Listen In!

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 74, Issue 190, 13 August 1931, Page 10

Listen In!

•K NOTES AND PROGRAMMES

(By

"Detector.’’)

Noise from 2BL. For sonic time past there has been an objectionable background noise in 2BL’& carrier, which has given rise to many complaints from listeners, states a Sydney paper. The engineers of the Postmaster General ; s Department are fully alive to the situation, and are taking steps to remove the trouble. So far. the generators have been absolved from blame, but the exact location of the fault has not been found nor can any indication be given of when the trouble will be cleared up. The trouble has not been noticeable in the case of reception here, but on the whole .’BL has not been up to its old standard of strength for some time past. Change of Wavelength. Station. 2AY, Albury, New South Wales, which is regularly heard in Auckland, has altered its wavelength to 202.7 metres (1480 k.c.). According to advice from Sydney, the alteration has 1 resulted in the station’s transmission I oeing freed from the second harmonic :of 2FC and the reception has been i greatly improved. Microphone Wanted j AH the Y”A. stations now use condenser microphones for relay purposes, and i even then the acoustic properties of the I buildings tend to introduce extraneous l noises and echoes which spoil the. intelligibility of what is going on. Perhaps, as 2YB’s relay mikes are out of date, some public spirited listener will present the station with a condenser mike and so help the good work and voluntary efforts of the North Taranaki Radio Society, says the Taranaki Daily News in discussing the relays carried out. by 2Y’B. Future of Radio. From a further published statement of the Minister it seems that the Gov-

ernment has decided to favour a boa r d of control in preference to granting a renewal of the R.B.C. ’s license. In the face of admitted failure of the British Broadcasting Commission, and of public opinion, this is to he deplored. How it is proposed to elect the board nas not been revealed. Perhaps it will be appointed on similar lines to the Railway Board, without consulting the listeners in the matter. The statement that the board is to be free of political control is so much ••'eye wash.’’ As the board is presumably to be appointed by the Government, the members will naturally be looked upon and expected to be the servants of the Government, and will naturally do as they are told by those who appointed them. If that does not amount to political control, what does? Bureaucratic methods will, be the day; the pet ideas of a few will be exploited to the limit with no avenue of redress. We will be told that our musical taste is to be educated; we will get, not what we want, but what is considered good for us. Ea-sy Money. One can still make a fortune in America by selling a broadcasting station. According to the Washington correspondent of the Wireless World (London) the supply of available stations is so far behind the demand that churches and schools are disposing of their broadcast transmitters at fabulous prices. The correspondent mentions, among other examples, a 100-watt station in New Y’ork which is now on rhe market for the modest sum of £17,000. The station’s equipment originally cost £180: to-day it is one of those ‘ ’haywire’’ broadcasters with an obvious illusion about the size of its audience and the value of the one-fourth time it is licensed to remain on the air. There is another in the same vicinity, a 500watter. which is now being “offered” for £32.000. A. year ago its owners were tearfully begging for £19,000. The management of still another New York station, a 1000-watter, is known to have placed a “conservative value 1 ’ of £50,000 on it. Station WOE, Newart, with 5000 watts, is understood to have turned down a cool £600,000 for its plant and goodwill, presumably offered by a well-known newspaper magnate. These prices, of course, do not pretend to represent the value of the plant; they are mostly the u value/’ of the right to broadcast, in a country where every available broadcasting channel .s occupied, and where broadcasting, like virtue, is its own reward. Service! Make use of our Radio Repair Service. Radio is our speciality, therefore bring your repairs to the Arm who specialise in this work. All and any classes of sets repaired. Valves may be the cause of poor reception, so brins them in. and we will test them free. — D. A. Morrison £ Co., Avenue/ Dealers Faring Well Radio dealers have every reason to be gratified with the support being accorded them in these hard times. Members of the trade, in general, report, most satisfactory business, and ready clearances of the latest models of receivers, particularly those moderate in price and compact in type. The general adoption of the electric set, and the vast area over which it can be operated in New Zealand, thanks f o the extensive schemes of power boards have done much to increase the popularity of listening of late. Radio entertainment is rapidly becoming everybody's entertainment, and, a? such, its progress should keep pace with patronThe Playing of Records There is one thing which must be right for the successful playing of gramophone records; that is speed. There is another point which is worth emphasis: that is—it is the simplest thing in the world to time the running of the turn-table. It is high time some station directors took notice of this! Further Complications With the opening of Australia's second relay station. 4RK. at Rockhampton. further complications of the wavelength question have arisen. With the usual efficiency and forethought of officialdom, a wavelength is allotted practically right on top of IYA. After a glorious imitation of a cat, fight, for a night or two, IYA has had to shift to approximately 875 k.c. and is now i hetrodyning slightly with 2BL.

