BROADCASTING FINANCE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20239, 26 April 1929, Page 7

BROADCASTING FINANCE.

INFORMATION WANTED. The statement made by Mr. A. R. Harris, general manager of the Broadcasting Company, that, the. cost of running a 500-watt station at lnvercargill would be .CTOOO or £BOOO a year, exclusive, of programme expenses, has drawn some comment from "Grid Bias," who conducts the wireless column of the Wellington Evening Post. "It must seem to many people," he writes, "that the figures quoted leave something to be explained. They are presumably based on the experience of the company ir running its present stations; and considering that Southland could not jxpect a service as complete or costly as those given in t-he centres, it must be assumed that Mr. Harris' estimates do not exceed the costs incurred in connection with the YA stations. As there are four of these, it appears from Mr. Harris' statement that at least £50.000 a year, and in view of the higher costs of 2YA probably a great deal more, is involved in merely keeping the stations running without allow ng anything for programmes (organisation, preparation, or payment of performers) apart from the cost of the headquarters organisation.

"There lias long heen a feeling on the part of tiKMiy subscribers to the broadcasting service that tile people of .New Zealand are entitled to know something of the way their money is being utilised by tlit? company. Hitherto no information has been given. Now ii must be said that the glimpse which Mr. Harris has given, even if it is only ail indirect one, is sufficient to make curiosity even stronger."

AUSTRALIAN RELAYS

INTER-STATE PLAN FAILS. Hopes of inter-state relays in Australia as a step toward-cliain broadcasting have been dashed to the ground. The New .South Wales Broadcasting Company had planned an exchange of programmes with Melbourne and Brisbane, and had carried the arrangements some distance when the Post Office Department stated that it had no land-lines available. A Melbourne-Sydney relay, it explained, would occupy two Svdney-Wagga circuits, and two Melbourne-Canberra circuits. An alternative would be to vise the " Melbourne No. 2 physical circuit." The latter arrangement would put three Mel-bourne-Sydney carrier channels and two telegraph circuits out of use for ordinary business. A personal appeal was made to the director. Mr. H. P. Brown, who replied that the circuits in their present stato wore really unsuitable for broadcast relavs, and satisfactory transmission-could not be guaranteed if they were used. The broadcasting company is very disappointed. It says that the experiment would have been most interesting, even with imperfect lines. The department's attitude is surprising, because the new contracts for operating the stations provided for inter-statc relays. The company thinks that the contract terms will have to be filtered," or else the department will have to give the contractors a guarantee that lines will be put into order and made available for their use;; ■-

DANGER OF DIRT'.

UNNECESSARY RESISTANCE.

A witty scientist, some years ago. described dirt, as matter in the wrong place. He was right: it is the fact that the matter of which the dirt consists lies in what should be the path of the electric current that often causes the trouble in wireless and electrical apparatus. What we know as dirt usually consists of finelv divided matter —matter that lias been broken up into very small portions—and the electric current, trying: to pass through it. encounters resistance, because it is so broken up.

In passing through finely divided matter, such as that of which dust is composed, the current has to pass from one grain, one small particle, to another, and considerable resistance is encountered in so doing. Electrical men soon get familiar with the fact that whenever they have to break a conductor they set up a resistance quite out of proportion to the sectional area—(he thickness, as it is usually expressed—of the conductor. If. for instance, a length of copper wire, or any other metal, be measured, its resistance will be. found to depend upon the substance of which it is composed, its length, and inversely upon its sectional area of thickness. We can calculate -the resistance of a given length of wire of any given metal if wo know those quantities.

NOTES AND COMMENTS. | i " Dinner-music" will be instituted at. station 2YA on Monday next. It is to j consist of eight to twelve gramophone I records —orchestral. instrumental and ; bands—-presented in four sections, with- | out announcements, and with three in- | tervals of about two minutes each. The j session will he from six to seven o'clock, and the children's session will accordingly j be put forward one hour. The first concert of the Wellington j Symphony Orchestra's 1929 season will he | broadcast bv station 2YA next Thursday j evening. The orchestra, of 64 performers ■ is conducted hv its founder. Mr. Leon oe Mauny. The programme will consist ot works by Tschaikowsky. including the j Sixth Svmphony (" Pathetique "1. the] "Casse-Noisette" Suite, and the "1812" j Overture. Arrangements have been made ! to broadcast all concerts given by th« ' orchestra tins year. Hesults <>f the local body elections will be broadcast, from all stations next Wednesday evening. If possible, speeches by candidates after the declaration of the polls will also be put on the air. The " nieht of convivialities," which is to lie held at IYA on Thursday, will be a representation of a typical New Zealand "smoke concert." complete with speeches, applause and all the usual accompaniments. Those who are organising it hope to convey the atmosphere of such a gathering, though of course the tobacco smoke cannot be transmitted. The seventh issue of the quarterly New Zealand Radio Handbook, a copy of which has just been received, is a really good production. New Zealand listeners have cause for gratitude to the authors of these handbooks, who are well known among j the large fraternity of home constructors for the excellent series of receivers which they designed a few years ago. and which have been built in thousands here and elsewhere with entirely satisfactory results. This newest book contains, among other good thincs, designs for very simple one, two and three-valvo receivers, each operated with a single variable condenser, a rheostat being used to control reaction. In addition to other constructional articles, there is an up-to-date list of broadcasting and amateur stations. For ready reference the handbook would be the better for a proper table of contents. According to the. Christchurch Press a private bill will shortly be introduced, in iho British Parliament to provide free wireless licences for the sick and agrd. Only an optimist would givo 1 lie bill niucli I chance of becoming law. seeing that, it is j merely generosity at the Broadcasting Company's expense, and is in all probability a breach of the company's contract with the Government, unless, of course the licence fees are to be paid by tlu State.