RADIO RECORD

Greymouth Evening Star, 24 June 1937, Page 11

RADIO RECORD

NOTES FOR LISTENERS-IN

(By

“Reception”)

THE KING'S ENGLISH. NEW 8.8. C. GUIDE BOOK. Radio, which has made the pronunciation of foreign names “a daily duty” especially among announcers, has inspired the British Broadcasting Corporation to issue a handbook entitled "Broadcast English.” Professor A. Lloyd James, expert in phonetics at the University of London, is the author of the work, subtitled “Recommendations to announcers regarding the pronunciation of some foreign-name places.” While this subject covers verbal acrobatics, an “acrobatic mouth” in handling tongue-twisters is a feat announcers are warned’ not to attempt. It is confessed at the outset that the problem of pronunciation of foreign words is an old one, but it cries aloud for solution more than ever before pew that “news is purveyed by the spoken word.” A word that looks quite harmless on paper may not be so simple in sound, and for that reason radio announcers and commentators may tremble. And well these unseen commentators may tremble, for as Professor Janies points out, even if they spoke a native tongue all their life, the pronunciation would not satisfy everybody in such a vast audience as that of radio, now so international in scope. And if the announcer microphoned the words exactly as the university had vouchsafed to him, still he would be criticised by some listeners.

It seems a safe linguistic maxim, according to' the professor, to assert that a nation will seldom adopt any speech sound that does not develop naturally in the evolution of its language, unless, of course, there have been large infiltrations of foreign speakers. For instance, French has had very little effect on the sounds of English. The Britisher asserts: “French nazalised vowels as in ‘vin,’ ‘blanc,’ ‘bon,’ and ‘un,’ have never flourished among us, being entirely unlike anything that has developed naturally within the body of English pronunciation.” French words that came into the English language centuries ago quickly shed their foreign soundsand became as English as the natives. Professor James points out that “pincers” and “pinch” are what they are, but “pince-nez,” a comparatively late arrival, still bears audible trace of its alien origin in the half-hearted attempt of some people to say something like the French. Most educated speakers, he says,; nowadays make an "attempt to inmitate the foreign sounds. Whether this is desirable he does not know, but he does believe it would be very unwise to lay down a general maxim that in the pronunciation of foreign words there should be slavish imitation of the foreign version. “We have to face the fact that there is now a greater* familiarity with the spoken forms of foreign words than there was before the spread of rational education in foreign languages,” continued' Professor James. “This familiarity has considerably increased with broadcasting. ... The advent of Empire broadcasting has introduced in some cases a further complication for traditional English pronunciations as used in Britain are not always found to be acceptable in the places concerned. “The annuoncer’s task is a difficult one. He must walk the narrow path between pedantry and ignorance and be prepared to be sniped at by zealots on either side; and most of this shooting comes from one side. He knows from long experience that the less fuss he makes over it the better it will be for him in the end. “If he interlards his English with foreign speech sounds, there are volleys from the left; if he slips up a false quantity or wrong accent, there is sharpshooting from the right. If he gets his accent in the right place and makes the whole thing sound utterly English in every detail, he will probably be allowed to pass over unscathed. Even then there is the sniper to contend with.” The professor concludes his introduction to "a formidable battery of words” with this advice to radio announcers and speakers: “A technique that obtrudes, in speech as in most other forms of human activity, is offensive: it should be the aim of those who have to handle the spoken word to evoke neither admiration nor humiliation.”

IT FAYS TO BROADCAST. Being on the air is a better paying proposition than being on the boards, according to Claude Holland, 2UE announcer. Ho has tried them both, so he should know (says “Wireless Weekly”). t‘ln the theatrical world,” says Claude, “one may only get eight months’ work per year at what appears a fairly high salary, but the four months without pay brings the average down with a bang. And, of course, when one is touring, there is no pay while travelling. Fares, are paid, but during train travelling, principals have to arrange for their own sleepers, and meals, although chorus and ballet get them free. Of course, you miss the applause and the lights, but my wife and I agree that no amount of glamour can compensate for quiet home life.” Claude Holland was 20 years on the stage, and says he has played in every town of any size in Australia and New Zealand. He was juvenile lead to Elsie Prince in “No, No, Nanette” and "Lady Bo Good”; juvenile and light comedian with Ada Reeves in “Spangles" aud "Pins and Needles”; juvenile with the late Nellie Stewart in “Romance,” played with Mayne Lynton and Nancye Stewart in "My Old Dutch,” etc., with Richard Bellairs in “Outward Bound” and “Throe Wise Fools.” Mrs Claude Holland before her marriage was Monica Mark. She played in a number of Hugh J. Ward's shows at the St. Janies Theatre, toured Australia several times, and was runnerup in the Miss Australia competition of 1926. No, she has never tried’ broadcasting, and is not keen to face the microphone. Mannequin work has more appeal.

