Service Is

Tri Lingual Radio

Costly In Fiji

BETWEEN June and December,

1 1954, Fiji’s radio licence total

jumped from 3,288 to 6,986, as

the result of a “very minor ad

vertising campaign” by the Broad

casting Commission and some effort

by the police.

The annual report of the Com mission, however, points out that before the FBC started broadcasting on July 1, 1954, it was estimated that there were something like

10,000 or 12,000 receiving sets in

active use in the Colony.

As it planned to derive at least one-third of its revenue from licence fees, the Commission pressed the Government for more effective licensing and collection of fees.

The report adds: “The Commission cannot rest until every receiving set in the Colony, or its owner, is licensed and an adequate con trol and collection system is established and effectively maintained by the Govern ment.”

The report points out that the Com mission must have a commercial basis if it is to be mainly self-supporting. It will “jealously control” both advertising and supporting programmes in order to minimise the offence which many listeners take from radio advertising, or which most listeners derive from over-com mercialised broadcasting or poor advertis ing.

The FBC plans to spend approximately £2,000 in recorded programme material for “sustaining” purposes in 1955. The report states that of the 5,000-6.000 un classified gramophone records which the Government acquired for it from the former station ZJV, about 2,000 were dis carded as worn out and another 1,000 were set aside for day sessions only, be

cause of high surface noise. The FBC acquired 1.500 new discs from overseas before July 1, 1954, and since then sup plies have been arriving regularly, “atlhough not in sufficient quantities for our desired programme formats”.

The BBC Transcription Service has made available to the Commission more than 8,000 discs free of cost. “But for this extensive and superb BBC library,” the report adds, “the Commission would have had to reduce considerably its 90 hours of broadcasting weekly.”

The report stresses that when the Legislative Council debated the establish ment of the Commission in 1952, no con sideration was given to the question of what funds the Commission would require to operate successfully, or to what its revenue might be, or to what extent the Colony might have to subsidise it. The Council, “having willed the end, must will the means . To give a reasonable tri-lingual service of information, educa tion and entertainment to a large and fairly scattered population is a costly business”.