THE RADIO WORLD

Southland Times, Issue 18990, 11 July 1923, Page 9

THE RADIO WORLD

(By

“Regenerator”).

IMPROVING ’PHONES. The following is an extract from an article in an English magazine and should be of considerable interest to amateurs: — “If you have a pair of telephones that are not very sensitive they can be improved considerably in quite a simple way. Their poor response to impulses from the set is due to the fact that the magnets are unable to impart sufficient movement to the discs, either because the latter are too heavy or because they lie too far away from the poles. Very thin discs can be procured from those who specialise in the production of telephones for wireless uses, nr the existing ones may be rubbed down with fine emery powder and oil. Should the discs be so fitted that they stand some distance away from the posts of the magnets, the best remedy is to rub down the edges of the case of the receivers a little. This can be done by placing fine emery oil on a flat surface and working the case care fully upon it until it is sufficiently reduced to allow the discs to rest quite near the magnet'. Sometimes, however, the cause of insensitiveness is exactly the reverse; the discs may have become so strained by the constant pull of the magnets that they actually rest upon the poles. In this case the remedy is simplicity itself—it bulges outwards instead of inwards. Telephones seldom receive the attention that they deserve, for few people realise what difficult instruments they are, or to what currents they must respond, which are rarely more than 1* milliamperes.” SPARKS. The first broadcasting programme was sent out by the Westinghouse Co., of Pittsburgh, U.S.A., in December, 1920. Mr V. Vincent, Colombo street, Christchurch, has been granted a transmitting license and his call sign is 3 A B. Local amateurs who are desirous of improving their theoretic knowledge of radio should pay a visit to the juvenile section of the Public Library where there is a particularly fine set of works on this subject. There are works to suit the beginner as well as the more advanced student. The latest addition is Williams’ “Practical Ratlin,’’which should be read by all those who intend constructing their own sets. Mr Searle, president of the North Otago Radio Association, telegraphed from Oamaru to Wellington Broadcasters, Ltd., on Friday night:—“Picking up your concert to-night on three valve set with Mr Kemp, a member of the local club. The items are coming as clear and strong as if in same room, including voice announcing, ’sent out from Ford building.’ ” Wellington Broadcasters, Ltd., (comprising Messrs Thomas Ballinger and Co., A. R. Christian, and the International Electric Co.), advise they have received many donations towards the cost of maintaining their broadcasting service. It is anticipated that the change over from lo watts to 250 watts (seventeen times the present power) will take place next week. —Dominion. In experimenting in the matter of fading, it has been found that if a valve receiving set by oscillating and tuned to a beat dead on that of incoming broadcast matter, the speech being received on another set close by will fade completely out. As the condenser of the oscillating set is moved to tune off the incoming wave the speech comes back gradually until the original strength is regained. The other night the London Broadcasting Station had the interesting experience of listening to its own broadcast music as received in a little village 12 miles from Liverpool. The received signals were relayed back on the landing to 2 L 0 by an enthusiastic listener-in desirous of acquainting “Uncle Arthur” with the excellence of his transmission. The latter announced that the orchestral selection being broadcast could be heard louder after its adventurous journey to Liverpool and back than in the setudio of the broadcasting station itself. WIRELESS BROADCASTING GREAT GROWTH IN ENGLAND. THEATRE INTERESTS PROTEST. There are six wireless broadcasting stations in Great Britain from which concerts, speeches, weather reports, news of the day, children’s stories and other things are broadcasted at specified hourfe each day and night. These stations are distributed throughout the country, so as not to interfere with one another. The cities in which they are situated are London, Cardiff, Birmingham, Manchester, Newcastle and Glasgow. All of them are controlled by the British Broadcasting Company, which is composed of about 600 British firms and companies which have been associated with the development of wireless or engaged in the construction of wireless aparatus. The company has an agreement with the Post-master-General which gives it for a period of two years a monopoly of broadcasting in Great Britain. The company was formed at the instigation of the Postmaster-General, with the object of avoiding the chaos which has arisen in the United States owing to the fact that there the air is “free,” i.e., anyone is free to set up a broadcasting station and broadcast anything he likes, including advertising matter about liver pills, shaving soap and such things. Throughout America there are now in existence nearly 600 broadcasting stations most of which have a radius of several hundred miles. When half a dozen stations in the same city are broadcasting at the same time the result is chaos as far as the “listeners’ in” are concerned. Nevertheless broadcasting has reached a much more advanced stage in the United States than it has in Gr»at Britain. In America most of the hospitals, colleges and prisons, as well as the hotels, have radio receivers, i.e., sets for receiving broadcasted entertainments. ONLY IN ITS INFANCY. The problem whether broadcasting affects existing forms of entertainment such m are provided in the theatre the cinema ana the concert hall, is receiving close attention in Great Britain. The officials of the British Broadcasting Company contend that broadcasting increases the attendance at theatres. They insist that many of the people who “listen in” to a play or part of it will decide that they must go to the theatre to see the play acted. They declare that broadcasting a theatrical performance—so far they have not attempted to broadcast dramas, but only operas and musical plays—is a splendid advertisement for it, and that the theatrical managers ough to pay them for the advertisement. The attitude of the theatrical interests to broadcasting is expressed in the fact that they have sunk their differences in order to unite in opposing broadcasting and to prevent actors, actresses and music hall stars who are under contract from selling their services to the British Broadcasting Comhpany. Concert singers, concert agents, musicians, musical composers, musical publishers, gramophone makers and others are uniting with the theatrical interests in opposing broadcasting. At present broadcasting is only in its infancy, and it is impossible to say how far its ramifications will extend when it grows up, and in what measure these ramifications will displace existing conditions can be gathered from the fact that cinemas are dispensing with their orchestras, and by means of a radio receiver fitted with a “loud speaker” are able to turn on music when they want it. It is not difficult to foresee a time when broadcasting arrangements will be so perfected that thousands of cinemas and theatres will be supplied with music from a single orchestra playing at a broadcasting station. “TO STEAL OUR LIFE’S WORK” “Does broadcasting a play create a desire to see rhe play?” asH Mr Walter

