Over the Air

Manawatu Times, Volume 60, Issue 100, 1 May 1935, Page 4

Over the Air

LISTENERS SATiSFIbL

RADIO IN GERMANY Excellent Service Provided MEANS OF PROPAGANDA The extensive use of the' German broadcasting stations'for propaganda has often led to serious developments, says a writer in “The Times.” Tho .“Austrian broadcasts” from Munich are the best known case in point.

| At present Germany is the most powerful broadcasting country in Europe. Sho has increased the power of her main transmitters to 100 kilowatts, the limit permitted by international agreement, and by the end of 1935 she will i havo in operation seven 100-kilowatt stations and one 120-kilowatt long-wave station, which will replace the present 60-kilowatt Deutschlanusender. This network of high-powered stations is supplemented by a number of medium and low-powered relays, which work on | common waves. Western Germany, for I instance, is covered by the Langenberg | and Muhlackcr stations at 100 kilowatts each, the 17-kiolwatt Frankfurt I station, and the low-powered transmitI ters at Freiburg, Kaiserslautern, and I Trier, which will be supplemented durj ing 1935 by another at Coblenz. I Tho greater part of the population ! within the boundaries of tho Reich can thus rely on an excellent broadcasting service. Moreover, the National-Social-ist Government has paid special atteu- ; lion to the development of stations through which Ausiandsdeutsche (persons of German descent or allegiance in frontier districts, more distant coun- . tries and oversea) may hear the voice of Germany. A highly-efficient system of short-wave stations broadcasting on beam aerials has therefore been opened, and this service will be further developed during the coming year. German and British broadcasting arc I organised on different lines. All GerI man transmitters are owned and operj med by the Post Office. Their proj grammes are supplied by the Beichs- | Rundfunlc Gcsellschaft (the German j Broadcasting Company, Limited), which is owned by the German Reich ’and controlled through the Minister of Propaganda, Dr. Goebbels. He appoints :nnd dismisses the directors of the R.R.G. and the Intendauten, or directors of tho regional stations, who are 'responsible for the non-political 'programmes of each individual station. Political broadcasting is directly controlled from Benin. The broadcasting .machine is thus in. the hands of the iUovernmeuj;, but to obtain an .efficient i instrument of propaganda it-was also (necessary to organise listenin'”.

COMMUNITY RECEPTION.” The National-Socialist Pariy organisation, was used to provide the necessary link. Each of the 38 party Gaue (regions) has a Gaufunkwart, that is to say, a regional radio officer. Under them are Kriesfunkwarto in each of the 1000 odd districts in Germany and Funkwarte in every- larger locaity. When an important speech is announced and Gemeinschaftsempfaug (community reception) is ordered the party radio officers see to it that every factory, public square, and school is fitted with receivers and public address equipment. Thus at least threequarters of the public listen-in on such occasions. Shop doors are closed, traffic becomes sparse, factory staffs are assembled in halls or large workshops, and in the streets crowds cluster everywhere round the loud-speakers. The Gaufunkwart-is in very close touch with a lareg part of the listening public through his subordinate officers. He has access to the In-, tendant of every station and can thus exert his influence to obtain for listeners tho typo of programme they really, want. Powerful transmitters, programmes under Government control, and radio officers in every town p.nd village are the main factors of the National-Social-ist broadcasting machine. To these must be added the provision of an efficient receiving set of good quality whose price is within tho reach of. all pockots. The need is met by the famous Volksempt'anger, or “People’s Set,” which is marketed at reduced profits to makors and traders alike. In the first months of the Nazi regime broadcasting programmes became seriously disorganised. Tho original directors and founders of German broadcasting had boon eliminated and some of the important positions were only provisionally filled. The appointment by Dr. Goebbels of a young man, Herr Eugen Hadamovsky, as sole director of the R.R.G. in July, 1933, was the first step towards stabilisation. A period of experiment followed, as is only natural when men whose experience of wireless is confined to the loudspeaker are suddenly handed the microphone.

IMPROVED PROGRAMMES. Threforo-the less said about 1933 the better. It was a period when the. station directors seemed to. think it their duty to provide work lor good'Nation-al-Socialists. If musicians, for instance, were sufficiently ardent Nazis this made up for other deficiencies. 193-1 brought a gradual change and programmes have become entertaining and amusing. They would be' oven more so were it not that the process is interrupted by such events as the Juno "clean-up,” the murder of Herr Dolfuss, the death of President' von Hindenburg, and the Saar plebiscite four periods when broadcasting was devoted almost • entirely to politics and political ganda.The Reiehssondeieiter, Herr Hndsmovsky, is responsible for the political programmes of all German stations. For all other matters the Intendanten are given freedom of action unknown in pre-Nazi Germany. German broadcasting is thus one of the most : valuable instruments of direct- political propaganda for the German Governtnent. Programmes are now normally, well bn lanced. The broadcasters have ieafnt (he amount of pure pi'opaga.m’a ivhich the listener Will stand. High-

brow programmes have become less frc< quent owing to lack of funds and the? fear of a negative reaction to too much heavy fare. Since the advent of. Na-tional-Socialism the salaries of the broadcasting staff and the artists’ fees havo been substantially reduced. The number of listeners, and therefore the licence revenue, has increased, but the broadcasters.have not benefited,by this in full measure, since part of the fees are retained by the Ministry ol' Propaganda, which acts as intermediary between the Post Office and the Reiehs-Rundfunk-Gesellsehaft.

