The design and distribution of wireless broadcasting stations for a national service

Great Britain was the first nation to give a single authority the responsibility for the conduct of a national service of broadcasting. Since the date of the formation of the British Broadcasting Company (November 1922) a large number of nations have adopted similar systems. America, however, where broadcasting has been in active operation since the War, still clings to a system based on private enterprise. This paper deals with some aspects of the underlying problems in the distribution and design ofbroadcasting stations to give a national service. It attempts to be comprehensive and thereforecannot in a manageable length fail to be more qualitative than quantitative. Furthermore, broadcasting being of such recent growth, there has been little time to make so full a quantitative study as must ultimately be undertaken. Each of the sections could form the basis of a more detailed paper, but the time is more than ripe for at least a statement of the problems underlyingthe art and science of broadcasting. Peculiar interest attaches to the subject as comprising not only technical but also psychological problems. No other technical public service depends forits successful operation upon material and operation supplied by relatively unskilled persons under no authority or disciplined direction.