RTV Theory and Practice - Special Issue

Bellef in the value and future of international broadcasting has been shovvn by other countries around the world . A high powered short-wave transmitter for АП India Radio , ciaimed to be the biggest in Asia , will soon be beaming transmissions to Africa , South East Asia anđ Australia. The Voice of Indonesia expects to expanđ its output, especia)ly to Europe and Africa, when a new 250 kW transmitter becomes operational in 1988. Jordan is investing 14.5 million Jordanian dollars in a new station, with short, medium and longwave capacity, carrying its external programming to North and South America , Europe , North Africa and the Arab World anđ intends to begin test transmissioris in August 1988. Japan's new transmitter site, including four 100 KW and four 300 kW transmitters , became operational in April 1988, improving the reception of NHK's broadcasts in Asia and West Coast of North America . Egypt, a major Arab broadcaster plans to expand its foreign language services to China , Japan and Eastern Europe , including Albania . Radio South Africa's plans include the introduction of Spanish broadcasts specially for Angola and Cuba . Tunisia's parliament has recommended increases in foreign language broadcasting , and Zimbabwe has resurrected plans for the introduction of an external radio service at ап estimated cost of nine million dollars . RADIO SET OWNERSHIP There are now an estimated 2,000 million radio sets in the world , more than one for every three people . They are very unevenly distributed . More than one in four of all radios are in the United States . Another puarter of the total are in use in Europe . However this concentration in countries of the north is reducing proportionately each уеаг , as it has done since 1955. Then, ninety percent of radios were concentrated in the northern hemisphere . (Worlđ Radio and Television Receivers , Annual) The invention of the transistor in the late forties and its development for the mass production of portable radios made a great difference , Previously , radios manufactured for Thirđ World markets faced the problem that few households had access to mains electricity . Radios needeđ valves (or tubes as they are called in the USA ) which in turn needed high voltages . Portable sets were made but they reguired very large batteries to supply the necessary voltage . As a result they were cumbersome as well as expensive . Mass production of transistor radios began during the last half of the 1950 sand the results w еге dramatic, especially in the period 19 60 to 19 70. In this period the number of radios in Asia increased fivefold . In some

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