ON THE AIR

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 17957, 8 December 1932, Page 9

ON THE AIR

Inter-Station Co-operation In Chain Broadcasting In U.S.A.

I™ growth of relays both in the National service and the various B class systems of Australia has brought into being new problems, one of which is the co-ordination of all the stations concerned so that they may pick up their relays smoothly and without delay, and, when finished, ic sunie their normal programmes in an equally easy manner. The problem, however, is, says the Sydney Morning Herald, not vet nearly as complicated here as it in in the U.S.A., where chains extending from one coast to the other and including up to 90 stations have to be, arranged. The programmes which, of course, are sponsored, are generally arranged in units of a quarter, half, or one hour, and whereas one advertiser may require a chain of, say, 2b stations for perhaps a quarter of an hour the next may want -10 stations, sonic ut which may not have been included in the previous period. Thus there arises the problem of arranging for all the stations which are members of the chain to drop in and out of broadcasts originating from the key station at the correct time without any abnormal delays, for there are so many stations competing for the listeners’ attention that periods of “dead air” have to be avoided ut .all costs and the aim is never to have silence for more than 10 seconds, no matter what may be the trouble or the interruption in the system.

This naturally requires stop-watch co-operation between all stations belonging to the network, and everything is timed to the second. For example, it may be that at 9 p.m. a programme of a certain type is to be broadcast through a group of stations. At exactly .30 seconds before this time the announcer who is handling the preceding programme will close with, “This is the Columbia Broadcasting System,” or some such phrase, which is a cue for the entire network. Five seconds after this each station in the network will give its own call sign. These announcements are usually made over a background of music, which generally continues until 10 seconds before the commencement of the new programme when it fades out. Then follows silence for 10 seconds, during which period the authority known as “Master Control” disconnects the studio which lias been used, connects up that which is to be used, and makes the necessary land-line connections for sending out the coming programme to the selected stations. Also during this period throughout the whole of the network, stations which are leaving it drop out of the system while those which are to conic in make the necessary connections, those which arc continuing on, of course, taking uo action. Then exactly at the hour the opening announcement or the opening bars of the new programme come un the air throughout all stations. This procedure has reached such a state of accuracy that listeners may check their clocks with the various cue words and opening times. Frogrammes are carefully rehearsed before they are allowed to come on the air, and during the broadcast the producer keeps an accurate check and sees that it finishes neither too early nor too late for the arrangements to be made for linking up the proper stations for the succeeding performance. The Columbia broadcasting system includes about 93 stations, extending from the Gulf of Mexico to Canada, and from Now York to California, and it operates from 7.30 a.m. one day to 1 a.m. the next morning. The difference in time between cast and west allows this, and it is possible for a listener with a sufficiently good set. to obtain reception practically throughout tin. 24 hours, for when the Californian stations are closing down at 2 a.m. it is (3 a.m. in New York. Not all periods of the day are sought after by advertisers, and it is necessary for stations during the “off” periods to put on what are known as “sustaining” programmes. Tho key stations use these for trying out n6w programmes and new artists, and any station on the network whicn happens to be short of a programme of its own may utilise these if it wishes. When such a programme has reached a satisfactory state of efficiency, it is handed over to what is known as the sales department, and it is sold to whatever advertiser may fancy it, when it takes its place in the more I important hours of the day.