German listeners pay one of the highest fees in Europe; two marks a irtonth or 24 marks a year. At par this is about one and 'a half times as much as a British listener pays, or four times as much at the present rate of exchange. Tiie Post Office retains half of the total licence revenue for the erection and operation of transmitters, but the sum which the R.R.G. obtains from tho Ministry of Propaganda has not been disclosed. On January 1, 1935, the number of licenses issued in Germany totalled 6,142,921, an increase of 1,090.314, or 21 per cent, over the figures for January 1, 1934. In pre-Nazi days the greatest annual increase ever recorded was 633,278 in 1927.

These figures show that German listeners are satisfied with the now programme policy. Taking them as basi* of calculation and deducting the 427,464 licenses which are issued free to unemployed and Scliwcrkriegsbesehadigto (disabled ex-servicemen) the total income from fees was 11,430,914 marks for January, 1935. Assuming this to be the monthly average for 1935 (it will be surpassed if the increase continues). German listeners will this year pay the enormous sum (compared with British licence revenue) of some 138,000,000; marks (about £6,900,000 at par). The use of German broadcasting for, political purposes has caused misgive ings in those countries which possess largo German-speaking minorities. Czechoslovakia has attempted to counteract it by prohibiting public reception of political programmes from the German stations. The owner of a wireless set, for instance, must not invito friends to listen to such programmes. But apart from direct propaganda such as was issued by Munich for Austria and by Stuttgart and Frankfurt for the Saar, German stations indulge in another type of propaganda broadcasting. Concert programmes broadcast late at night are directly addressed to foreign listeners, the announcements being made in French, English, Spanish, and Italian. News items of a cultural nature, such as tho forthcoming celebration of Handel’s birthday or the fact that >. the crocuses are out in BadenBaden aro broadcast in the intervals, internationally speaking, this type of broadcasting is of tho “positive” kind, as it endeavours to bring nations ciosor together, and many countries indulge in it. Italy, Poland, and many other countries address foreigners in their own language, telling them of the beauty oS their countryside.

“ THE LOVE HOUfT “Sweet Nothings” in U.S.A, POPULAR BROADCASTS American programmes, it is well, known, are commercial in the sense* that wireless is in private hands and that business firms may advertise, says a writer in the London "Times.’? The desire t 0 please the buying public ia extremej and so it happens that among other amenities, a public lover is now] provided, who pours out the very heights and ecstacy of love, not in a general declamatory way, hut intimately and softly, so that each listener may easily imagine it is meant for her alone. The deep need for admiration and affection is thus, in part at any rate, allayed, and: women with stolid and boorish hus-i bands, or with none, are nevertheless able at the Lovo Hour to hear the prets tiest compliments and the most charm.-* ing speeches. The feature is accordingly popularJ and is the sort of thing that the makers) of scents and cosmetics find particular*! ly apt for their purposes, better even* than a concert of soft chamber music, when they want to provide a programme which will leave sweet associations behind it. A new career that of tho wireless lover, has thus been opened to young men whose fluency and warmth might land them in only too many breach of promise actions in real life.

The privacy of the home, in which most listening is done, takes away from the effectiveness of many wireless programmes, but it adds to the power of this one, and may have awkward results for American men, whose shoTt■Comings are already freely criticised. The shy and tongue-tied youth, meditatin'-' his proposal, will bavo horrible qualms lest his performance shall look too crude and flat by the side of the skilled rhapsodies which have just been switched off because he has called with his flowers.

Men have always had an answer when reproached with, the obvious fact that the heroes in novels are more eloquent lovers and more finished proposers than the men who actually marry women can claim to be. Novels and their characters, it is said in reply, are deliberate illusion. That, alas, cannot be said about wireless announcers whose practised, soft, seductive tones actually fill tho room from which they would themselves be firmly removed. But no . one wants a diet of sugar, and happiness could vet be further increased if, in addition to romantic lovers, other possibilities made themselves heard at the microphone. Women might be less critical, even in the United States, of their actual partners if real boors came grumbling and grousing through the microphone for half an hour at the end of the. day, cursing an absence of slippers and pipe and book in a style so’alafmipg. and unpleasant that the mild remarks of real husbands vou'd lose all their t></» v» to