiday in France, records that "it is a curious experience to emerge from a part of the world which is still living, for all practical purposes, in a pre-broadcast-mg age, into the din of an ether resounding with calls to arms, and in which every, broadcasting device is being used to extend the area of political passion." PROPAGANDA POWER. "The propaganda power of the microphone," Miss Matheson said, "is being heard at an unprecedented pitchits capacity for standardising national emotion has never been so clear. It is only fair to remember, however that at the other end of the scale from the=e spectacular displays, broadcasting is daily contributing its quota to the better information of the world, and that the dispassionate tones of announcers are conveying news and comments on news to an immense public j in an atmosphere of reasonableness and impartiality." Speaking of her study of broadcasting in France Miss Matheson said: "Peasant France, in the remoter regions, is not yet radio-minded. It is the provincial paper, which arrives at dusk by diligence, to which the village turns for news; and the news is often excessively provincial, and the outlook scarcely less so. "French broadcasting," Miss Matheson continued, "is still largely a hobby of the middle and lower-middle classes. For economic reasons it is still beyond the reach of the majority of the peasantry, and it has scarcely yet won the place in more critical worlds which wireless has won in England. EXPANSION HINDERED. "Long periods of controversy and periodic reorganisations have hindered the fullest expansion of broadcasting in France," she said. "Energies have been preoccupied with political and commercial theories of control, which might otherwise have been spent on studying the audience for broadcasting and the arts of reaching its various sections." * French programmes have an almost staggering proportion of long plays, Miss Matheson said. "These are open stage plays, performed apparently in their entirety, often from a theatre, or wth a full theatrical cast. French listeners appear to think nothing of fouract plays—or, at least, French programme directors seem to have some reason to think so. These vary from 'Peg of My Heart' to Racine and Moliere. "There is a high proportion of literary, economic, and scientific 'conferences' both in the home and in the colonial programmes," Miss Matheson added. "Where the British fare for overseas listeners consists largely of light music, the French provide a succession of news and reviews covering literature, economics, law, etc., and serial talks on such themes as 'The Great Movements of Contemporary Thought.' Some of these are of high quality. There are signs, however, of a more critical attitude towards cultural, educational programmes, and even news. In October a daily news feature called 'The Voice of Paris,' a radio newsreel given in twelve or more transmissions during the day, was inaugurated."