On Friday, 21 October 2022 at 11:35:45 UTC+1, Max Demian wrote:
On 21/10/2022 09:59, Brian Gaff wrote:
Its a scan, so cannot read it and yes, I know that newsprint will be almost
impossible to OCR accurately,
Here you are then, grumpy guts
Sir William Haley
must face the fact
that the BBC has
failed the nation
Great television Muddle
By Kenneth Baily
BRITAIN has been promised tele-
vision for all at the earliest
possible date. My investigations
have proved that the. B.B.C's
present methods of trying to
achieve that result are leading to
nothing but a glorious muddle.
IS ris a muddle that is also
—shrouded in mystery, and the time
has come for an official inquiry to
find out what is really going on.
So far, the public has been fobbed off
with a development programme, t0'take
television to the North, to Wales and to
Scotland at a snail's pace.
Whenever questions have been asked
as to why the new stations could not be
speeded up, the official reply has been:
"We cannot move any raster because,
like everyone else, we have to take our
turn in the building programme and
that means we have to wait."
That explanation was given me again
last week, yet the fact is that the build-
ing of the new television stations need
not be held up at all.
The work has been let to private con-
tractors, and there are no Government
restrictions to prevent them employing
all the men they require to put up the
buildings'at high speed. Neither are the
contractors restricted by a '(shortage -or
d
a
in South, Wales. That station tvill still
take its turn in thc plan and not be
ready until after the Northern • and
Scottish stations."
Then I must inform Sir William
Haley now that ne soon will be hearing
of the Postmaster-General's speed-up
push. He is determined to give tele-
vision to all Britain at the earliest
possible moment—in so far as he has
the power to prod the B.B.C.
Clearly. someth ing is very wrong
with the B.B.C's. attitude to television.
In America it has swept the country
from coast to coast. Stations are going
up like mushrooms. Sound listening
over there is doomed.
But •in Britain we cannot even get
three relay stations built under two
years! Yet the transmitter of thc
Northern Station was ready 18 months
ago, and is now min packing -æases,
waiting • for the building. The other
transmitters could be completed by the
end of the year, and the Post Office
assure me that there is no delay in
providing the land - lines for new
stations.
All right, then! Let the Government
call for an inquiry to find out who is
responsible for the great television
muddle. I know what the answer will
be.
It will be that television must be
taken out of the hands of Sir • William
Haley an« the sound experts of the
materials.
B.B.C" if it is.,tp be given a chance to
Yet not a brick has been laid on the
-'kites"ehosen months •ago foi ståtions in
the North aGd in Scotland. Neither
the stations " promised " until late next
year.
When I asked the B.B.C' why this
was so they had another flimsy excuse.
This one:
" Because rough moorland sites have
been chosen, a great deal oj preparatory
work has been necessary. Several feet
of peat have had to be removed."
Do the B.B.C. seriously tell the
public that they could not have
carried out a petty operation of this
kind on a great national' project in
few weeks if they had wanted to ?
A site has been chosen near Cardiff,
but the station was not planned by the
B.B.C. to be operating before 1952.
I can state that. in fact, the South
Wales station will be ready months
earlier. Why? Because Mr. Ness
Edwards, the Postmaster-General. has
ordered the building to be speeded up—
and intends to see that it is.
But when I mentioned this speed-up
to the B.B.C. and asked why the same
push could not be given to the
stations in the North and in Scotland I
was told:
We know nothing of any speed-up
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