RADIO AND RECEPTION

Waipawa Mail, Volume LXVI, Issue 65, 18 February 1938, Page 4

RADIO AND RECEPTION

Australia will soon have another 2000-watts commercial station. 2KA Katoomba (in the Blue Mountains district) is erecting a new transmitter on an elevated site above Wentworth Falls. The present output of 2KA (780 kilocycles) is 500 watts. Receivers for use on automobiles and motor boats have reached a high state of perfection, and the results obtainable are remarkable in view of the small pick-up of diminutive running board aerials and lack of ground connection. The later models are conspicuously successful in the light load they impose on the already overburdened storage battery, the improvement having’ been brought about by the omission of rectifiers requiring filament current and the use of excellent magnetic type loud speakers, which require no exciting current. A Toulouse Court recently held that the buyer of a receiver could regard the sale as legally void if the set did not give normal reception even in daylight of every station that had its name or call sign on the tuning dial. The decision will not be allowed to stand without an appeal to the highest Court. Commercial broadcasting in America is subject to a strict censorship by the Federal Trade Commission, which prohibits the broadcasting of any statement likely to be false or misleading. According to a statement erentlv published by the Commision, out of 439,393 commercial broadcasts over independent stations and 30,938 over the networks last year, only 1275 prospective cases were found to be subject to further review. The Commission noted “a desire on the part of broadcasters to aid in the elimination of false and misleading advertising.” During the year the Commission received copies of 439,393 commercial broadcasts by individual stations and 30,983 , commercial broadcasts by networks, or chain originating key stations. Tho staff read and marked about 959,38-1 pages of typewritten copies during the year, or an average of 3145 pages every working day. From this material, 24,558 commercial broadcasts were marked for further study as containing representations that may have been fjjlsc or misleading. These were assembled in the 1275 prospecs tive cases for further review.

No fewer than 47,000 listeners volunteered to serve on a panel that has been formed by the British Broadcasting Corporation to gauge the listener-response to light entertainment programmes. These offers were received within three days of the request made over the air by Mr John Watt, director of variety for the British Broadcasting Corporation. As a result of this overwhelming response the corporation has decided to enrol 2000 of the applicants by the expedient of accepting each twenty-third offer. Each listener on the panel is to be supplied with a form giving details of the light entertainment programmes to be broadcast over three months, and will be asked to answer briefly just three questions:—(a) How much of the programme did you hear? (b) Did you start listening after this programme had begun? (c) Did you stop listening before this programme had finished? Though the most ambitious from the point of view of the size of the panel, this is not the first such inquiry on they part of the British Broadcasting Corporation, which goes to considerable lengths to ascertain the opinions of listeners on the fare provided.

After his six-mile run at the Empire Games the New Zealander Matthews said it was a silly distance. But not so silly as the radio announcer’s comments on the race. Matthews kept a good pace until the eighth lap, only faintly amused by his confreres’ efforts to take the lead. Then after hearing himself given as representing England, Scotland, and Canada at different moments and New Zealand in his spare time, Matthews became rather nettied. In retaliation he ran the next eleven laps in a few seconds, having the satisfaction of hearing the commentator announce, almost immediately, that Matthews now had only six laps to go! It had gone far enough when the announcer mentioned the last mile, so Mattthews ran back through four laps to take up the lead again at the sixteenth lap! Rather disconcerting to Ward and Rankin. It was only natural that such highly-complicated manoeuvres would be crowned with success!