Payne, the chairman of a committee consisting of thirteen associations connected with the theatrical world—a committee formed to protect the interests of the theatre from exploitation by the British Broadcasting Company. “If the broadcasing is very good, people will be content to listen in, and will not travel to the West End to seek emjoyment, especially in bad weather. If the broadcasting is bad, they will not want to see the play. The broadcasting company has burst into the entertainment world, to steal our life’s work. With our artists they can improve their performances. The more they improve them the worse it will be for the artists themselves, the theatres, the cinefas, restaurants, hire car agencies, and the many other industries that depend in whole, or in part, on the theatres. It has been said that people who hear part of a play broadcasted will go to see the play. Here is a concrete example on the other side. I know of a London hotel where 40 or 50 people who otherwise would go out in the evening seeking a place of amusement, now sit and smoke in the lounge, while they listen-in to broadcast concerts.” It appears, however, that the London theatrical managers are prepared to allow the British Broadcasting Company to broadcast plays if they will pay liberally for the right to do so. “It is wholly a commercial matter,” states Mr J. A. E. Malcne, who is associated with the management of several theatres in the West End. “Are we to give something for nothing? If the British Broadcasting Company wants the theatrical managers to come in with it, let it put forward a business proposition. When we can see there is something in it for the theatres, we can examine the whole question on business lines. At present there is nothing in it for the theatres but loss. When a musical production goes on tour success will partly depend on its freshness. But if the tunes are broadcasted all over the country and have become hackneyed, so that everyone has grown tired of them before the play goes on tour, then the advantage of freshness is lost as far as the tour is concerned. If we allow London productions to be broadcasted over the country theatrical managers in provincial towns will not book the play. It has been said that broadcasting has not prejudicially affected the theatres in America. I do not know on what they base that conclusion. The last theatrical season in America was a very bad one for theatrical managers. But England and America are not on the same plane as regards the theatre. I do not think anything will eradicate the theatre habit in America. The Americans are more thorough going playgoers than we are. The majority of the Americans, particularly in the eastern cities, have not the homes and the home attachments of the English people. Many of them live in apartments or hotels, and they have not the same lure to remain indoors and listen in to broadcasting that an Englishman has. Here everyone has a little home of his own and is rooted to it. The theatre has to entice him out.”