BROADCASTING IN AUSTRALIA
Sta,—I find myself in considerable disagreement with your contributor of the article " Sponsored Radio." I must explain that I have recently been released from service in the radio branch of the Navy, and have recently spent several months in Australia, where naturally I took con- siderable interest in radio matters, technical and otherwise, and had an opportunity of hearing radio programmes, originating in Sydney, Mel- bourne and Western Australia. First, it must. be realised that, in view of the comparative isolation of Australia, there is available for domestic use virtually the whole of the " broadcast band " of frequencies, which in crowded multi-lingual Europe must be split as equitably as possible amongst many claimant nation. Thus the greater apparent choice of programmes is in no way attributable directly to commercial radio. Secondly, a system must be judged by its results ; a net revenue of Z700,000 from a licence fee of kr does not suggest an extraordinarily high proportion of listeners amongst a population of some 7,000,000 more plentifully equipped with spending power than ours. In this connection, too, from personal experience in the homes of generous Australian friends, I should say that in a country of sun-worshippers and of outdoor sports most people own a.-wireless set for the sake of the news-bulletins, the time and for their children, who like the American- type serials.
Mr. Lloyd Thomas " would say without hesitation that the general standard of broadcasting in Australia is higher than in the British Isles."- Without hesitation and with willingness to give concrete examples, I would say that the opposite is more correct. Ten or fifteen-minute pro- grammes, with endless repetitions throughout the day, amateurish and badly presented programmes, overmuch reliance on gramophone records and an enormous volume of advertising, all tend to lower the standard. Does Mr. Lloyd Thomas realise that every large shop, apart from patent- medicine vendors, puts out its daily list of bargains, and that even second- hand bicycles are advertised for sale? I yield to no one in my admira- tion for the Australian cities, but their radio programmes seem to me feeble, poor things, and their wide choice (impossible in any case in this country) very little choice at all.—Yours faithfully, H. S. MCPHERSON.
5i Barnfield Crescent, Sale, Manchester.
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