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Radio Times, August 26, L027. Fouthern Edition: TWO ‘LA TOSCA’ BROADCASTS ( S e e p a g e 3 4 9 ) . el to r 5 ee .. ABPoSBe a 2 DoaeeB eae f oe fe =. Precanal Pe Coa —, r ait" j - a en tS caked ACLS a i T Mt a Pa Fin z nit F LEEwS-PPOs -s24 a 08085 HEILft Re ies& —THE ~~ ark Lae i [cme rro oP \me. esa eed a a im ae Sewanee are ee \ got Tv GAHAM J STOMP Oatheee te (mecay) a C:] ARMINGH aa BOEMO! Pee The Journal of the British Broadcasting Corporation. am ee , Vol. 16. “No. 204. fara] rs AUGUST 26, 1927 Every Friday. Two Pence. The Great Experiment Begins. A Message to Listeners from Captain Eckersley. T this moment, GB, our new Daventry | tively short period, by trial and measure- As to the success of the experiment, the A Experimental Station, is in operation, ment. ft was felt that it would be a pity to following are the main points on which we about to enter upon the second week deny listeners an alternative service just are definitely Seeking guidance by practical of its existence. We have seen the experience -— erinning ofan experiment whichis =A (a) the Extent of Service Area, destingd to play a large part in AUBREY By this is meant the extent of } moulding the future of our broaci- HAMMOND the area within which reasonable ‘ casting ST Le, # i service can be guaranteed to the ; The problem of 5GB is, at the average listener who possesers “@ moment, largely -a-techrucal one. simple “receiving apparatns, it i perhaps, ‘tl CLeLOEr, natural | (b) The Best Method of Contrast- that, as Cluef Engineer, | should be ing Programmes. invited by the Editor of The Radio This implies designing progranuies i T tres Cth Wrire LAaes te WoOWODES calculated to satisfy two moods af pt the progress and meaning of the the average listener. It has nothing a present experument. to do with the terms‘ high-brow' ; [t is not-easy to measure the pro- and "low-brow,’: for the aim of the i cress 50 far made; the experiment service 15 to give the bes! in every has hardly been going long enough. department. Inevitably, some listeners say that (c) fecknical Problems Incudentat- the new Station 16 much too strong; lo the Operation o f a New Types - that, because. of it, they cannot new of Ivansmitter. hear this or that otherstation: and, i A novel form of circuit is being 4s inevitably, others say that-it is || used at 5GB. This should prove to too weak because they have. been be distinctly superior, though actual j used to living close to the old local practice under service conditions will 7 HITT aI transmitter, whose reveal its true capability. , functions 5B has assumed. But | To sum up, 5GB isan experiment, these local difficulties will soon dis- a pioneer venture. The truth about appear. In the meantime, letters-are the success of such experiments can pouring in from all over the country only be revealed by co-operation showing appreciation of the newser- between the listener and the broad: vice, and leaving no doubt that many caster. This orinal scheme, under- listeners find it effective. ALTERNATIVE PROGRAMMES. taken while all our ordinary work is I would add the word of watmng Dee a Seek | In progress, naburalhy involves a [ot that the service is evpertmental and of worry, hard work and strain: But: ' we cannot guarantee the same freedom from | because it might be Jess regular than nor- we are not- complaining, since we are Sure that ’ (breakdown asin the case of our other trans- mally. But, alter all, the service is alter- listeners will co-operate in this great adven- ‘Tnitters; °5GB is an experimental station, | native: if breakdowns. oocur in it, -the ture, and that we are all going to participate Itsdesign has been evolved in a compara- listener. is left witha programme from 54%. in the enjoyment ofa vastly improved service: a Sg ms es = o RAID: _vIMES— [Aueper 26, Haa7. :— SSS A London Night’s Patedacient. By Graham Eltham, with Sketches by Sava. Mr. Graham Eltham, a veteran *Promenader, ‘gives in the accompanying article an impression of the scene at Queen's Hall at the openimmg, on Saturday, August. 