How Australia Fares. • The Melbourne Herald, in discussing the financial position of Commonwealth broadcasting, makes the following comment:— “Australia has a smaller proportion ’ of wireless license revenue devoted to ; radio programme expenditure than any , other country in the world. The Brit- ; ish Broadcasting Company spends 73 : per cent of its £1,100,000 a year revenue, on programmes alone, compared with : the 50 per cent given to the Australian ; Broadcasting Company. This comparison, however, is further aggravated by 1 the fact that the A.8.C., from the 50 per cent, of the license fee money it receives, takes 10 per cent for its proP a y s the ox erhead expenses of its nation-wide organisation, all salaries and directors’ fees, a big contribu- i tion to the Postal Department for lineand mechanics for outside rclavs. a■; i an enormous sum—about £25.000 a \ i —for copyright. Therefore, of the £160,000 which the A.B.C. receives r rom the 332,000 I'mense fees in Australia, there is very little for payment of artists and entertainers at Australia’s nine f ,V class stations. Last, year the >um was only 25 per cent of the total license, revenue. “When only 6/- of every 24 is paid out in programmes, there seems room for reduction somewhere. From the listeners’ point, of view, the two contributions which could best bo reduced are the 9s taken by the Postal Depart- - ment, and the payment for copyright. 1 The remaining 3s is paid to Amalga- 1 mated Wireless for royalties, and is be- j ing used to build up a radio industry . which in the future will be of immense 1 value to the station. The Postal De- I partment's contribution, however, is ' not all being used for the purpose for j which it was set aside. The bulk of 1 it is going into consolidated revenue. ! Approximately 1/- a license is absorbed •

by the Radio Department’s administration expenses, and another 2s a license to operate the stations. That leaves 6s a license for construction or relay stations. Only four have been built, with the £150,000 collected from this source in the past two years. “In the country’s present condition, and in view of the number of ‘B’ class stations which have been, licensed m country towns and are serving the purpose for which relay stations were intended, this contribution easily could be suspended, permitting a reduction in fees to 18s a yfiar. ” The writer is inclined to think that this statement is not quite accurate as a comparison, where it mentions that 73 per cent of the 8.8. C. revenue is devoted to cost of programmes. It will probably be found that this 73 per cent includes also such “overhead organisation” as is included in programme direction and organisation. If the 8.8. C. can spend 73 per cent of its revenue on actual artists’ fees, then its economy of management and the efficiency thereof deserve to be ranked as modern wou- > ders. I\A. Auckland, carried out a rebroadcast of the. Crosloy station WBXAL, Mason, Ohio, last week. Speech was. at first, far better than music, the announcement, by the station regarding its programme being strong and quite clear. The musical offerings suffered from atmospheric noises, etc., and from the attentions of one or two short-wave listeners until they had tuned in WSXAL properly. Towards the end of the rebroadcast there was a slight improvement in the clarity of the musical items. As a “stunt” it was very interesting, of course, but it emphasised the point that such rebroadcasts have little entertainment value in the present stage of short-wave transmission and reception over great distances. However, without these attempts at transmission, reception and rebroadcast, no progress would be possible. The R.R.C. is to be congratulated on the measure of success that attended the experiment. A Pioneer Short-wave Station. After being off the air for some months, G2NM, Saterham, England, has resumed transmitting on short-wave. G2NM is owned and operated by an English amateur, Mr Gerald Marcuse, and transmits on 20 metres. This station was in operation at. the beginning of 1927. and used to broadcast special programmes for New Zealand on 30 metres, with an aerial power of 1000 watts. The writer remembers hearing G2NM on several occasions in 1927, in 1927, but signal strength was never very great, owing no doubt to low power employed. The new schedule «>f G2NM is each Monday from 4 a.m. to ' 6.30 a.m., and again from 10 a.m. to ' 12.30 p.m., New Zealand time. Reports from New Zealand are greatly appreciated. Should Control Change? If, as it is rumoured, that the control of radio in this country is to b‘ 5 changed, it is interesting to note that under the terms of its agreement with the Broadcasting Company, the Govern ment is required to take over from that body all its plant, etc., at valuation, which is to be fixed, if necessary, by arbitration. In this connection it has to be borne in mind that what was expensive and up-to-date broadcasting np paratus as recently as five years ago may have, in that brief time, either depreciated very much, or become almost out-of-date. One of the financial prob lems which will have to be faced in the event of a change of system is the payment for the plant of the existing four stations. The absence of any published balance-sheet to show the cost of the equipment, and what has been written off .for depreciation, leave one in the dark as to how much may have to be found for the contingency of purchase, but an equally important point is whether such sum—no inconsiderable one—will become a direct and immediate charge upon revenue from listeners, or whether it will be faced now by the Government and be refunded in instalments from license fees. On these questions we should have enlightenment when the over-delayed statement is made in the House.

