Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), Tuesday 10 July 1923, page 10


BROADCASTING.

POPULAR INTEREST.

CONCERT AT MANLY.

Indicating the popular interest in the broadcasting of entertainments by wireless, the attendance at the radio concert at the Manly Literary Institute last night crowded the building.

The concert was arranged by the Manly Radio Club, and musical items were trans-mitted to the hall from Mr. R. C. Marsden's experimental station at Edgecliff, and from Mr. Marks' station at Rose Bay. The audi-ence was keenly appreciative of the enter-tainment, and the organisers of the concert were congratulated on its success.

An address on the broadcasting of enter-tainments was delivered by Mr. E. T. Fisk, He outlined the systems in vogue in America and Great Britain, and compared the pro-posed Australian scheme favourably with

them.

Mr. Fisk stated that in both America and England it had been found necessary to appoint special committees to investigate the schemes. In America, owing to the absence of restric-tions in the past, an enormous number of privately owned plants had been installed, and this rendered reform difficult. In Great Britain there were restrictions, but the pro-posed scheme for Australia was expected to include more restrictions aiming to benefit the people as a whole. Broadcasting, Mr. Fisk said, was essentially competitive. The

broadcasting companies, if they were to suc-

ceed, would have to provide the best enter-tainments possible. At the same time, the co-operation of the owners of receiving plants would be necessary, for unless the broad-casting companies were supported they could not continue. Broadcasting was peculiarly susceptlble to the activities of the unscrupu-lous. It was a very simple task to erect an aerial at night and remove all traces of it after the owner had listened-in to a broad-casted concert without contributing to the costs. With complete co-operation between the owners of receiving sets and the broad-casting centres it would be possible to engage the very best talent at central radio rooms, and transmit concert, band, and other enter-tainments to all receiving plants, to gather-ings in the municipal parks, to the crowds at seaside resorts, and to the far distant country centres.