JAPANESE STATIONS

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 965, 7 May 1930, Page 7

JAPANESE STATIONS

PROGRAMME PROBLEMS Japan’s broadcasting system, which was inaugurated in 1926, has considerably developed during the past three years. Today (writes a correspondent of the “Wireless World”) it is I run by four separate organisations. | which, together, control more than 10 j transmitters. j The principal stations are installed j At Hiroschima. Osaka. Sapporo, Sendai and Tokyo, with relays at Daiyen, : Seoul (in Koreal, Nagoya and on the I island of Formosa. Of these, six are transmitters capable of developing au | energy of more than 10 kilowatts. All studios except one are interconnected Ly pupinised cable with the capital and main transmitter, the exception being that of Hokkaido, which takes its programme by wireless link. The system is now providing a regular

service to nearly 700,000 listeners, and the licence tax fee has recently been reduced to 1 yen monthly. The broadcasting organisers experience great difficulty in making up programmes capable of entertaining the various classes of listeners, for. in Japan, more, perhaps, than in any other country, the older generation steadfastly upholds tradition. On the other hand, the modern element, represented by the younger generation, demands entertainment on European and American lines. The programme builders are perpetually confronted with the problem of pleasing everybody, and have therefore to provide two distinct programmes in the course of a transmission.