Suva’S New Broadcast
p. 56 · Read in the full issue
Station
O ADIO listeners in Australia, late in September, heard a programme being broadcast from Station VPD2, in Suva, Fiji, by means of a relay through a Syd ney station. About the same time Mr.
B- S. B. Stevens, Premier of New South Wales, returning from Europe, had a radio-telephone chat from Suva with his colleagues in Australia.
These events were an indication of a new development in Station VPD, Suva — one of the most interesting stations in the world, because it marks the introduction of broadcasting in the South Sea Islands.
There are powerful stations in Honolulu, and in the Philippines and East Indies; but it has remained for Amalgamated Wireless (Australasia) Ltd. to introduce radio broadcasting in the Pacific Islands south of the equator.
Station YPD, Suva, is destined to be an important one. It has been soundly or ganised and established for A.W.A. by a far-sighted enthusiast in the person of Mr. F. C. Exon. It has been cordially accepted as an important local institution by the leading people of Fiji; and the manner in which the people of Suva have rallied round and provided sufficient local talent to guarantee a nightly programme of entertainment ensures the success of the station in that direction.
The station was established early in 1936. The studio and offices are located in an attractive white building on the water front at Suva. The transmitters and en gineering apparatus and aerials are some three miles out, at an eastern suburb of Suva called The Point. Here there is a number of substantial buildings, and under the vigorous direction of Mr. Exon the surrounding land has been cleared and laid down in lawns. The white build ings, under the palm trees, surrounded by grassy slopes and brilliant flowering shrubs, with the lagoon in the back ground, make a very attractive picture.
The new development referred to is the installation of a new and much more powerful transmitter. This has given wider reception, and has made two-way telephone conversation possible between Fiji and the countries surrounding the Pacific.
Not long ago a special programme of Fijian songs and music was transmitted from VPD to America, where it was very successfully relayed over the major net work of the National Broadcasting Cor poration.