Radio and television centre

Abstract

As in all other countries, sound broadcasting came to these islands before its video counterpart. The small size of these islands gave scope to the provision of wired, rather than wireless, sound-programmes; so that the licence given in 1933 to Cdr. Mansfield Robinson was for a wired broadcasting system. This system, as distinct from ordinary broadcasting, has the advantage of connecting the subscriber direct to the studio by wire, thus ensuring an unbroken transmission without any extraneous interference. In 1935, the licence was transferred to Broadcast Relay Service (Malta) Ltd., better known as Rediffusion. At first,· most programmes were simply relayed from the British Company in England, through the Broadcast studios at Hamrun after being received at the station in St. Paul's Bay. As time went on, the demand for locally originated programmes necessitated the building of local studios; but, it was not until 1947 when the service turned commercial, that it was possible to realize the original policy of setting up a fully-staffed programme department with its own studios at Hamrun. The service now could cope with high quality coverages and was able to put on air a two channelled network: an 'A' programme with many relays from B.B.C., primarily meant for the Maltese public. 1955 saw another great step forward as Gozo was put into the network byU.H.F. link from Malta.