13, of the WF Season of “Proms, These concerts has for thirty-two years been | the rallying-point of musical London, and the enthusiasm of the * Prom.’ audiences have long been a matter of amazement to foreigners, who, in general, accept the axiom that Fneland is ‘the land without music. Never before “has public interest in the “Proms.” run hiner than this vear, when the concerts are beme conducted under the auspices of the B.B.C. | § I stood in the expectant queue, a these same notices about striking: matches. those fellows sitting at home in front of the gentleman with a cynical ceprestan the same radiators to lean against—all as it loud-speaker that we were iiere—and the and a ginger moustache played a Was in ovr time, except that the fountain, little microphone, seemmgly distant and dozen chords ona guitar and then, approach- rendezvous of youthful meetings, had gone unmoved by our frenzies, gathered them up ing our impatient crocodile, extended a the way of all fountains—and luckily, too, and scattered them over the country a5 prabby trilby hat with the words, * That, for certinky some of us would undoubted}y later it was to scatter the music to which ladies ‘n gents, was a slight impersonation have been drowned among the gold fish, so we listened. ot & lady whim’ away the time playin’ the great was the press upon the floor. The programme: was familiar to enitar!’ We tumbled our tuppences into music wempeht us. Wirth other the tilby. The mumpersonation had been of HE fountain had gone—let us hope to be" on nodding terms; but ths the shightest—but no shehter than our find rest in the country garden of some own impersonation of a crowd, of English music-lover—but a stranger had come -to mrstc-lovers. replace it, an invader which the wisest Whatever we may have seemed we had among us had forecast would never conquer certainly not the appearanee of coneert- the, Queen's. Hall. As soon as they came goers. There we were—old Jadies with through the doorway, people pointed at scarves roumd their heads, old gentlemen it, excitedly explaiming, ‘See, dear, there's in mutters (for it was an evening in August), the microphone—no, not fat, that's the Boy Scouts, young men in flannels carrying organ, That little white thing on a string! tennis tackets—a casual observer, taking You'd hardly know, would you, that they us out of our context, might have supposedus were going to broadcast ?' to be waiting for anything else in the world Only five minutes to cight- and so manyj hut a concert. I half suspected that we already on the Promenade that outside were in the wrong queue after all, destined the police were turning people away. Inside for Maskelyne's and another kind of magic. everyone talked while “the talking was good ——— We were playing our parts very ill indeed. —the whole strangely assorted crowd in Our conversation should have been hushed raincoats and flannels and the black cloak and highbrow, our air aloof and scornful. of Chelsea's Latin Quarter—the younger But there were too many of us for that, converts -to this August cult of concerts we could receive with unconstrained dehght. we were filled with too joyous an expectancy loudly accepting the phenomenon of Broad- No party manners were required to greet —the hall might, from the crowd outsideit, casting—the older hands (some with thirty- have contained not Grieg but Greyhounds. the ‘Cockaigne’ Overture,. Boecherini’s two years’ experience to their credit) vaguely Minuet, the Grieg Concerto—no more than When at slow pace we passed the doors mistrustful of the microphone overhead, to welcome Rosina Buckman, (a Bronolilde a little jealous perhaps that their own in moufti}), Arthur de Greef {a little like Sonw'o, especial province was to be divided between Sir Hall Caine, a little less ike Wiliam a million others, a million strangers in the Shakespeare), Dale Smith, We were so per- world beyond the green and gel’. But fectly at home that we demanded encores— whatever cur age amd standme as. Pro- and got them. menaders, we kept our eyes to each other it was as though we were assisting at some and oor proerammes, searecly glancing at intimate and sacred rte whose high pricst ‘the gods * above us, for no truce Promenader was a short, masterful figure in stobborn beheves that any good can come to a man evening dress who wielded his batom 45 who distens to the Proms from a seat ! though it had been, alternately, a whip, # rapier, and a feather. We were in tum HUSH. Entered the leaders of the Cockney with Elgar, sprightly with Boc- orchestra, one by one as though cherini, Scandinavian and vaguely heroic instructed by some dramatic producer who with Grieg, tender and devotional with knew his business. Applause. .A second Handel's * Largo,’ impetuously Magyar with hush... Necks craned, we tiptoed as,,on: the Liszt, So possessed were we with music stroke of eght, booming from church towers that when, after ‘“haif time,’ we. were upon those unfortunates who had been shut summoned from the batfet and the corridors, outside in the misty damp ef the evenme, we returned with eager docility as.

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