Pt. Moresby
p. 30 · Read in the full issue
Radio Stations For
Pacific
Broadcasts From Suva and Pt. Moresby
IT is expected that the new broadcast ing station erected by Amalgamated Wireless (Australasia) Ltd. at Port Moresby, Papua, will be in operation by mid-October and that daily programmes thenceforward will be available to resi dents of Papua and at least the western portion of the Mandated Territory of New Guinea.
The Port Moresby station is not very powerful and it is not expected that its radius will be extensive; but it should be able to supply a very welcome service, not only to Papua, but also to the gold fields section of New Guinea. In favour able circumstances its programmes may be picked up in the Solomon Islands.
The new station erected by the same company at Suva, Fiji, is also nearing completion. This will be one of the most powerful stations in the Pacific and its daily programmes should be picked up without difficulty by Islands residents in the whole of the South Pacific —probably including the Solomon Islands and New Hebrides, in the west, and Tahiti in the east. We have been informed that trial transmissions from the new station re cently have been picked up very clearly in California.
There will not be much local talent available for the programme managers in these Islands towns. It is, therefore, probable that the bulk of the daily pro grammes will be provided by records made in Australia from material broad cast there, and sent regularly to Port Moresby and Suva.
This development marks an important step in the history of the Pacific Terri tories. Isolation has been for generations the handicap under which Islands com munities have suffered most. And radio is doing more than anything else to overcome that handicap.
Amalgamated Wireless (A/asia) Ltd. are to be congratulated on their enterprise in providing these broadcasting stations —and particularly on the very fine equip ment which has been placed in Fiji.