One day this week I noticed on the table of
a man whose rooms I was visiting a copy of the last issue of World Radio ; it was dated September zst, 1939, and is beginning to look a little yellow. Its owner happens to have special roasdns for listening to foreign stations, and though several wave-lengths about the world have changed, most,- apparently, have not. So, lacking anything better, he keeps World Radio for the week before war broke out at his elbow% But why should anything better be lacking? The war has been over nearly two years ; continental broadcasting is in full swing ; there are all sorts of programmes that British listeners would like to hear. Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, and for all I know other countries, have weeklies like the Radio Times, giving full particulars of all European and some American programmes. Why should British listeners alone be put at this disadvantage? It cannot be on grounds of cost, for the B.B.C.'s licence-fee has just been doubled. If it is because of paper shortage there is a good ground for diverting a certain amount of paper from the Radio Times and perhaps from The Listener for a resuscitated World Radio. It is not satisfactory to be left so badly behind by small countries like Switzerland (which, I understand, is worried because it can't hear the B.B.C. Third Programme better) and Belgium.
* *
Previous page
