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 of broadcasting stations to give a national service. It attempts to be comprehensive and therefore cannot 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 underlying the 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 for its successful operation upon material and operation supplied by relatively unskilled persons under no authority or disciplined direction.