VOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20594, 19 June 1930, Page 3

VOTES AND COMMENTS.

Reception of Australian stations during the past iveek has been very satisfactory. Station 4QG. Brisbane, in particular has been received with greater volume. Of the B stations 2GB, "Sydney, continues to be the best. The broadcasts by the chain of A stations of the relay by 53W, Chelmsford, of the nrss test cricket match have been coming through well.

The weil-kno*.vn New Zealand-bora musician and composer, Mr. Alfred Hill, will conduct the Professional Musicians" Orchestra of 55 players at the Sydney Town Hall on Saturday, June 23. The concert will be broadcast by2FC, Sydney. Mr. Hill has taken an active pari, in the work cf the New South Wales Conservatorium of Music. His most recent opera, "Teora," which, .as in the case ci "Tapu,"' was based on Maori legends, has been successfullv broadcast in Australia.

It- has often been prophesied that by the aid cf radio facsimile transmission, newspapers will be published in various pans of'the world simultaneously, and this is nearer realisation than most people are aware. The whole of the front page of a Californian newspaper was recently transmitted from Oakland to New \ork, 2500 miles, where it was automatically reprinted and read on that side of America •n less than three hours after its leaving the printing press in San Francisco. The development of means of communication is going to be rapid during the coming decade.

■ With the improved conditions for icngj -crave reception the Japanese stations are I being picked up •with considerable volume. I The writer recently tuned in between a i Japanese station, probably JOCK, and S 3LO, Melb corns, the Japanese station j fceing broadcasting its usual weird music I and "the Australian station jazz music. | The discord gave the impression that one i vras working too near the edge _of | oscillation. A delicate touch of the dial I separated the stations without inter - | *'ppe2c?. The Japanese station Dear • —d hj, | Svdney. is usually heard when picking up i the latter, but iQG, Brisbane, seeas to ; keep well aioof irom its Japanese < bours on the broadcast band. Conditions I - re i esE favourable for short-wave recep-

The Union International de Radiodiffusion, Geneva, in its annual survey rives the relative numbers cf receiving licences held by listeners per 1090 inhabitants m 192S Of the lo European states where licences are issued Denmark heads the list, with 87.93, Sweden being second with 70. and Great Britain third with 67.1. Austria beats Germany with 57.2 as against 47.1. Italy, fatherland of Marconi, has two; compare this with Latvia's 15.4 cr Estonia s lu.S. Rumania has L 7. These figures do not in themselves indicate the number cf licences held, for Germany which is fifth had at the time cf compilation over tnree million licences "alive," and Denmark less than half a million.

There has been an alarming increase lately in tne unpopularity cf the British Broadcasting Corporation. This is mainly due to tlis relentless pursuit cf €&wi-raji.s&-tion in the face of overwhelming public opposition in the provinces. The demand for a Parliamentary inquiry _ into _ the working of the 8.8.C. is rapidly gaming jocund and is accelerated by the ns. - sistent rumours of grave dislocation at Savoy Hill. Meanwhile, there has been one important change in the organisation of the programme department. Mr. P. Eekersley has handed over the admistration to "Captain Cecil Graves, Viscount Grey's nephew But it is not expect that this change will have any pi_:i reactions such as followed the hfljiiiij'i over by Mr. Arthur Burrows eik! -I- 1 . Cecil Lewis. It will be a tu the enemies of centralisation to know that Captain Graves is an even more ardent advocate of it than Mr. Eckersiey. _lt also understood that the. Board ci Governors is similarly pledged to fgiit public opinion about centralisation*