RADIO IN TRAINS

Evening Star, Issue 19064, 6 October 1925, Page 8

RADIO IN TRAINS

RELIEVING MONOTONY IN CANADIANS’ TRAVEL. The absence of radio equipment on trains in the southern dominions is in striking contrast with the practice in Canada, where the Canadian National Railways own a whole chain of broadcasting stations. Passengers may listen either hy head ’phono or loud-speaker, and anyone who has made a train journey comparable in distance to that from one side of the dominion to the other will realise how greatly these amenities help in overcoming tho tedium of so long a trip (soys the 1 London '.rimes’). The wireless service is also of very great use to farmers, who, without it, would bo wholly out of touch with news concerned with daily events or would only receive, it very late. The broadcasting service includes weather forecasts, market quotations, and agricultural Information, in addition to the usual entertainment features. It has also been found that this service may bo used to great advantage in fighting forest fires. The C.N.tt. have ton stations in operation. Broadcasting from the stations in this system is really a piece of very useful Canadian propaganda. In all tho larger Canadian cities listeners are within range of a very great number of American stations, and the service supplied hy the C.N.R. is an excellent contrast to the essentially American entertainments to which they' might otherwise listen. The railway company maintains its own technical staff and its own orchestras at tho various stations, and engages a very number of liigb-cluss poiformers from outside- . It will he remembered that during his lost tour in Canada the Prince of Wales received a daily nows service from the 1 London Times,’ acting in co-operation with tho Canadian National Railways. A summary ot news ■was compiled from ‘ The Times ’ immediately after the paper had gone to press each evening, and was telegraphed to Canada. From the office of the Western Union Telegraph Company in Montreal it was sent direct to the broadcasting station of the Canadian N.R. and was then transmitted to the train’ in which the Prince was travelling. No doubt at the same time The Times ’ service was picked up hy thousands of listeners in the. dominion.