WIRELESS BROADCASTING.

Otago Witness, Issue 3804, 8 February 1927, Page 17

WIRELESS BROADCASTING.

DEVELOPMENT IN ENGLAND WELLINGTON, February 2. Sir William Noble, a member of the London directorate of the British General Electric Company, and until recently a director of the British Broadcasting Com-’ pany, arrived in Wellington to-day by the Manuka. Sir William, who was formerly engineer-in-chief to the G.P.0., London, is a firm believer in the possibilities of wireless. He gave a brief outline of the remarkable development which has taken place in broadcasting in England in the space of four years. “I was chairman of the committee which inaugurated broadcasting in England,” he said. “That committee commenced operations in 1922. and in the four years in which it functioned the number of licenses issued increased from nought to 2,500,000, a number which far exceeded the most sanguine expectations of the most optimistic members of the committee.” Questioned regarding the dissemination of news, Sir William said that the company made an arrangement with all the leading news agencies to supply daily an epitome of the world’s news. What effect does the broadcasting of news have on the newspapers?” he was asked. “None at all,” was .the reply. Sir William added that only a resume of the news was broadcasted, and if there were an important item the people who did not buy newspapers in the ordinary course purchased copies in order to obtain a fuller account. The same thing applied to the stage. If people enjoyed a play, or portion of a play, over the air, they were anxious, to go to the theatre to see the complete thing. Really the wireless was an excellent advertising medium for the stage. In regard to beam wireless, Sir William Aoble said that great results had already been achieved at Home, and he believed it going to be the means of binding, the Mother Country and the colonies by even closer ties, if that were possible. I ersonally, he believed the colonies admired the Mother Country just as much as the Mother Country admired the colonies. He had been particularly struck by the patriotism of the people .of Australia and New Zealand.