No Substitute for a Good Aerial. Recent research, states the Chief Engineer of Philips Lamps (N.Z.) Ltd., has conclusively proved the fallacy of the common belief that a short indoor aerial is a desirable adjunct, to f he modern sensitive radio receiver. For all but local reception, there is as much difference in performance between outdoor and indoor aerials as between an expensive and a cheap set. The development of “Interference technique” has proved that, there is no man-made interference which cannot be eliminated at its source, but the listener himself can exert quite a useful measure of control of conditions at the receiving end. The one object to be kept in view is obtaining the highest ratio of signal strength or reducing interference strength is therefore a step in the right direction. It has been established experimentally that, by far the greatest proportion of the radio interference experienced in towns, including the clicks and bangs caused by thh making and breaking of electrical circuits, the crackling, rasping and whirring noises from electrical machinery reaches the receiver by way of the lighting and power mains, gas and water pipes, gutters, etc., these, noises being propagated from the ground upwards. An indoor aerial operated right in the midst of the. interference must obviously be affected by it to a marked extent.. By adopting a high outdoor aerial we accomplish simultaneously a twofold effect, firstly by increasing tlie signal strength, of the distant station and secondly, we decrease the coupling between the aerial and the. ground interferences. In addition to being well above the interference mentioned, a good aerial has the down lead carefully placed remote from any power optelephone wire, house gutters, etc., while a really good earthing system is well worth while and attention to these points results in a great improvement in the ratio of signal strength to interference level, adding greatly to the enjoyment of distant broadcast programmes. “Dance Music!” While it. is still all very wonderful to be able to reproduce broadcasts put on the air thousands of miles away and at the great strength exhibited by KFI lately, one —out hero —hears very little more (except, perhaps, on Monday evenings than can be heard by tuning in on any dance session by a YA station. And that leads up to a point the writer has heard mentioned, with increasing frequency, by listeners during recent months, to the effect that it is about time broadcasting stations provided listeners with more variety during the so-called “dance” sessions. For some years now we have heard little other than what, one listener has dubbed “those everlasting lovesick jazz warblers” in a plethora of foxtrots, until, in some houses', the announcement that dance music session is commencing is the signal for the receiver to be turned off. That is all very well for some, of course, but there are many others who are reluctant to turn their sets off before bedtime (so long as there is some station audible), if only for the reason that any old kind of music is preferable to the burden perfect silence has become to them. As it is questionable if more than an infinitesimal percentage of listeners ever actually dance to the music put over by broadcasting stations, it would seem reasonable to expect that minority to indulge in their penchant for dancing in dance halls and for the broadcasters to replace their present dance sessions with a session of recorded music such as the truly enjoyable presentations they now provide during their afternoon sessions. There is a wealth of glorious music, of all types, in recorded form that is available for broadcasting—presumably as available in a copyright sense as that put over in the afternoon sessions—and, as the majority of listeners are unable to hear afternoon broadcasts, they are denied the pleasure and profit at present enjoyed by the minority. The foregoing is not. intended as suggesting that dance music—even “lovesick jazz warbling”—should be banned altogether. A little of it, on occasions, would be more highly appre- , dated by many than the present .feast of foxtrot offerings.