ITALIAN RADIO. STRONG CENSORSHIP. There is no law on Italian Statute Books against the reception of foreign broadcasts. Natural forces, properly harnessed, have proved more effective barriers to uncensored news than legal prohibitions. It is extremely difficult in Italy to tune in on foreign stations before 11.30 in the evening because of interference by incessant Italian broadcasting up to that time. Nearly all these programmes emanate from the EIAR (Ente Italiano Audizioni Radioforniche) network. This system, privatly owned, but under strict Government supervision, controls long and short-wave stations in Rome, Naples, Florence, Genoa, Bari, Trieste, Palermo, Milan, Bologna and Turin.

At regular intervals every day EIAR broadcasts news bulletins from Stefani, official Italian news agency in nearly every language spoken by man. Special broadcasts, each with its own script and announcer, are directed' at every important nation of the world, says the Rome correspondent of the “Independent Journal” of Columbia University.

Importation of foreign radio sets into Italy is forbidden by law. Nearly all sets of Italian manufacture are simple and moderately priced, and do not possess wide range -of reception. Therefore most Fascist citizens are unable ever to hear foreign broadcasts. Even those having more powerful apparatus must wait until nearly midnight, after EIAR has crossed the air lanes, for programmes originating outside Italy. There is little danger of unclean information leaking into Italian homes at that hour.

It has long been impossible in Italy to tune in on broadcasting from Moscow on any radio set whatever. Apparently the only explanation of this situation is that censorship officials have learned how to interfere with Russian programmes. This theory seems borne out by the fact that, since the uprising in Spain, programmes from stations in Barcelona and other cities in the hands of the Madrid Government, though formerly easy to pick up with Italian sets, have become impossible. In the event of an international crisis involving Italy, it is altogether probable that the Government would be able to duplicate the censorship now exercised over .Russia and Red Spain and cut Italian listeners off from any country they might choose. At present French broadcasts are audible in Italy, though only at times when the stations are offering such lion-coritroversial fare as jazz or chamber music. Only the most powerful Italian sets are able to pick up British programmes. TELEVISION TECHNIQUE. A Sir Noel Ashbridge, chief engineer of the British Broadcasting Corporation, in a recent address to the Royal Empire Society, said that he believed that many of the chief difficulties that still remained in the technique of television transmissions would ultimately be removed. He expressed a belief that it would soon be possible to develop a more sensitive “electron” camera which would greatly reduce the difficulties under which the producer of television programmes now works. With such a camera, he suggested that it would be possible to use a telephoto lens in order to televise scenes at some distance, or a microscope lens for the transmission of small objects. While it might be possible to pick up the signals from the Alexandra Palace in distant parts of the world under extremely favourable conditions. Sir Noel said that reception would be erratic ind that the day was still a long way off when it would be possible to provide a television service from London to the distant parts of the Empire. Colonel A. S. Angwin, deputy engi-neer-in-chief of tho British Post Office, referred to the developments which had recently taken place in laying co-axial cables between London and provincial cities. These cables would enable the London television programmes to be broadcast simultaneously by other television transmitters which might be erected in other parts of the British Isles as a result of experience gained in the London area. NEW STATION FOR ROME. Rome is to have a new short-wave transmitter, designed to provide an output power of 100 kilowatts. The station js expected to be ready for service in 1938. A new system of directive aerials will project the Italian programmes to all parts of the globe. The International Telephone and Telegraph Company of New York announces that its affiliate, the Electrical Apparatus Company of Milan, Italy, has received an order for the equipment from the Italian Broadcasting Company. A feature of the transmitter will comprise a rotating turn-table on which are mounted various parts ol the high-power amplifier which must be altered as wave length shifts are made. By rotating the turntable, an operator can rapidly switch the apparatus to change Rome’s wave length as world-wide atmosphere conditions vary from hour to hour. In this way it is believed the highest possible sending efficiency and programme quality will be maintained over a wide band of waves.

DOMINION LICENSES. The latest returns issued by the Post and Telegraph Department show that radio sets in New Zealand number 226.176. Wellington leads the other three main centres with a total of just over SH.OOO licenses, and Auckland comes next with nearly 73,090. Tho southern districts, however, lag I.ehind considerably, the totals ol ( hristchurch and Dunedin being 12,000 and 31,000 respectively.